Using the WWW in MA 1004 D95

About the Course

Lecture

233 students meeting 4 times a week in Perrault Hall.

Labs

Eight sections, each meeting once a week in the Math Lab, SH 306, where there are 22 DECstation 3100 workstations. Students work in pairs to complete 4 laboratories.

Recitations

Same eight sections meeting once a week with the Instructors Assistant.

Grading

Each lab counts as 10% of the final grade. Graded by IA. Three one-hour exams, each counting as 20% of the final grade. Graded jointly by professor and IA. Homework was assigned weekly, but not collected.

Use of the Web

All course handouts, including syllabus, labs, homework assignments, and sample exams were distributed via the MA1004 D95 home page.

Student Preparation

First lab session was used to train students how to use the Web, both generally and specifically for the class.

Material Preparation

Most documents were prepared first using LaTeX and then converted to HTML by using the latex2html filter. Click here for some additional information on this filter.

Click here to see a list of other filters for converting documents prepared with various word processors to HTML.

Experiences

Pro

• Materials can be prepared quickly - no need to wait for copying.
• Errors can be corrected.
• Students living on campus have good access to the materials during off hours.
• Almost no time spent handing out paper in class.
• Scheduling is easier.
• Greatly reduced copying costs.
• Acceptance by students. More positive comments on student evaluations than negative ones.

Con

• Some students want paper copies and resist using the Web. Ended up making paper copies on demand, usually about 10-20 per document.
• Students living off-campus and using text-based browsers like lynx lose the equations in the labs.

Other Resources

The links in the following list go to related resources on the Web. Some are taken from the list of Technology in Education Resources that I'm in the process of collecting. Others are just examples of classroom materials that have been put on the Web.

• Mechanical Engineering Hypermedia Project at MIT.
• The Instruction home page at Miami University of Ohio, including links to Course materials and the Learning Technologies Enrichment Program.
• The World Lecture Hall at the University of Texas, a collection of links to web materials being used in classes.
• The Internet in the Classroom page at Southern Methodist University.
• Professor David Cyganski's recent course Telecommunications Transmission Technologies.
• Material from Introduction to Differential Equations taught by Doug Meade at the University of South Carolina.
• Professor Matt Ward's material from Advanced Computer Graphics.