Enhancing the problem authoring capabilities of WeBWorK

August 6 to August 10, 2007

at the

American Institute of Mathematics, San Jose, California

organized by

Davide Cervone, Michael Gage, and Arnold Pizer

Original Announcement

This workshop will be devoted to refining and enhancing the WeBWorK problem authoring language by providing better macros, tools and examples for writing problems and at the same time making the language easier to use, learn, document, and maintain.

WeBWorK is a web-based interactive system designed to make homework in mathematics and the sciences more effective and efficient. The workshop will bring together experts on WeBWorK and educators interested in content development with the goal of streamlining the WeBWorK problem authoring language and producing a collection of model problems of varying types using best practices to help guide instructors to take full advantage of WeBWorK.

Particular emphasis will be placed on making the language easier to use for new instructors, including those with less technical expertise, so they can more easily create and customize mathematical problems that serve their educational needs. Our hope is that this streamlined language will move WeBWorK to the next level of accessibility and encourage many more educators to design, implement and share their own vision of WeBWorK homework problems for their classes.

Workshop participants will consist of a core group of language developers and a larger group of educators and WeBWorK users and problem authors who will guide the enhancement of the problem authoring language based on their experiences writing homework problems. By the end of the workshop we expect to have a powerful, easy to use problem authoring language together with a prioritized list of further desired enhancements for participants to work on after the workshop.

Material from the workshop

A list of participants.

The workshop schedule.

A report on the workshop activities.