Mathematica Online in a Calculus Course

Nikolay Brodskiy

University of Tennessee

Course building blocks

Course Management System

(Blackboard)
Class roster
Authentication
Class announcements

Low quality, low expectations, 
enforced by the university

Homework, Tests

(WebAssign)
Assignments randomized for each student, 
Answers graded automatically
Gradebook updated daily
Any technical problem resolved by WebAssign

Testing basic skills, 
defines the pace of the course,
low maintenance

Videos

(YouTube)
Replacement for lectures

YouTube seems to be the perfect place to keep videos: just works, no maintenance

Mathematica files (lecture notes)

hundreds of files
Where to store?
How to organize?
Google website: allows organization, but the files are available to view/download only

Mathematica files (students’ work)

How to share? 
(Google Drive)
Mathematica Online

Forum for out-of-class communication

(Google Groups)
Essential for asynchronous collaboration

Class Activities

({{Out-of -class, Both, In-class}, {Course Management System, Homework,Tests, File sharing, 
collaboration}, {Videos, Mathematica files 
(lecture notes), Videoconferencing
 Videorecording}, {Forum, Mathematica files
(students' work),  }})

Sharing a file with a group

Making a copy of the file for each member of the group and sharing with the member.