Software Requirements for Interactive Mathematics Textbooks

1
Software Requirements for Interactive Mathematics
Textbooks

• Catherine Schell
• CSC 509
• Winter 2005

2
Introduction

• New phase of work on paper from 508
• Goal for first phase develop a set of
  requirements for interactive mathematics
  textbooks.
• I developed a set of goals
• I translated several of the goals into
  requirements that could be refuted, measured, and
  tested
• Goal for second phase evaluate a computer
  algebra system and an interactive mathematics
  textbook using my set of goals.

3
Previous Work

• Previous work two approaches used are
• Develop a set of requirements for IMTs
• Point out problems with other IMTs and computer
  algebra systems (CASs), then describe a newly
  developed IMT that fixes those problems.

4
Previous Attempts to Develop a Set of Requirements

• Two papers found that attempt to develop a set of
  requirements
• Robert Sinclair, Interactive Mathematics
  Textbooks ACM SIGPLAN Notices, February 2003
• Carol Scheftic,Interactive Mathematics Texts
  Ideas for Developers Proceedings of the Maple
  Summer Workshop and Symposium on Mathematical
  Computation with Maple V Ideas and Applications,
  June 28 30, 1993.

5
Previous Attempts to Develop a Set of
Requirements contd

• One paper presented a survey of CASs, and
  described some problems
• Norbert Kajler and Neil Soiffer, A Survey of
  User Interfaces for Computer Algebra Systems
  Journal of Symbolic Computation, 25 (1998).
• Problems described were
• Expressions are entered in a linear syntax.
• Selecting and editing expressions, either using
  commands or a mouse, is problematic.
• Expressions are not displayed well.

6
Open Problems

• The requirements listed arent really
  requirements, since they are not refutable,
  measurable, or testable.
• They are more accurately described as goals.
• I was able to translate several of the goals into
  requirements

7
Evaluating an IMT and a CAS

• These are the systems that I chose to evaluate
• LiveMath Maker (CAS)
• ALEKS - Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge
  Spaces IMT)
• Reasons for choosing these systems
• Developed for algebra students
• ALEKS is used in two lower-division math courses
  at Cal Poly
• Free trial use
• Evaluated them using the set of goals
• I also evaluated IMTs and CASs using the
  requirements I developed
• Literature review

8
Conclusion

• Hopefully this paper will serve as a basis for
  further work in IMTs and CASs
• More complete requirements
• Better ideas for design of user interface