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S.O.S Mathematics - A Mathematics Help Site on the Internet – Helmut Knaust Nancy Marcus

S.O.S Mathematics - A Mathematics Help Site on the Internet – Helmut Knaust Nancy Marcus. Math Medics, LLC  P.O. Box 12395  El Paso TX 79913. January 8, 2002. El Paso TX. An Overview of the Web Site Itself Philosophy & Design The Building Blocks A Short Visit The “SOS CyberBoard”

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S.O.S Mathematics - A Mathematics Help Site on the Internet – Helmut Knaust Nancy Marcus

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  1. S.O.S Mathematics - A Mathematics Help Site on the Internet –Helmut KnaustNancy Marcus Math Medics, LLC  P.O. Box 12395  El Paso TX 79913 January 8, 2002 El Paso TX

  2. An Overview of the Web Site Itself Philosophy & Design The Building Blocks A Short Visit The “SOS CyberBoard” A Brief History of Sosmath.com From www.math.utep.edu/sosmath … to www.sosmath.com Resources and Technology Us How to put Mathematics on the Web? Publishing on a Commercial Server What Else Do You Need to Get Started? The Users of Sosmath.com Usage and User Statistics Contents

  3. Philosophy SOSMath is the website at UTEP, where you can work with material to help you: • Do your homework • Prepare for a test • Get ready for class

  4. Vision To Help Students Successfully Master their Mathematical Transition from High School to College

  5. Target Audience High School Students in their Junior and Senior Year University Freshmen and Sophomores

  6. Design Choices SOSMath started in 1996 - Netscape 2.02 had just been released! • Make the browsing experience as easy for the users as possible: • No frames, no plug-ins • Maximal browser compatibility • Easy navigation • Uniform look of the pages • Keep bandwidth requirements low • Allow for user feedback

  7. Subjects on Our Site

  8. A Short Visit tososmath.com • Homepage • Algebra • Reducing fractions • Solving equations with radicals • Solving polynomial inequalities • Calculus • Concavity and points of inflection • The Intermediate Value Theorem • Differential Equations • Orthogonal trajectories

  9. Provides a valuable service to our users Helps us interact with our users Helps us to improve our site by accommodating user suggestions Requires a considerable time commitment Current bulletin board technology is not well-suited for mathematical notation. The “SOS CyberBoard” Visit the SOS CyberBoard

  10. A Brief History I

  11. A Brief History II

  12. “This is the point, where you should mention me!” [From our team member Mohamed Khamsi, Currently on leave at Kuwait University] To Get Started… • A prudent design • A sensible plan • Time, • More time, • …And more time! • A wonderful team! • Some knowledge – not too much – of technology

  13. Support From 1996-1998 we obtained generous support from the following sources: Network Resources Training Site (NASA) grant at UTEP Model Institution for Excellence (NSF) grant at UTEP College of Science Department of Mathematical Sciences

  14. How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page I Step 1: We write the content using LaTeX.

  15. How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page II Step 1:Writing the content using LaTeX Step 2: Converting to html Math formulas become images

  16. How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page III Step 3: By now we have produced the raw html web file.

  17. How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page IV Step 4: We use Mathematica to produce graphics.

  18. How We Produce a SOSMath Web Page V Step 5: After some editing by hand, the page is ready to be put on our web site.

  19. Alternative Technologies to Put Mathematical Typesetting on the Web I • Math Type/Equation Editor • Used with Microsoft Word • Easy to use • Used to have problems to properly align formulas • URL: http://www.mathtype.com/ • IBM TechExplorer • Uses a plug-in users have to download • Very good looking! • URL: http://www-3.ibm.com/software/network/techexplorer/

  20. Alternative Technologies to Put Mathematical Typesetting on the Web II • Math Markup Language - MathML • Similar to html, ASCII text, embeds into html-page • Current browsers cannot display MathML, • With the exception being “Mozilla” at URL: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/mathml/ • TechExplorer can interpret MathML.

  21. Interactive Mathematics on the Web • LiveMath • Uses a plug-in. • Great for 3D-animations. • Symbolic Mathematics capabilities are still somewhat limited. • URL: http://www.livemath.com/ • WebMathematica • Uses Java servlets. • Mathematica is used as an authoring tool. • Very versatile, but technically complicated • URL: http://wri.com/products/webmathematica/ • Also available combined with web hosting at URL: http://hostsrv.com/

  22. Web Hosting File Upload and Host Management: • FTP protocol, using WSftp etc. • Telnet protocol Local Computer: • Preferably a PC with Windows-OS • Fast internet connection Remote Web Host: • Usually on a PC with Linux-OS • May host 100s of web sites

  23. To Get Started on a Shoe String Budget • Web Hosting Service, $10-30 per month for a shared host • Domain Name, $35 per year • Software • FTP client, $45 • Computer algebra system?, $200-1500 • Graphics editing software, $70-500 • Back-Up capability, $0-100

  24. Page Hits Per Week(html hits)

  25. Page Hits and Users Per Week

  26. Popularity of Subject Areas Data Source: Logfile Analysis, November 26 - December 2, 2001

  27. Age Distribution of Users Data Source: Survey November 2000, 352 participants

  28. Occupation of Our Users Data Source: Survey November 2000, 352 participants

  29. More User Information Data Source: Survey November 2000, 352 participants

  30. Country of Origin Data Source: BurstMedia, December 7, 2001 – January 4, 2002

  31. The end How to contact us: Mohamed A. Khamsi mkhamsi@sosmath.com Helmut Knaust hknaust@sosmath.com Nancy Marcus nmarcus@sosmath.com Math Medics, LLC  P.O. Box 12395  El Paso TX 79913

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