WebAssign

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WebAssign is an online homework assignment service which was initially developed at North Carolina State University.^[1]

1 Overview
2 Mechanics
3 Criticism
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Overview

There is no cost to the teacher or the students in order to login. After a grace period, however, the student must pay for further access. Once a teacher has set up an account, he or she may set up classes, create and schedule assignments, upload class rosters, and make class announcements. Once the student is logged in, he or she may see the announcements and complete any outstanding assignments.

[edit] Mechanics

Assignments consist of a list of questions that can be either free-response or multiple-choice, and each question is given a set number of opportunities to answer a question. Teachers can set questions to notify students whether or not their answer is correct. If the answer is correct, a green checkmark appears. If an answer is incorrect, a red 'x' appears. Mathematical equations containing the appropriate figures are also accepted for numerical answers. WebAssign supports automatic grading of answers when appropriate.^[2]

WebAssign has some anti-cheating devices. Often, variables in questions will be marked red. This indicates that this variable is not the same for all students. Thus, a set of raw answers cannot be copied directly into WebAssign, but any potential distributor of answers will need to supply a formula into which other people could plug in their own numbers.

[edit] Criticism

WebAssign has received many complaints for its frequent downtime. This often results in students becoming unable to complete an assignment by the assigned due date.

WebAssign assignments are often very specific for significant digits and do not indicate to students if they are a digit off, leading many students to incorrectly assume that they have solved the problem incorrectly when in fact they have done the conceptual framework of the problem correctly.