Comment due Sunday, September 15
You may have noticed the Ask For Help button at the bottom of the screen when you are completing a WeBWorK problem:
Clicking this button takes you to a question-and-answer page on the OpenLab about this exact WeBWorK problem. For example, clicking the Ask For Help button on the page for the problem above takes you here.
You can seek help with this button in two ways:
- If you are logged into the OpenLab, you can submit a question asking for help with your WeBWorK problem. Be as specific and detailed as you can be about what you have tried and what you are confused about so that somebody (sometimes your instructor, but sometimes another faculty member or a tutor) has an idea about what you’re thinking so they can try to answer your question. You will earn one participation point every time you ask a substantive question on this Q&A site.
- You can read other students’ questions about their version of this WeBWorK problem and read the faculty/tutor’s answers to them. A lot of the time, if you have a question about a problem, a student has already asked that question and had it answered, so by scrolling to old questions and answers, you might be able to find the answer to your question without even having to ask it!
Instructions
For this week’s OpenLab assignment:
- Click the Ask For Help button on your own WeBWorK problems until you find a problem that at least one student has previously asked about on the Q&A site. You may choose any WeBWorK problem from a set that is due this week or was due in a previous week.
- Read all the questions and answers on the page to see if you understand what was being asked and if you understand the answers.
- As a comment on this post:
- Copy the link to the question page on the Q&A site.
- Include a short description of the WeBWorK problem. You don’t need to include too many details; for example, for the problem above, you could write something like, “The problem is asking students to determine the equation of a line, given its slope and a point on it.”
- Describe how students asked questions about the problem on the Q&A site. If many students are asking the same question in different ways, summarize their question.
- Do you think their questions were clear or could they have been more specific about how they asked them? How would you improve how they asked their questions in order to get the help they were looking for? How would you ask your own question about this problem?
- Did you understand the answers to the questions? Do you think those answers would help you in answering your version of the WeBWorK problem?
- Do you see yourself using the Ask For Help button for help with WeBWorK in the future? Why or why not?
You will earn one participation point for your comment.
By the way, you can see all the questions ever asked by MAT 1375 students about their WeBWorK problems on this page.
a. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/ol-webwork/?post_data_key=webwork_post_data_3697b2c9e50e35b1978fcffc836fdb5e#:problemId=CUNY/CityTech/Precalculus/setFunctions_-_Piecewise/one-piece-domain-range-open.pg
b. The student has a made a comment on this problem mentioning having trouble understanding the problem. The professor has answered saying that to draw separate number line for x and y values. For every stoppage and endpoint. We then have to fill in the holes. Also if there other places on the graph that reach that value for x or y on their respective lines.
c. only one student has answered
d. I would only suggest going into more detail of what doesn’t the student understand. As a visual learner, that will be best. Just also glad that the professor went into the detail. I would say how can I find the functions of x and y on axis maybe using desmos with the equation?
e. I kind of understood like I mentioned before just wish the student went in more depth. and the professor explained it way better.
f. I think using the ask for help button is definitely a great task to use if I was ever stuck on a question.
a. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/ol-webwork/#:problemId=CUNY/CityTech/Precalculus/setFunctions_-_Piecewise/one-piece-domain-range-clopen.pg:questionId=6115
b. the site asks the student to find corresponding y coordinates to for given x coordinates on a limited line (ones with limits on the domain and range)
c. There is not that much activity with the question i was given, however, there were a couple of people asking a question about how to answer questions regarding the extremes. some were confused with the notation of the ends of the line, with a filled in circle meaning the point was included in the valid points of the line and an unfilled circle meaning the opposite.
d. The questions being asked were very easy to understand what they were asking. They clearly stated their issue and what they were confused about. This is probably due to the simplicity of the problem. A lot of their issues couldâve been researched, but it is very understandable that a person would prefer someone else that its in the same class or is an expert to answer their question.
e. questions werenât anything i wasnât already familiar with. The questions that were given definitely help me point out things that i would have never noticed before if i didnât read the comments first. checking the asking for help page will be helpful to see what i might get stuck on before starting the lesson.
f. will definitely use the âask for helpâ button whenever i need help (shocker).
A. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/ol-webwork/?post_data_key=webwork_post_data_1deb85337cf56858fe07ebeb0e0b472f#:problemId=CUNY/CityTech/Precalculus/setOperationsonFunctions/functions-composition.pg
B. The problem asks me to find the composition of two functions and simplify the result.
C. Students often ask about how to perform the composition of functions and how to simplify the resulting expressions. Many are confused about how to handle the notation or the steps involved.
D. I think the studentsâ questions were mostly clear, but some of them were a bit vague. They didnât always specify exactly where they were stuck. I think if they asked more focused questions, they would get better help. To get better help, I would try to be more specific in my question. For example, instead of just saying, âHow do I simplify this?â I would say, âIâm stuck on simplifying the expression after substituting f(x) into g(x). Can someone explain how to do that?â If I were asking about this problem, I would say, âAfter I composed the functions f(x)=2x+3f(x) = 2x + 3 and g(x)=x2â1g(x) = x^2 – 1, I got g(f(x))=(2x+3)2â1g(f(x)) = (2x + 3)^2 – 1. How do I simplify this expression? Should I expand it or leave it as is?â
E. The answers helped me understand the steps to simplify the expression. They explained how to expand and combine like terms, which would be useful for solving similar problems.
F. Yes, I would use the Ask For Help button in the future. It can be helpful when Iâm stuck. I would make sure to ask clear, specific questions to get the best help.