Higher order thinking skills through automatic formative assessment: Generating examples in ordinary differential equations to actively engage students in developing conceptual understanding

The application of digital technologies empowers students to use their creativity and develop their critical thinking skills. This is why at the University of Turin, within the first-year module “Mathematics and biostatistics with computer science applications” in the study program in Biotechnologies students are engaged in multiple ways with hybrid ways of delivery mathematical contents, making use of digital interactive resources and automatic assessment empowered with formative practices. In particular, in this paper we are going to analyse students' group and individual activities in which they were asked to provide specific examples of Mathematical objects under specific restrictions, and to reflect on the tasks they performed. We analysed the way students think while performing example eliciting tasks, with a focus on Ordinary Differential Equations.