WeBWorK Consultants

resources from August 2010 --- comments

resources from August 2010 --- comments

by Dick Lane -
Number of replies: 0
Thanks for posting four resources from the August 2010 training workshop to the Consultants' course.

The "labels..." document seems to be fodder for printing course and login info to be printed, cut-up & distributed during a subsequent workshop.


For each of the other three, a reader should begin with its TOC.html, click mouse or use space to advance from one item to another within each topical page of an outline document (and use arrow buttons to move between topics of the outline).

Cervone_mathjax --- great stuff  [thanks Davide ! (!!)]

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Before my minor notes about various parts of the August 2010 presentations, I would like to complain that mention of the Library Browser is late and tiny.

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WCT_Workshop_8-04-2010.tar.gz
    hands_on_scenarios.html    perhaps also have a version on webwork.maa.org (or a non-public URL) [short-term, and coordinated among demo workshops, to simplify logistics]

    live_scenarios.html    encourage audience participation  [see part 2 of next item]

    scenarios.html    remind us, on this slide, what I-D and I-C involve

    venues.html    perhaps local high-school or middle-school teacher groups; NCTM sectional meetings

    technical_2.html    my Intel iMac can boot from a USB external hard drive; will try USB flash & Ubuntu soon
        Note: perhaps several of us, Mac Intel folk, can generate instructions for an up-to-date $WW install which might be modified into stuff suitable for booting to a USB flash drive with OSX $WW

    key_features.html  considering wide-spread quasi-duplication in NPL, the 20000 figure is a bit extravagant

    AMS_Survey.html    I encourage reading of summary in AMS Notices and full document http://www.ams.org/profession/leaders/WATSreport.pdf

    demo_workshop_#    perhaps rename/retitle these pages: demo_workshop-part_#.html or demo_part-#.html  (to emphasize they're not distinct & complete versions of the whole workshop)

    demo_workshop_2.html    ? are these set##.def files provided ?  (What does "*" signify?  Is that .def file MathObjects aware?)

    demo_workshop_3.html    ? will display/download of a PDF be done in a separate target="_print" window instead of being in current window ?
Perhaps "download" should be replaced by "display all problems, with option to print" --- this may vary with browser
Please rephrase your last item to be more positive in encouraging use of Preview.

    demo_workshop_5.html    ? does Orientation include encouragement for student discovery of $WW's handling of malformed input

    demo_workshop_6.html    item 2 was News-to-Me, perhaps it should be included in Orientation

    midway btwn slides 9 & 10    Discuss previewing & revising a problem set before it is assigned and goes public ---
I have always done this in a separate course (on a different computer); I suspect other $WW folk do analogous things.
Please discuss "Reduced Credit" here (or somewhere close).

    demo_workshop_11.html    demonstrate summary info relevant to JIT (Just In Time) queries about understanding by a class (in aggregate)

    demo_workshop_12.html    email: include a professor's response (informed by viewing student's version of problem)
Note: this is a place where I look for benefits from using Moodle together with WeBWorK.

    demo_workshop_13.html    This is the first slide mentioning the Library Browser --- a bit late.
An aside: I am more willing to forego "completeness" during a particular class meeting if I know students have external access to everything.  What documents for $WW instructors should be on a supplementary website for a $WW Demo Workshop?

    assessment_1.html    Several content-specific assessments for LON-CAPA have impressed me.  Lillian McDermott's work on remedying conceptual mis-understandings in physics is valuable --- I suspect it influenced some of Steve Monk's work with mathematics education.  We should strive to go beyond merely adapting textbook exercises (and foregoing their meaty problems).

    assessment_2.html    different types of learners --- lots, and LOTS, of suggestions will be welcomed (and evaluated)
I would rephrase "How does WeBWorK promote ..." to "How can we use WeBWorK to promote ...".

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WeBWorK_Demo_Workshop_8-04-2010.tar.gz

    testimonials_2.html    perhaps replace with some student remarks

    already_using.html    perhaps replace with a (time-stamped) image from Google Maps

    AMS_Survey.html    last phrase of quotation is fodder for discussion about appropriate use

    AMS_Survey_2.html  last quoted paragraph has several alternate interpretation: e.g., minimize scut-work by tenured folk using a text by a publisher without proprietary system
Encourage reading of this finely-nuanced report in its entirety (or, at least, the executive summary in AMS Notices).

    handouts_demo.html    I suggest both "A day in the life ..." and "Overview ..." be included in the standard installation so that a local reference can be cited.
If LaTeX source is relatively simple, perhaps include that in case a consultant would like to make a local customization.
Since text documents are relatively small, perhaps the tarball distribution should include all installation documents for the most recent 2 years.

    assessment.html    The main questions seem too coarse.  I suggest
1) What type(s) of learning can WeBWorK promote?  Rank the ways that can be done and student performance be evaluated.
2) What type(s) of learning are more suited to other modes of encouragement and assessment?  What would be appropriate for a blind assessment?  [A double-blind experiment seems impossible.]