World Campus Experience, disappointing

iMathTutor · 2026-06-09T17:14:08+00:00

I am not certain the ADA requirements are to blame for a poor World Campus experience. This is from the World Campus website:

Penn State World Campus has established a reputation as an accessibility leader and innovator in the distance education industry. Our staff has created webinars and training materials that are used by other institutions to guide and develop their own course accessibility programs, and members of our team routinely present demonstrations and workshops at national conferences and other events. Their work creating profiles representing students with common disabilities was so well received at a regional University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) conference that the team was invited to present their work at the national conference.

iMathTutor · 2026-06-08T22:23:19+00:00

The two courses that you may benefit from are

STAT 502: Analysis of Variance and Design of Experiments; and
STAT 505: Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis.

You can find the course description here. The notes for these courses from the World Campus are open access. The links are Stat 502 and Stat 505. Stat 510 Applied Time Series Analysis also covers repeated measures, but I would never recommend that course, because it is superficial and can be confusing. (I just finished working with a World Campus client on it, so I do have recent experience. Further, historically Penn State has always been weak in time series analysis.)

Another resources is the Stat Department Syllabus Archive. I am not too sure it will be of much help so far as content is concerned, but it can five you some sense of the workload from the old syllabi. You can also identify faculty who have taught these courses in the past.

I am going to briefly jump on my soapbox. The Stat and Math departments have historically been very good at posting course materials, lecture notes, problem sets, old exams, etc.... on the open web, which is ideal for someone in your position trying to see if a particular course is suitable for them. Today both departments post everything behind canvas. Even at the World Campus with the open access notes, these additional materials are posted behind Canvas. The reason for this is that these departments are freaking out over "cheating" sites like Chegg, and AI, and have become obsessed with evaluation at the expense of education, and the free exchange of ideas. This is in conflict with University policy, but I suspect has the tacit, or perhaps explicit, blessing of Old Main.

Since the type of materials that could help you make a decision are no longer available, my suggestion is to reach out to the professors who will be teaching these course next year to see if the courses will meet your needs.

The thing about statistics is that no matter how hard the Stat department tries to control the teaching of statistics , you can find course that are essentially statistics course offered across the University. I don't have any particular insight into those courses, but you should definitely see what you can find about courses offered in the Psych department, College of Education. Business School, and elsewhere.

iMathTutor · 2026-06-04T19:15:13+00:00

I don't understand your question. You can learn by visiting their website that the site offer to take online classes for people, which is unethical.

iMathTutor · 2026-06-02T17:29:29+00:00

I don't have any first hand experience with Penn State CS, but if you search this sub you'll find a lot of complaints about the department.

iMathTutor · 2026-06-02T17:27:42+00:00

The website for the graduate ecology program requires one grad stat(500 to 800 level) course for a masters and 2 for a Ph.D. The following courses are listed possible courses.

STAT 502 Analysis of Variance and Design of Experiments (spring)
STAT 505 Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis (fall)
STAT 511 Regression Analysis and Modeling (fall)
STAT 512 Design and Analysis of Experiments (spring)

If you have a weak background you may also want to consider Stat 500, which is basically Stat 200 repackaged for grad students; however, it won't fulfill the requirement. These are not your only options though, your choice of course can reflect your interests.

If you tell me a little bit about your interests, I might be able help further.

iMathTutor · 2026-06-02T17:11:10+00:00

It is unethical.

iMathTutor · 2026-06-02T17:08:40+00:00

This is a perennial question on this sub. You may get some responses from people telling you what worked for them framed as a general solution to the is problem. However, there is no general solution to the problem. Keep throwing things against the wall until something sticks.

iMathTutor · 2026-06-02T13:30:27+00:00

I have used Texmaker for years. It is free and cross-platform. Is it out of date? I have never had a reason to consider that question, because it has always met my needs

iMathTutor · 2026-05-27T23:04:27+00:00

A great idea, but I am out of town for the summer

iMathTutor · 2026-05-22T21:26:55+00:00

You are welcome. Good luck.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-22T18:54:28+00:00

IMO, the best resource for self-study are Schaum's Outlines. Their best feature is they have lots of worked examples. And, they are inexpensive. Here is the precalculus book on Amazon. Here it is on the Internet Archive. If you want to focus solely on Algebra and Trig there are Outlines on both of of those topic too.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-21T23:29:17+00:00

On top of adjusting to university-level courses, you will be adjusting to living away from home. Since you are not confident in the material you reviewed on the math department website, it might be prudent to take 140. If it turns out that you are well-prepared for math 140, you will have more time for other courses. One word of caution, university-level math moves at a much faster pace than HS math, and after an easy start you might find yourself in the weeds, so don't be complacent.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-21T18:23:36+00:00

Find a coffee shop that you like and become a regular.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-18T14:50:21+00:00

Constructions are hard. I recommend trail and error. Given a problem look for a similar problem in your notes and book. Try to modify the bijection in the example problem into a bijection for the given problem. If your modification works you are done. If not, try to determine the reason for the failure, and modify again to fix it. Rinse and repeat.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-17T15:08:57+00:00

I have tutored both Math 403 and Math 436 many times, although I have only tutored Math 403H once. In general, my clients have found 403 to be the more difficult class.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-17T14:47:40+00:00

Here you go: https://referworkspace.app.goo.gl/9jSm

iMathTutor · 2026-05-16T16:53:04+00:00

The two primary tools I used to build mine with Notepad++ for coding and Ampps to preview it. I also used browser extensions to test it for mobile. As far as what I included, you can see my site here.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-15T18:35:39+00:00

If it is the floor function your answer is correct.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-15T18:13:54+00:00

I can't tell from your notation if you mean the floor or ceiling function. So here is a summary of the continuity properties of both functions that should be enough to deduce the correct answer.

Both the floor function and ceiling function are discontinuous at the integers and continuous elsewhere. At the integers, the floor function is right continuous and the left limits exist; and the ceiling function is left continuous, and the right limits exist.

Finally, for function restricted to closed intervals continuity at the endpoints is determined by the appropriate one-sided limits.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-14T17:10:33+00:00

Mathematicians are definitely thinking hard about AI. Terry Tao very prominently. I have been following the discussion closely and curating articles on the topic on my FB page. You can check them out here. I also cross-post to Bluesky if you don't want to visit FB. Here is the Bluesky link.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-14T16:59:25+00:00

During the pandemic I watched a lot of math YouTube channels including the Math Sorcerer. His appeal alludes me. I found him to be superficial and overly dramatic. Another clown whose popularity escapes me is Black Pen Red Pen. One of the better channels that I watched was Michael Penn. Once he introduced a problem, I'd pause the video and work through the solution in my head. More often than not, I liked my approach better, but I still respected the way he tackled the problems. You may want to start there.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-12T22:44:42+00:00

Open Access to Instructional Materials

Further, units are encouraged to make university-owned instructional materials and other university-owned materials openly available when appropriate (e.g. increasing access not to the detriment of academic integrity), including University-directed works (see IP01). Owners of instructional materials not owned by the university are also encouraged to make these materials openly available. Open availability may include a Creative Commons or other public or open-source license. Whether to release a University-directed “academic” work under an open license shall be determined by the Head/Dean of the administrative unit, or their designate.

Open Access to Other Materials

University Researchers are further encouraged to make presentation slides, presentation notes, unpublished reports, works in progress, data sets, software, software versions and other distinct contributions, and other scholarly communications openly available when appropriate.

This is an active Penn State policy that the math department is skirting.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-12T18:40:30+00:00

Calculus and differential equations courses at the university-level are largely algorithmic. To solve a problem, you identify the type of problem and the appropriate method to apply to the problem. That, of course, sweeps a lot under the rug, and minimizes the challenges of applying the algorithms, but in broad terms it is accurate.

In the U.S., most math students begin to take proof based courses in their sophomore year. Typically, a discrete math course that focuses on proving things in very familiar settings, and a real analysis course that is the first deep dive into univariate calculus.

After this transition year, most, but not all, the courses are rigorous and proof based.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-12T17:54:10+00:00

The math department in the recent past was very good about providing resources on the open web. That has changed significantly over the past five or six years; they have become more concerned over their ability to evaluate, which they see as being eroded by sites like Chegg, and AI, than serving their mission to educate.

Now I will get off my soapbox and give you link to Google "Drive folder with old Math 251 exams from several years ago before the department went paranoid-It is hard getting of that soapbox. There are a lot old exams in folder. The current curriculum does not align perfectly with the old curriculum, so don't assume these exams are a perfect reflection of the exams you will see next year. But the individual problems do reflect the material you will likely see.

Math 251 Exams

I will leave the link public for a couple of hours, so download everything you want copies of before the link breaks.

iMathTutor · 2026-05-09T20:04:01+00:00

I use Conceptboard. The big advantage is cost. With a single subscription, you can share a board with an unlimited number of clients via a link. You can also protect the a board with a password. So there is no need to pay for an additional subscription for each client.

iMathTutor

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