Section 1.4 External Teaching Resources
There are many mathematics resources out in the world. There are books, of coures, but also explanatory YouTube videos, internet fora with problem solving advice, podcasts, and others. Using these resources to help can be really excellent.
- The second main principle for this section is `give credit’. This is what I expect for external resources. If something from outside the course helps you, then please not it in your assignment. Be specific: if a video helped you understand a particular techinque that led to a solution of a particular problem, then say so on your assignments. I’m not particular about citation methods, but if you are citing online content, do always include the URL as well as the title of the content.
- If you quote something directly, of course, you must cite this. Using something for help without quoting it directly is a gray area, but I would strongly encourage you to be in the habit of citing these as well.
- It’s possible you may find, somewhere in the world, a solution to the exact problem that I have asked on an assignment. What do you do now? Well, you can quote that solution if you wish (with a citation of course). But the first principle of assignments is that their purpose is to help you actually understand the material. So, if you quote a solution from somewhere else, you then need to describe why that solution work and why you understand it. The point of an assignment is not to have a correct solution, but to demonstrate that you understand the solution and the process by which it was constructed. Make sure you do that demonstration.
- Finally, it is very important to know that mathematics is not perfectly consistent in its terminology and notation. Your external sources may use different terms and different symbols. This complicated external resources, since to use them you may need to learn new symbols and definitions, which can be difficult in itself. Also, in my courses you are required for use the notations and terminology that I set in the course. Therefore, if you learn from another source, you may have to translate from their symbols and terms back into those used in the course. This is required: work submitted using symbols and terms that different from the course will not be accepted.