MATH 461 SYLLABUS

This course will present the main concepts and terminology of linear algebra that play an essential role in science and engineering.  For example, linear algebra is used in signal processing, control systems engineering, structural analysis, large-scale computations, robotics, computer graphics, physics, and environmental science.

Order of Topics:
 

WebCT:    This section of MATH 461 is one of nearly 300 courses that are using the WebCT course management program at the University of Maryland this semester. It provides a means of communication between instructors and students, and ties the courses into the Internet and the University's registration and record systems. You have been assigned an account on the University's WebCT course page: www.courses.umd.edu. To login to WebCT, click on myWebCT@Maryland. Your WebCT space has a copy of this syllabus, a daily lecture schedule, and a tentative list of homework assignments. Additional information, such as review sheets and sample exams, will be added during the semester. For help with WebCT (including a student manual), go to the web site and click on Student Resources.

Quizzes:     An important use of WebCT will be to administer online open-book quizzes, to help you learn the course material. Most quiz questions can be answered by reading the text carefully, word by word. Taking these quizzes will help you develop study skills that are essential for success in this and subsequent mathematics courses. By the end of the course, anonymous students evaluations typically give the quiz system high ratings.
    Quiz Organization  The schedule of lectures shows the tentative date each quiz is to be completed and identifies the text section on which the quiz is based. Usually, each quiz is available on WebCT any time between the end of one lecture and ten minutes before the next lecture. Most quizzes will consist of five questions: true/false questions or multiple choice questions that ask you to decide whether a certain statement is always true, sometimes true, or never true.
    Taking a Quiz  You should read the text carefully before starting a quiz, and keep your text open for reference while taking the quiz. Once you start a quiz, you will have twenty minutes in which to complete it. (Typically, students spend between five and ten minutes on a quiz.) If your internet connection fails, sign on again immediately in order to complete the quiz within the 20 minutes. Most quizzes will consist of five questions: true/false questions or multiple choice questions (which ask you to decide whether a certain statement is always true, sometimes true, or never true). After you read each question, select an answer and "save" it. You may change an answer and resave it at any time until you press Finish. After that, press Display Results. WebCT will grade your quiz and display the results, with comments about each question.
    Honor System  The quizzes are conducted on the honor system. No two students will have exactly the same quiz, but the questions will be similar and cover the same basic material. You should have your book open for reference, but you must not communicate with any other person about the quiz while taking the quiz. Also, you should not look at any other student's quiz before taking your own quiz.
    Getting Started  To help you learn the quiz system, you may take each of the first two quizzes two times each, with only the higher scores counted. In addition, you should take a survey before the second lecture (Sept. 5). In WebCT, click the "Quiz and Survey" button. At the top of the list of quizzes, click on "Survey 1". It has the same format as a quiz and counts as a quiz, but it is anonymous. There will be two other surveys later in the course.
    Grading  Each quiz and survey counts 5 points. (The points for a survey will be added manually about one week later to the student quiz grades.) A few quizzes have a bonus question that allows a possible score of 6 points. Makeup quizzes will not be given, but the two lowest quiz grades will be dropped from the final "quiz" total. [In all previous linear algebra courses, the quiz grades have been somewhat higher than the averages of the four hour exams, so the quiz scores tend to help most students.]
    Problems  Occasionally, a student feels that a quiz is worded or graded incorrectly. If this happens to you, you may write to David Lay (lay@math.umd.edu). Please make a copy of the quiz question and answer from your screen, and paste this into your email. Explain what you think might be wrong with the quiz question or answer. If there is an error, your grade on this question will be adjusted, and all other students who had this same question will be treated in the same way. (This situation occurred more often during the early semesters of using WebCT, but it still could happen to a few of the newer quiz questions now.)   IMPORTANT: To receive a response to your email, you must include your course name and section number (MATH461-0201) in the message header. Your student name should be in the text message, of course.

Homework:    Success in the course is highly correlated with regular attendance and punctual completion of homework. Homework will be assigned each day, to be completed before the next class meeting. Each day students will submit reports on which problems they were able to complete successfully. On most class days following an assignment, students will be selected at random to explain their solutions to problems. Homework should be written neatly. When explanations are requested, your answers should be written in good English form. Part of your final grade will be based on your homework record and class participation. Please bring all your homework papers with you to each office visit.

Tutor Center:    If you have questions about the text or exercises in the text, you can get detailed help from a Tutor Center provided by the textbook publisher. Help with MATLAB for this course is also available. The Tutor Center is staffed by qualified college instructors (with a Ph.D. or M.A. degree in math or science) from 5 pm to midnight, on Sunday through Thursday. You may call 1-888-777-0463 to speak with a tutor, or you may send your questions by email to tutor@aw.com. Each telephone call to the Center is limited to fifteen minutes, but you can make up to three calls a night.
     For more information, go to http://www.aw.com/tutorcenter and click on Student Information. If you have both a phone and an internet connection, you can call the Center and make an appointment for an interactive online conference with a tutor. For details, go to the Tutor Center website and click on Interactive Web.
     The first time you contact the Tutor Center, you will need to supply the following information: (1) the textbook ISBN number (0-201-70970-8), and (2) a registration number (found on the white card inside The Tutor Center envelope that came with your textbook). If you bought a used text, you can use a credit card to purchase a registration number from the Tutor Center.

MATLAB:    We will be using MATLAB routinely throughout the course—in the classroom, for homework, and for special assignments, discussed below. MATLAB is available in all WAM labs and on the GLUE system. You will need either a WAM account or a Glue account. In addition, you may wish to purchase a student version of the program.
     The Study Guide contains all you need to know about using MATLAB. An "Introduction to MATLAB" is in the first appendix in the Guide, followed by an index of useful commands. At appropriate points in the course, the Guide also explains how to use special MATLAB programs that have been designed for this course. The programs themselves, along with data files for all the numerical exercises in the text, are on the WAM and Glue installations of MATLAB and in the OWL lab in the basement of the math building.
     There will be five MATLAB assignments, mostly based on on homework [M] problems that require MATLAB for their solution. You will work on the MATLAB assignments in a group of two or three students. Each group should submit one set of answers, including an edited diary of the MATLAB calculations (or a script file plus output). The first page of an assignment should show the names of the group members, the date, and the assignment description. Late assignments will be reduced one letter grade per class meeting after the due date. (MATLAB problems should be started soon after being assigned, to allow sufficient time to solve technology problems that might arise. Claiming to have difficulty with technology that is used at the last possible moment is not a sufficient reason to avoid a penalty for late submission of an assignment.)

Grading:    The final grade will be based on 650 points, distributed as follows: hour exams (300), online quizzes (100), MATLAB assignments (60), homework and class participation (40), and the final exam (150). The tentative cutoff scores are 585 (A), 520 (B), 455 (C), and 390 (D). Hour exam cutoff scores (usually 90, 80, 70, 60) will be announced after each exam is graded. The total quiz scores will be scaled to 100 points, with tentative cutoff scores of 90, 80, 70, and 60. Corresponding cutoff scores (including those for the final exam) will be added to produce the total cutoffs for the course.

You may send any comments or questions to David Lay: lay@math.umd.edu. Please include the course name and section (MATH461-0201) in the message header. Because I receive hundreds of emails, I only have time to sort and read messages from students that include this information.
 
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Last Revised: September 2, 2003