Many instructors use online homework systems with their students. This approach provides accountability for students, immediate feedback and multiple attempts on their work, and simple grading for instructors. While I’m always glad to share WeBWorK .def files with users who have access to a WeBWorK platform, for people without such access there hasn’t been a good low-cost alternative until recently.
Edfinity is a new online homework platform that offers access to WeBWorK’s Open Problem Library through an easy-to-use modern interface. Several different schools that have adopted Active Calculus have been using Edfinity for the past year, and as a result, a full “course” of online homework exercises that correspond to Active Calculus (single variable) is now available. You can access the course from Edfinity’s course catalog; you can edit and modify as you see fit, but by using the course you’ll have a pre-selected collection of online homework problems that align directly with the text.
Edfinity is very affordable, especially when used in conjunction with a free text like Active Calculus. There are three options to pay the fee (which varies, but comes out to $2-$4 per student per month, something on the order of $12-$16 per course):
- Students can pay for access when they enroll in the course. This the default behavior.
- An instructor or their department/university can opt to pay a lump sum in advance for student access.
- Bookstores may purchase access codes for resale to students on financial aid – these will be priced higher to reflect the additional costs of servicing bookstores (edfinity.us/bookstores).
If you are already using Edfinity or choose to use it this year, I’d welcome hearing from you about your experience (either here in the comments or privately by email – boelkinm at gvsu dot edu). I’m hoping to experiment with it myself in a full course in the near future.