Re: [Phys-l] Website forum for students' questions

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 04/15/2012 01:58 PM, curtis osterhoudt wrote:
> One thing I would like to try for various University classes is to
> provide a blog-type forum for student questions and discussions.
>
> Having never really done something like this before, I'd like input
> from the phys-l list. Here are some questions to get this going:

> 1) How actually useful is such a thing? I could use it as a
> repository of homework and quiz questions, with student responses
> posted semi-anonymously. Also, explanations, derivations, proofs, and
> heuristics which are particularly tricky or only dreamt up post-facto
> could find a nice home there.

> 2) It would be available nearly all the time, and *perhaps* serve as
> a source of ideas and answers to both me and students. It might also
> have to be policed heavily.

> 3) Should it be open to the general public? To just the student body?
> To just current class members? (This might have to change radically
> -- I'm guessing to make it more restrictive -- as more trolls and
> spammers make their presence known and annoying).

> 4) Are there specific hosts/software which make such a thing
> particularly easy? Do they allow for easy inclusion of things like
> numbered equations and graphics and LaTeX code?

> 5) Are threaded comments of particular use?

> 6) What sort of time-drain can I expect?

Here are my partial answers to (or at least comments on) some 
of the questions:

1a) I find putting stuff up on the web to be very valuable.  There
 is a cliché that says "there are no dumb questions" which is at
 least mostly true.  More specifically: I figure if one student 
 asks a question, there are probably thousands of others who 
 have the same question but weren't able to ask me directly.  So, 
 assuming I can figure out a reasonable answer to the question,
 I strongly consider putting the answer on the web.

1b) There is no such thing as semi-anonymous.  For that matter,
 nowadays there is virtually no such thing as anonymous, unless 
 you go to extraordinary lengths to anonymize stuff.

2a) Forget about allowing open submissions and policing things 
 after the fact.  You don't have time.  There are a few trolls, 
 and an even larger number of ignoramuses.  They outnumber you, 
 and they have more time on their hands.

 Also:  It is virtually impossible to delete anything.  You
 have to assume that somebody archived the material before
 you got around to deleting it.

 So, either plan on maintaining complete control of what goes
 onto the site, or making it free-for-all with no policing.

2b) On the other hand, don't obsess over polishing things,
 especially at first.  Don't let the perfect be the enemy of
 the good.  If you have something that is basically correct
 but unpolished, put it up there.  (If you teach the same
 course again next year, you can revise and polish it then.)

3) It depends on whether you mean readable-by-all or writable-
 by-all.  I recommend the former but not the latter.

 There are plenty of unmoderated forums already available ... 
 so I don't see much value in starting another.

4) There's all kinds of software available.  If you decide
 you want a blog, there is blog software that you can install 
 with the push of a button and configure by answering a 
 handful of questions.

   If you install a blog and the software can't handle equations 
   (which it almost certainly can't), you should just put up a 
   page of HTML or PDF with the equations, and link to it from
   the blog.

 I get a lot of mileage out of HeVeA, which reads LaTeX source
 and writes HTML.  It does a good job of typesetting equations.
 The results are not as beautiful as (say) pdfLaTeX, but still
 more than good enough for almost everything I've ever needed
 to do.

 I use inkscape to prepare most diagrams.  It's not quite as
 powerful as Adobe Illustrator ... but it's more than good
 enough for almost everything I need to do, and it is hundreds
 of dollars cheaper (i.e. free).

6a) YMMV, but here's how I figure the time-drain.  If it takes
 me an hour to figure out the answer to the student's question, 
 it will probably take about an hour to write up the answer in
 a nice form (not counting diagrams).

 I can typeset LaTeX equations faster than I can write equations
 using pencil and paper.  (That's because I can cut-and-paste
 similar equations.)

 The real time-sink is diagrams.  I figure that a "typical"
 diagram is going to take me about an hour ... sometimes less
 if it is very simple ... but sometimes much more if it is
 tricky and/or has lots of details.

6b) Don't forget the /upside/ half of the time equation: Putting
 stuff on the web saves you treeemendous amounts of time in the 
 long run.
 -- If a student asks me "how can you possibly have a vector
  field that is not the gradient of any potential" it is
  super-nice to be able to call up various diagrams that
  illustrate how this works.  The diagrams work a lot better
  than hand-waving.
 -- If a student asks me about the infamous traveling twins,
  it is super-nice to be able to call up the relevant
  spacetime diagrams.  Again, the diagrams work a lot better
  than hand-waving.
 -- et cetera.

6c) Then think about the time it saves other people!

 In particular:  Keep in mind that the stuff you write doesn't
 need to meet Phys Rev Letters standards in order to be useful.
 Even something as prosaic as my page on the definition of 
 anode and cathode gets more than 10,000 hits per month, every
 month, year after year.
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