Calculus: Wrestling with WebAssign

Every weekend, calculus students daydream about returning to class to learn about integrals. And after class, there's written homework that will be graded. However, as calculus students, we have to use WebAssign in order to receive credit for the problems we do at home.

What is WebAssign? According to the company's website, it is "the leading provider of powerful online instructional tools for faculty and students." What it actually is: a homework monster.

Imagine this: A college student comes home after a busy day, drops his books on the table and turns on the computer to complete his 25 math problems that are due on WebAssign the next morning. The student tries to log in … but the website refuses him access to the service. As a result, the student has to wait for the "WebAssign rush hour" to be over (usually around midnight) before he can successfully access the homework problems.

WebAssign's PR team has addressed that flaw by posting a release. As a result of this consoling action, whenever the student tries to log in during "rush hour," a message tells him that the owners of WebAssign have ordered new servers for the service, on the theory that such a message possesses a magical power that will help any stressed college student.

Then, when the student finally makes his way through the jungle of inefficient programming, he actually has to solve the math problems.

Now, at the beginning of the semester, the student chose the cheapest textbook option offered at NYU Bookstores: the e-book. Of course, having paid a substantial sum for access to WebAssign and the book, the student expects the material to be in place. It is not. The only option that WebAssign offers is to pay for the e-book once again.

NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences has designed all calculus courses to incorporate the use of WebAssign throughout each course. The main reason for assigning mandatory homework is so students do better after completing said mandatory homework. The noble reason for introducing WebAssign was university budget cuts. The administration planned for the software to replace human graders for homework. That fell through because graders still have to work through the so-called "written homework," which professors assign to ensure that students actually take their time to work through the problem sets.

WebAssign obviously does not solve the budget problem. All it does is make the lives of both professors and students in the mathematics department more complicated than they already are.

There are a few ways to solve this WebAssign problem. The first is to return to the traditional method: checking everything by hand. Another way would be to replace mandatory homework with recommended problem sets. This would eliminate spending on graders, in addition to providing relief to stressed students. Finally, the university could hire a programmer to set up an online homework system for use only at NYU.

Whatever is decided, I beg NYU to please do something about this. Do not let this mess sit untouched.

Sasha Safonova is a contributing columnist.