Review of WebCalc A Web Based Interactive Multimedia Calculus by Allen Stecher and Yasskin Lawrence E Levine Department of Mathematical Sciences Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken NJ 07030 llevine stevens tech edu 1 Please supply the following information about your calculus course Course name Mathematical Analysis I II Number Ma 115 Ma116 Annual enrollment Around 350 Student profile All incoming students take these courses unless they have advanced placement Course pre requisites precalculus at the high school level Courses for which this course is a pre requisite second year math courses physics and many engineering courses Current text Calculus Single and Multivariable second edition by Hughes Hallet Gleason et al Please include a copy of your course syllabus if possible For Ma 115 see http attila stevens tech edu rgilman ma115 98hwk html For Ma 116 see http attila stevens tech edu rgilman ma116 98syl html 2 Is your department interested in offering a distance education course in calculus What has been discussed We have no interest in offering a distance education course in calculus 3 Approach Please download Scientific Notebook and open http www math tamu edu webcalc mindex tex Based on the authors materials how well does their approach match your course goals Is their approach effective Why or why not I have made arrangements with Don Allen to put up a mirror site of WebCalC at Stevens We are planning to use WebCalC as a resource for our students who will be taking first year calculus We shall modify WebCalC to suit our needs I do think that the approach is effective since it provides a valuable resource for students 4 Content Organization Please refer to WebCalc s Table of Contents Is the content organization reasonably compatible with your course syllabus Would it require you to make any unnecessary and unreasonable changes in your course syllabus in order to use WebCalC Please be specific The Table of Contents covers most of the standard topics in calculus so we can use all of the topics included However for our purposes we need additional material on integration by parts partial differentiation and multiple integration 5 Content a There is little motivational introductory material in the interest of keeping the text portion lean Comment on the pros or cons of this strategy 1 I personally do not like to read large amounts of material on screen As a result I feel that WebCalC should be used in conjunction with a good calculus text not instead of it In addition the material lacks an overview that explains to the student what the goals of the course are and how WebCalC will achieve these goals b Is the motivation material on derivatives in Chapter 8 understandable Can you suggest ways to improve it I think that the presentation given is really quite good I particularly like the graphics and animations used to present the concepts However the fact that the presentation is broken up into so many pieces is both a strength and a weakness The weakness is that the overview of what is going on can easily be lost Perhaps the whole thing needs some sort of tour guide or site map that tells you where you are where you have been and where you can go c Is the material on limits in Chapter 6 presented clearly What improvements do you suggest Yes Again one can get lost in the forest for the trees 6 Level In general does the level of mathematical rigor match your course requirements Yes Is the pace uniform throughout I do not understand this question since a student is free to proceed at whatever pace he or she desires unless the instructor imposes a schedule The same is true for a text The syllabus determines the pace Is it appropriate for your student audience Yes Does the site provide pedagogically sound help for students Why or why not The presentation is clear and there is a great deal of graphical support where appropriate Exercise Sets 7 In calculus what should a good exercise set contain to meet your needs It should consist of some routine problems some more challenging problems and some problems that extend the material presented in the text Based upon your criteria please evaluate the exercise sets in WebCalc Are the exercise sets a strength of this site Why or why not There appear to be a large number of routine exercises but not enough problems that extend the material presented in a given section More applications would be helpful 8 Links on text pages often go directly to the position in the exercise page pertaining to that material Is this design strategy advantageous Yes 9 Occasionally exercises have hints that are pointers links to pertinent worked examples At this time there are not many Please comment on the effectiveness of this pedagogical strategy This is a very effective pedagogical strategy 10 Some of the questions have a complete answer page in addition to answer notes next to each question Do you consider this a positive feature Why or why not Yes students learn by seeing how problems are solved 2 Are the answers sufficiently detailed for self study I cannot answer this since I know calculus already In addition self study is a tricky business Some students thrive on it and for others it is a disaster 11 Examples Many worked examples are contained in example boxes at the bottom of the pages Are there enough of them Too many Do these worked examples contain enough explanation Are they sufficiently complete for self study There can never be too many examples Again the question of self study is not one that I can readily answer Applications 12 Do the applications in WebCalc meet your and your students needs Are there sufficient applications Are the topics used in applications appropriate and interesting for your students Why or why not Since Stevens is an engineering school we are interested in engineering examples that use the calculus WebCalC does not seem to contain any of these Student interest in applications is another tricky business However interest is not really the issue There are certain applications that one wants the student to see whether s he is interested in them or not 13 Applications of derivatives appear in three chapters Is this design a positive factor or a negative one Why Yes reinforcement and repetition help students learn 14 Pop Quizzes Are the Pop Quizzes with randomized problems sufficient in quality and quantity How would you anticipate using this feature I spent some time looking for a Pop Quiz and could not find one even though I