Another interesting thing about this blog is that it contains many static pages.  One of these has quicktime videos of sample problems.  The interesting thing about these videos is that they contain a professor solving the problem verbally as well as writing down the steps of the problem.  I believe this is done using a tablet PC and a built in microphone but, whatever the method, it’s great.  The problems solved aren’t homework problems but simply problems that are similar enough to help students along.  I really wish other classes would use this method to help students learn.  Obviously there are some classes that wouldn’t benefit from it.  Freshman weedout classes are there for a reason–any person who is willing to put in a small amount of time on this can get a lot out of it, but many would be tempted to leech.  It would also probably be less than ideal for a lab class, where discussions really need to happen between group members anyway.  But for a higher-level class that deals with many tricky concepts and only assigns a few crucial problems a week, it’s a great idea.

My only grudge with this system is that they use a flash-based PDF viewer on their pages instead of providing PDF links.  While this is probably a great idea for some, it aggravates me because I’m forced to load a third party site flash application (which I don’t like doing) as well as deal with the problems inherent in those.  My personal problem with that is that the system won’t allow me to scroll–I must click and drag on the page, which is just aggravating.  The other main problem is that the site they use, Scribd.com, requires you to make an account to be able to download the PDFs themselves.  A lot of times I just want to save the PDF files for personal use and I hate having to sign up for every single stupid site.  Oh well.

Overall, this is a great implementation and I would love to see it used in more of my classes.  It makes it much easier to actually learn what you’re doing instead of just working through a problem and assuming it’s correct (because there are no solutions to be found).  Knowing if you got the problem right or wrong is a monumental thing, in my opinion, and this is a great way to figure it out.

The first reason that seems to be commonly given by classes is that online homework helps students get instant feedback.  “How Wonderful it is,” claimed my math professor, “that now you kids can check your answers as soon as you’re done with a problem!“  That sounds like it would be a great thing and, to be truthful, it is.  It’s nice to know that you have the solution correct as soon as you’ve finished your problem.  An extension of this is also the claim that “With online homework, you can see exactly how many points you have on any assignment to help you better keep track of your grade in the class.“  This is also true, though it does reveal the fact that students right now may be so lazy they can’t hold on to papers returned to them long enough to record the grade given. But with these advantages, online homework isn’t bad, right?

If online homework managed to fulfil the goal of grading assignments in a fair way that helps students learn, I would be all for it.  Unfortunately, it falls short in many ways.

No partial credit for work

One of the best things about showing your work on a problem is that you can receive partial credit for what you’ve done, especially on long engineering problems.  Maybe you get everything but the final answer due to a misused formula?  With online homework you get no credit for what you’ve done.  You’ll take the zero and like it!

Accuracy is questionable at best

One thing that is consistently stressed in many of my classes is that the problems are a way of taking real world problems and simplifying them to highly idealized models.  When you’re doing a math problem with 20 steps, where should you round your decimal places?  Should you keep significant figures?  Significant figures only works if the problem is worded with them in mind.

Complex answers are tough to input

Maybe the reasons I’ve given earlier don’t matter to you–you always keep everything to 20 significant figures and you get all of your answers correct.  Well, why don’t you try keying this in:

Good luck.  That was a math problem for me earlier this week.  That’s ridiculous!  If you mess up something, good luck getting it back in!

Technology is never uniform and not always compatible

OWL, mentioned earlier, was a site I used for chemistry homework for two classes last year.  It was amazing in the fact that it managed to use Flash, Java and Shockwave for various assignments.  Unfortunately, as a poor Linux user, I had no access to Shockwave.  That meant I either had to log on to a Windows computer (sometimes having to go to a computer lab) or lose those points.  The sad thing?  Most of them were just Shockwave applets that asked a question and accepted a numerical answer.  There was no reason for that technology to be used there.

If the technology fails, the student is at fault

Homework is due for all students at the same time.  OWL would be incredibly slow and unresponsive every week on Friday starting about 3pm, two hours before the homework was due.  At 5:01, though, it was as if a miracle had occured–everyone would log off and OWL would become completely usable.  I realize that this makes an argument for time management, but I should have the ability to do my homework whenever I want to do it up until the due date.  Webassign has this problem too, though to a lesser extent.  If your internet connection goes out, you’re without luck unless you find another way to get around that problem.  Last year my connection went down in my dorm on the night of a homework problem being due.  Whoops, too bad!  Even though the dorm IT manager agreed that the connection was down, the Physics professor wouldn’t accept that as an excuse.

Decreased productivity

Online homework seems to take up increasing amounts of time in class, especially in math where the answers often require complicated formulas to be entered.  Every single math recitation I’ve been to this year has had at least one fifth of the time taken up by students having problems inserting answers in the system.

I guess it really is too much to ask for the TAs to do their jobs and grade the homework.  I realize they’re busy and I realize that this provides a much fairer grading experience between TAs, but that’s always been a harsh reality of school.  Why strip students of points simply because they’re running into problems inserting an answer into a computer?  That’s just laziness.

Quote from the Purdue News Service:

Purdue University on Friday (July 18) announced that an investigative committee with members from five institutions has concluded that two allegations against Rusi Taleyarkhan, a professor of nuclear engineering, constituted research misconduct.

I can’t really comment on this too terribly much as I’m a student in the School of Nuclear Engineering.  That being said, I hope that this doesn’t tarnish the reputation of Purdue or NE there–there is only so much they can do and they couldn’t be expected to do more than they already have.  So, that all being said, read up on it and see what you think.

I hate to keep a Cold-War mentality about these sort of things (especially since I wasn’t really around during the Cold War) but I can’t see how getting rid of our nuclear stockpile is going to help us in the long-term.  I personally like LGF’s comment:

He’s going to achieve this amazing feat by making sure the US adheres to nonproliferation treaties. [excerpt from article]

Because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-Il will look at the US adhering to those treaties, and be embarrassed into getting rid of their weapons programs.

Or something like that.

No ‘rouge’ nation/state/terrorist group/club is going to stop attempting to acquire or produce nuclear weapons because the US is sticking to treaties that we should be sticking to right now.  That’s a rather ridiculous idea, to be frank.  I would think that if a terrorist group realized that the US was no longer going to have nuclear weapons they would be more inclined to attempt to get and use a nuke against the United States.  After all, if the US doesn’t have nukes anymore it makes it much tougher for us to inflict massive amounts of damage without taking over their country and attempting to regulate it in a Western democratic style.

Obama has a great quote in the article itself:

“All of this will demand the greatest resource that America has, and that’s our people,” Obama said. “In the Cold War, we didn’t defeat the Soviets just because of the strength of our arms. We also did it because at the dawn of the atomic age and at the onset of the space race, the smartest scientists and most innovative work force was here in America.”

That’s correct.  Starting with the beginning of the Manhatten Project and ending sometime in the middle to late 20th century, America had the best scientists and engineers.  Is that honestly the case anymore?  More and more people are shying away from careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and we’re rapidly losing to countries like China who send their best students to America to benefit from our great colleges.  I honestly wonder if we have the capability to make the same kind of technological advances that we made with what seemed like such ease during that period.

I’d also like to take a second to expand on my personal annoyances with Obama.  For one part, he seems to be against nuclear energy.  Then again, he’s also for nuclear energy.  Would he please pick a side?  It’s rather ridiculous.  If you’re going to be against it then just be against it.  I did get a bit of humor out of this article being that I go to Purdue, I’m in Nuclear Engineering and, oh yeah, Obama made this statement in West Lafayette.  For those who don’t know, West Lafayette is the home of Purdue as well as Indiana’s only nuclear reactor, PUR-1.  Well, at least he targeted his comments well.  I will spare everyone reading this my rant on why we don’t have more nuclear power plants–but I’m sure I’ll return to that topic eventually.

Anyhow, we’ll see if Obama actually follows through on this claim or if it’s just more pandering, this time to the more liberal sides of the party.  I can only hope that he’ll realize what a large mistake he’s making.