Warren J. Code

Contains some summaries of and links to resources for teaching undergraduate mathematics. Includes i>clickers (setup, how to write questions, online question collections), novice programming MATLAB resources, worksheets, and more.

The i>clicker is a popular brand of personal response system (the "i" comes from University of Illinois, where it was developed); students can use such a device to vote individually in class with the results collected by the instructor's wireless receiver (to be reported or displayed to the class, if desired). Using clickers in your classroom is an excellent way to promote discussion about mathematics among students and to get information about student thinking during class time, even in a large class.

I'm always happy to chat about clicker use in class, and can point you to others in our department who have used them in their courses (about 15-20 people at UBC Math have used clickers in their courses in the 2009-2011 school years). Reading the items below and talking to people about questions they have used can help you choose and develop questions much more rapidly than writing a bunch of new ones on your own.

Most or all large UBC classrooms contain receivers for the i>clicker (you can also pick up your own receiver from CTLT see links below for information), but these resources apply to any device that permits multiple choice in-class voting.

In terms of classroom use and "best practice" ideas, this free Clicker Resource Guide from the extensive CWSEI clicker page is a good resource and not too long a read, and provides other references if you want to learn more.

For questions already developed in mathematics, the Carroll College MathQUEST/MathVote repository is a great resources, and includes links to other libraries and questions from Cornell's GoodQuestions project, another existing batch of questions that have been tried in classrooms. The MathQUEST/MathVote site also has links to research articles about in-class voting.

If you want to use i>clickers at UBC, visit this CTLT site and look at the Getting Started tab (CTLT is the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at UBC). Key steps are: notifying the bookstore to list the device for your section (like a textbook), setting up a WebCT Vista account where students can register their serial numbers, and visiting CTLT to pick up your kit. See also this UBC wiki about clickers.

MATLAB is a computer programming environment developed by MathWorks and used extensively in engineering applications (among others). Please see my MATLAB resources page with links to online resources, including videos on basic MATLAB concepts to get you started.