Students working at computers

WebAssign Info

To login to WebAssign go to webassign.ncsu.edu.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You will need to purchase a WebAssign license ($12.95) for this class. This can be purchased online via the WebAssign web site. When you access WebAssign for this class, you will be informed how you can purchase the license online with a credit card. The license is not enforced during the first week of class, so you don't have to have your license in order to get started.

When are assignments due?

When you look at the schedule on the home page of the class web site, you see infomation about when assignments will appear but no information about when the assignments are due. How can you find out when the assignments are due? You get that information by viewing your list of current assignments within WebAssign.

Suppose, for example, that the schedule on the home page says that the Part 4 WebAssignments will be available to you on February 15. This tells you that any time after February 15 you can go to WebAssign and view a list of all these assignments along with the due dates. Usually when a batch of assignments becomes "available" in WebAssign, the first of them will be due in about 10 days and the last ones may not be due until 3 or 4 weeks later. Since you'll be working with WebAssign regularly, all you have to do is scan over the list of assignments as they appear.

WebAssign is used for all your work, including tests and final exam. There are approximately 60 WebAssignments during the semester which constitute your homework for the class. Doing these assignments on time is essential to your success in the course. You can submit each assignment as many times as you like (up to 50). Your last submission determines your grade on the assignment.

A movie that illlustrates the way submissions work is available. You should submit every question as soon as you have completed it or else you should always use the "Submit all questions for grading" link at the bottom of the assignment. Here's why...

  • If you do several questions (without submitting them) and then submit one of the questions, the answers to the others disappear. So in effect you lose your work on the other questions (other than the one you submitted).

  • Using the "Submit all questions for grading" link counts as a submission only for answers that you have modified. So there is no reason not to use this link. Even if you've answered only one question, clicking the "Submit all questions for grading" link counts as a submission only for that one question. So in that sense it's safer to use "Submit all questions for grading". It's functionally the same as "submit this question only" if one question is all you've answered since your last submission, and it submits ALL your work if you've modified the answers for more than one question.

  • Make sure that you understand what I'm saying about the way submissions are counted. For example, if you had 10 questions on an assignment and did them one at a time clicking "Submit all questions for grading" after completing each question, you would then have submitted the assignment 10 times. But it would show as only one submission for each question, because only once for each question did you modify the question and then submit the assignment. So you could follow this approach even if only one submission were allowed in this particular assignment.

Extensions

In this class, assignments appear long in advance of the due date. This gives you the opportunity to play whatever mind game you like with yourself. If you like "soft" due dates, create "soft" due dates for yourself by advancing all the due dates by 3 days. For an assignment that's due on Oct. 25, pretend it's due on Oct. 22. Then give yourself a free 3 day extension if something unexpected comes up.

The due dates posted in the schedule are "hard" due dates. They mean what they say, last minute surprises notwithstanding. So if you prefer "soft" due dates, play the above mental trick to create them yourself.

You also have wide choice over when you do your assignments. Since assignments are available for 10 days or more generally, this means you can do all your work on the weekends if have a full time job during the week. Or alternatively, you can do no work at all on the weekends if you prefer. The choice is yours. The only way you lose control is if you procrastinate until the last day, at which time you have run out of choices. To prevent procrastination, we have a standing rule that neither the teacher nor the teaching assistant will provide help with homework on the day that the homework is due or after the assignment is due. This includes face-to-face office hours as well as online office hours.

If an assignment is less than two weeks past due, you can request an "automatic" extension which allows you 48 additional hours to work on the assignment (starting when you file the request). (An automatic extension is an extension that WebAssign will grant you automatically without requiring anyone's permission.) During this extension period you obtain 3/4 of the original point value for all additional work. So you don't lose any points by requesting an extension, you just obtain less than full credit for the late work. With each assignment you can obtain a maximum two of these 48-hour extensions. (Extensions end 48 hours after you request them or two weeks after the due date, which ever comes first. So to receive the full 48 hours you need to request the extension within 12 days of the due date.)

Getting Help with WebAssignments

Do not use e-mail to request help with homework. Instead, use the WebAssign feature "Ask Jenn" found at the bottom of each WebAssignment. Jennifer will respond to you. If you send e-mail requesting help with homework, Jennifer may refer you back to the "Ask Jenn" link.

On homework assignments, WebAssign allows you virtually unlimited submissions (maximum = 50). In other words, you can submit the assignment over and over so as to correct any mistakes you may have made.

On tests and the final exam you will be permitted a maximum of 3 submissions for each question.

See the grades page for information about how WebAssign figures into the calculation of your final grade.