New Authors landing page

Learning how to Author WeBWorK problems

• If you're just starting out, see the Problem Authoring Background Information and sample problems first.
• If you're working on a problem and want to find out how to do one particular construct look at the index of problem techniques section.
• If you're working on a problem in a specific area you may find the more advanced templates useful.
• To ease the custom formatting of the look and feel of the question see Template4
• More information on using MathObjects in authoring problems.
• Use the online calculators to try out code fragments -- including code fragments containing MathObjects. This is a quick way to learn the fine points of the MathObject syntax.

Basic info and Sample Problems

• Problem Authoring Background Information

• Index of Sample Problems
  • Template 1 (the basic structure of a WeBWorK PG problem file)
  • SampleProblem1a (old-style, non-MathObjects example)
  • Template 2 (formulas, multiple choice, and string entry problems)
  • Template 3 (dynamically generated graphs)
  • NEW --Template 4 (illustrates PGML markup)
• More Advanced Sample Problems
  • ....

Manuals and HOWTOs

• MathObjects, an object system for manipulating mathematics in WeBWorK questions.
  • PGLabs, On-line labs for rendering of PG code. These labs allow you to interactively experiment with PG syntax online.
  • PGML -- Davide Cervone's newest addition to the PG authoring language makes it easier to describe the layout of a question. The new commands and an interactive environment for experimenting with them are available on the PGLabs page.
• Applets, how to embed Flash and Java applets into WeBWorK questions.
• Basic Perl syntax — PG is based on Perl, so it is important to know some basic Perl syntax.
  • [How BEGIN_TEXT...END_TEXT blocks work]]
• Problem Authoring Best Practices for problem authoring.
  • What to do if you find a bug in a problem
  • Tagging Problems with metadata for indexing and searching.
• Specialized HOWTOS
  • SequentialProblems revealing the problem one step at a time
  • Converting CAPA problems for use with WeBWorK

Reference Documents

• Index of Problem Techniques ** very useful code fragments
• macro/library documentation from SVN -- original documentation embedded in the code
• Notes on training authors, and suggestions for further documentation-- Sam Hathaway
• The Good Questions project at Cornell University [1]