teaching
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Texas university faculty, BOHICA!
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board wants to link universities’ performance to funding. Under the proposal, four-year institutions would be judged on bachelor’s degrees awarded, degrees earned by “at-risk students’ and degrees in “critical fields,” such as STEM and nursing. Some thumbsuckers in the Texas Faculty Association oppose the idea, saying that our miserable completion Read more
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I can’t afford free software
After reading about it in the Oct/Nov 2010 issue of MAA Focus, I really would like to use WeBWorK for student exercises and homeworks. BUT! It’s a standalone course management system that would only interface with Blackboard via CSV files, it has a limited question bank for probability and statistics, and it begs for experienced Read more
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Heretics! Burn them!
Just as UTSA begins to ramp up its Quantitative Scholarship program to inject mathematical reasoning into every crevice of our curriculum, heretics are beginning to doubt the whole enterprise. Part of the problem is that most remedial and math literacy programs (and textbooks) are filled with bullshit applications and examples (“the rate at which the Read more
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To compute or not compute, that is the question…
There’s a time for hand calculation and simple models and a (later) time for computation and more complex models. Read more
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K-h-a-a-a-n!
Sal Khan explains the next step in the evolution of the Khan Academy. I’m getting out of the lecture business, real soon. Tip from Joanne Jacobs. Read more
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Because nothing says high quality education like a Chili’s
UTSA enrollment tops 30,000 and we have a Chili’s! Contrary to widespread local opinion, UTSA has lots of dorms, the student body is now largely out-of-towners. Read more
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Oh, go math yourself
Scary as this seems, this is actually the way I learned most of the math I needed for grad school. Tip from Andrew Gelman. Read more
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The professors who won’t retire
I work in what must be an exceptional department; my chair would be short of faculty if anyone retired right now. Not so other places. I love this comment In 1991 I decided to go for my PhD, and my advisor told me "In ten years there will be plenty of jobs, because all the Read more
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Time to rethink your college major?
For my students: the worst- and best-paying college degrees. Pretty much every degree on the "best" list requires you to pass a calculus course and be a bit nimble with computers. Tip from J-Lo at The Corner. Read more
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Not everyone’s reading is logical
The Wason Test can reveal whether someone can think scientifically. Read more
The Random Texan 