An Instructor's Guide to WeBWork

  1. Delete All Current Students
  2. Import New Students From Faculty Dashboard
  3. Send Personalized Emails To All Students
  4. Make A Homework Set and Assign It To Students
  5. Export Homework Set Definition Files For Future Use
  6. Import Homework Set Definition Files
  7. Edit The Due Time For One Student
  8. Re-randomize A Problem for A Student
  9. Make A WeBWork Test

All the videos of this page use random generated fake students' name, id numbers, and email addresses. No real student's information is used.

Delete All Current Students

If you want to reuse your existing account for a new class, you need to delete all existing students and import new students. The method of deleting is straight forward, just make sure that administrators and yourself are not deleted.

Import New Students From Faculty Dashboard

If your account is newly created by Collin, you can just import the students from the list file uploaded by Collin (see the second half of the following video).

Warning: The following method is only for persons who know what they are doing. Do not try it if you are not such a person because we do not want to burden Collin and Michael with unnecessary extra work.

If you want to use your existing account for a new class, you can use Excel script to generate the list file from the class roster downloaded from the Faculty Dashboard. You can simply insert a column in the roster file and generate the contents using the following script. (It is for the 2nd row. You can populate it to all rows by drag the lower-right corner of (2,1) cell down.)

=B2&","&LEFT(C2,FIND(",",C2)-1)&","&MID(C2,FIND(",",C2)+2,256)&",C,,001,,"&E2&","&LOWER(CONCATENATE(LEFT(TRIM(MID(C2,FIND(",",C2)+2,256)),2),SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(C2,FIND(" ",C2)-1),",",""))&",,0")

Note that in the script, "001" is for the section 001. You can change to your section if you want. In particular, if you teach two sections, you need to give different names for different sections.

Alternatively, you can download (right click) the excel file roster.xlsx, paste the first 4 columns of your roster file to roster.xlsx, and populate the script in the 1st column:

You can also put two classes into one account, just give them different "Section"s in the Excel script, generate 2 list files, and import the students from both list files. When you make the homework sets, give them names that clearly indicate for which classes. I found out that by adding the Google Chrome extension Multicheck Checkbox Checker to the Chrome browser, I can easily assign one homework set to all the students in one class, but not in the other class, by dragging the mouse.

For your class not using Webwork, you can still import the students to your Wdbork account and use Webwork email to send individual emails (for example, send each students their test scores).

Send Personalized Emails To All Students

Webwork can send personalized emails to all the students. In Webwork email, $FN is for the fist name, $LN is for the last name, $LOGIN is for the login name, and $SID is for the student's id, which is also the initial password. When you send the email, these terms will be replaced by the actual terms of the students, and send it to the email address listed.

You can use Webwork to send each students their test scores. To do this, you need have a csv file consisting of the scores in the "scoring/" folder (click the top pull-down menu in the "File Manager" module). To send individual scores of an in-class test, you can generate a csv file in the "Scoring Tools" module, download the file, add the scores of the in-class test, then upload into the "scoring folder. Choose the csv file in the "Merge File" pull-down menu in the Email module, and in the email body, use $COL[# of column] at the place of the score in the email body, where the "# of column" is the number of the column containing the scores. Following is a sample email.
Dear $FN:

Your test 1 score is $COL[20]/150.

Please feel free to email me if you have any question.

Best,

Alex

Make A Homework Set and Assign It To Students

Export Homework Set Definition Files For Future Use

You can export your current homework set definition files and saved them for future use. So you don't need to make the homework sets again if you teach the same course later.

Import Homework Set Definition Files

If you have saved past homework set definition files, you can import them for the current class. The only things you need to change are the dates.

Edit The Due Time For One Student

Sometimes a student will ask to extend his/her due time. You can do it by edit his/her due time only. However if you plan to open up the homework assignments again later for all students by changing the general due date, you need to remember to change this particular student's because his/her will not change with the general student.

Re-randomize A Problem for A Student

When a student's problem has an error but not other students', most likely cause is that a random number is the singularity of the problem (for example, divided by 0). Instead of editing the problem, you can simply re-assign the random numbers by changing the seed of the random number generator.

Make A WeBWork Test

We can make a WeBWork test by choosing the "Assignment Type" as "gateway/quiz".

Some GatewayQuiz Parameters

Test Time Limit The time limit for the student to take a version of the test. For example, if it is set to be 60, then the student must finish a version of the test in an hour during the time period when the test is open.
Cap Test Time at Set Close Date? Whether or not allow student to finish the test when the test is closed. "Yes" means that the student can not continue when the test is closed. "No" means that student can continue until the end of test time limit.
Number of Graded Submissions per Test Always set it to 1.
Time Interval for New Test Versions
and
Number of Tests per Time Interval
They define the number of different versions of test allowed in a given time interval.
For example, assume the test is open for 24 hours. If the Time Interval for New Test Versions is 120 and the Number of Tests per Time Interval is 1, then technically a student can take 12 versions of the test, i.e. take one version every 2 hours. If the Time Interval for New Test Versions is 1440 (24 hours) or larger, or infinity (represented by 0), and Number of Tests per Time Interval is 3, then a student can take 3 versions of the test.

There are two ways to choose a problem for a test:

The 1st way is exactly like a homework set, i.e. choosing the problem using the Library Browser.

To use the 2nd way, we need first to make the problem groups using the Library Browser, just like to make the homework sets. Of course, we can use the existing homework sets as the problem groups. In the following video, I'll choose one random problem in each of the 9 homework sets to make up a 9-problem test.