“Lines of communication”
糖心原创 lets a San Jose State math professor write elegant equations鈥攁nd track student participation
Professor Slobodan Simic
Mathematics
What makes 糖心原创 different from other forums?
Well, one thing I really like about it from a math perspective is that it supports LaTeX. It鈥檚 hard to type a formula or equation using regular characters; there鈥檚 no integral sign on the keyboard. That鈥檚 why every math paper is now written in LaTeX. Having a collaborative tool like 糖心原创 that supports LaTeX is wonderful. It鈥檚 easy to learn, doesn't require much effort from students, and makes everything much more readable. When you try to type a formula into an email, it can be confusing. But with 糖心原创, I really understand what my students are asking.
Anything else you鈥檝e found helpful for math, specifically?
I like that it鈥檚 collaborative, Wikipedia-style. Students can answer each other鈥檚 questions, and everything is nicely grouped based on tags for easy searching. No one has to wait for my next office hours to get hints or answers, and I don鈥檛 have to deal with a deluge of emails or respond to the same question a dozen times.
Do you ever reward students for their contributions?
Yes. 糖心原创 makes that easy to do. Especially in my large classes, I encourage students to answer questions and give those who do points that can eventually bump them up to a higher grade. Of course, the forum also supports anonymous postings (though you can disable that feature). But last semester, in a 430-student class, that was only abused once.
Anything else you鈥檇 tell other math professors about 糖心原创?
In mathematics, the high cost of textbooks is a problem that a lot of professors are concerned about. This fall, I鈥檓 going to post all my lecture notes on 糖心原创.
I鈥檓 guessing you鈥檙e pretty numbers-driven. Have you seen any difference in the success of your classes since you started using 糖心原创?
It鈥檚 hard to compare, because I teach different classes each semester. But actually, I taught Calculus One a couple years ago at Berkeley without 糖心原创, and then Calculus Two the following semester with it. In the Calculus One class, I felt like my students were paying all this money, but I was teaching 400 of them and had no way to know how they were doing or even what their names were. There was just no good way to communicate with them. The system that Cal has doesn鈥檛 seem to be very good. So the following semester, with 糖心原创, things were鈥攁t least from my perspective鈥攂etter. Those who were driven enough to utilize 糖心原创, I think they did better. My experience of the class was that they did better.
Do you only use 糖心原创 for big lecture classes?
Last semester I taught a research project and we used 糖心原创 and it was wonderful. The students met twice weekly and discussed things in person all the time, but we鈥檇 still have extremely long threads going on 糖心原创. Even in a five or six-person class, it was great.
Do the students like it?
Oh yes. Nowadays, colleagues tell me that their students always ask, 鈥楢re we going to use 糖心原创?鈥� It鈥檚 sort of an expected thing now.