Author: Gregory Mayer

The Math Refresher Bootcamp for incoming MS Analytics Students

Gregory Mayer / / curriculum

For the last few weeks I was fortunate to have been able to lead a Math Refresher workshop at the Georgia Institute of Technology with Dr. Rebecca George for incoming Graduate students in the MS Analytics Program. The workshop was meant to give the incoming students a quick overview of some of the pre-requisite math content they need for their program.

This was the second year I was able to give the workshop. Student feedback we collected last year from the workshop was incorporated this year to improve the sessions. One of the largest changes we made was to spread the learning out over several weeks instead of trying to cram everything in one week. Some of the topics we cover are difficult to learn, especially if you haven’t seen them in a while.

In our workshop sessions we covered linear algebra, calculus (differential to multivariable), probability and statistics in several sessions spread out over four weeks. The curriculum we developed and sourced is on a Canvas website that is open to the public:

https://gatech.instructure.com/courses/245270

I am Teaching a Linear Algebra Series on EdX

Gregory Mayer / / Uncategorized

I am very happy to see that EdX is re-launching a series of linear algebra courses on August 23 that I will be teaching! We offered these courses last fall and after making improvements to them it is great to see them available again! These courses are approachable to anyone who would have completed an integral calculus course (eg – AP Calculus BC). I think they could be a resource for high school students taking linear algebra courses or other courses that require linear algebra, as well as those who are preparing for graduate school (need a refresher) in a variety of fields including engineering, computer science, and data science. The courses are free to audit.

Many thanks to Georgia Tech Professional Education for their help in putting these courses together!

Here is a link to the first course in the four-part series, and lecture slides for the first course (PDF).

Linear Algebra Lecture Notes

Gregory Mayer / / curriculum

Many of my linear algebra students read an excellent open textbook, Interactive Linear Algebra. But they will notice that it does not cover some of the topics that are covered in the linear algebra course that I often teach, MATH 1554. For example, ILA does not cover:

  • Partitioned Matrices
  • The LU Decomposition
  • Leontif Input-Output Models
  • Computer Graphics

I just finished drafting some lecture notes for those topics. I think they only cover the content that my 1554 students need to know. Let me know if you catch any typos or have any suggestions for improving the notes. They can be downloaded here: Math_1554_Lecture_Notes

Class of 1934 Honor Roll Award

Gregory Mayer / / awards

Last week I was honored to receive a teaching award from the Center for Teaching and Learning at Georgia tech – the Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 CIOS Honor Roll, for Fall 2020 (last semester).

This award is only given to instructors who have an 85% response rate and have top scores on certain items on the CIOS. The CIOS is an anonymous survey that students voluntarily complete for their classes at the end of the semester. The 1934 Honor Roll award acknowledges instructors who have earned excellent scores on questions related to instructor’s respect and concern for students, level of enthusiasm about teaching the course, and ability to stimulate interest in the subject matter.

In other words, I could not have been given this award unless most of my students last semester filled out the survey, and students gave high enough ratings for me to be considered for the award. So I want to thank every one of my 577 Fall 2020 students. They were high school students taking a 1000 level college course as part of the Distance Math Program, and it was an honor being their instructor last semester.

Thank you students for your hard work, the hundreds of questions we had over the semester that helped you succeed in the course, coming to office hours and asking questions, and engaging with each other on the course forums to build community and develop a deeper understanding of linear algebra, especially in a semester that was more challenging in some ways because of the pandemic. Students were more isolated than usual, and it was wonderful to see students developing online community and helping each other throughout the semester.

I could not have received this award without the help of many others. GT Admissions, GT Professional Education (GTPE), and the School of Math have been re-developing the course for a few months leading up to Fall 2020. We had been working transitioning from a synchronous delivery model with live lectures, to an asynchronous delivery model that now has pre-recorded lectures. Thank you GTPE for all the support leading up to Fall 2020, and also the support during the fall to provide technical support. And thank you GT Admissions for helping with registration and recruiting students into the program!

Last but not least, many thanks to the four teaching assistants that I had last fall, who also supported our students in many ways. They ran live studio sessions for our students, held office hours, helped grade assignments and corrected typos on exams, and more.

Certainly all of the support from my colleagues and teaching assistants helped the semester run smoothly, helped students focus on their studies, and helped build a positive learning environment for our students.