Math 2575 Course Outline

Subsection 2.1 Course website

The primary course website is Moodle. On Moodle, you can expect to find:

1. Links to important resources, like this syllabus, and the textbook.

2. Links to key course activities, including the online homework, and the discussion forum. (The links will log you into those services automatically.)

3. Details about your grades and assessments.

4. A weekly topics schedule.

As you learn to navigate online learning (and as I learn how to guide you), the weekly topics schedules will be key to staying on top of your course material. Every week you can expect to receive details on readings, videos, homework, and assessments, as well as information on what will be taking place in class, and how to access those classes.

In case there's a day when Moodle isn't working properly and you need access to course materials, you can find some of them (like this syllabus) on my personal website. The textbook for this course (and many others) is available on our Open Textbook Server.

Subsection 2.2 Scheduled classes

All of our classes will involve synchronous instruction. If necessary, this will take place online, but we hope to do most of it in person. There will be time each class for you to ask me questions and request examples, but most of class time will be spent working together on problems.

Subsection 2.3 Course textbook

Our course textbook is APEX Calculus, by Greg Hartman. This book is an open education resource (OER). That means that the book is fully free, both in terms of cost, your freedom to use and share the book however you see fit.

If getting the book for free somehow feels wrong, or you worry you're missing out by not buying anything, here are two great books you can buy:

1. Mathematics for Human Flourishing, by Francis Su.

2. Change is the Only Constant, by Ben Orlin.

Neither of these books are in any way needed for the course. But they're cool books, and they're about math. (The second is even about Calculus!) So if you feel like you need to spend money on a book, you can. (Or I don't know, go to the library or something.)

About APEX: For the last year or so, I've been working with Greg and others to convert the textbook to a system called PreTeXt. The PreTeXt language allows us to write a book that can be produced in a variety of formats.

There is a PDF version, which will be available on Moodle in both colour and black and white versions. The PDF version is useful if you want to print the book, or simply want to be able to read when there is no access to internet.

The real advantage of PreTeXt is that we can output to HTML format. The HTML version of the textbook can be found at https://opentext.uleth.ca/apex-accelerated/part-calculus-III.html. This version of the book can be read on both desktop and mobile web browsers. It also contains a number of nice features, including embedded videos, interactive graphics, and annotation tools.

Subsection 2.4 Grading scheme

Our assessment principles this year:

• No big high stakes assessments: lots of little ones instead.

• More concepts, and less rote computation. We have computers for a reason.

• Classes (the synchronous part) will be used for work, not lecture. (Nobody wants to sit though a 75 minute Zoom lecture on Calculus, including your instructor.)

• Group work is good for you. (Even if you don't always like it!)

Note: I am indebted to Dr. Spencer Bagley of Westminster College for providing advice and a sample syllabus, upon which much of the outline below is based.

Online Homework

The homework will focus on building fluency with the computational procedures of calculus. You can expect a new problem set every week. Homework will be delivered through the WeBWorK online homework system. See Subsection 4.1 for details. Homework sets will be due each Tuesday, but extensions will usually be granted. (Due dates can be considered as “best before” dates, as in, it will be best for you if you are done before the indicated date.)

Assignments

You will spend a significant portion of each class working together on assigned problems. Work will be submitted individually, however, using Crowdmark. There will be one assignment per week, for a total of 11 assignments. (Crowdmark submission means I can return your work to you electronically, and therefore, faster.)

Assignments will be graded using the “EMRN” rubric:

• E: exceeds expectations.

  Work that is factually correct, and professionally presented. Everything is organized, clearly explained, and neat. Thoughtful commentary is provided as needed.

• M: meets expectations.

  Work demonstrates practical and conceptual understanding of the material. Calculations and explanations are provided, and work is correct, except possibly for minor errors.

• R: revisions needed.

  Work does not yet demonstrate understanding of the material. There are significant errors in understanding or process, but effort has been made in solving the problem.

• N: not assessable.

  There is no way to assess the work, either because it has not been submitted, or the work submitted is insufficient to assess.

Revisions

Assignments that receive a score of “R” or “N” can be revised and resubmitted. The deadline for resubmitting is one week from receipt of your feedback. Any assignment can be revised up to two times. An “N” grade is usually only assessed if there is no work to grade, either because you left the question blank, or did not write anything of substance. If you have no idea how to solve the problem, even writing an explanation of what you don't understand, or where you are stuck, is enough to get an “R”. Problems with an “N” do not receive written feedback.

Your revision must contain not only corrected work, but also a reflection on your original work:

• What was incorrect on your previous attempt?

• What factors contributed to getting the question wrong?

• What have you learned in the meantime that changed your understanding of the question?

Most reasonable requests for extensions to submission deadlines for assignments and revisions are granted.

Project

By the end of the semester, you will have to submit a written project. The project can be on any topic related to the course. It can be theoretical, or applied. The submission can be an essay, a video, artwork, a coding project, or anything else that occurs to you. Just check in with me before getting started.

Learning outcomes

Your work on each assignment will be tied to a set of 40 learning outcomes, which are listed below in Section 5. Once a problem on an assignment has received a grade of “M” or “E”, you will receive credit for the associated learning outcome.

Once an learning outcome has been achieved, you have credit for that outcome, even if you get a future problem incorrect that is tied to the same outcome.

Letter grade conversion is slightly more complicated than it is for a usual percentage-based scoring system. The advantage is that your grade in this system can never go down, and will steadily improve throughout the semester.

Note that an assignment is complete once it has a grade of M or E. To earn a grade of A+, at least 6 of the problem sets must have a grade of E. For a B+, C+, or D+, you must satisfy the requirements of the base grade, and qualify for the grade above in any category except WeBWorK. A grade of A-, B-, or C- will be assigned if one of the requirements for that grade level is below expectations. (If you are significantly below expectations in one category, a further grade reduction could occur.)