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Section 4 Technology elements

To facilitate online teaching, our course will rely on several technological solutions. This section provides details on navigating the technology.

Subsection 4.1 Online homework

Online homework is delivered via WeBWorK. WeBWorK is an open source homework system that I maintain on a local server. This service is provided to you free of charge, and your data never leaves campus.  1 

Okay, this is not entirely true. Since faculty are expected to teach from home, your data does travel from campus to my house via the university VPN.

The value of WeBWorK is that questions are automatically graded, providing you with immediate feedback on your work. This is an excellent source of guided practice.

To access WeBWorK: simply click the relevant link in Moodle. You will be signed in automatically — there is no user name or password. But keep in mind that if your session times out due to inactivity, you have to return to Moodle to log in again.

Submitting answers: WeBWorK has an automatic preview feature. The mathematics in your answer will be rendered as you type. (You can turn this off in the user settings if you don't like it.) If everything looks good, click the Submit button. The system will immediately respond with “Correct” or “Incorrect”. If your answer is correct, there is nothing more to do: your answer has been recorded, and you have credit for that problem. If your answer is incorrect, you get to try again. (Exception: I typically do not give unlimited attempts for true/false and multiple choice questions.)

Other notes:

  • Some questions are “scaffolded” — there are multiple parts, and you need to complete one part before being allowed to access the next. For these, you want to click the Preview Answers button, rather than Submit, to check your work and move on to the next step.

  • If you need to include scientific units in an answer, the automatic equation rendering can cause trouble. There's a little tool bar on the right hand side that lets you switch to text mode to enter units.

  • At the bottom of each page is an “Email Instructor” button. If you are stuck on a problem, or if you think there is an error in the programming (it happens!) you can use this to let me know. WeBWorK will send me an email with your message, along with a link to the exact version of the problem you were working on. Often I can figure out where you're going wrong by looking at your answer.

    Please do not use the email button to ask me how to solve a problem. That's what the discussion forum is for. It should only be used after you've made several attempts at the problem, or if you see an error message of some sort.

Finally, some general advice: WeBWorK is not a new addition for the online environment. I've used it for awhile. The students who do well in this course are the ones who start their problem sets early. Please do not wait until the due date to begin: it leaves you no time to ask questions! The most effective way to use WeBWorK is to read the relevant portion of the textbook, try the problems, and then ask for help on the ones you're stuck on.

Oh, and please do not wait until you've made 50 unsuccessful attempts at a problem to ask for help. If you haven't figured out a question after 5 or 6 attempts, set it aside, and come back to it a bit later. If you still can't figure it out, go the discussion forum.

Subsection 4.2 Jupyter and Syzygy

The Python code that appears in the textbook can also be run in a Jupyter notebook. Jupyter notebooks are a great tool for completing a lab assignment with computation, since you can include both regular text (including images, links, mathematics, etc.) and code.

Unlike the Sage cells in the book, a Jupyter notebook lets you save your work, and you can also print it to PDF for submission.

The University of Lethbridge has access to an online Jupyter hub called Syzygy, which is available at https://uleth.syzygy.ca/. You can sign into Syzygy using your U of L credentials.

Note: for some reason, the first time you enter your credentials on the Syzygy site, the screen will just flash and leave you at the sign-in page. When this happens, click the Back button and try again.

Subsection 4.3 Crowdmark

Tests and assignments will be submitted through Crowdmark. Like WeBWorK, Crowdmark is connected to Moodle, so you just have to click a link in Moodle to access your assessment and submit your work. Unlike WeBWorK, Crowdmark lets you do your work using pencil and paper. For ease of reference, I've placed advice for using Crowdmark on a separate page.

Basic advice:

  • Start each question on a clean sheet of paper.

  • Use a scanner, or a scanning app on your smartphone. PDF is best, but JPG and PNG files are also supported.

  • When you submit, make sure your pages are in order, and rotated correctly.

Subsection 4.4 Zoom and other video

Classes and tutorials will meet using Zoom. This is the officially supported meeting app for U of L classes, so you'll very quickly become familiar with (and tired of) Zoom.

We will not use Zoom for “content delivery”. This is the job of the textbook and the prerecorded videos. Those videos are embedded into the textbook, so you can watch them as you read. Alternatively, you can subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

List 4.1. Zoom guidelines and etiquette
  • Sign on using your U of L email and your proper name. I'm hoping to be able to put you into “breakout rooms” using pre-assigned groups. This will not work if your name doesn't match what's on the class list.

  • Please do mute your microphone when everyone is together in the main room. You can unmute if you want to ask a question.

  • Please don't mute your microphone while in a breakout room. (With reasonable exceptions: some of you might be in noisy environments, such as a construction site, or a house with kids.)

  • About cameras. I will never require you to turn your camera on. Some of you may have very good reasons why you do not want to turn your camera on, and some of you may not even have a camera to turn on. But if you are willing to turn your camera on, it does help me, since I can use the visual cues you provide to tell if you understand what we're discussing.

    When you are working with your group, in a breakout room, please consider turning on your camera, even if you otherwise don't. It makes it much easier to work as a group if you can see each other.

List 4.2. Asking questions during class
  1. Using the chat box in Zoom. This is probably most useful to quickly ask for clarification on something I just said.

  2. Using your voice! There is a “raise hand” feature if you don't want to interrupt, but it's often perfectly reasonable to interrupt, especially if you notice me getting something wrong!

Group work in Zoom.

During most Zoom sessions, you will be put into smaller breakout rooms to work on problems. Breakout rooms are not recorded, and I cannot actively monitor the breakout rooms — these are essentially private working sessions for your group. I do have the ability to join a breakout room temporarily, but will only do so when invited. If you need my help during a breakout session, there is an “Ask for help” button you can use to get my attention.

You will be encouraged to use Microsoft OneNote to collaborate with your group. OneNote lets you type notes, insert photos, and use handwriting, if you have a touch-enabled device. Unlike the Zoom chat and whiteboard features, your OneNote notebook will remain available after class for you to refer to. See Subsection 4.5 for more details.

Recording.

First of all: I do not intend to record entire Zoom meetings. I will record parts of class where I am presenting an example or exercise. However, I will not do this using Zoom's recording feature. Instead, I will record the same screen that I am sharing with you in Zoom using other software. This way, student images and voices will not be captured in the videos. Any videos I record will be uploaded to Moodle using the YuJa platform.

Please be aware that it is an academic offence to record a class, or anyone in it, without prior authorization. If all members of a breakout room agree to having someone record your discussion, this is fine. When are in the “main room” of Zoom, recording is not permitted.

Subsection 4.5 Using OneNote

OneNote will be used both for class presentations, and for student collaboration. Details here will include how to access class notebooks, how to edit collaboratively, how to print, etc..

Students will have access to OneNote through their Office 365 accounts. There were early promises of Moodle integration that don't seem to have worked out. What we got instead are class “teams” on Microsoft Teams. There's one team per section, and each team has a class notebook attached to it.