I should have pointed out that the ebook version of our textbook is available to students for $20 per semester (essentially rented). Though there are several suppliers, the only effective one is WebAssign, a computer homework system for which Ruth and I created a suite of questions from our textbook. I don't have good data, but my impression is that students have preferred the print book over the ebook, but it is important to note that this first attempt at an ebook doesn't have any special features such as animations or links to homework problems.
WebAssign is used by many (probably most) of the institutions that have adopted our curriculum, because although it has the great failing of checking answers rather than approach, it gives instant feedback. The gold standard of homework grading is hand grading, but this isn't feasible in large courses, in practice graders aren't necessarily very good, and the delay in getting the work returned means that students often don't even study the grader's comments, which may have been written with costly effort. We have students work in groups on large complex problems, writing large on whiteboards with the method checked by a teaching assistant, as part of lab or recitation classes as a way of getting at approaches instead of answers. Bruce ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
