In this paper, we describe how collaborative use
of an electronic assessment tool improves students’
learning results in Financing Mathematics in higher
education. Financing Mathematics was taught as
part of the Business Mathematics course in the first
year studies for Bachelor’s degree students in the
International Business program at Turku University
of Applied Sciences. The assessment was carried out
with the collaborative educational tool ViLLE.
The Business Mathematics course consists of
Business Statistics and Financing Mathematics. The
Financing Mathematics course component was used
for the purpose of this research. In the Business
Statistics course component, the students worked
independently, whereas in Financing Mathematics,
the students also worked in pairs with the tool. The
independently working students formed the control
group and the students working in pairs formed the
treatment group in this quasi-experimental study.
The paper reveals that students working in pairs
with the ViLLE tool achieved better exam results
than the students working independently. This
finding is in agreement with the findings of similar
research studies on programming. The collaboration
between students seems to be the key reason for the
better results of the students working in pairs in this
paper.