Introduction to WeBWorK for students.
Welcome to WeBWorK!
I. What is WeBWorK ?
WeBWorK is a system that allows professors to put homework problems on the web and allows students to solve these problems over the web.Using WeBWorK, students may try to answer homework problems more than once. After each try, a message appears telling the student whether the answer is correct or not. This allows students to try to find out what they did wrong and hopefully to understand the topic of the question better.
Each WeBWorK problem set is individualized (each student has a different version of each problem, for example the numerical values in the formulas may be slightly different).
II. WeBWorK at Rutgers
WeBWorK was developed at the University of Rochester and is being used
extensively at Rutgers University in this course. This semester,
every section will be graded on the basis of their WeBWorK
assignments; for those sections, 80 points of their total will come
from WeBWorK.
Anyone with an internet connection can try out either Rutgers' or
Rochester's version of WeBWorK by following the directions in Part III
below.
For Rochester, connect to
http://www.math.rochester.edu/webwork and use
practice1 as the login name
and practice1 again as the
password. To see different problems, you can login as
practice2, practice3, or practice4 and use the login name for the
password.
III. How to use WeBWorK to do Math 135 homework at Rutgers
Using WeBWorK is quite simple.
Below are the basic steps on how to get started.
NOTE: Most pages of WeBWorK also contain directions. Therefore,
if you are ever unsure of what you should do, try reading
the directions and descriptions on the page at which you are looking.
- Find a computer with access to Netscape (or another browser, e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer) and the internet. It can be either your own, a friend's, or one in any of the Rutgers University computer labs.
- Either click on
this or (if you are reading a printed-out version of this) open Netscape and
go to the Math 135 page, address
http://www.math.rutgers.edu/courses/135
and then click on Fall 2002.
On that page you will see
WeBWork. Click on it.
This will get you to the main page, which
includes necessary information about logging in.
- To log in, click on the 'Login' button.
This will take you to a login page. Enter your login name
and password, and click on the 'Continue' button.
Usually, your login name is the same as your Rutgers e-mail user ID. If you do not know your Rutgers e-mail address, ask a consultant in any of the university computer labs.
Your initial password is your Rutgers student number. - If your login is incorrect, you will be told so, and you can
return to the login page and try again.
If your login is correct you will see a page where you can do following:- Change your password.
- Look at and do the problems in a set via your browser.
To do Set 0, for example, click on the line in the box that starts with 'Set 0...'. Then click on the 'Do problem set' button.
Notice that there are three modes of viewing the problem: 'text', 'formatted-text' and 'typeset'. Text output can be hard to read if a problem contains complicated mathematical formulas, so it is better to view the problem using 'formatted-text' or 'typeset' mode. 'formatted-text' mode is usually acceptable and is quick and reliable. One caveat is that you need to set the encoding properly (e.g. Western(MacRoman) for Mac Netscape) for best results. Once you choose a problem and click on the 'Get Problem' button, you will see the text of the problem with boxes for your answers. Enter your answers and click on the 'Submit Answer' button. Once you have submitted an answer, you will be told whether your answer is correct or not. If not, you can try again. After you've tried a problem, you can either go to the next problem, the previous problem, or see the list of the problems again. On each line in the box, where all the sets are listed, after the set number, you can see whether the set is open or closed. If the set is open, that means that when you solve a problem, it will be counted towards your grade. If the set is closed, you can still solve problems, but your results will not be recorded.
After the indication of whether the set is open or closed, there is additional information about the due date (if the set is open), or whether the answers are available (if the set is closed). When the answers are available, you have the option of looking at correct answers when viewing a problem or to see a solution if one is available (currently only a few problems have solutions available); to see the correct answer and/or solution, just check the box(es) and click on the 'Submit Answer' button. - Get a printout of the problem set.
To print out Set 1, for example, first choose the download type. If you do not know which one works on your computer, try one and if you get an error message, try another. In general (this is not always so!!!) postscript format often works better than pdf format. But to print out postscript you need a PostScript-enabled printer! (Otherwise, you get pages and pages of garbage.)
If you are working on your own computer and do not have the software that takes care of printing or viewing problems, you have three choices.
One, you can just not print them out but do all your work at your computer (with pencil and paper at hand). You only need to print out a problem set if you want to work on the problems off-line; you enter all the answers over the web on yourcomputer.
Two, you can go to a university computer lab and print out the current homework set there (be sure it is a PostScript-enabled printer -- ask the consultants).
Three, you can download software that will allow you to view and/or print the whole problem set on your own printer, either PDF (using Adobe Acrobat Reader, freely available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) or PostScript (freely available at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost, but you need a postscript-enabled printer to print it).
After choosing one of the download types, click on the line in the box that starts with 'Set 1...'. Then click on the 'Get hard copy' button. You will get one of three things at this point. It may be a small window that will tell you that it is printing the document. In this case, the homework set is already being printed out (or the box will have some error message). You may also get a separate window with the homework set in it as a document. In this case, go to the icon 'file' and choose the 'print' option. Finally, you may get an alert message asking what to with the file. In this case, you can save the file to disk (so that you can print it at a later time), choose an application to view or print the file (e.g. GSview or dropPS), or you might want to go to a different computer if you are in the university computer lab. If you are working at your own computer, you might want to download the necessary software as explained above.
You can use the preferences command of your web browser to configure your browser to automatically transfer the postscript files to the appropriate application for viewing and printing. - Look at a summary of your WeBWorK homework scores.
This is the second section of the page. If you click on the button 'Get Summary', you will see your current scores for all available problem sets.
- Change your password.
- If you want to check the status of your problems (e.g. to double check that your answers have been recorded), use the "Prob. List" button at the top of the page to see the problem list page.
- When you are finished, log out using the "Logout" button at the bottom of the page.
- That's all, folks!
IV. Important facts to know
- Due Dates:
Each assignment has a due date, and must be submitted by then. The computer is inflexible; it simply stops accepting answers after the due date and time. - What WeBWorK understands:
On the login page, there is a short discussion of what sort of answers WeBWorK accepts, together with links to more information. Problem Set 0 (which will not be graded) provides a more detailed "hands-on" introduction to submitting answers. It is highly recommended that you look over this problem set. - What to do if you have problems with WeBWorK:
- If you have a problem logging in, reread the directions, and then contact math135@math.rutgers.edu, giving as much detail of the problem as possible.
- If you have a problem printing out a set, ask a consultant at a university computer lab. If you don't get sufficient help, contact your lecturer or recitation instructor.
- If you have any questions about a particular question on a problem set, go to your TA or Professor's office hours, or bring the question up during recitation, or go to a tutor at one of the LRCs.
- If you experience any technical problems while using WeBWorK, then please email math135@math.rutgers.edu with details. Please always say what internet browser you were using at the time you encountered the problem, with a version number (eg, Netscape Communicator, Internet Explorer 3.01), and say what kind of computer you were using (eg, Mac, PC). We will do our best to sort problems out as quickly as possible.
- Auto logout:
If you are logged on to WeBWorK for longer that 30 minutes without any activity, you will be asked to log in again. This is a security measure. You can resume your work after you logged back in. All your results from the last log in will be saved. - If you have any comments:
If you ever have any comments about WeBWorK, please click on the "Feedback" buttons, or email math135@math.rutgers.edu.
Last updated: January 12, 2002 Modified from the Rochester studentintro page.