ON-LINE ASSIGNMENTS, CALCULUS III

• Academic honesty policy to which you agree when you click on the link to the assignment:
  • You may work with others on assignments, but when you sit down at the computer to enter your solutions, do so by yourself.
  • You may draw graphs on a graphing calculator or with the mathematical visualization toolkit to help you answer questions if you wish. If your calculator/software can solve the entire problem directly, use it to CHECK answers AFTER you have already done the problem completely on a piece of paper, showing your work.
• Directions for on-line assignments:
  • Note WebWorK typically lets you present your answer in any form it knows how to interpret, e.g. sin(pi/6).You do not have to do additional simplifications.
  • Give four or five significant digits if you give (floating point) numerical answers.
  • Use the "preview answers" button before submitting answers, so you can see how WebWorK is going to interpret your typing.
  • Get a hard copy of the assignment, so you can initially work on it without the computer.
  • Different students may get different versions of the assignment. Once you have clicked on "do problem set" and "get problem," you will get the same problem set if you log off and then log in again later.
  • The assignments you do on-line will normally give you four chances to answer each question.
  • If you have questions, click the feedback button to send me email. Remember to ask me for help before you've used up all your chances on the problem.
• Logging on:
  • Your username is your last name in all capital letters (e.g. GROSS), and your student-ID number is your password.
  • If your student-ID number is not private, change your password to something you can remember, and don't tell it to anyone.
  • Log on.
  • After the due date, you can look at the answers by checking the "show correct answers" button.
• Philosophy:

  In this class we do a mix of written and on-line assignments because they foster different important skills.

  • Written homework gives you practice in developing your solutions in a clear step-by-step presentation. On-line assignments let you do intermediate steps in any rough form you like.
  • On written homework, many students get insights from the solutions manual. On-line assignments foster your ability to work problems independently of the solutions manual. However, they still let you work toward mastery of a problem by showing you when your answer is incorrect and giving you multiple (usually four) tries.

  Supplementing written assignments with on-line assignments diversifies your activities. Students who have a difficult time mastering one kind of work have success with another. As such, a combination allows students to showcase their different strengths. Using on-line assignments in place of in-class quizzes means:

  • We eliminate the time pressure of 20-minute quizzes.
  • More class time can go toward Q & A.
  • You can learn via collaboration with a classmate or conversations in office hours, unlike for an in-class quiz.
  • We remove the subjectivity inherent in grading in-class quizzes.