Monthly Archives: July 2012

New Username Lookup Tool

by Annie McQuaid

Forgot your username after a summer away from scheduling homework assignments? No problem! Now WebAssign users who have forgotten their username or password can use the email address associated with the account to look up this important information. This works the same for students and professors, so be sure and pass on the details to your class so they can start the new semester off right.

For more details, see look up username.

New iPad-compatible homework tools from WebAssign!

by Annie McQuaid

With more students arriving on campus outfitted with Apple’s latest hardware device, we knew most of them would want to be able to complete and submit their assignments with it.  So, after several months of diligent work, we’re happy to announce that WebAssign’s math and physics tools are now available on the iPad, with our most recent updates to the  NumberLine and physPad. Previous updates included mathPad, calcPad, and the Graphing Tool which you can read more about here.

iPad Support for NumberLine

Students can now answer NumberLine questions on the iPad with no major changes made to this tool.

Tip: Placing objects accurately on the NumberLine might be easier if you pinch to zoom in.

iPad Support for physPad

It makes no difference to your grade whether you complete your work on an iPad or on another supported platform. However, there are some differences in how you work on the iPad:

  • The tools palette is displayed on the right.
  • The locations of some buttons are different. Specifically, all buttons are contained in button groups.
  • The expression is displayed larger while you are editing it.
  • You cannot copy or paste parts of the expression.
  • Tapping the pad button is usually faster and easier than using the keyboard.
  • Typing an opening parenthesis, bracket, or brace automatically inserts a closing parenthesis, bracket, or brace.

Tip: To prevent the on-screen keyboard from hiding part of the problem or your work, turn your iPad to work in portrait mode. Also, consider using a split keyboard.
Note:
  • These tools are tested and supported only for Safari on iPad with iOS5 or higher.
  • Other browsers and iOS versions might work, but are not supported.
  • Performance might be slower on iPad 1 than on iPad 2.
  • Using a Bluetooth keyboard with your iPad might work, but is not supported. Navigation keys on Bluetooth keyboards do not move the insertion point.

WebAssign Unveils New Version of Blackboard Building Block

by Annie McQuaid

We are pleased to announce the release of our latest version of the Blackboard Building Block™!  This enhanced Version 2.0 provides new functionality to meet current users’ growing needs, and includes the ability:

  • ·         for LTI-compliant single sign-on
  • ·         to synchronize Blackboard course rosters to linked WebAssign courses
  • ·         to synchronize student grades from WebAssign directly to the Blackboard Gradebook
  • ·         to select a textbook when creating a WebAssign course created through Blackboard
  • ·         to create a linked WebAssign course from within Blackboard

“Our latest Building Block greatly enhances the experience for our users at Blackboard-adopting institutions,” said Mark Santee, director of marketing for WebAssign. “By eliminating the manual download of grades from WebAssign to be later uploaded into Blackboard, we’ve not only simplified the process but have saved faculty considerable time otherwise spent doing administrative tasks.”

The new integration was released as Blackboard hosted its BbWorld 2012 Conference last week in New Orleans. For more information about utilizing this newest release please visit our online instructor guide.