About Homework in MAT125
Spring 2007

Homework

This semester, we will be doing homework in MAT125 as a combination of web-based homework (completed online) and assignments written up on paper which will be graded by a human grader.

You are encouraged to discuss homework problem together. However, each student must write up the homework or complete the corresponding web-based homework individually.

Homework will be assigned weekly; check the schedule for the specific weekly assignments. Note that the odd-numbered (paper) problems have answers in the back of the textbook. If such problems are assigned, you should nonetheless try and solve these problems without recourse to the answer key, and write the problem up carefully in your own words even if you have consulted the book for the final answer: always show your work.

You will also complete part of the homework problems via a web interface provided by the publisher of the textbook. One of the benefits of the web-based system is that it will provide immediate feedback about whether your answers are right and wrong.

Doing the Web-based Homeworks

Web-based homework problems are much like the usual ones: you need to give answers to a series of short questions, some of them multiple-choice, others not. The only difference is that instead of doing it on paper, you are doing it over the Internet. You can access the web interface from any computer which has an Internet connection, whether from home, from one of the University SINC sites, or say from an Internet cafe in Paris. No special software is required: all you need is a relatively recent Web browser. Also, you can do the web-based homework whenever you want (of course, before the deadline). You can look at the problems, or even print some of them, then go home, think them over, and come back later with your answer. In fact, this is probably the best way of doing the web-based homework for most people.

Please note that each problem has many variants, and different students are given different variants. So do not try to compare your answers to that of your classmates.

The web-based assignments are set up so you can you can work on the assignment for a while, then leave and come back later. If you are working on an assignment and want to stop for a while, click on the button; do NOT just close your browser, or your work may be lost if you don't return to the page within 15 minutes or so.

If you enter an answer and get it wrong, you get another try, although you will lose part of a point for each wrong answer you give. You have 3 tries; after the third incorrect answer, the problem will be permanently marked "incorrect".

When you finish with an assignment, click the button and your assignment will be graded. But don't do this until you are completely done; there is NO way to edit your answers after submitting the assignment.

For any questions regarding web-based assignments please contact your instructor or TA or send an email to the course coordinator.

Registration and logging in

Before you can use the web-based homework web site, you will need to register for the system and choose your user name and password (this is separate from registering for the course!). To do so, please follow the instructions below.

If you don't have a computer, you can use the ones in the University SINC sites, or most public computers such as those in libraries. This system doesn't work well with customized versions of Internet Explorer, such as the browser for AOL. Many people have had good success using the free Mozilla Firefox browser. We use Firefox when setting up the assignments, and haven't had any problems.

Setting up an account for the web-based homeworks

If you don't have an iLrn account, here's how to make one:

1. Go to the iLRN site and click on .
2. On the next page, click the button.
3. Put "Stony Brook" in the search box, click Search, then select SUNY - STONY BROOK from the list that appears.
4. On the next page, click "My instructor gave me a code to register for a class" in the Course Key area, and enter the code E-YDFUX384DS95M in the box that appears.
5. On the next page, fill all the information asked for. It is important you give your name and student ID number correctly so that you can get credit for your work. Please enter your last/first name and Stony Brook ID exactly as they appear in your registrar record. If you fill these out wrong, your grades will not be recorded for you.
6. Finally, when you log in, the system will check that you have an appropriate Java plug-in installed, and have popup windows enabled.

If you already have an account on iLrn from a previous course (this is unlikely, but you might), do the following. Sign in to iLrn, and then select  Register a Course from the quick links on the right. Enter the course key

E-YDFUX384DS95M and click the button. This will add Calculus A to the list on your courses tab.

Printing homework assignments

It may seem that you have to do your homework at the computer. This is not the case (although you certainly can if you wish). You can log in, print out your homework assignment, do the work, and enter the answers later. To do this, you just have to select  Print blank assignment from underneath the or button by the assignment.

You may have to first click the tab. You'll also need to click this to resume an assignment.