Tag Archives: Uservoice

We Have a Winner!

by Annie McQuaid

Our Make Your Voice Heard contest has come to an end after over 70 new feature ideas were submitted and 500 votes were tallied!  Congratulations to Professor Donna Flint from South Dakota State University for her winning feature idea of allowing for the override of a grade on an individual problem.  She indicated her feature idea would help out her classroom management by saying,  “My new feature suggestion would just make it easier to grade.  Students often want to go over their homework and if I am willing to give them partial credit for their work, it would be nice to be able to record that per problem, rather than have to change the entire grade.”

Thanks, Donna, for your suggestion.  We will keep you all posted on the development of this new feature as we begin work on making it a reality!

But that’s not all!  We had such a tremendous response on the runner-up idea that we have decided to add it to our list of potential new goals as well.  Many thanks to Peter Bohacek, a high school physics teacher in Minnesota, for his idea of adding features to WebAssign to create a clicker system for smart phones.  This feature is something that we can truly see the value in and we look forward to investigating this idea further.

Not only will we work to make these winning ideas come to life, but each winner will each receive a WebAssign prize pack and a VIP trip to the 12th annual WebAssign Users Group (WAUG) this summer, June 21-22 at WebAssign Headquarters in Raleigh, NC!

Sign up for WAUG today if you haven’t already done so, it is an event you will not want to miss!  This is a great chance to meet with other WebAssign users and hear from experts.  We have scheduled a great line-up of presenters to share their knowledge on topics such as integrating YouTube videos into your assignments, using social media in  your classroom, utilizing WebAssign for testing, WebAssign & labs, and many more.

A light breakfast and lunch will be provided both days along with a social hour reception each evening.  Check out our WAUG 2012 homepage for more details.

Space is limited, so sign up today!

Congratulations again to both our winners, and thank you for all of your support!

Feature Contest Top 5 Spotlight: Professor Jared Daily

by Annie McQuaid

Jared Daily is currently a physics/engineering/math instructor at North Platte Community College in Nebraska.  His feature idea of adding the ability to send students text message reminders for WebAssign assignment is one of our top 5 nominees in the Make Your Voice Heard contest.  He has taught at North Platte Community College since 2007 after coming from the College of Eastern Utah, in Price, Utah where he held the same position.  Read more to find out how Professor Daily has used WebAssign to enhance his classroom.

How long have you used WebAssign?

I began using WebAssign in January 2010.  I was disturbed by a trend that I have been observing with increased frequency among my colleagues.  So many math and science teachers are not assigning mandatory homework assignments to be returned for grading and feedback.  It has always been my belief that mathematics should be taught as a language, and the only way to properly learn a new language is through immersion.  Students learn little from reading and even less from lecture.  They must work through problems and get their hands and minds into the work. I am convinced that WebAssign is the first truly useful application of computers in education.

How have you adopted WebAssign in your classroom?

I use WebAssign principally as a tool to deliver assignments and learning tools to my students.  Enhanced WebAssign has been particularly effective on the learning end, and I have switched almost exclusively to those books.  The students use the learning tools (videos, practice problems, book links) a great deal while completing their assignments.  I do believe, however, that student feedback is the most appreciated tool for me as well as my students.  My students like to know when they have successfully completed a problem or an assignment.  I honestly believe that the little green checkmark acts as some sort of intellectual stimulant that drives students to care more about their math homework than ever before.  I find that miraculous, and beneficial to my goals.

What are some of your best practice methods concerning WebAssign or teaching in general?

WebAssign provides an organizational structure for a class that is complex both in its subject and in the content.  We cover so many topics, and I prefer to compartmentalize the topics in the assignments.  I also incorporate writing assignments, analysis of data and many other activities.  With all of these components in one place, the students are less confused and intimidated.  They know what is expected, and they know when it is expected.  I do use the automatic extension feature, because it is so easy to forget an assignment in such an intense course.  They have the option of up to 3 1-hour extensions at a penalty of 5% per hour.  This practice allows students to recover from minor lapses without any trouble.  They only have 1 day to extend, which sets a boundary for those who would take advantage.

How would your new feature suggestion impact your classroom?

The most obvious impact of having text alerts comes from observing the students of today.  Students rarely check email accounts.  Many students do not even have an email account until the college assigns one to them.  They all use Facebook and Twitter, but I do not care to enter those worlds just to reach my students.  Also, students regularly ignore phone calls just by looking at the caller ID, but I have never seen a student ignore a text message.  Nothing seems to stand in the way of checking and answering a text message.

In order to pass a tough math or science class, a student must stay on top of the work.  I can think of no better way to encourage this than to infiltrate their regular communications constantly.  Additionally, text-messaging seems to be an untapped resource for evaluation and assessment of students.  Why not work in an option for students to answer quizzes with their cell phones and have the results for the entire class displayed on an assessment page?  This would be like a clicker system built into WebAssign.

Vote for this idea and others on UserVoice or Facebook now!

Feature Contest Top 5 Spotlight: Professor Carole Simard

by Annie McQuaid

Professor Carole Simard’s feature idea of adding a sort & search feature to the assignments list is one of our Top 5 Feature nominees from our Make Your Voice Heard contest.

Carole Simard is a part-time mathematics lecturer at California Polytechnic State University, and a part-time mathematics instructor at Cuesta Community College, both located in San Luis Obispo, CA.  She took the time to answer a few of our questions below.

How long have you used WebAssign?

I have been using WebAssign since September 2009 for homework assignments.

What WebAssign features do you use most or find the most useful?

The features I use frequently are the assignment creation, assignment scheduling,  course creation,  grade override, and the assignment extension features. However, the WebAssign feature that I use most is viewing assignment responses in the Gradebook summary.

What are some of your best practice methods concerning WebAssign or teaching in general?

Since I believe it is important for students to develop good mathematics notation, I assign a few homework problems to be turned in on paper alongside their online work. This allows students to practice notation and solving problems step by step and also receive feedback before taking quizzes and exams on paper where these things are graded. However, I assign most of the homework problems on WebAssign to expose students to a broader variety of problems and to allow them to take advantage of the great features offered by WebAssign such as immediate feedback, extra practice of similar problems, in line tutorial, video tutorials, and digital access to the book.

Homework assignments, both WebAssign and paper, are usually due on Friday at the beginning of class. I sometimes allow extensions for extenuating circumstances, which is  easily managed through WebAssign.  To encourage students to think about the problems which are assigned on WebAssign, I limit the number of answer submission to three. If, however, they get the correct answer after using their three tries, I use the override option to give them an additional point, especially at the beginning of the session when they are not yet completely familiar with the syntax of WebAssign. I find that a few weeks into the session there are rarely requests for additional points.

How would your new feature suggestion impact your classroom?

A new sort & search feature on the assignment list would improve the administration of WebAssign for my classes. Teaching different courses using WebAssign generates many assignments and I have found myself spending a fair amount of time looking for a particular assignment which I may have created several months earlier or updated at some other time. Having the possibility to filter assignments across all courses by book, name, date, type as well as the ability to search for specific assignments quickly would be very helpful.  Additionally, adding the ability to organize and group assignments together would be useful too.

Vote for this idea and others on UserVoice or Facebook now!

Feature Contest Top 5 Spotlight: Peter Bohacek

by Annie McQuaid
We continue our in-depth look at the Top 5 Feature ideas from the Make Your Voice Heard contest with WebAssign user Peter Bohacek’s idea of adding features to WebAssign to create a clicker system for smart phones.
Peter Bohacek teaches high school physics and Advanced Placement physics. He is an electrical engineer by training and worked in the industry for 15 years before becoming a teacher. He made the switch to  education about 10 years ago and hasn’t looked back.
“I enjoy the students, my co-workers, and the subject,” Bohacek said. “I’m fascinated by the possibilities for using technology to improve teaching and excited that you’ve selected the idea of incorporating features that would allow WebAssign to be used as a student response system. I’m a big fan of WebAssign, and I think this feature would make it even better.”
Please read more of our interview with Peter below!

How long have you used WebAssign?

I’ve been using WebAssign for 6 years. We started with AP physics and have expanded so that all 450 physics and chemistry students at our school use WebAssign.  Each year, I increase the amount of student work done on WebAssign. We do most of our homework, tests, and quizzes in WebAssign. I enjoy coding questions; I find it challenging and interesting to figure out new ways to get students to think about physics while using WebAssign. I particularly like creating challenging conceptual questions, such as ranking questions, that have some randomized component so that students can work together without sharing answers. This year, I’m adding labs. My students use iPads in lab for the lab instructions and to record data. Then they can to their data analysis as homework.

What WebAssign features do you use most or find the most useful?

The WebAssign project I’m most excited by is the series of questions I’m making that feature embedded video. Students can make direct measurements from these videos and use this data to answer conceptual questions, solve open-ended problems, or do lab analysis. I think there is tremendous potential for more ways to use WebAssign to help students learn.

How would your new feature suggestion impact your classroom?

Many teachers use student response systems (aka “clickers”) in class. My idea is that a few features could be added to WebAssign so teachers could post WebAssign questions for use with smart phones or any other device with a web-browser. For example, teachers could have an assignment where they can open and close individual questions for student submission during class. Once a question is closed for submission, teachers could view student responses on that question to inform how the discussion should proceed.
One way I’d use this feature would be to post a question at the beginning of class. For example, I’d post a ranking question that uses a concept from the last class, or from the homework. I’d close the question for submission 5 minutes after class starts (less time if it is an easy question). We’d use student responses on that question to begin our new discussion.

There are other student response systems available, but using WebAssign would have several advantages. For example, we can  use any question from our textbook, or easily code our own. Also, teachers who use both WebAssign and a student response system have to maintain two class lists and two sets of grades, one for in-class and one on WebAssign. Using WebAssign as a student response system would simplify our grading by having all grades and rosters in WebAssign.  Smart phones (or other web-capable devices like tablets) have far more capability than clickers and many of our students carry these devices already.

Vote for this idea or others on UserVoice now!

Feature Contest Top 5 Spotlight: Professor Donna Flint

by Annie McQuaid

Professor Donna Flint’s feature idea of allowing for the override of a grade on an individual problem is one of our top 5 feature nominees in the Make Your Voice Heard Contest.

Donna Flint is a Professor and Assistant Department Head at South Dakota State University.  She has taught there for 12 years in a number of courses ranging from Basic Algebra to Calculus to Senior and Graduate Level Analysis Courses.

How long have you used WebAssign?

This fall was actually my first semester using WebAssign in my own class, though I have used other on-line systems and am familiar with the program because of my role as administrator in the department.  I used it in an Honors Calculus II class and in a Matrix Algebra course for homework.

What WebAssign features do you use/like most?

I liked the access to the e-book with videos for students.  I also liked the capability of writing my own questions.  I did this to write reading questions for my Matrix Algebra course.  Of course, I also like the fact that my students can do homework and get feedback without me having to grade piles of papers!

What are some of your best practice methods concerning WebAssign or teaching in general?

  • I allow for extensions with penalty (automatically allowed).
  • I allow students 3 tries per question.  I started out the semester allowing 5 tries per question, but students complained the homework took too long.  If they missed the question and then used the help tool, they were able to determine if their concept understanding was correct.  If it was, they just needed to find a small error somewhere.  Allowing fewer tries meant that instead of trying to find their errors all night, they would stop at two tries and then ask in class or come to my office for help.  At that time, I could verify that their concept understanding was correct and that they did indeed only have a small error.
  • I make my assignments due at 5:00 pm.  I think this encourages students to do their work during the day when they can get help if needed.
  • I like the idea of reading questions to help students learn how to read a textbook.  Students find that difficult and frequently complain about it, but I think it is one of the skills our students really lack that prevents them from becoming independent learners.  So many students (even through their senior year) just want their lecture and the answers.

How would your new feature suggestion impact your teaching?

My new feature of allowing for the override of a grade on an individual problem would just make it easier to grade.  Students often want to go over their homework and if I am willing to give them partial credit for their work, it would be nice to be able to record that per problem, rather than have to change the entire grade.  If I want to go back later, I’d like to know where the extra points were assigned.

We also use WebAssign in a large lecture environment. Students take their exams online, but we still grade some of the problems for partial credit.  Our TA’s grade the partial credit problems and it would be much easier if they could award (or remove points) per problem – instead of having to record changes then post them as total changes.  This would also allow the students and instructors to know what caused a grade change.

To vote for this idea or any of our other top 5 winners head to UserVoice or Facebook now!