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[Phys-L] Re: Physics Solutions Manual

Those running it even solicit users! So, last I checked anyone could
use it. The faculty sponser is C. Fred Moore. He has presented
several papers at meetings on using this service. Somewhere there is a
documentation that is unbelievable. I had to print it out to get
permission to use the system at the "for profit" school for fear of
copyright infringement...

You and your students will all need to obtain a "UTEID" (an electronic
ID that replaces social security numbers for identification, and lets
UT track hackers). That takes about 5 minutes via the site:
https://hw.utexas.edu (home of the HW server) which will take you to
another link to obtain a UTEID. Typically, it is your 1st and last
initials and about 4 numbers.

**Make sure you do not lose the password, as retrieving it is not easy.**

Once you have the password, you can go back to the hw.utexas.edu site
to login. NOTE that the URL does not have www in it. Since you are
not taking the course, and have not set it up, you need to email Patsy
McDonald that you are a faculty member and where you work and that you
wish to use the HW server. Include your EID and she will set you up as
a *faculty* user. When you return to the hw site, and login with your
EID and password, you can set up your class (it doesn't have to have
anyone in it if you want to just print hw sets with the same values
for your own copying).

You will need to create a course number. Typically, it is a 5 digit
number and might be your school's ID for the particular course. UT
Physics reserves the numbers ending in 0 and 5. I used parts of my
phone number one time. This semester, I changed the last digit from a
5 to a 6. Once you do this, the page has all of the options. Early
on, you will want to set up the grading scheme, even if you don't use
it as your grade book, because the HW service needs a place to record
your students' grades when they electronically turn in their HW.

Like anything, it has its quirks, but I would not consider any other
way, after using it.

One improvement in course management that came from ACC suggestions.
I added a portion of the HW grade for turning in *one* properly laid
out problem per HW set. By that I mean, writing down the list ov
variables with values if given, making a sketch of the problem,
arriving at a suitable equation or several choices, solving
algebraically for the unknown, and substituting in the quantities,
solving, and correcting units.

Ideally, students should be doing this for every problem, so an
alternative to the lay out is to have them turn in a "homework book"
with worked problems. Even if after solutions are posted, they will
have a valuable resource.

Let me know if I can help after trying he EID location.

Quoting "Rauber, Joel" <Joel.Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>:

Karl,

Is this HW server, something that anyone can use? Or just UT folks?

If its something that anyone can use, can you post some more info?

________________________
Joel Rauber
Department of Physics - SDSU

Joel.Rauber@sdstate.edu
605-688-4293



| -----Original Message-----
| From: Forum for Physics Educators
| [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On Behalf Of Karl Trappe
| Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 1:48 PM
| To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
| Subject: Re: Physics Solutions Manual
|
| Exactly. And that is why UTexas has a HW server with
| thousands of such problems and permission from most
| publishers to add theirs. I know they just added all of the
| 9th ed of Hewitt's Conceptual Physics (yes, 10th is out).
| Serway's College Physics is there. Lots of others are, as
| well. Again, so many HW problems that if they master that
| many they are pretty well on their way in Physics.
|
| The HW Server is used by over 4 million persons world wide.
| Now that I retired from UT, I use it at Austin Community
| College and at a "for profit" school, as well. Many area
| high schools use it.
| Additionally, math, chemistry, and other subjects are available.
|
| The current version has been in use since 1992, and is vastly
| superior to the earlier versions. Patsy McDonald
| (patsymc@physics.utexas.edu) oversees the problems and their
| corrections, and Herb Ward
| (ward@physics.utexas.edu) has been writing the phonebook
| thick code since 1992. Graduate students who cannot be in
| contact with students until their proficiency in English
| improves work their TA hours entering more problems.
|
| The HW Server comes with a discussion board which I encourage
| students (via class participation grades) to use to "peer
| tutor" in solving the problems. Every student gets the same
| problems but with different numerical values (not always true
| for conceptual problems). Each HW set they download online,
| turn in on line, get graded on line, and grades appear in the
| gradebook which they can access for their own grades at any
| time. Consequently, there is no "scholastic dishonesty"
| issue, ie, they are *encouraged* to learn together. Problems
| vary from 7-10 answer multiple choice for conceptual problems
| to 10 answer (possible solution) work problems to problems
| which require entering their solution in scientific notation
| to within 1%.
|
| But, be forewarned: There is nothing that incites the frat
| boys to retaliate faster than circumventing the grade
| advantage they paid dearly to gain via the frat files. They
| hate the system that circumvents Googling their textbook and
| entering the HW problems in one place. It is just too much
| work to have problems from unknown sources. Their
| "evaluation" is that the HW Server is "too tedious".
|
| For those who wonder about your own textbook: Google the
| first several words of any given HW problem. Up pops several
| sources (including several of our listserve members' sites). Karl
|
|
|
| Quoting John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>:
|
| >>> This is the new reality. (Assume your students have
| access to the
| >>> teacher's solution manual for the adopted text.)
| >
| > At the college level, this is not much different from the
| old reality.
| > Verrry old.
| >
| > Frat houses keep "homework files" and "exam files".
| >
| > The savvy teacher lives by the principle "utlisé, c'est usé"
| > (utilized once = used up). Alas there are always plenty of
| non-savvy
| > teachers, which gives frat members a treeemendous
| short-term advantage
| > over other students who have to actually work out the homework
| > problems (with the corresponding long- term disadvantage that they
| > don't know how to solve any problem where the answer can't
| be looked
| > up).
| >
| > For homework, the only defense is to re-jigger the problems
| each year.
| > (But be careful; sometimes a seemingly-slight change in
| wording can
| > transform a difficult problem into an easy problem, or vice versa.)
| >
| > For in-class exams, you can re-jigger the problems, and/or
| draw from
| > such a large pool that learning the principles is easier than
| > memorizing the entire pool.
| >
| > If teachers would cooperate, constructing such a pool would be
| > relatively easy. One might imagine that this mailing-list
| could be a
| > vehicle for organizing such cooperation: If a few hundred teachers
| > contributed a few well-designed questions apiece, it would
| be quite a
| > corpus.
| >
|

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