1. Can the Web Help Students Succeed? Neat Networks UTEP May 5, 1998

2. Philosophy S.O.S. MATHematics is the website of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso, where you can work with materials to help you: do your homework prepare for a test get ready for class

3. Philosophy The material presented here reviews the most important results, techniques and formulas in college and pre-college mathematics. The learning units are presented in worksheet format and require your active participation! This is not meant to be a substitute for your classroom instruction or for reading your textbook.

4. Scope -planned Pre-College –Arithmetic/Algebra –Geometry –Trigonometry College –Calculus –Matrix Algebra –Differential Equations

5. Scope Pre-College –Arithmetic/Algebra –Trigonometry College –Calculus –Differential Equations –Matrix Algebra –Complex Variables

6. Scope- Added by “Popular Demand” Cyber-Exam Tables and Formulas

7. Design Minimal Requirements –Internet Browser Netscape Navigator 2 –No frames –No plug-ins –Accessible with slow computers –Accessible with 28.8 modem No excessive graphics, sounds, movies etc.

8. Design Absolute Links versus Relative Links: –Do not use absolute links unless you link to outside resources! CSS Stylesheets –Gives you more control on the layout of the web page as viewed by the user!

9. How to Put Math on the Web? Mathematics Formulas can still not be displayed by the Common Internet Browsers!

10. How to Put Math on the Web? Viable Alternatives in 1996: –Microsoft Word’s Equation Editor Pro: Easy conversion Con: Buggy, text-formula alignment pretty bad –LaTeX2HTML Pro: LaTeX based, Looks good, can do any math formula Con: Complicated process, slow conversion, inconvenient for the content producer

11. How to Put Math on the Web? More Alternatives in 1998: –TeX Explorer (IBM) Pro: fast display, looks good, LaTeX based Con: needs plug-in, still under development, content developer dependent on company strategies

12. How to Put Math on the Web? Math Markup Language (MathML) has been accepted by W3C as the web standard. –Standard Plug-ins and Translators should become available.

13. Tools We Use…. LATeX2HTML Translator by Nikos Drakos

14. Production of an SOS Mathematics Page

19. Funding

20. Release Time for Faculty Equipment WWW Server, PCs, Software Funds for Student Assistants

21. S.O.S. Mathematics - Today

23. S.O.S. Mathematics - Today: 2400 HTML-Pages written

24. S.O.S. Mathematics - Today:

25. S.O.S. Mathematics - Today: Mirrors Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand Access only for LU students Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain Maria Sklodowska-Curie University, Lublin, Poland In Preparation

26. The People Behind S.O.S. Mathematics