A Web-interfaced array-based mathematics course

Abstract

The fascinating, often complex, often context-sensitive, classical mathematical notation presents a host of problems for machine interpretation. For those who forsee an educational environment in which interactive course material is delivered world-wide across the Web, the demand of universities (the accrediting agencies) for mastery of the classical notation is somewhat frustrating. Computer-based notations, on the other hand, can also sometimes be clumsy, confusing, inelegant and aesthetically displeasing. A solution to this impasse might seem to be yet some way off. Nevertheless, as students, rather than instructors, increasingly come to determine the choice of purchase in educational products, it might prove to be possible to acquire mastery of classical notation by routes other than the traditional ones.The USQ web-interfaced array-based first course in mathematics provides a rather different approach to the introduction of calculus. Because it is numerically based, the course largely avoids classical notation and lends itself well to distribution over the Internet. Linking the computations done in the course activities with classical notation is left to printed materials.We will briefly outline the numerical approach to the teaching of calculus, and describe how the program is delivered over the Web.