Novel WebBased Resources for a Course in Numerical Methods

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Novel Web-Based Resources for a Course in
Numerical Methods

• Autar K Kaw Glen Besterfield

2004 ASME International Mechanical Engineering
Congress and Exposition November 16,
2004 http//numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
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Mission

• Provided free of charge,
• the developers believe in "having open
  dissemination of educational materials,
  philosophy, and modes of thought, that will help
  lead to fundamental changes in the way colleges
  and universities utilize the Web as a vehicle for
  education" - MIT OCW.
• provide resources that are pedagogically neutral
  but can be modified to suit an instructor's needs.

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Customized View
Chemical Civil Computer Electrical General Industr
ial Mechanical
Maple Mathcad Mathematica Matlab
Nonlinear Equations Interpolation Integration
(Dec 2004) Simul Linear Eqn (Dec 2005) ODE (June
2006) Regression (June 2006)
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Typical Resources Holistic Approach
Background Physical Problem Textbook
Notes Simulations Problem Sets MC
Quizzes Anecdotes Biographies
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Demographics of Students
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Assessment of EffectivenessStudent Satisfaction
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Assessment of EffectivenessStudent Performance
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About the Website

• Visited by 4000 unique visitors every month
• Matrix Algebra book downloaded by 6,000 visitors
  from 50 different nations
• Funded by National Science Foundation (2002-2007)
  under the CCLI-EMD grant
• Other support from USF College of Engineering,
  Maplesoft, Mathsoft and Mathematica

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Individual Acknowledgements

• Graduate Students - Nathan Collier, Jai Paul,
  Shenique Johnson, Timothy Fawcett, Benjamin
  Grayson, and Troy Biersack.
• Undergraduates - Michael Keteltas, Ginger
  Williams, Paul Sanders, Kevin Martin, Carrie
  Berkhan, Aaron Cline, Charlie Barker, Loubna
  Guennoun.
• Developing partner Egwu Kalu of Florida AM
• Assessment partner - James Eison of the College
  of Education of University of South Florida.

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Future Goals

• Include
• more topics of undergraduate numerical methods
• non-engineering majors
• modular videos of numerical methods topics
• customized websites for instructors

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A parting thought to take with you!

• The very first principle in Seven Principles For
  Good Practice In Undergraduate Teaching
  (Chickering and Gamson, 1987) is
• Good practice in undergraduate education
  encourages contact between students and faculty
  - Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of
  classes is the most important factor in student
  motivation and involvement.

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Sad Reality

• greater interaction with faculty may not have the
  same positive effect on engineering students
  simply because these interactions are less likely
  to be perceived as favorable!!!!!
• Astin,What matters in college? Four critical
  years revisited, 1993