WELCOME
to the
MATH 253: Calculus III (On-Line)
Introductory Web Page
(Summer II, 2011; Mon 6/27 - Fri 8/5)
This web page is a brief introduction to the on-line version
of
Math 253 (Calculus III) that is offered during
the second summer session of 2011. Use this page to find out about
First, here is the golden rule of on-line courses: This course is taught
completely on-line. Since all of our
interaction is electronic, there is an inherent requirement
that
you are familiar with
the technology we need to use - your PC, the internet, your scanner,
and image handling via
Word or PDF files. If you are unwilling or unable to learn to use this
technology in the required manner,
you should not enroll in this course.
The couse begins on Monday, June 27, 2011. Once the
first day
of the course comes around,
we will start off at full speed, and not having course material by then
will not be acceptable reasons for late work. In fact, you
can
expect your first assignment to be due that very first day; it will not
be a "math" assignment, but instead an assignment that will demonstrate
that you are completely set up and ready with your technology.
This course will be run through the on-line courseware system Blackboard .
All students taking this course have been or will be assigned a Valpo
e-mail account firstname.lastname@valpo.edu and correspoding
username and password for logging on. That username and password are
also used to log on to Blacckboard and the web based e-mail
server Groupwise .
This class is intended for those who excelled in Calc I and II
and are ready for the challenge of completing a heavy Calc
III
courseload at an accelerated pace. We cover most of the
topics
that are included in a "regular" Calc III course, so if
you're expecting "Calc III Lite", please move along, there's nothing
for you to see here.
You should NOT enroll in this course if:
- You did not do well in Calc II
- You previously failed Calc III and are trying to take it
again
- You do not have a significant amount of time to devote to
this
course
- You are enrolled in another course during Summer II
- You are not comfortable in the on-line and electronic
environment
You have the potential to do well in this course if:
- You are very self directed, but will not hesitate to ask
questions when confused about something
- You know you have an aptitude for mathematics, or at least
the
part you were exposed to in Calc I and II
- You are honestly interested in the subject matter
- Your written work is neat and well presented
Obviously you already have a web browser if you are reading this page.
In order to do the work in this course, you will also need the
following
resources - please obtain them as soon as possible if you do not have
them
already.
- A textbook. Which textbook?
I don't care. If you took Calc I or II here at
Valpo, you likely have the 6th or 7th edition of
"Calculus, Early Transcendentals" by James Stewart. If you
took
Calc I or II someplace else, you may have a different book.
That's OK.
The on-line material in this course is designed to be
self-contained and independent of any one textbook. That's not to say
that you don't need a textbook; when (not if) you decide you need extra
examples or more practice problems to try on your own, you need to have
a textbook handy. But calculus textbooks are very much
interchangeable, so as long as you can use the index or table of
contents to find examples and exercises for any given topic, you should
be fine with whatever textbook you have.
- A
supplemental source
of problems and solutions. I highly
recommend one or
both of the following, they are cheap and chock full of solved problems
and exercises for practice. If you have these, you probably
don't
need a separate textbook:
- A copy of
Adobe Acrobat Reader . This is a free
program that can be
downloaded from
here .
- Although
it is not
required, I highly recommend having access to the mathematical
software system Maple
14. There
are several assignments in this class that can be done much
more
efficiently with the use of mathematical software to assist in
calculations or visualization. If you do not have
access to Maple 14
in a computer lab near
you, then
you might want to purchase your own copy. A student
edition can be
purchased with a discount using a promo code we have for
this course; you can get this code once you are officially
enrolled.
- A SCANNER . Written
homeworks and exams will be
submitted electronically
by the means discussed below .
If you do
not own a scanner, you need to arrange to have access to one.
- MICROSOFT
WORD or ADOBE ACROBAT. NOTE!
*.doc and *.pdf
are the two
acceptable platforms for creation of files you will
submit. This list does not include Microsoft Works, Word
Perfect, or
any other alternative software.
This course wll be offered at the same pace as a "normal" 6-week summer
session course. That means the course material will come at you almost
three times as fast as in a regular 16-week course during the fall or
spring semester. In a regular semester, Calc III meets for 4
lectures per week. Consequently, you should plan
on putting a
lot of time into this course. Six-week summer sessions are always
intense, and this one may be be even more so because you will be
completely self-directed and self-motivated to keep up the pace. I
would suggest that you consider how many hours per week
you put into your last math course (class time and out of
class
time combined), multiply that by at
least
three, then add another 3-4 hours due to the self-directed nature of
this course - this will give you an idea of how many hours per week you
can expect to devote to this course.
Each week we cover several topics. For each topic, there will
be
an on-line quiz based on problem sets, and a final written assignment.
The class week starts on
Monday. The on-line quizzes (3-4 per week) are generally due
each
day from Wednesday through Friday or Saturday; this forces you to begin
work early in the week and not save it all for the weekend.
Written (scanned) work and computing exercises for all topics
in
the week are usually due by 9am on the following Monday.
Your exposure to each subject / section will have several
''phases"
associated with it.
- Topic Notes. You will be provided
with written notes
on each topic. The notes contain discussion, definitions, theorems, and
solved examples. Each solved example will be accompanied by a
similar problem for you to try. These first problems,
labelled as
"You Try It"
in the notes, have
solutions already available. As you read the notes, you
supplement your understanding by finding and reading appropriate
sections in the textbook or supplemental books you have. You
should also try as many other exercises from your book as you need to
feel comfortable with the material.
- Practice Problems. At the end of
each
section's notes,
there will be another list of problems to do, which will reinforce
ideas you learned
by reading the notes and working the first set of
problems. The solutions to this second set of practice problems are not
available right away. You will be asked questions relating to these
practice problems and general concepts in a quiz; answers to quiz
questions are entered in Blackboard. The answer form will have
a due date and time; once that due date/time is expired, the
quiz will
disappear and be
replaced in Blackboard by the solutions to those practice problems - so
that you can
check your own
work and fix any errors that were indicated by your answers on the
form. In any given week, due dates for practice problems will usually
start on Wednesday.
- Formal (Written) Homework Problems.
Homework
problems are problems for which you submit
well-written solutions to me. These written homework problems
from
all sections covered in a week are due by 9am on Monday of the
following week - see below
for discussion of how written homework is submitted. Once the due date / time
for homework has
expired, the
solutions to the homework problems will appear on-line - thus, no late
homework is ever accepted.
- Exams. There will be two
exams, at the end of weeks
3 and
6. Each exam is worth 20% of your final grade (40% total on exams).
Exams will be made available on Blackboard from 6pm Friday through
9pm
Sunday, and
must be submitted by Monday morning. Exams will be open book and
note, and
you can use as much time as you want, although you should be concerned
if you are spending more than two hours on an exam. (In weeks 3 and 6,
written homework will be due earlier, on Sunday instead of Monday).
Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions.