The best way to understand the material on this page is to read it while using the demonstration course. To do this, one can first print this page and then follow the instructions for going to the demonstration course, or you can open a new browser window or tab and use this window for reading the remainder of the page while logging in to the demonstration course in the other window or tab. Since the teacher sees a more complete display than the student does, you may want to simultaneously have window in which you are logged in as a teacher and one in which you are logged in as a student.
To log into the demonstration course as a teacher use login name teacher and password teacher. There are two student logins (to permit you to see how random data works). To login as a student use either login name student1 with password student1 or login name student2 with password student2.
We suggest that your first login is as student1 When you log in you will see that the assignment demoset has been assigned to you. The set has a due date of May 15 2010 so that you may answer the questions for credit and will not be shown the correct answers. If the due date had passed and the answer date chosen by the teacher had passed, you would be shown the correct answers. If you now click on the word demoset you will see the list of problems (ignore the attempts and status column - these pertain to previous users of this login). If you click on a problem number then you will be shown a screen with that problem. The answers are entered in the little boxes (boxes may contain answers supplied by previous users of the login but they can be deleted). The student has the option of submitting an answer for credit or previewing the answer. The latter option is not appropriate at this level and students are told not to use it. If you submit an answer you are given an response of "correct" or "incorrect" and possibly an explanatory message. Click on problem 1. Note the question in the first column that requires that two numbers be added. Now, in another window or tab follow the same path but log in as student 2 and click on problem 1. and look at the first column. Notice that the problems are very similar but not the same. Careful use of the random number generator made it possible to ensure that the level of difficulty did not change from the problem given student1.
For what follows, it is most convenient to log in as teacher, where you have the most complete view of what WeBWorK can do.
Click on problem 3. This is an interactive problem that we call a teaching problem. It is meant either to be used as a supplement to the explanation that the teacher has given, or, when the adaptive procedure is fully implemented to be assigned to a student who has had unsatisfactory results on problems involving multiplication of fractions. The first paragraph explains an unfortunate property of WeBWorK that requires double submission. The rest of the first page that students see is mainly expository but ends with a question that determines whether the student understands enough to proceed. The teacher should make it clear that if a student cannot move on, human help is required. If the question is answered correctly, then the student is permitted to go on to the rest of the problem. This is a two stage teaching problem. The teaching problem that (re-)explains long division is a 9 stage teaching problem.
Click on Problem 4. This problem has what is called a "panic button". A student who sees this problem and has no idea how to proceed can click on "Ask for a Hint" and be given some information to help start the problem. The fact that the student has asked for a hint is recorded along with the other data for the problem (number of attempts, highest grade) in helping the adaptive procedure to determine further assignments.
Problem 5 is the long teaching problem on long division. Since you must enter a large number of answers, don't try this if you are in a hurry.
Problem 6 is a contest problem. Although contest problems are not always harder than normal assignments, they do not conform to the "templates" of routine textbook problems. Thus, even relatively easy contest problems like this one can serve as low level enrichment problems, while harder contest problems make interesting challenges for the strongest students.
If you would like to see the entire collection of middle school problems that we have written, you can do so in the following way.
Logged in as teacher, click on Library Browser in the Main Menu at left. On the fifth line there are buttons for the NECAP Library and
the unh_Schoolibrary. Click on unh_schoolibrary. This will give a new screen with a scroll down menu on the sixth line which enables
you to select a problem collection. When you choose a problem selection (by clicking on its name) you will be able to click on
"View Problems" on the seventh line. If you click on "Try it" at the upper left, you will be able to try the problem. If you
click "Edit" it you will see the Perl code for the problem. It is certainly not necessary to understand the code, but if
you have some familiarity with programming, you can look at the material after the line TEXT(beginproblem()) to see how
the problem is organized.
Maintained by the University of New Hampshire Mathematics Department
603-862-2320
www.math.unh.edu