General Information for MA 114 online

The main components of this course consist of

• movies available via the Internet. You can access the online movies and WebAssignments via your computer at home or via a Windows or Macintosh computer on campus.
  
• web-based assignments (WebAssignments) which may be submitted over and over
  

The goal of MA 114 is to demonstrate some of the applications of non-calculus mathematical techniques to real-world problems.

Home Access

For home access, you will need a good Internet connection and a recent version of a reliable web browser. Quicktime is available free and you can download it from Apple if your computer does not have it pre-installed.

Help

See the Help and Contacts page for information about help in this class. There is lots of help available. It is your responsibility to keep in touch with the class web site so as to know the help schedule.

The news page should be checked at least three times each week. This is where Dr. Page and Jennifer will post announcements and useful comments. The news page is the only way to stay informed about what is going on in the class.

Homework and Tests

The WebAssign homework constitute a large portion (37%) of your grade. The 3 tests and the final exam are also done using WebAssign. The homework assignments may be done at home or anywhere you choose. On homework assignments you are allowed up to 50 submissions for each question.

Tests and the final exam will be taken by most students in Venture 2 on Centennial Campus. The format of the tests will be similar to the WebAssignments used for homework except that you will have limited time (usually 75 minutes) and you will be limited to 3 submissions for each question.

The final exam will have the same format as the tests, will be 135 minutes in length, and will cover the entire course with special emphasis on the final portion (shown as Part 6 in the schedule).

Many of the questions on the tests and exam will be very similar to problems you have encountered previously in the WebAssignments.

You should always bring your calculator to tests. All tests are "open book and open notes", so you may also bring along any notes or books or other printed or written material that might be useful to you.

The online tools (row operations tool and matrix tool) that are used for your homework may also be used on tests.

Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities that require special arrangements for tests should make arrangements through DELTA to obtain the requested accommodations. This process can be initiated via the DELTA website for disability services. However, please notifiy Dr. Page to let him know that you will be using special testing arrangements. This is essential so that Dr. Page can set up your test in a way that makes the accommodations feasible. (Note: Dr. Page plays no role in deciding upon requests for special accommodations. Such requests should go directly to the NCSU Disabilities Services Office.)

How to Succeed in this Class

Most of the movies correspond to sections of the text. (Some of the movies, however, are for a special purpose, like teaching you to use the matrix tool, for example.) My suggestion for how to approach the class is that you approach each section of the text in the following order:

1. Watch the movies for that section.
2. Try the WebAssignments that correspond to that section of the text.
3. If there are some problems in the WebAssignment that you can't do, go back and look for something relevant in the movies.
4. If you're stuck, use the "Ask Your Teacher" feature of WebAssign (link at bottom of each assignment).

Your main criteria for whether you're learning what you need to is very simple: If you can do the WebAssignments, you're in good shape. Many of the problems you see on the tests will be very similar to the problems encountered in your daily WebAssignments.

E-Mail

Student e-mail accounts at NCSU are now provided by Google. If your Unity ID is jasmith, then your e-mail address would be something like jasmith@ncsu.edu or perhaps jasmith7@nscu.edu (if there are other students with a similar name).

NCSU policy is now that all class correspondence should be addressed to students using the NCSU e-mail addresses. So it is essential that you monitor your NCSU mail. Most information for the entire class will be distributed via this web site. And if you write to us, we will reply to whatever address you have listed as your "return address" on your e-mail. But on the rare occasions when we need to e-mail information to the class, your NCSU address will be used, as is now the case for all official university correspondence. At the beginning of the semester before all students have learned about the need to access the web site regularly, we use e-mail to send you preliminary information.

Many people have alternate e-mail that they primarily use. For example, I use my non-NCSU Gmail almost exclusively. You can set up your NCSU Gmail account so that all mail is automatically forward to whatever account you routinely use. For information on how to do this, start here.

Academic Integrity

NCSU has established policies regarding academic integrity. In this course either of the following is considered to be a violation of the honor system:

• cheating on tests (i.e. receiving help from another student during the test)
• having someone else submit WebAssignments under your name

Talking with other students about assignments or getting help from other students is fine, as is getting help from Jennifer or me.