UCI Physics & Astronomy Methods for Course Webpages

FACULTY METHODS FOR COURSE WEBPAGES

Professor Steven Barwick, Physics 3C and 5C

I used the services provided by eee to set up the web page for Physics 3C and 5C. The web pages are very basic and can be created by Netscape Navigator (using the Page Composer feature). The material that I include are syllabus, homework solutions, practice midterms and final, lecture notes, quiz and solutions, link to the course scores in the physics department, and virtual demonstrations created by others.

After some trial and error, I decided to post lecture notes in black and white, scan them using the department scanner in Marilyn Olsen's office, and convert to Adobe pdf files. This worked very well for the 5C students than for the 3C students. The 5C students are more computer literate and capable of using browsers more readily. The pdf files are reasonably compact, about 500kB per week of lecture transparencies. The files take about 10 minutes to download over the telephone. The students complain that the costs of printing out the lecture notes are too high and take too long from home, so about half still prefer to get lecture notes from Clone copying. The resolution is better with xerox copies, so they can be reduced to 2 pages per page, so this saves cost and paper. The web is not going to replace ordinary methods for a while. I tried to scan my lecture transparencies in color, but the files sizes produced are prohibitively large if you want graphs and other details legible. After scanning and converting to pdf files, Marilyn then transfers the files to the computer hosting the web account. This level of automation is very convenient.

I augment lectures with the virtual demos. It is very useful for those topics which really need time sequences to show the physics (like

the generation of standing waves, the doppler effect, etc.). I use the facilities provided by BSLH to set up a computer running netscape and they provide the overhead facilities to display the pictures. One problem is that the colors do not transfer so sometimes the projected color is nearly unviewable when it looks fine on the screen.

I ask the students to evaluate the web site, and most give a favorable response, but getting them to use it is slow going. The fact of the matter is that xeroxing is fast and convenient since they can pick up the notes just prior to class. With the web, they usually would check the previous evening, and if the scanning is slow or the material is delayed, then those documents don't appear. So they log on and don't see what they want, and then are force to go to Clone copying. This only has to happen once before they simply use the normal xerox option. So there must be a strong incentive for students to continue to use this service on a regular basis. You lose flexibility with late modifications to the course curriculum. Obviously, this becomes less of a problem if you have taught the course several times.

Professor Michael Dennin, Physics 3 and 7A

Creating and Maintaining an EEE Webpage account.

Files on your personal computer:

File/Directory Structure. I maintain a directory on my personal computer that is an exact mirror of the files and directory structure on the EEE account. This is especially useful in keeping track of images.

File Creation. I use Word to create all of my documents. I than save them as HTML. Figures and equations can be made directly in Word. One thing to be aware of is that HTML doe not support TABS, but TABLES are a useful way to take care of this shortcoming. Also, greek letters should be typed using the SYMBOL font. If they are inserted as symbols, the do not survive the HTML conversion. One advantage of this is that all of the images and equations are then saved as image files. As long as I am keeping everything in the same directory, Word keeps track of the image names so that no files are erased. This has a side benefit in that the TA's can make solutions in Word, which I am then able to edit easily.

Final Editing. The Word HTML converting does occasionally make strange format choices. I always check the document using the Netscape HTML editor.

File upload

I use the Netscape PUBLISH option. This automatically keeps all the image/equations with the document. Also, it can be done directly from the HTML editor, which is what I open the document in for final changes.

Miscellaneous

For documents that can not be created in Word, I have them scanned in as PDF files. The students seem to like PDF because they open relatively quickly, and can be easily browsed.

Professor Nader Haghighipour; Physics 3A, 20A, and 21

The homepages of the courses that I teach are all very simple. I try to post the necessary information that student may need, but not my lecture notes. I try to encourage them to come to class, see my lecture and write their own notes.

I also post and regularly up-date the syllabus of the courses that I teach. I assign homework problems after teaching the related materials. So students have to check the homepage on regular basis.

I also post solutions to my quizzes and exams in pdf format. To do so, the solutions are first generated in postscript (ps) format using a TeX software. One can also use LaTex to create these ps documents. The TeX and the LaTex softwares allow one to create neat mathematical equations. However, if there is any illustration, TeX and LaTex require encapsulated postscript (eps) version of the illustrations when typsetting their codes.

The figures and illustrations are made using Superpaint or Canvas softwares. These are two drawing/painting applications for Mac. Any other drawing/painting softwares for mac, pc, unix or linux systems would do the job. The idea is to create a figure and save it as an eps file. Canvas is one of the best for mac platforms and adobe-photoshop is one of the better ones for PCs. One can find about Canvas at http://www.deneba.com/ . These applications have the capabilities of drawing, painting and also editing an already created image. They also allow for adding words to the figures and images with varieties of fonts and colors.

Once a figure is created, it should be saved as an eps file. Canvas and adobe-photoshop have this option already built in them. One then has to transfer this file to the same folder where the TeX or LaTex files for the solutions are and typeset the entire document. Some new versions of LaTex such as LaTex2e have capabilities of creating ps or pdf file right from the original codes. LaTex2e is commercially available in almost all bookstores. If in case the version of the TeX or LaTex being used does not create pdf format, one can create a postscript file first and use a postscript viewer to create a pdf format of that document.

For mac platforms, one can find about postscript interpreters at http://www.aladdin.com . MacGS-510 FAT is a ps interpreter available through this site. This application has the capability of creating pdf files from ps documents. In case of a PC, there are some European sites where one can find postscript viewers. On unix and linux machines, the most customary ps-viewer is Ghostview, but it does not have the capability of creating pdf documents. In these cases, if an acrobat-writer is not available, one may have to transfer the ps file to a pc or mac and make the conversion on those platforms.

Once the pdf file is created, it can be posted as it is.

Professor Jon Lawrence, Physics 5C, Physical Sciences 50B

My website contains:

1) HTML documents, created and editing using Netscape Composer
2) PDF files, creating by scanning pages (homework solutions, etc.) into Adobe Exchange, then optimizing for efficient storage
3) Images stolen from other sites, edited using Adobe Photoshop and saved in .gif format

I use Netscape to publish these to the e3 server.

For Physics 5C I started by copying Barwick's pages, and later branched out. I include a sylllabus; a schedule (with assignments updated weekly); answers to problems not given in the back of Halliday, Resnick & Walker; lecture notes (handwritten in large font, scanned for the web page, and xeroxed for transparencies); homework solutions (scanned); quiz and exam solutions; the exam seating chart; links (especially to Barwick's page, which has the virtual demos); the course announcements that I send out regularly (link to the site where e3 stores messages sent to the class mailing list); and some graphics.

The students have made no complaints about copying lecture notes, solutions, etc., and none of them were using Clone to get this material, so I discontinued sending the material to Clone. I put a link on the page where students can download Acrobat Reader for the PDF files.

In Physical Sciences 50B (our math physics course for sophomores) I composed my lecture notes in LaTex using Scientific Word software, then wrote them to PDF files to load to the server. (Most students don't have software to read LaTex, but they can all get Acrobat Reader.) I created some graphics using the mickey mouse graphics software that is included in Windows. I also created some graphics in Mathematica and saved into bitmap files -- there are problems trying to link Mathematica output into Sciencific Word. I used the www.physics.uci.edu server for this course webpage, although next time I'll do it directly to the e3 server.

Overall, the students use and appreciate the websites, and are coming to expect them. It makes administration of the course easier in some respects, at the expense of time spent working on the web pages.

Professor Frank J. Wessel, Physics 5ABC

I have found that use of the web in teaching immeasurably enhances the learning experience. You can make timely announcements, you can mass distribute information without needing to photocopy or print documents, and best of all you can do it instantly!

The design of your class page should be carefully thought out before starting, since you don't want to change it after the quarter has started. There are natural divisions for individual pages: syllabus, schedule, homework, exams, grades, handouts, etc. The easiest way to start is to look at another persons webpage and then just copy it into your class webpage directory on the eee.uci.edu server.

Then if I need to add something or change the webpage information, I download the specific page to my personal workstation; for the Macintosh I use the shareware program "Fetch". I edit the page with Netscape Communicator, and upload it back with "Fetch".

The generation of original documents for exams, quizzes, etc. requires more care. Generally I always try to generate and distribute PDF documents. That way everyone can download them, read them, or print them out. If there are handwritten materials, I always scan the documents. If there are typewritten documents, I convert them to PDF format when generated. Adobe Acrobat is a preferred means to generate PDF documents, but the shareware program Ghostscript will also work well. When the PDF documents are ready I again Fetch them over, making sure the links are properly set up on the webpage.

I use Adobe Illustrator for graphics and work enclusively in latex with .eps graphics for inclusion. With latex you can then go to a .pdf as the output file.

First you request a class webspace. Then you need to add your files to the class webspace by some method (for me its ftp). In fact

Netscape has the ability to ftp as well, but I prefer Fetch because you can see all the files in the various directories by a simple click of the mouse. But when you upload you must be careful, because you will "clobber the existing files" if they have the same names.

Voila! You're on-line.