Webassign basics.

1) getting an account:

Go to www.webassign.net and click on the "sign up now" button.

2) Creating courses and downloading rosters.

   -this can be done from _within_ blackboard.  This is probably
    a good idea, since the students will typically access
    webassign from within blackboard.

   -First log into blackboard, click on the course you want to
    add to WebAssign, and then click on the "Control Panel" tab.

   -Click on "WebAssign" in the Course Tools area.

   -Click on "Create WebAssign Course" on the page which comes up.

    You'll need to set the course dates sensibly, and you'll need
    to click the "student Access Codes" under "Payment Method."

   -You can now "Sync Roster" from the same menu where you
    clicked on "Create WebAssign Course."

   -If you've already created your course directly in WebAssign,
    you can create a link to your course from blackboard on this
    same page.

   MORE ON ROSTERS:

    If the roster on blackboard changes, you can sync rosters
    again.  You will be asked if you wish to drop students who
    appear on the WebAssign roster but who don't appear on the
    blackboard roster.  (You may want to say "no" since those
    students may be people you added by hand, who are not yet
    registered, and hence not yet on the blackboard roster.)

    If you "Sync Roster" to add new students who have registered
    after the course start, it will _not_ destroy data on old
    students - that is any homework scores reported for old
    students will still be there.

3) Creating assignments for your course.

   Once you have created the course in WebAssign (as above), get
   to your WebAssign course page.  You can either do this
   directly by logging into webassign.net, or you can connect
   through blackboard.  (Click on the course, then on the
   WebAssign link in "Course Tools.")

   Then click on the course in the WebAssign page, then click on
   Create "Assignment."  At this point things depend on what
   course you are teaaching, the textbook, and if you are writing
   your own assignments.  So I want to refer you to WebAssign's
   documentation on creating assignments.

   Once you have created your assignment (not that there are lots
   of options to set, for example how many answers are allowed -
   I like to set that to the maximum for most sorts of problems),
   you need to "Save" and "Schedule" it before students have
   access to it.

4) There is "How To..." link at the top of the WebAssign page.
   This is not encyclopedic, but should probably be skimmed
   through as one of your first orders of business.


5) Syllabus: 

   If you are going to require students to use WebAssign, make sure to
   put that on your syllabus!  Think of the requirement as like a
   textbook requirement, which would also go on your syllabus.

6) Student access:

   The students need to pay for WebAssign.  It is $7.95 per
   course I think.  They can register for it online with a credit
   card, or they can purchase a license code at the
   bookstore (last time I checked, they had to go upstairs to the
   textbook section, and ask at the cashiers desks)

   They will probably find it easiest to get to WebAssign from
   Blackboard.  Most of the students are already used to Blackboard,
   and once you (the instructor) has created the course in WebAssign
   (either from Blackboard, or after adding a link from Blackboard)
   the students will have a WebAssign link for that course which will
   connect them directly to WebAssign without a second login.

7) Student warnings:

   There is a learning curve involved in the students learning
   how to answer questions correctly in WebAssign.  I _strongly_
   urge all of you to do your assignments before giving them to
   the students - at least the first several weeks.  You'll
   notice things you can warn them about.

   There is a link called "Guide" for students near the top right
   of the page they get when logging into WebAssign.

   Chapter 5 of that guide tells them how to answer questions.

   A large number of the questions they'll answer will
   have "numerical" answers.  These need to be within 1% to be
   counted as correct, though that tolerance is set by the
   question writer, and can be altered by the instructor.

   5.1 of the guide lists the following ways to enter 1/64:
   
   1/64, .0156, 0.015625, 0.0156, 1.56E-2

   no commas, no spaces.


   The other large category of questions have "symbolic answers."
   These are questions where the answer is a function, or some
   expression with constants or variables in it.

   The students need to learn WebAssign's conventions, one of
   which is that one needs to use parentheses when necessary.

   I.e., if the student means (5+4)/(3+6), it will _not_ work for
   the student to enter 5+4/3+6.

   5.13 of the guide lists operators.  Like +, -, *, /, ** or ^ .
   Also constants like pi, and other functional operators like sin( ),
   abs( ), sqrt( ), etc.

   It is worth noting to your students things like that WebAssign
   is case sensitive (WebAssign cares about upper and lower case)
   and that you can't enter absolute values by doing |-3|.

   Factorials are done by using factorial( ), that is  factorial(5) = 120.

   On some questions, there is a link called "symbolic formatting help" 
   which tells students how to format answers generally. 

8)  Math 111 and Math 112

   This whole thing is most urgent for Math 111 and Math 112
   instructors.  Your course should be set up with Hungerford's
   textbook.  Content on this is supposedly being entered fast
   enough so that you should have plenty of questions.

   Here is the list of problems I asked them to enter for Math 111:
       www.uoregon.edu/~sadofsky/math111-webassign-problems
   And for Math 112:
       www.uoregon.edu/~sadofsky/math112-webassign-problems