Short guide to WeBWorK

WeBWorK is a system that allows professors to put the homework problems on the web and allows students to solve these problems over the web. Using WeBWorK, students may try to answer homework problems more than once. After each try, a message appears telling the student whether the answer is correct or not. This allows students to try to find out what they did wrong and hopefully to understand the topic of the question better.

Each WeBWorK problem set is individualized (each student has a different version of each problem, for example the numerical values in the formulas may be slightly different).

Using WeBWorK is quite simple. Below are the basic steps on how to get started. NOTE: Most pages of WeBWorK also contain directions. Also, there are more detailed explanations found on the class website.

Find a computer with access to the internet. Open your browser (Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE, etc.) and go to your class webwork page (link found on Moodle and on the syllabus).

• Your login name is the same as your Loyola e-mail user ID
• Your password is your Loyola email password.

Enter your username and password, and click on the 'Continue' button.

You should see a list of homework sets for you to complete. You can start the sets in any order, and complete the problems in any order.

Once you've hit the "submit" button on a problem, the score is recorded. If you try the problem multiple times within the number of attempts allowed, the highest score you got on that problem before the due date/time will be the one recorded.

After you've completed ("submitted") all of the problems, there's nothing for you to do; the homework scores will be recorded at the due date/time.

When you are finished, be sure to LOG OUT using the "Logout" button at the top right corner of the page. You may need to scroll up/over in order to see it.

WeBWorK Advice

• If you have problems with WeBWorK, contact your instructor through email, phone or in person right away.
• If you are logged on to WeBWorK for longer than a certain amount of minutes (10? 30?) without any activity, you will be asked to log in again. This is a security measure. You can resume your work after you logged back in. All your results from the last log in will be saved.
• Read and do the Intro problem set. This not only explains the system but also teaches you how to type your answers.
• Download and print the generated PDF hardcopies of the problem sets. This allows you to leave the computer, do the problems on paper as you would with regular homework and then return to the computer to submit your answers. NOTE: many of the images will not print big enough on the PDF copy so for those problems, you will have to be near a computer to see the larger versions of the images.
• Keep your work in a notebook or some other organized way. Thus when you have difficulties with a problem, you can ask about it in class or office hours and you can see your work. Too many times I've had students stop by my office saying they can't do problem #x and have no work for us to look at to see what the issue is. Or they can't find their work in their notebook, and time is wasted paging through their papers/notebook trying to find the problem.
• Don't guess. Some problems have a limited number of attempts to reduce guessing, but also you'll need to understand the concepts behind these problems for exams and subsequent material.
• If I go through a problem in class because of a question, don't just go through and try and change the numbers in my work to match yours. That is not the point. You need to be able to do and understand the problem, no matter what numbers you've been given so do the problem step by step for your own problem.
• Use Preview Answers. Students have come to me frustrated because WeBWorK keeps saying the answer is wrong and they can't find the mistake. Many times, when we use the Preview Answers, we see that while their work is correct, they typed in the answer wrong - parens in the wrong place, or what should be in the numerator is in the denominator of the fraction, etc.
• Keep track of the time and date due! Too many students have lost points because the didn't do this. On the bottom-left corner of the page (you may have to scroll to see it) is the date/time of the WeBWorK system. If you are entering answers close to the due date and time, pay attention to this and MAKE SURE YOU SUBMIT YOUR ANSWERS.
• Form a study group. Learning math is best as a social activity. Working together on homework is allowed, as long as everyone contributes. I've also found that the best way to learn material is to try and explain it to someone else (SHAMELESS PLUG: become a tutor!). And hopefully that someone else can then explain another problem to you.