WeBWorK Consultant Training Sessions

Description of WeBWorK Consultant Training Sessions

The WeBWorK Consultant Training Sessions are part of the MAA program, supported by NSF grant DUE 0920341, to disseminate WeBWorK beyond its current usage base of over 500 colleges and universities. (see bottom of page for Application Procedure and link).

The purpose is to provide consultants with the knowledge and resources necessary to conduct WeBWorK Outreach Workshops and/or to make further contributions to the WeBWorK opensource project.

The one-day sessions are held biannually usually in conjunction with Mathfest and the JMM for convenience and also, we hope, to leverage travel funds. Each participant will be paid a $300 stipend to offset expenses. We are hoping most participants will have access to other travel funds to attend Mathfest or JMM. However, we want to include as many interested faculty members as possible in these consultant training sessions and we do have limited funds to support those without access to other resources. When you apply, please indicate if you will need travel support beyond the $300 stipend.

Our experience has shown that outreach workshops are more effective when conducted by at least two people. Thus we hope you can suggest a colleague from the same or a nearby institution to pair up with to attend the Training Session. If space is available we will send you and your suggested colleague a formal invitation. While it is not absolutely mandatory to attend as a pair, we think doing so is definitely beneficial.

The goal of this WeBWorK Consultant Training Session is to train pairs of consultants to conduct WeBWorK Outreach Workshops and/or to prepare them to make further contributions to the WeBWorK project. Each pair of consultants will be asked to commit to leading two Outreach Workshops or to make an equivalent contribution to the WeBWorK project such as contributing to the wiki (http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/) and forums (http://webwork.maa.org/moodle/mod/forum/index.php?id=3), helping to build model courses (http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Category:Model_Courses), etc. An Outreach Workshop will be an approximately two-hour session that will introduce people to WeBWorK and will provide them with sufficient information to get started. Outreach Workshops can be held at regional profession meetings (e.g., MAA, AMS, AMATYC, etc.), at educational institutions, or any other appropriate setting. We will provide $200 per Outreach Workshop to offset expenses.

To further support consultants, we intend (1) to hold two web-based follow-up training sessions for all consultants each year in order to provide an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences and to promote community among the consultants, (2) to maintain a forum on the MAA site where consultants can share techniques, successes and ideas, and (3) to promote informal gatherings of all consultants from all sessions at JMM and MathFest. This model of community building has worked well for MAA Project NExT Fellows, and we anticipate that it will be equally successful for WeBWorK consultants.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: If you are interested in participating in a session or want further information please email Arnold Pizer <apizer@math.rochester.edu>

Best regards,

The organizers:

• Jason Aubrey, University of Missouri, aubreyja at missouri.edu
• Michael Gage, University of Rochester, gage at math.rochester.edu
• Arnold Pizer, University of Rochester, apizer at math.rochester.edu
• Dean Vicki Roth, University of rochester, vicki.roth at rochester.edu
• John Travis, Mississippi College, travis@mc.edu
• John Wyatt, Mathematical Association of America, jwyatt@maa.org