Math 13
Vector Valued Calculus
WeBWorK homework and information
General Information about WeBWorK
(adapted from the University of Rochester WeBWorK web page )
I.
What is WeBWorK ?
WeBWorK is a system that allows students to do their homework
in an interactive web-based environment.
Using WeBWorK, students may try to answer homework problems more than
once. After each try, a message appears telling the student whether the answer
is correct or not. This provides immediate feedback to the students, allows
them to discover what they did wrong, and hopefully alows them to understand
the topic of the question better.
Each WeBWorK problem set is individualized. Each student has a
different version of a problem generated from a fixed template; for example the
numerical values in the formulas may be slightly different).
II.
How anybody can try out WeBWorK
Anyone with an internet connection can try
out WeBWorK by following the directions in Part III below. Use practice1
as the login name and practice1 again as the password.
To see different problems, you can login as practice2, practice3, or practice4
and use the login name for the password.
III.
How to use WeBWorK to do your homework
Using WeBWorK is quite simple.
Below are the basic steps on how to get started.
NOTE: Most pages of WeBWorK also contain directions.
Therefore, if you are ever unsure of what you should do, try reading the
directions and descriptions on the page at which you are looking.
1. You can use any computer with a browser like Chrome, Firefox or
MSIE. In general, it is not possible to use a text-based browser like lynx
since most of the mathematics is rendered using a graphic format.
- Open your browser and go to the main WeBWorK page,
address http://webwork.dartmouth.edu/webwork2/m13f11/
- This
will get you to the main page of your course. This page includes necessary
information about logging in.
To log in, click on the 'Login' button.
- This
will take you to a login page. Enter your login name and password, and
click on the 'Continue' button.
Your login name is the usually just your last name,
followed possibly by a digit for people in the class with the same last
name (e.g. smith, smith2, ...)). Possible exceptions include compound last
name like "den Hartog" or "De La Huerta" which would
be rendered Hartog and Huerta respectively.
Your initial password is (unless you gave me something
else) your six-character student ID ``number''.
- If your
login is incorrect, you will be told so, and you can return to the login
page and try again.
- If you
are registered for the course, you should receive and email from your
instructor confirming your login and password.
If your login is correct you will see a page where you can do following:
- Look
at and do the problems in a set via Netscape.
To do the first days assignment, for example, click on the line in the box
that starts with 'm13f11set1'. Then click on the 'Do problem set' button.
On each line in the box, where all the sets are listed, after the set
number, you can see whether the set is open or closed. If the set is
open, that means that when you solve a problem, it will be counted
towards your grade. If the set is closed, you can still solve problems,
but your results will not be recorded.
After the indication of whether the set is open or closed, there is
additional information about the due date (if the set is open), or
whether the answers are available (if the set is closed).
- Get
a printout of the problem set.
To print out m13f11set1, for example, first choose the download type. The
default of pdf is probably what you want, although you may have to
configure your browser to use Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view (and print)
the files.
After choosing one of the download types, click on the line in the box
that starts with 'm13f11set1...'. Then click on the 'Get hard copy'
button. A couple of things may happen at this point. If your browser is
set up to handle pdf documents, your browser window will fill with the
homework set in it as a document. In this case, go to the icon 'file' and
choose the 'print' option. If your browser is not properly configured,
you may get an alert message asking what to with the file. In this case,
you can save the file to disk (so that you can print it at a later time),
choose an application to view or print the file (e.g. GSview or dropPS
for postscript or Acrobat Reader for pdf). Any of the computer
consultants show be able to help you with this kind of problem.
- Look
at a summary of your WeBWorK homework scores.
This is the second section of the page. If you click on the button 'Get
Summary', you will see your current scores for all available problem
sets.
7. If you are printing out a problem set or looking at a summary of
your homework scores, you are done. If you are viewing a problem set via a
browser, you will see a page with the problems in the set you chose. To view
and/or answer a problem, click on the number of the problem and click on the
'Get Problem' button. Notice that there are four modes of viewing the problem:
'text', 'formatted-text' and 'typeset', adn typeset2. It is best to view the
problem using 'typeset2' mode, which should be the default. Once you choose a
problem and click on the 'Get Problem' button, you will see the text of the
problem with boxes for your answers. Enter your answers and click on the
'Submit Answer' button. If you are working on a problem set that is already
closed, you will have the option to see the correct answer or a solution if one
is available (currently only a few problems have solutions available). To see
the correct answer and/or solution, just check the box(es) and click on the
'Submit Answer' button (you do not have to enter an answer to see the correct
answer or solution). Once you have submitted an answer, you will be told
whether your answer is correct or not. If not, you can try again. After you've
tried a problem, you can either go to the next problem, the previous problem,
or see the list of the problems again.
8. If you want to check the status of your problems (e.g. to double
check that your answers have been recorded), use the "Prob. List"
button at the top of the page to see the problem list page.
9. When you are finished, log out using the "Logout" button
at the bottom of the page.
10.
That's all, folks!
IV.
Important facts to know
- What
to do if you have problems with WeBWorK:
- If you
have a problem logging in, contact your instructor.
- If you
have a problem printing out a set, ask a consultant at a computer lab. If
you don't get sufficient help, contact your instructor or TA.
- If you
have questions on specific homework problems or if you have comments
about WeBWorK that you think can help us make WeBWorK better,
click on the 'Feedback' button on any of the pages of WeBWorK.
- If you
are logged on to WeBWorK for longer that 30 minutes without any
activity, you will be asked to log in again. This is a security measure.
You can resume your work after you logged back in. All your results from
the last log in will be saved.