LON-CAPA at Ohio UniversityMark Lucas, Dept of Physics and Astronomy

Outline:

• History

• Usage

• Resources

• Issues

History

• CAPA: pilot Fall 1994

• Used in – All introductory physics (algebra and calc)– Physical Sciences– Introductory Chemistry– Delivery of assignments (no exams,quizzes)

• Piloting LON-CAPA – Winter 2002

Piloting

• Winter 2002 – Phys 202 (Lucas) (100)

• Spring 2002 – Phys 203 (Lucas) (100)

• Summer 2002 – Phys 201(Lucas) (40)

• Fall 2002 – 201/251 – (Lucas/Ingram) (450)

• Winter 2003 – 6 courses – all of physics– 700 students– Half of department faculty (about 12 of 25)

Typical Usage

• Homework – start as CAPA replacement

• Including ancillary notes, demos, etc….

• No integrated online courses yet

• Kerberos 5 – university authentication

• Full use of online printing

Resources: Warm Bodies

• Mark Lucas – 50% Faculty/50% CAPA Sys Mgr– Support hardware, OS, LON-CAPA, faculty training,

library maintenance, teach intro physics

• Prasenjit Sarkar – Undergrad Asst Manager• Typically 1 graduate student/quarter• Matthew Phillips – Chemistry Educational

Technology Specialist

(will handle some of chemistry support)

Resources: Other

• In contact with Center for Instructional Technology in Learning– Moral Support, some undergrad support

• Internal grant - $25,000 for hardware– (took second try)

Resources: Fall

• 3 Dell PIII 800 Mhz with 380MB RAM

• 450 students

• Some load issues, but partially software

• In general was doing okay

Resources: Winter• December: $20,000 total

– 4 Dell PowerEdge 2650’s– Dual 2.0GHz Xeons– 2GB RAM– 1 with RAID– Tape backup– APS,switch,etc…

Libraries and Resources

• Worked on translator with Guy

• Serway, Tipler, p200, p250

• Published domain-only for QC and proprietary issues

• Talk to me if interested in some of P200 problems

• Beginning work on public Physlet library

Organization of Courses

Users:

• P200 – course sequences, quarter by quarter

• OUp200lib – library – limited authorship

• Serwaylib – library – limited authorship

• Lucas – own play space

Lessons learned:

• Suggestion: publish locally first, libraries evolve– When comfortable with style and quality,

PLEASE PUBLISH with wider access– Have been adapting as printing solidifies

• Need for lots of examples

• Login problems can be a time sink– Working on more extensive login diagnostics– http://loncapa.phy.ohiou.edu/help

Future:

• Increase content use for Physics• CCLI?• Improve libraries and beginning publishing for

free use.• Convince Chemistry to jump on board• Re-visit CITL (Instructional Technology)• Submit Bug/Feature reports• Fix bug reports