Welcome to online MTH 251!

Your assignment for the first day of the term is to acquaint yourselves with the various web features of this course. Each step below is important, so do not procrastinate but get to it right away!

1. Look around in Blackboard: Explore the course Blackboard site, its various features and all its links (Weekly Tasks, Practice Quizzes, Discussion Board, Tools,...). In September 2010 OSU Blackboard site was upgraded to release 9 which functions somewhat diffently from the prior releases employed at OSU. We will use Blackboard for announcements, for a depository of weekly tasks, and for graded quizzes. Note that the prior version of the online differential calculus course, CalculusQuest, has been retired and the course has been redesigned. Some of the course components are still in preparation and additional material may be added to Blackboard during the term.
2. MyMathLab: We will take advantage of the MyMathLab portal maintained by Pearson Publishing Company, the publisher of the course text, as a source of practice (ungraded) homework problems and to solve online graded homework assignments. In order to gain access to the site you will need to register via CourseCompass, a mirror site of MyMathLab. During registration you will be asked to enter the ID for this course, which is pohjanpelto46536. If you have purchased a version of the course text that comes bundled with student access code you may use it to sign up for gratis. Otherwise you need to fork over $75, but you will then also gain access to an interactive electronic version of the course text, as I understand it, for at least 3 years as long as you are enrolled in a course that is based on the text by Briggs and Cochran and is set up in CourseCompass by the instructor.
       MyMathLab comes with a number of useful tools, including video lectures, review cards, and tutorial exercises, for organizing your studies and to facilitate learning the course material. The features are rather extensive and using some of the applications might require installing additional software on your computer, so you should take the time to familiarize yourself with the various aspects of the site.
3. Review of prerequisite material: Chapter 1 of the course text provides a review of some important background material to this course. The main points have been summarized in Review Lesson. I have created an assignment, Practice Homework, in MyMathLab that is based on the review material. The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to get used to working with MyMathLab before attempting graded activities. It is set up exactly like the graded homework assignments except that the score will be omitted in the gradebook calculations. The practice assignment is already available so be sure to try your hands on some of the exercises!
4. Peruse the course calendar, which provides a concise and handy snapshot of the day-to-day tasks. It contains all the important dates for the class and deadlines for graded activities with interactive features, and you might want to print a copy of it for handy reference.
5. Check your browser's settings: Blackboard, MyMathLab and even my personal web pages employ dynamic programming and will only work properly if your browser is set to accept pop-up windows from the sites and if JavaScript is enabled.

Once again, welcome, good luck, and e-mail your instructor if you are having any questions or problems.