WeBWorK FAQ

This process sets up link(s) to WeBWorK from Blackboard. Students must click on the link in order for them to get their information into WeBWorK. You can still add students separately through WeBWorK's class list editor, but their grades will only sync to Blackboard if their account was creted automatically from Blackboard. By creating the link the homework grades will sync once daily to Blackboard.

Student accounts will be automatically created in WeBWorK, so it is important that you first clean out the class list in your WeBWorK class if you have students in it from previous semester:
Classlist Editor => Delete => Delete how many? (selected users) => select all users by clicking on the top check box => Take Action
You cannot delete yourself, don't worry.

New student will also get assigned ALL homework sets that have "visible" flag. If you used a WeBWorK class in prior semester, probably all homework sets are visible with deadlines in the past, and solutions available. Most likely you don’t want all these homework sets assigned to new students. To make all (old) homework sets invisible do the following:
Sets Manager => Publish => Choose which sets to be affected: all sets => Choose visibility of the sets to be affected: Hidden => Take Action!
Make sure you make the homework sets visible again one-by-one when you assign them to students:
Sets Manager => Check box next to set to be made visible => Publish => Choose which sets to be affected: selected sets => Choose visibility of the sets to be affected: Visible => Take Action!

There are two options for creating and handling WeBWorK grades in Blackboard. The main issue is whether or not you want WeBWorK to grade exams and quzzies in additon to homework and whether or not you want to separate those grades from homework assignment grades. This is an important step as the two approaches are mutually exclusive.

When all the assignment grades are bundled together their average is synced to Blackboard. In this case you cannot separate exams and quizzes if you want them to be graded by WeBWorK and synced to Blackboard. You could still create an exam in WeBWorK with zero point and then grade student's written homework in Blackboard, or download the WeBWorK grades to excel and separate homewok and exam grades manually, then upload it to Blackboard.
WeBWorK grades are synced to Blackboard through Web Links.
Do this in Blackboard:
You can create Web Links in different parts of Blackboard. You can create them in module folders, for example, or you can simply create them in the Course Materials part, or create it inside a folder called "Homework".
Follow: Build Content => Create => Web Link
Fill out the WEB LINK INFORMATION:
  1. Name WeBWorK (or Homework, or whatever name you want for the link. This will be also the name in the grade book)
  2. URL https://webwork.utrgv.edu/webwork2/xxxxxxxxx (change the xxxxx part to your course name, for example https://webwork.utrgv.edu/webwork2/Algebra_Balogh Do not copy and paste anything after the course name!)
    Make sure this is the correct link, otherwise students might end up in the wrong WeBWorK course!
  3. Check This link is to a Tool Provider
  4. Enable Evaluation Yes (grade percentages from WebWorK are transferred to Blackboard daily)
  5. Points Possible 100 (since grade is transferred as percentage, 100 is probably the obvious number to use here)
  6. Visible to students yes
  7. Due Date leave due date empty, WeBWorK should handle it
  8. Description optional additional information for students.
  9. The rest of the options can be left at their default settings.
  10. Click Submit to create the link.

Once a link is set up in Blackboard, you can check that it works and that it points to the correct course. Following the link should automatically take you into your own webwork course without asking for your login info. Only student accounts are created automatically. Instructors must have an existing account already in the WeBWorK course in order to succesfully use the link.

Once their accounts are created through Blackboard, students can also log in to WeBWorK directly, without going through Blackboard.

When each assignment is linked separately to the Blackboard gradebook, then you can separate the various homework, quiz, and exam grades as you wish. This requires the following steps done in WeBWorK.

Do this in WeBWorK:
  • Your role in the course must be "admin". If your role for instructor is only "professor", ask for your WeBWorK admin for the "admin" permission level.
  • File Manager => above the Templates directory => edit the course.conf file and add the following line to the end of the file: $LTIGradeMode='homework';

Do this in Blackboard:
WeBWorK grades are synced to Blackboard through Web Links. You can create Web Links in different parts of Blackboard. You can create them in module folders, for example, or you can simply create them in the Course Materials part, or create it inside a folder called "Homework".
Follow: Build Content => Create => Web Link
Fill out the WEB LINK INFORMATION:
  1. Name Name of specific assignment. This will be also the name in the grade book.
  2. URL https://webwork.utrgv.edu/webwork2/xxx/yyy/ where xxx stands for your course name and yyy stands for the assignment address. It is the best to copy if from the browser while looking at the assignment, just remove the end starting from ?effectiveUser= ...
  3. Check This link is to a Tool Provider
  4. Enable Evaluation Yes (grade percentages from WebWorK are transferred to Blackboard daily)
  5. Points Possible The weight of the assignment compared to the others. Probably you want this to match the grade of the homework set in WeBWorK. The grade is transferred as percentage daily.
  6. Visible to students yes
  7. Due Date leave due date empty, WeBWorK should handle it
  8. Description optional additional information for students.
  9. The rest of the options can be left at their default settings.
  10. Click Submit to create the link.

Once a link is are set up in Blackboard, you can check to see if it works and that it points to the correct course. Following the link should automatically take you into your own webwork course without asking for your login info. Only student accounts are created automatically. Instructors must have an existing account already in the WeBWorK course in order to succesfully use the link.

When the WeBWorK assignments are linked one-by-one to Blackboard then students can work on it only if they follow the Blackboard link. They cannot switch from one webwork set to the other inside webwork.

There are several ways to create homework sets.

This is a quick way to create a new empty homework set and to immediately start adding problems to it from the extensive library of problems. To create "Assignment A" do the following:

  1. Library Browser => next to "Create a New Set in This Course:" type Assignment_A (note that underscores are needed instead of spaces!)
  2. Click "Create a New Set in This Course:"
  3. Make sure there is confirmation of successful process with green background
  4. The name of the new set should appear next to "Add problems to Target Set: "
  5. The next step is to add questions to the newly created set.
  6. Note that your assignment will not be accessible to students until you assign it to them.

To create "Assignment B" do the following:

  1. Hmwk Sets Editor => Create => Name the new set: Assignment_B (note that underscores are needed instead of spaces!)
  2. Create as what type of set: a new empty set
  3. Click => Take Action!
  4. Make sure there is confirmation of successful process with green background
  5. The next step is to add questions to the newly created set.
  6. Note that your assignment will not be accessible to students until you assign it to them.

To copy "Assignment A" to "Assignment B" do the following:

  1. Hmwk Sets Editor => Create => Name the new set: Assignment_B (note that underscores are needed instead of spaces!)
  2. Create as what type of set: a duplicate of the first selected set
  3. Check box next to "Assignment A" (make sure there is no other assignment is selected!),
  4. Click => Take Action!
  5. make sure there is confirmation of successful process with green background
  6. Note that your assignment will not be accessible to students until you assign it to them.

If you or someone else has previously exported a homework set to a set definition file, you can turn that file back into a homework set.

  1. The set definition file (*.def) should be uploaded using the File Manager into the templates directory of the course.
  2. Hmwk Sets Editor => Import => specify how many and which one(s).
  3. You can also shift the opening/closing dates, but they have to be checked later anyway.
  4. Click => Take Action!
  5. make sure there is confirmation of successful process with green background
  6. Unless you choose "Assign this set to which users?: all current users", the assignment will not be accessible to students until you assign it to them.

Directly renaming a homework set is not possible. What the instructor has to do is copy the set to have a new name and then delete the old set. Deleting the old sets deletes all corresponding student records for the old set and it cannot be undone.

To copy "Assignment A" to "Assignment B" do the following:

  1. Hmwk Sets Editor => Create => Name the new set: Assignment_B (note that underscores are needed instead of spaces!)
  2. Create as what type of set: a duplicate of the first selected set
  3. Check box next to "Assignment A" (make sure there is no other assignment is selected!),
  4. Click => Take Action!
  5. make sure there is confirmation of successful process with green background

To delete the old "Assignment A" do the following:

  1. Hmwk Sets Editor => Delete => Delete how many?: Selected sets
  2. Check box next to "Assignment A" (make sure there is no other assignment is selected!),
  3. Click => Take Action!
  4. make sure there is confirmation of successful process with green background

In order to add problems to a homework set from the extensive Open Problem Library do the following.

  1. From the Library Browser, select a Target Set in which to place problems.
  2. Select Subject: Chapter: Section: according to your needs. It might take a few seconds for webwork to show the different choices in the drop-down menus.
  3. Alternatively, you can also select one of the specific (favorite) university libraries. To switch back from a specific library to the Subject/Chapter/Section you have to click on the "Open Problem Library" button.
  4. Click "View Problems"
  5. From the list of question select some and click on the "Add" button next to them.
  6. Note that you might have to click on "Next page" if htere is a very long list of problems.
  7. Don't forget to view the homework set once problems are added to it.

The Blackboard-WeBWorK bridge only creates student accounts in WeBWorK. For this reason you want to add Learning Assistants (LAs) or Teaching Assistants (TAs) directly to your WeBWorK class. These accounts are referred to as Teaching Assistant (TA) in WeBWorK. The grade of these directly added accounts will not sync to Blackboard.

  1. The first step adds a simple student account that later you have to elevate to TA
    1. Classlist Editor => Add => Add how many students? (change the 1 if needed) => Take Action!
    2. Fill in Last Name, First Name
    3. Leave "Student ID field" empty. This forces the TA to use their official university password.
    4. Login Name: their university email but without the @utrgv.edu
    5. Email Address: Specifying email address for TAs is very useful. TAs get all student emails sent using the "Email Instructor" button. These email contain a link that points directly to the students' question, which makes answering questions much easier.
    6. Other fields are optional. Perhaps you want to add a comment that they are TAs.
    7. At this point you can assign homework sets to them.
    8. Click "Add Students" ad the bottom of the page.
    9. Note that this only adds student accounts to your class list.
  2. Elevating a student account to TA
    1. Classlist Editor => Edit => check the box next to the LA/TA (you can select several) => make sure "Edit Which Users?" shows "selected users" => Take Action!
    2. In the rightmost column change "Permission Level" to "ta" => click "Take Action!"

WeBWorK uses PGML (PG Markup Language) for its problems. See Introduction to PGML for a short introduction. This page also contains links to further references. You can start writing your own question by adding a blank template problem to a problem set.

  1. Hmwk Sets Editor => Click the number in the column "Edit Problems" next ot the homework set you want to add yor own question.
  2. Check the box at the bottom of the page next to "Add 1 blank problem template(s) to end of homework set"
  3. Click on "Save Changes"
  4. Click the pencil button next to the newly created question that has source file with name blankProblem.pg
  5. Note that you cannot save edited problem files with the name blankProblem.pg, so the next steps should be:
  6. Click on "NewVersion"
  7. Make sure the "Replace current problem" is checked.
  8. Leave unchecked the box "Open in new window".
  9. Specify a new name in the box next to "Save file to: [TMPL]" => "Take Action"
  10. Edit the "Setup" part and the part between BEGIN_PGML and END_PGML
  11. To see how the question renders use the "Update" button with "Open in new window" checked.

You can embed any web page, including Desmos pages or youtube video pages into WeBWorK questions using "iframes". Note that these instructions do not cover the embedding of Desmos scripts. You have to know whether you want to insert the web page into a WeBWorK questions written in the "old" PG language (contains the line BEGIN_TEXT), or the newer PGML (PG Markup Language) (contains the line BEGIN_PGML).

  1. PG Language
    1. Insert above the BEGIN_TEXT line the following code: 
       $link_to_my_page=MODES(TeX=>"Interactive graph should be viewed online", 
HTML=>"<iframe src='https://www.desmos.com/calculator/5hedmvhiru' 
width='1000px' height='500px' style='border: 1px solid #ccc' frameborder=0> </iframe>");
    2. After BEGIN_TEXT, in the main text insert the code 
      $link_to_my_page
  2. PGML
    1. Insert above the BEGIN_PGML line the following code: 
       $link_to_my_page=MODES(TeX=>"Interactive graph should be viewed online",
HTML=>"<iframe src='https://www.desmos.com/calculator/5hedmvhiru'
width='1000px' height='500px' style='border: 1px solid #ccc' frameborder=0> </iframe>");
    2. After BEGIN_PGML, in the main text insert the code 
       [$link_to_my_page]*

Independently from WeBWorK grades, the achievements feature rewards students for doing various tasks in WeBWorK. Receiving achievements like "On One Hand" (10 Points: Finish a homework set with less than 5 incorrect submissions.) and "Back For More" (10 Points: Retry a problem after an 8 hour break.) will make working in the homework system more fun. In addition to achievements students will also level up from Level 1-Initiate to Level 10-Professor. Achievements have to be assigned to students similarly to homework sets. To assign the available achievements to students

If you add more students to the class you have to do the following to assign the achievements to them:

By selecting "preserve existing data" you ensure that existing students do not loose their achievements. More information can be found about the achievements feature in WeBWorK at the page https://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Achievements.

Using the RLB with WeBWorK is possible, but it has several limitations.

  1. Students have to go though Blackboard's option of using RLB.
  2. The Blackboard link to the WeBWorK test does not work with homework set level connection, so the whole WeBWorK course has to be linked instead of individual assignments.
  3. Since course level link enables students to log into WeBWorK directly, you might want to create a proctored test that requires procotor username and password, and then you have to provide this information to students at some point (probably in the Blackboard test link).
  4. Even with a proctor username and password, students can share this information with each other and solve the test by directly logging into WeBWorK without going through Blackboard's LBR test. It is suggested that you check for students the WeBWorK log file and the Blackboard RLB information to see that the time spent in WeBWorK matches the time spent in the Blackboard test with the RLB.

Using the RLB with a WeBWorK Test

  1. Set up a proctor account in your WeBWorK class: See "Adding Learning Assistants to WeBWorK". Alternatively, you can also specify a "secret" proctoruser name and password, (the password can be omitted), and elevate the account to "grade_proctor".
  2. Edit the WeBWorK test and change the "Assignment type" to "proctored gateway/quiz" => "Save Changes".
  3. The proctored gateway/quiz has a lot of option that you have to carefully consider and change.
  4. In Blackboard create a test
    Assesments => Test => Create a New Test => fill out information => Submit
  5. Add a a question to the test. You can add a "file response" type question if you want them to upload their scanned work.
    Create Question => File Response => fill in details => Question Text:
    Link to WebWorK Test: https://webwork.utrgv.edu/webwork2/name_of_your_course/proctored_quiz_mode/name_of_your_test
    Change name_of_your_course and name_of_your_test accordingly
    It is best not show the link, but to insert the link to show the text "Link to WeBWorK Test"
    You also have to provide students here with the proctor username and proctor password so that they can complete the test on their own in WeBWorK.
    The question should also contain instructions for the students to close WeBWorK and to come back to the Blackboard Test after they finished the test. You might want to insert in the question an honor statement to which the students have to answer yes once they come back from WeBWorK.
  6. After adding the question to the test click OK at the bottom right corner.
  7. You should get back to the "Create Test" page where you can now choose the newly created test in the menu "Add an Existing Test" => Submit => fill in additional details.
  8. Enable Respondus for the test:
    • In the left-hand-side menu of Blackboard under Course Management => Course Tools => Respondus LcokDown Browser
    • Choose the test => Settings
    • Require Respondus LockDown Browser for this exam => Advanced Settings => Allow access to specific external web domains => Enter https://webwork.utrgv.edu
    • Require Respondus Monitor for this exam
    • Save + Close
  9. Things to watch out for:
    • Since this Blackboard-RLB-WeBWorK combination requires linking the WeBWorK course to Blackboard through a single course level link, student can also log in to WeBWorK directly avoiding Blackboard. Even with proctor password they could start the test through RLB, but then abandon it and continue it through directly loggin in to WeBWorK without RLB. You can check student activity in WeBWorK by going through File Manager => up one directory from templates => logs directory => login.log => View. The file login.log can be very large, and you might have to search it for specific usernames.
    • To avoid students looking at old assignments in WeBWorK you can adit the assignments and make them not visible.
    • Make sure the questions are numbered consecutively from one. Gateway/quizzes do not work if a number is skipped.
    • If you edit the gateway/quiz after it was assigned to students you have to unassign it and then reassign it again so that changes go through to students.
    • You might want to do some exam previewes for students to make sure things work.
    • A way to try out yourself the exam is by creating an instructor account with a secret login name and password in the WeBWorK course, then loggin in with that delet your university account in your WeBWorK course, and then using the student preview in Blackboard let WeBWorK create a new student account for you.

While the default answer entry is still through keyboard (2^6, 3/4, sqrt(5), infinity, etc), you can turn on a feature to help with typing answers.

You can experiment which one you like better.

You can enable Reduced Scoring by following the links:

If you enabled Reduced Scoring then you will also have to enable it for individual assignments and set their Reduced Scoring Dates by editing the set data:

Instructor can check login history of users:

Technical Questions