WebAssign--On-line Facility and Homework Grades. The following is some important information about your about your Math class at University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), this semester. Homework: Practice and Graded WebAssign There are two kinds of homework: textbook Practice and WebAssign. Practice Homework is listed on the course schedule and is from the textbook. It is not going to be computed in your grade. However, this does not mean it is not important! These exercises are the practice that will help you to learn the material. Always do the practice homework before tackling WebAssign. You need to be able to correctly answer all of the assigned problems. Ask questions about these in your discussion section, or in office hours, or in a tutoring session. The Math Dept. tutoring room should start its full schedule by the second week of classes. Math Success should be starting up about the same time. Schedules for both can be found by following the appropriate links from www.math.umd.edu/~tjp. WebAssign is an online homework system that has now been or will soon be activated. You will need to purchase an access code either from the campus bookstore or online at the prompt. Here at UMCP, you did not purchase an access code with your textbook. IMPORTANT NOTE: As of Fall 2007, the process for logging in to WebAssign has changed. Those of you who used WebAssign before Fall 2007 must also follow the procedure given below. Your previous username and password won.t work under this new system, including ones you may have used to take the Math Placement Test. WebAssign Grading Every graded WebAssign assignment will be scored out of 10 points; your grade will appear after you submit. There will be 36 graded WebAssign homeworks this semester. The lowest 6 will be dropped before calculating the contribution of WebAssign homeworks to your final grade. Normal WebAssign Access 1) Go to http://www.webassign.net/umd/login.html. You should see .Welcome to WebAssign @ UMD!.. 2) Click on .Log In.. You should now see the U of M logo in the upper left corner and .Central Authentication Service. at the top of the dialog box. 3) Enter your UM Directory ID.the one you use to sign into testudo. For your password use the same password you use to sign into testudo. 4)For the first two weeks of the semester you can click on the .Continue without entering an access code. link toward the bottom. You will need to purchase an access code before the free-use time runs out.either in the bookstore or online by clicking the .Purchase an access code online. link. (Hint: It may be cheaper to purchase an access code online as opposed to buying it from the campus bookstore.) Please wait to enter your access code until you are sure you are in the section where you will remain all semester.transferring access codes can get complicated. 5)The first assignment, .Getting Started., is listed. It is meant to help you become acquainted with how WebAssign will work and to catch any log-in problems now, before we get into full swing. This first assignment will not be counted in your grade, but the rest of WebAssign will be computed into your grade. 6) You.ll have three opportunities to submit answers for each WebAssign problem set. each answer. However, be careful that you NEVER use the .Back. button on your web browser. This will often result in an earlier submission being counted twice, and you.d use up your three submissions before you realized it. 7)The first few graded assignments, which will have questions from the sections covered in Lecture, will be posted during the first week of class. If you have any problem logging in or have any other questions, email me and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Michelle Hugue (meesh@umd.edu) More WebAssign Hints for Success 8) Keep checking to see when various WebAssign homeworks are due. HW_0.0 is only an introduction to the WebAssign system, is scored out of 0 points and will not be counted in your Math 220 grade. EVEN IF YOU HAVE USED WEBASSIGN BEFORE YOU SHOULD DO HW 0.0 TO REVIEW THE SYNTAX NECESSARY FOR SYMBOLIC ANSWERS. Questions 6 . 8 are particularly important for this. 8) WebAssign HW_1.1-1.2 and HW_1.3 have been posted and were due last week. We are aware that server problems were rampant, and will take that into account when the contribution of these two assignments to your final grade is assesed. A few more notes about WebAssign: 1) Make sure you are using the correct login procedure: Go to http://www.webassign.net/umd/login.html . You should see .Welcome to WebAssign @ UMD!.. Click on .Log In.. You should now see the U of M logo in the upper left corner and .Central Authentication Service. at the top of the dialog box. Enter your UM Directory ID.the one you use to sign into testudo. For your password use the same password you use to sign into testudo. If you see a screen asking you to enter an institution code, you.re in the wrong place. IMPORTANT: Do not change the internal password once you are inside WebAssign. It must remain as it is for the UMD common login process to work smoothly. 2) Be careful that you don.t enter a capital letter (e.g. X) when you need a small letter (e.g. x). These are interpreted as different variables by WebAssign, and rightly so. We will use formulae in Math 220 which have both the capital and small versions of the same letter with different meanings. 3) You.ll have three submissions for each answer. However, be careful that you NEVER use the .Back. button on your web browser. This will often result in an earlier submission being counted twice, and you.d use up your three submissions before you realized it. 4) Once the due date/time has passed you.ll be able to view the correct answer to each WebAssign question. Use these to figure out what went wrong for your incorrect responses. 5) I realize that there will be times when you will miss a due date/time:illness, family emergency, computer glitch, etc. I won.t be granting extensions of time for WebAssign. Instead, the lowest 6 scores will be dropped at the end of the semester, so that the unavoidable past-due assignments won.t count against you when your grade is calculated. 6) You can go back at any time during the semester to view previous WebAssign homeworks. Click on the .Past Assignments. link. Frequently Asked Questions: a) Question: I can't see any section or our section in WebAssign? Answer: Are you registered for a section of math 220? If testudo says you are, then email your name, student id, and testudo user id (username/address you use to access testudo) to meesh@umd.edu. If Testudo shows you as registered for a section beginning with the '01', like 0113, but you are having problems, make sure that section 01** is not visible, and email me at meesh@umd.edu with your name, student id, and testudo user id. 2 Question: I can log into WebAssign, but I don't have enough time to do the problems before the connection to WebAssign dies or freezes. How can I be productive under these conditions? Answer: Essentially, you need to adopt a new procedure to manage the unreliable server. 3 Question: How much will a missed WebAssign HW hurt my final grade? Answer: Missing 3 WA assignments (30 WA points) that cannot be dropped is about the same as losing 2 points on the final exam, ot 1 point on one of the in class tests. Details: The overall contribution of WebAssign(WA) HW to your final grade is 100 points out of 700 points, or 1/7. There are 36 WA Homeworks at 10 points each. After dropping 6 of those, there are 300 WA points possible. Thus the contribution of your WA points to the WA final grade points is 1/3 of your WA HW total. What does this mean? Suppose you actually miss 11 WA HW, meaning your lowest 9 grades of 36 are zero. Your best WA HW points total would then be 0 (3 * 0) points for WA hw you could not drop and at most 270 (27 * 10) points for the remaining WA HW. Thus, instead of having 100 (30 * 100/3) 'Final WA HW total' points for a perfect WA HW performance, you would have 90 (270 * 100/3) 'Final WA HW Total' points from WA HW. Since your WA 'final grade' total of 100 points is 1/7 of your final grade, instead of having just above 14 (100/7) points to contribute to the final grade computation, you'd have just under 13 point (90/7). The bottom line: you need to miss 3 WA HW assignments (that's 30 points in your raw WA HW total over and above dropping the original 6 WA HW) to have your final grade decrease by one point.