Subject: [mat2705] the official welcome message from your instructor
Dear MAT2705 Jantzen sections of
DEwLinAlg
(as of this date),
Hi. This is a welcome message from your math instructor, bob jantzen.
I look forward to working with you during the coming semester here at
Villanova.
1)
You should enter BlackBoard and register
with our e-textbook
portal before the first day of class.
Go to our class, to Course Content,
click on Pearson Course Materials and create an account at Pearson
if you do not already have one, which upon
login leads you to our online e-portal for your e-book textbook and homework
assignment system. Look at the first assignment, which helps you understand how
to enter responses in the system.
Nearly all of our homework will be managed there, together with
access to our e-textbook.
[The cheapest purchase option is
direct from the publisher
if you opt out of the tuition textbook program.]
2)
Make sure you have Maple 2024 on your local computer, available by clicking here and logging into the university software server and downloading the sofrware (the Activation Code is on the entering page for Student Software: copy and paste that into Maple at the end of installation]. You may use Maple to check (not justify) any calculations you make on all quizzes and tests. There is no expectation that you have used this software in the past. We will get familiar with it as we go. Sophomores should update from Maple 2023 to Maple 2024. Freshman, don't worry that you have never used this before. I will personally show you Maple in office hours if you want a one on one introduction.
3)
You can learn about me from my homepage:
http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/robert.jantzen/
[or directly: dr bob, who is this guy?]
and about our class this semester from its homepage
where all of our online
class activities will be directed
http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/robert.jantzen/courses/mat2705/
This includes all my scanned old tests and quizzes and all their answer
keys [and expanded maple worksheet answer keys to show additional
features] to give you an idea of what I expect, the syllabus, an on-line class
and homework log, which will be added to daily as assignments are given out for each class,
and general advice about the course.
4)
During the entire semester I encourage you to communicate with me
---in class or by email or during in-person office
hours or via Zoom office hour---
about what you find difficult or confusing so that I can better help you
in your learning process. I am not your adversary but your facilitator for
learning the course materials.
You have been doing calculus until now, with different
degrees of success and stopping points. Now we are moving on to use
knowledge of derivatives and integrals in the calculus of a single
variable
in understanding how differential
equations work and what to expect from
their solutions. We want to see
how they help us in STEM applications.
Some of you will like me and others will not. This is a fact of life.
Remember that teaching is my number one priority here at Villanova and I want
to help you. Let me do that by communicating to me when you feel I am not
helping you, in class or after class.
By the end of the week, reply to this welcome e-mail from your OFFICIAL Villanova e-mail account (which identifies you with your full name), telling about your last math courses, your comfort level with graphing calculators and computers and math itself, how much experience you have with Maple if any (and Mathcad if appropriate) so far, why you chose your major, etc, anything you want to let me know about yourself that will give me more of an idea about you as a person. [For example, I like to do humorous sketching. and cooking.] Tell me what your previous math course was named (if at VU: Mat1500 = Calc 1, Mat1505 = Calc 2, Mat2500 = Calc3). Please attach your class schedule grid from MyNova saved to PDF, or as an image file, or perhaps a screen shot saved to JPG, and name the file LastName-FirstName.<fileextension> so I can easily extract them to a folder on my laptop for future reference. [If you forget, no problem, I can rename it on the fly.]
thanks,
bob
[You can call me "bob", "dr bob", or "dr jantzen" depending on how
formal you wish to be.]
bob jantzen