PREP 2011 Web Conference III

Prep Main Page > Web Conference 3

Web-Conference 3:

Date: June 9, 3-5pm EDT

Presenters: Jason Aubrey, Dick Lane, Gavin LaRose

Resources

• Model Course Pages
• Good Problems Page
• Dick Lane's NPL Problems by Textbook Tally

Agenda

1. Follow-up on good problem rubric: additional questions and comments.
   1. Good NPL problems?
2. Residual problem authoring questions.
   1. e.g., critical points of f(x) = x + 1/x: [example 1] [example 2] [example 3]
3. Follow-up discussion on NPL: in particular, searching for problems, what data are available about NPL problems, how this plays out in practice, evaluating "good" NPL problems.
   1. Exploring: how many problems are available for Hughes-Hallett Calculus section 4.3? [NPL Browser] (Issues: tagging, directory structure, problem numbers, quality)
   2. Exploring: can we find problems similar to the critical points problem above? [rational problem set]
4. Model course discussion:
   1. What information we need to include in a model course
   2. How it should be organized and stored
   3. How problems that are newly authored for this are managed differently from NPL problems used for the course
   4. How closely or uniquely tied to a specific textbook a model course is
   5. How to adapt textbook problems to WeBWorK: what makes a good (or bad) adaptation
5. Develop an outline for model course construction (e.g., within a group, how the group can manage the distribution of the work as it's been articulated)

Follow-up

• Model course description wiki pages updated to reflect the discussion

Assignment for web conference 4

• Each problem group works on one assignment for their course, including some problems drawn from the NPL and some written new
  • For NPL problems: look for a problem that is essentially the same as one that is in the text that is being used, and also look for a problem that is on the right topic and has the right flavor---e.g., on finding cubic polynomials, or finding the extrema of a one or two parameter family of functions.
• Each problem group works on the wiki/outline/information for their course