Miscellaneous

I am completely lost

I am completely lost

by Wei Pin Wong -
Number of replies: 7
Hi,
I am new to WeBWork and I am a bit overwhelmed by the information provided as I am not a computer sage guy. Is there an instruction manual for dummies starting from zero? I am teaching a calculus course this summer and I would like to try out WeBWork as an online homework platform for my students. I learned that the easiest way is to use the limited free trail MAA WeBWork hosting. I have registered for the limited free trial but I do not received any confirmation email? Is that normal or I did something wrong? If I did it right, how long do I have to wait in order to get the approval? Once I get the approval, do I have to install anything in order to use WeBWork for my course? Many thanks in advance. 
Thank you.   
In reply to Wei Pin Wong

Re: I am completely lost

by Michael Gage -
I see your request to sign up for wiki and forum access (which you now have). 

I also see your request in the queue (after searching twice) with a posting date of April 29.   It might take a few work days before Simon Park at MAA is able to fulfill your request, particularly this time of year.

The root of the wiki for new instructors is this page:  http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Instructors
which has many helpful links. You don't have to follow all of them immediately. :-)

A tutorial "A day in the life of a WeBWorK instructor" might be out of date in a few places but it is very helpful for getting started.

Remember that the wiki is somewhat like the web in general -- searching for information via key words often beats clicking through structured sites.  

In the left margin there are two search boxes -- one labeled search and directly under it another option "Google: WW search" for performing a wider google search which includes forum posts. 

Neither you nor your students need to install anything.  Everything is done through the browser.  You will need to set up the course by choosing homework questions appropriate for your class and you will eventually need to enroll your students.  All of this is done through the browser.

Hope this helps.

-- Mike

In reply to Michael Gage

Re: I am completely lost

by Wei Pin Wong -
Dear Mike,
Thanks for the quick response, I really appreciate it. I have another question. In the event that I want to do local hosting, what do I have to do? I have never done any hosting before, that's why I am lost. I have looked at the following websites 
but I still have no clue what is the first thing that I need to do. Also, I am using Windows, is that okay with the local hosting? Thank you.
Cheers,
Wei Pin 
In reply to Wei Pin Wong

Re: I am completely lost

by Arnold Pizer -
Hi,

WeBWorK runs on the Unix operating system, e.g. on any version of Linux.  If you want to run it under Windows, probably the easiest thing to do is install VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/) and then just grab an image of WeBWorK http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installing_from_WW2.10_Ubuntu14.04_Vanilla_Virtual_Machine_Image

Both steps are very easy but that being said, you will be running a web server with open access so you should be cognizant of security issues and a host of other things.

I would suggest starting with the MAA hosting service and after using that for awhile, you will be in a much better position to decide whether you want to continue using the MAA or run your own server.

Arnie
In reply to Michael Gage

Re: I am completely lost

by Wei Pin Wong -
Hi Mike,
It has been almost 2 weeks now since I requested for the free hosting and the course that I am teaching starts next week. Is there a way that I could find out the status of my request? Thank you so much.
Cheers,
Wei Pin