As a student, you should should be able to see four categories on the Categories tab:
Meta
Questions
Problems
Assignments
This post describes the purpose and permissions associated with each of those categories.
Meta
The purpose of the Meta category is to describe this site - what it is and how to use it. Only the site administrator (that’s me) can post content to this category.
(Class) Questions
Each class has a Questions category where students can ask all kinds of questions about the class and its content. Right now, I’m teaching two classes and there’s a separate questions category for each:
- Calc III Questions and
- MML Questions
Any student enrolled in one of my classes and view, post and reply to their class questions category. General questions about the class, like “when is our final exam” are fine. I hope to get plenty of questions about the class content, though! Questions about MyOpenMath HW or mathematical topics covered in class are strongly encouraged!
(Class) Problems
Each class also has a Problems category. This category is reserved for me to post problems for you to think about. Think of this category as homework that’s to help you learn the material but not for points. Students can’t start new topics in these categories but students can view and reply to all the topics in their class problems category.
(Class) Assignments
Finally, each class has an Assignments category. This category is reserved for me to post assignments for you to respond to earn points. Thus, all students can view and reply to all the topics in their class problems category.
Note that these assignments and their responses are viewable class wide. Typically, the assignments have some random element so that everyone gets a slightly different variation of the same problem. You might think of these assignments as somewhat collaborative.
While collaborative, recall that you do have a right to privacy. In particular, you can feel free to change your display name to anything you like.
Other categories
Other categories will pop up throughout the semester. I’m sure there will be exam questions categories intended to be a spot for you to ask questions about quizzes or exams, for example. Hopefully, this topic gives you a give idea of the overall structure of the site
Private messages
Finally, there might be times when you’d like to discuss a mathematical topic with me but not with the whole class. For example, you might have a question about a problem on an exam that I’ve returned. In that case, it might make sense to send me a private message. The advantage of sending a private message, as opposed to an email, is that we can use all the functionality of this site. Thus, we can include images, interactive graphs from Desmos, and typeset mathematics to enhance our mathematical communication.
To send me a message, simply visit my profile and press the Message button:
In fact, you can visit the profile of any user by clicking on their icon. Be aware, though, that “private” is a bit of an exaggeration. As site administrator, I have access to all site communications. All messages, public or private, should be always be respectful and on topic.