Introduction to WebWork April 22, 2014 This presentation and all relevant files are here: (Brian’s Website / links / WebWork Files)

Why Online HW? Changes HW from “practice” to “learning” – Provides instantaneous feedback (In my experience) dramatically increases the amount of time students spend on HW Saves department money (graders) Saves you time – inputting grades, returning papers, etc. Randomizes questions to discourage copying

Why WebWork? Supported by the MAA and the NSF National Problem Library of over 20,000 problems Supports: algebra, discrete math, probability and statistics, single and multivariable calculus, differential equations, linear algebra and complex analysis Used successfully at over 700 colleges and universities Developed and maintained by mathematicians Not tied to any specific book or author Offers Moodle integration It’s FREE!

Still Unsure? “Math should be done with paper and pencil” – Can still have students write up all HW – Can create hybrid assignments – Keep HW notebook, collected at EOQ?

So it’s perfect? No! Typing math is hard – Preview answers button is helpful Students get frustrated – “I got the right answer, I was just missing a parenthesis.” – Choosing the right problems becomes more important.

Practical stuff Go to I’ve created a login for everyone – Username: your version of stonelakb Stuff in your sou – Password: thanksbrian To avoid cluttering, I’ve given everyone access to “Math251” (master course). – I’ll create a copy for anyone interested

Creating HW Sets I’ve already done so for 111 and 251 – Using 251 this quarter You can use mine, edit mine, or start from scratch – Probably good to share resources at some point Library Browser is fairly intuitive – Problems ordered by topic or by book Best to learn by trying – HW sets editor/create a new set named/Library Browser 2 (easy to delete set when done)

Importing Students Two different ways to import students: – Expert level: – Using Brian’s Spreadsheet Copy/Paste from “Classlist Download to Excel or Word” – Include name, ID and Drag Formulae in “export2” tab Save export2 tab as.csv – In Webwork File Manager / Choose file / upload Rename as.lst In Classlist Editor import users from file – Make sure to assign HW sets to users

Importing Students Can also import one by one in Webwork – Optional Fields: First and Last Name – Fields to leave blank: section, recitation, comment – Standards probably worth following Student ID: SOU ID – This is also a student’s default password Login Name: The stuff before in SOU address: SOU address – Make sure to assign HW sets to users

Documentation Everything else is pretty intuitive. TONS of help documentation on web: – Or, you can always ask me!