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Jamie Turner

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May 17, 2022, 3:15:41 PM5/17/22
to Engineering Statics (OER) Group
Hi,
  I was excited to find the open source static book, and was wondering if the HW problems can be pulled into learning systems like D2L?  Also, do you have videos, ppt's, instructor support materials?  (I am lead ENGR faculty for LSC-KW, and LSC curriculum chair, I will be using your book starting this summer). 
Thanks!

William Haynes

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May 17, 2022, 5:12:25 PM5/17/22
to Engineering Statics (OER) Group
Hi Jamie,

Thanks for asking this question!

It is definitely possible to integrate the HW questions into a Learning Management System but it will require some setup by you (and perhaps your IT department), and the details will depend on your LMS.   The instructions are in the Numbas Documentation here:  https://docs.numbas.org.uk/en/latest/tutorials/deliver-to-students.html.   My institution uses Blackboard, and I can confirm that the built-in Blackboard SCORM players is buggy, but everything works great with the "Numbas LTI provider."  You will need to get support from your IT department if you need to install the Numbas LTI provider.  

The actual questions are found here:  https://numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk/project/3501/   The source code for the questions, the end-of-chapter exercises, and my daily homework sets are all there.  In Numbas terminology, a collection of questions is an ‘exam’ whether it is a homework set or an actual examination.  You can use these or create and customize your own exams if you create a free Numbas account for yourself.    Don't use these for high-stakes assessment without using a lock-down browser however, because students can use developer tools to discover the correct answers without solving the problem, but for low or zero credit HW problems, they're fine.  I will be adding additional questions from time, and if you want to write your own questions I will include them too.  The learning curve for authoring questions isn’t too steep, and it’s kind of fun once you learn how.  Please free free to ask me questions about any of this.  If you think you would like to write your own questions I would be happy to set up a zoom meeting and help you get started.

As for other support materials, we don't have any at this time.  The book is very much a work-in-progress, and I plan to on it this summer, so if you spot errors — no matter how minor — or have any suggestions for improvement please pass them along directly to me.  Reach out to Dan Baker if you would like to contribute to the effort  Our goal is to eventually get this to the quality of the published textbooks, but free. 

Will Haynes
Massachusetts Maritime Academy


Turner, Jamie L

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May 17, 2022, 11:06:44 PM5/17/22
to Engineering Statics (OER) Group, Limegrover, Sharon
Thanks for the quick reply Will!

Sharon - see below, I would like to integrate https://engineeringstatics.org/acknowledgement.html HW sets into D2L for my statics class starting on June 6th.  Let me know if you would be able to help me with this in the next week or so?

Will - give me some time to read through the links you sent, I will keep you updated on my progress.  Our curriculum team is slowly integrating https://oertx.highered.texas.gov/ resources into programs, working with https://houstonoer.com/ .  I found your book when using google image search and started referring students to it last semester - love the simulations and interactive graphs!  I will explore it more through our summer class, then introduce the rest of the curriculum team to it before the fall semester starts.  

Thank you for putting this amazing resource together - we have a lot of 1st gen low-income students.... if I can save everyone from having to buy a textbook I will.  Very exciting, this will be fun to explore!

Jamie   


Engineering, LSC-KW
Math, Engineering, Education, Physics & Student Success
http://www.lonestar.edu/engineering-dept-kingwood.htm
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303-842-4554Office: CLB 100L, KG5RIH



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Subject: Integrating the HW problems into a Learning Management System
 
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Jamie Turner

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May 20, 2022, 3:02:08 PM5/20/22
to Engineering Statics (OER) Group
Our Dean has filled out form for https://numbas-lti-provider.readthedocs.io/en/latest/  to be added into our D2L (like blackboard).  Sounds like legal has to verify data handling, and everyone is used to working with vendors rather than OER/GNU, so fastest scenario is ~3 months out.  I will still be using it over the summer for examples, and will just have students use screen capture to show they made it through problems (rather than having scores directly sent to gradebook).   I have attached it to our ACGM ENGR 2301 class in the https://oertx.highered.texas.gov/  site, and will keep bugging our IT dept to hopefully get it up and running internally before curriculum team day (Aug 24th).  After seeing HW, I am now exloring https://www.geogebra.org/ a bit more too.  Thank you again for developing this, really great resource!
Jamie

William Haynes

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May 20, 2022, 4:47:03 PM5/20/22
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Hi Jamie,
  
My IT department was very resistant to install the LTI provider for the same reasons you mention, and they only relented in Spring 2020 to support remote instruction and assessment during covid.  I think that they sometimes forget that their role is to support the faculty and educational process, not obstruct them.  So good luck!

Before that I just assigned the problems for skill development but for no credit, and gave quizzes just like the Numbas problems for motivation.

Will





Jamie Turner

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May 22, 2022, 11:06:36 AM5/22/22
to Engineering Statics (OER) Group
I'm really having fun exploring Geogebra, how did I not realize how much this tool can do before!  If I create an activity myself, I can pull the embed code into our learning platform - I made  https://www.geogebra.org/m/ydqbqzZW then D2L allows one simple limited arithmetic question - https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/question_library/instructor/create_arithmetic.htm - so I can add random numbers for dimensions and buoyant force for the balloon, then can only ask for only 1 answer (like find the tension in the right cable) in D2L.  My question - I can grab embed codes from content I create myself, but cannot find code for activities other people have made?  Do others have to allow the embed code to be shared?  Also, I'm curious what math software everyone likes to use - I have used excel (another real-life example excel prob haha - no engineering students were hurt) as well as DesMos, and Mathematica (not free but many schools have a license to it) in the past.  It looks like geogebra can crank through all the math too.  I feel a little bad - software makes it too easy for them - but if I have to teach calc and algebra in addition to mechanics I just cannot get through the material, so I will leave math to the math teachers, and let engineers use software... hopefully that is not wrong?  Some other resources to share - Phet simulations, I like to use for intro to moments.  Anyways, let me know if there are any tricks for snagging embed codes?  Thank you again!

Jamie Turner

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May 22, 2022, 11:10:09 AM5/22/22
to Engineering Statics (OER) Group
Woops, had some links in there wrong - I was trying to snag embed codes from public builds like https://www.geogebra.org/m/ydqbqzZW , here is the one I created I am able to get code from - https://www.geogebra.org/m/ktxzjtvr -

William Haynes

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May 22, 2022, 11:59:02 AM5/22/22
to engineering-st...@googlegroups.com
Hi Jamie,

You can get the embed code for someone else’s GGB diagrams by clicking on the three dots at the top left of the material’s page, then ‘details’, then ’share’, then ‘embed’.  The materials must be made public by the author, but you wouldn’t have found them if they weren’t public already.   In case you haven’t run across my mechanics stuff on the geogebra website it's here:  https://www.geogebra.org/m/eKD1jLzg,   Dan Baker’s are here: https://www.geogebra.org/u/drdan

If you want to turn your diagram into a Numbas question instead of using D2L, I made an introductory video showing how its done for the Numbas Users Conference held online last month.   Here’s the link to that: Talk recording

Have fun, and if you have questions feel free to ask!

Will

 




On May 22, 2022, at 11:10 AM, Jamie Turner <Jamie.L...@lonestar.edu> wrote:

Woops, had some links in there wrong - I was trying to snag embed codes from public builds like https://www.geogebra.org/m/ydqbqzZW , here is the one I created I am able to get code from - https://www.geogebra.org/m/ktxzjtvr -

On Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 10:06:36 AM UTC-5 Jamie Turner wrote:
I'm really having fun exploring Geogebra, how did I not realize how much this tool can do before!  If I create an activity myself, I can pull the embed code into our learning platform - I made https://www.geogebra.org/m/ydqbqzZW then D2L allows one simple limited arithmetic question - https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/question_library/instructor/create_arithmetic.htm - so I can add random numbers for dimensions and buoyant force for the balloon, then can only ask for only 1 answer (like find the tension in the right cable) in D2L.  My question - I can grab embed codes from content I create myself, but cannot find code for activities other people have made?  Do others have to allow the embed code to be shared?  Also, I'm curious what math software everyone likes to use - I have used excel (another real-life exampleexcel prob haha - no engineering students were hurt) as well as DesMos, and Mathematica (not free but many schools have a license to it) in the past.  It looks like geogebra can crank through all the math too.  I feel a little bad - software makes it too easy for them - but if I have to teach calc and algebra in addition to mechanics I just cannot get through the material, so I will leave math to the math teachers, and let engineers use software... hopefully that is not wrong?  Some other resources to share - Phet simulations, I like to use for intro to moments.  Anyways, let me know if there are any tricks for snagging embed codes?  Thank you again!


On Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 4:12:25 PM UTC-5 William Haynes wrote:
Hi Jamie,

Thanks for asking this question!

It is definitely possible to integrate the HW questions into a Learning Management System but it will require some setup by you (and perhaps your IT department), and the details will depend on your LMS.   The instructions are in the Numbas Documentation here:  https://docs.numbas.org.uk/en/latest/tutorials/deliver-to-students.html.   My institution uses Blackboard, and I can confirm that the built-in Blackboard SCORM players is buggy, but everything works great with the "Numbas LTI provider."  You will need to get support from your IT department if you need to install the Numbas LTI provider.  

The actual questions are found here:  https://numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk/project/3501/   The source code for the questions, the end-of-chapter exercises, and my daily homework sets are all there.  In Numbas terminology, a collection of questions is an ‘exam’ whether it is a homework set or an actual examination.  You can use these or create and customize your own exams if you create a free Numbas account for yourself.    Don't use these for high-stakes assessment without using a lock-down browser however, because students can use developer tools to discover the correct answers without solving the problem, but for low or zero credit HW problems, they're fine.  I will be adding additional questions from time, and if you want to write your own questions I will include them too.  The learning curve for authoring questions isn’t too steep, and it’s kind of fun once you learn how.  Please free free to ask me questions about any of this.  If you think you would like to write your own questions I would be happy to set up a zoom meeting and help you get started.

As for other support materials, we don't have any at this time.  The book is very much a work-in-progress, and I plan to on it this summer, so if you spot errors — no matter how minor — or have any suggestions for improvement please pass them along directly to me.  Reach out to Dan Baker if you would like to contribute to the effort  Our goal is to eventually get this to the quality of the published textbooks, but free. 

Will Haynes
Massachusetts Maritime Academy



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William Haynes

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May 22, 2022, 3:04:15 PM5/22/22
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