[RUME] Update: RUME conference in Raleigh, NC: Special Thursday presentation (organizer: Michael Pearson, MAA)

[Michael Gage]

This is an update of an earlier posting. 

* The Saturday session takes
place DURING lunch not after as originally announced.  

* Both talks are at the Conference on RUME 
taking place Feb 25-28 in Raleigh, NC.
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At the RUME Conference in Raleigh, NC. Feb 25-28 Thursday 5:30 -6:30:

"Opportunities for In-situ study of WeBWorK as a Tool for Student
Learning and Faculty Development",  
Speakers:  MichaelGage (U. of Rochester) , Aaron Wangberg ( Winona State U.) 
and David Bressoud (MAA), organizer: Michael Pearson (MAA)

The MAA  and the developers of WeBWorK have received a 5 year national
dissemination (CCLI phase 3) grant to promote the widespread use of
WeBWorK and online homework in college (and high school) mathematics
instruction.  We are looking for researchers interested in forming
partnerships to  use WeBWorK in researching how students learn, in
evaluating the effectiveness of WeBWorK/online homework  in STEM
education courses, or in exploring other opportunities for joint
educational projects.

Michael Gage will give a brief overview of the open source online
homework system WeBWorK, it's capabilities for handling mathematics
homework questions, and some of the related assessment studies that have
been  completed.

Aaron Wangberg  will describe his experiences in customizing WeBWorK to
provide Calculus students with a pre-test / individualized practice /
individualized post-test on 84 different pre-calculus concepts during
the first 4 weeks of the semester. WeBWorK provides data related to
effort (number of attempts, amount of time spent per question) and
ability, and and this data can be used to invite students to targeted
collaborative group activities (based on an Emerging Scholars / Treisman
model) in his Math Achievement Tutoring Center.

David Bressoud will describe MAA's plans to provide a hosting facility
for WeBWorK courses and support research into student learning using
online tools such as WeBWorK.


Abstract:  Saturday  ATTN:  This discussion takes place DURING lunch not
after. (sorry for the confusion)

Michael Gage will be on hand to answer questions about WeBWorK's
capabilities, about the WeBWorK user/developer community  and to explore
possibilities for collaboration with WeBWorK developers on research into
 student learning mathematics.  He can also handle requests to set up
demonstration WeBWorK courses on the Rochester hosting facilities so
that interested instructors can try things for themselves. If an
internet connection is available at the conference the demo courses can
be set up on the spot.