We are delighted to announce the release of WeBWorK Q&A, a free WordPress plugin that creates a community forum where students can get help with WeBWorK problems.

WeBWorK Q&A brings together two powerful free and open source platforms: WordPress’s publishing software powers 42% of sites on the internet, and WeBWorK is a widely-adopted platform used to give online assignments in math and science courses. 

While many assessment platforms are closed, fee-based systems produced by textbook publishers, WeBWorK is an open source project supported by the Mathematics Association of America (MAA), with an active community of more than a thousand colleges, universities, and high schools across the U.S. and around the world. The WeBWorK Open Problem Library provides access to more than 50,000 problems created and freely shared by the members of the WeBWorK community for others to curate, remix, and use with their students.

WeBWorK provides an option for students to email their professor if they have a question about a WeBWorK problem. However, this one-on-one communication model leaves students isolated from their peers and can result in the instructor answering the same question dozens of times. 

WeBWorK Q&A helps students learn from one another by sharing their questions in a community space. Instead of working on assignments alone or interacting only with their instructor, students using WeBWorK Q&A can become part of a community of learners, working together on the same material and offering mutual support. Questions can be answered by faculty, other students, tutors, and so on, enabling faster response times. 

Features:

  • Ask questions anonymously
  • Use LaTeX in questions and responses
  • Include images in questions and responses
  • Browse and filter questions
  • Like helpful answers 
  • Subscribe to or unsubscribe from email notifications about a question
  • Accessible, responsive recommended theme

WeBWorK Q&A was created by a team based at City Tech (New York City College of Technology, City University of New York) and in partnership with The OpenLab at City Tech, an open platform for teaching, learning, and collaboration. 

The project was conducted as part of Opening Gateways, a City Tech initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program to support student success in mathematics courses that serve as gateways to STEM disciplines.

Visit the project website for more information or contact Andrew Parker at kparker@citytech.cuny.edu.