Hello all,
I'm new to this site and brand new to Webwork, but I heard about it since the Calculus I classes at Rutgers all use Webwork, and have problem libraries and administrators all set up for it. It has never been used in our basic skills math classes. I teach lower level math classes such as Algebra II and I'd like to know if there are others out there who teach basic skills classes and know of problem sets that can be used. I'm trying to pioneer Webwork in the basic skills classes. I really don't know what I'm getting myself into as far as an administration point of view. I would be the first instructor at Rutgers to use WebWork for the basic skills classes, so although our department has the server set up, and the infrastructure is there, there is no one to administer those classes and we don't have any problem sets. That's my biggest concern.
I have a pretty decent technical background as I used to work in Computer Science, but I'm neither fully proficient with Perlscript or Latex, nor do I really have the time right now to write problems from scratch. Maybe someday when I have other things under more control.
The problem sets I've found so far (we have not yet installed the national problem library and as of now our network admins have not had a need to), contain a scant few algebra-level problems, and even these are a bit high level for me to use. I don't know how the problem set installation works - like I said I'm brand new to this, I've gotten an account on the Rutgers webwork server and have created a course and had time to play around with the interface. I've read the beginners manuals. Now it comes down to finding problem sets. If appropriate problem sets are being used somewhere (I figure they must be), can they be shared with instructors at other universities, or do they need to be part of an official national "problem set"?
And also is there a way I can see what types of problems are in the National Problem Library without having them installed live on our server (I think our network admins are waiting to get some technical details sorte out first).
Thanks a bunch,
David Britz
Rutgers University
And also is there a way I can see what types of problems are in the National Problem Library without having them installed live on our server (I think our network admins are waiting to get some technical details sorte out first).
You can use the
hosted.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2/maa101
course to gain access to the NPL. use profa as login and profa as password.
this also works for maa102, if maa101 is busy.
also look at hosted.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2/model_precalc_1
where Robin Cruz, Doug Magomo and others are collecting pre-calc problems
in one place.
-- Mike
You might want to look at the College of Idaho problems in the National Problem Library. They are for an Intermediate Algebra course, if that's what you are looking for. I believe the problems in the Pre-Calc course are for a Precalculus course. However, they include problems which could be used in an Algebra II course.
Thanks, but I can't find College of Idaho problems. I'm going to the National Problems, into the dropdown box and looking for something along the lines of "Idaho/..."
Hi David,
If you go to the Library Browser and select "National Problem Library" (which should be selected by default), then under "Subject:" select Algebra and you should see something like "There are 4999 matching WeBWorK problem files" meaning there are 4999 problems classified as Algebra. The "Chapter" and "Section" divisions further classify these problems.
To access the College of Idaho problems directly, instead of selecting the "National Problem Library", instead select "NPL Directory" which gives you a directory view. Then when you scroll down the listing you will find the College of Idaho listings and a whole lot more. In particular, you should also look at the Utah collection since they wrote a lot of algebra problems for Business Algebra, College Algebra and Intermediate Algebra courses.
Arnie
If you go to the Library Browser and select "National Problem Library" (which should be selected by default), then under "Subject:" select Algebra and you should see something like "There are 4999 matching WeBWorK problem files" meaning there are 4999 problems classified as Algebra. The "Chapter" and "Section" divisions further classify these problems.
To access the College of Idaho problems directly, instead of selecting the "National Problem Library", instead select "NPL Directory" which gives you a directory view. Then when you scroll down the listing you will find the College of Idaho listings and a whole lot more. In particular, you should also look at the Utah collection since they wrote a lot of algebra problems for Business Algebra, College Algebra and Intermediate Algebra courses.
Arnie
Once you have access to the NPL, you'll find many algebra problems under the algebra subject. Some of these may be too high-level for your courses, but there may still be enough you can use. I am teaching a remedial intermediate algebra course and put my homework sets together mostly from those problems. If you'd like to see my problem sets, I'll be happy to e-mail them to you. Or if you still have no access to the NPL, I can set up an acct for you as a student in my course so you can see the problem sets.
Imre
Imre