Courseware Development

Paul Abbott

abbott@wolfram.com

Cloud Notebook access and download: https://wolfr.am/OzWTC

BarcodeImage["https://wolfr.am/OzWTC"]

Abstract

This presentation gives an overview of the suite of Wolfram tools enabling the rapid development and deployment of high quality interactive courseware including:

Building on Wolfram U, the Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language, and the Fast Introduction for Programmers

Avoiding re-invention by direct embedding of demonstrations into Notebooks

Using repositories including the Function Repository and Paclet Repository

Accelerated development of educational tools, including Generative AI tools

Building Blocks

Developing courses and writing books from scratch is time-consuming—so here are three resources to help you avoid re-inventing the wheel:

Wolfram U

Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language (a great place to start)

Fast Introduction for Programmers (including notes for users of Java and Python)

Wolfram Screencast and Video Gallery

Avoiding Re-invention

There are now over 13,000 demonstrations on wide range of topics, which can be downloaded, viewed and edited.

CreditedDemonstration inserts a demonstration into a notebook—including links to the Title, Author and Manipulate code—making writing lecture notes (or a book) much easier.

Embed demonstrations directly into your Notebooks:

["PTSymmetricQuantumWalksAndCentralityTestingOnDirectedGraphs"]

A powerful application of this idea is the ElectroDynamics: A Novel Computational Approach textbook.

Resources and Repositories

Resources

Take advantage of these resources:

Wolfram Community ⊳ http://community.wolfram.com/

Wolfram|Alpha ⊳ http://wolframalpha.com/

MathWorld ⊳ http://mathworld.wolfram.com/

Functions website ⊳ http://functions.wolfram.com/

Computational Thinking Initiatives ⊳ https://www.computationinitiative.org/

Repositories

The following Wolfram Language Repositories are very useful:

Demonstrations Project

Function Repository

Paclet Repository

Notebook Archive

Code Gallery

Data Repository

Example

Here is an example of CobwebPlot from the Function Repository:

ResourceFunction["CobwebPlot"]

Display the period-doubling route to chaos for the logistic map x|->α x (1-x):

Manipulate[[x|->α x (1-x),(Subscript[x, 0]),n,{0,1},],
{α,3,4,0.01},{{(Subscript[x, 0]),0.2},0.0001,1},{{n,60},1,200,1}]

Generative AI

Development of educational and research tools can be accelerated using Chat Notebooks.

Wolfram Summer School

Finally, for rapid development of courseware—and an exciting experience—consider attending the Wolfram Summer School which includes:

Wolfram Language training

Mentoring by experts

Project input from Stephen Wolfram

An overview of all project outputs from 2024 is here.

And the Wolfram Summer School includes an Educational Innovation track.