Student approaches to generating mathematical examples: comparing e-assessment and paper-based tasks

Example-generation tasks have been suggested as an effective way to both promote students’ learning of mathematics and assess students’ understanding of concepts. E-assessment offers the potential to use example-generation tasks with large groups of students, but there has been little research on this approach so far. Across two studies, we investigate students’ responses to a particular sequence of example-generation tasks, posed either on paper or through e-assessment. We identify a striking difference in students’ example-generation strategies and success, for e-assessment and paper-based versions of the same tasks. This suggests the use of example-generation tasks in e-assessment may not be straightforward, and we conclude by discussing the implications for teaching and research.