Australian move adds up for online maths

By RICHARD WOOD

Kings College has signed up an Australian Government organisation to push its online maths websites across the Tasman.

Through Australia's Curriculum Corporation, the private Auckland secondary school aims to dominate the Australian market with its interactive web-based maths resources.

The Australian website onlinemathematics.com is based on Kings' New Zealand site mathsonline.co.nz, but has been redesigned to suit the Australian curriculum.

Jan Kerr, director of the school's enterprise arm, Kings Institute, said it had already been working in Australia, where 50 schools had signed up, covering more than 50,000 Australian students.

She said there was no reason the site could not be as successful as the New Zealand one - the institute claims half the country's schools are on site licences.

The online maths resources were launched in New Zealand in March last year, as part of the institute's Scholarnet system, which also includes ScienceOnline and EconomicsOnline, launched this year. Maths is the first subject Kings is trying in Australia.

As well as schools, Scholarnet has 5000 individual subscribers, who pay $55 a year for access.

Kerr said the site was suitable for private and state schools and home schoolers had also joined up.

The New Zealand schools with most students signed up are the top academic schools, including Auckland Grammar, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, and MacleansCollege.

While the site targets secondary schools, there are plans to add maths material for Years 7 and 8 (forms 1 and 2) next year and an aim to partner with Kings School in Remuera.

Kerr said the websites were breaking even financially, which she regarded as "quite an achievement" for a dotcom venture.

She said Kings had been careful about covering costs, using the school's curriculum expertise, with no one working fulltime on the site.

The institute uses its own technical staff and each site's manager is a teacher at the school.

Kerr said Kings' next target was Britain, but it would wait until it had Australia bedded in.

onlinemathematics.com

mathsonline.co.nz