MA 241 Single Variable Calculus II
Welcome! This site provides a brief overview for the online section of NC State MA 241 Single Variable Calculus II, with Dr. Bevin Maultsby. My aim to address common questions and concerns students have about signing up for an online calculus course.
If you would like to register for this class but it is full (or has held seats), please join the waitlist. Students are enrolled from the waitlist in the order that they join. This process usually happens about two weeks before the start of the semester, and in the past had a high success rate. Please see this page for more information: Waitlisted students.
Course Schedule
Future course calendars are tentative. There is no need to ask me if they will change, as I update the calendars as soon as I determine this.
Course Delivery
The course is hosted on Moodle and becomes available one week before the first day of class.
This course is entirely asynchronous--there are no live class meetings, and you may watch the videos at the times that work best for your schedule. I provide a recommended viewing schedule that you should try to follow. This schedule also shows homework due dates and the exam windows.
Examinations
There are three semester tests and a final exam. Your examinations are fully online in Moodle--there is no written component to any exam. Each exam must be proctored by a suitable approved proctor, according to which situation best describes you:
- If you live less than 50 miles away from Raleigh, NC, then you will take your tests on our campus through the Distance Education Testing Centers. Students should be mindful of closing hours for both Testing Centers, and give themselves plenty of time to complete their exams. For information, please visit https://testing-services.delta.ncsu.edu/testing-services-on-campus/ .
- Those students who live more than 50 miles away from Raleigh, NC do not have to take their tests on NCSU campus. They may use a proctor in their town for testing. The proctor must be approved in advance through DELTA (not the instructor). It can take up to 1 week to verify a proctor and set up all needed contact info, so please do this early! Please visit the remote proctor website at https://testing-services.delta.ncsu.edu/testing-services-remote/.
- Examity is not allowed.
The exams are administered over a 3-4 day window, and I encourage you to schedule your testing appointments as soon as you can (typically DELTA begins scheduling on the first day of class). Times fill up!
You are allowed to bring one basic (four-function, non-scientific) calculator with you into the exam. Your proctor should provide scrap paper, and there is a built-in scientific calculator within the exam itself for you to use. There are practice tests in Moodle that will allow you to practice using this calculator.
Important note: there is no reason to wait to learn when your scheduled final exams will occur. This schedule is already determined at this exam calendar link, so please go ahead and choose an appropriate time for your final exam.
Homework Platform
Like all calculus sections at NC State, we use WebAssign, by Cengage. There is no course key for this section. You will gain access to WebAssign through Moodle. The assignments do not open until the first day of class.
WebAssign also includes a digital textbook, under the Resources tab.
Course Material
This course has four units of new material:
- Unit 1: Applications of Integration
- Unit 2: Techniques of Integration
- Unit 3: Sequences and Series (Part 1) and Power Series (Part 2)
- Unit 4 :First-order Differential Equations (Part 1) and Second-order Differential Equations (Part 2)
However, we begin with "Unit 0" on the foundations of calculus. You must have a solid grasp of the basic trig functions (sine, cosine, and tangent), the exponential and logarithmic functions, limits, and derivatives to succeed in this course. You will be tested on this material explicitly, and implicitly in every unit.
Course Videos
The lecture videos are available in Moodle (and my students should watch them there, as there are lecture activities to complete). For a reference, here are the videos:
MA 241 Single Variable Calculus II -- full semester course:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBEl4BT8wUgPasvgpQZ2ustikfBCbavYd
Here are certain topics of interest:
- Applications of Integration (arc length, average value, work done lifting objects, quick example of pulling up a rope, springs and Hooke’s law, work done pumping fluid from a tank, force due to hydrostatic pressure, center of mass)
- Techniques of Integration (u-sub, integration by parts, trigonometric integrals, trig substitution, partial fractions, Trapezoidal Rule, Simpson’s Rule, improper integrals)
- Sequences and Series (sequences of numbers, convergent sequences, theorems about convergent sequences, series of numbers, convergent series, tests for convergence and divergence, absolute convergence, power series, Taylor Series)
- Ordinary Differential Equations
- 2nd Order ODEs and the Method of Undetermined Coefficients
Tips for success in online MA 241:
- Follow the posted Course Calendar in Moodle! Many students cite this as the #1 reason why they were able to stay on track.
- Participate in the course forum.
- Take notes during the lectures. The lectures are fast-paced, I didn't build in long pauses. However, you should pause the video on each example and make sure that you have worked through it (ideally by hand, in something like a spiral notebook). Learning math is active, not passive.
- If you have time, do the additional WebWork problems. These are not for a grade, but give you extra problems with auto-grading (for self checks).
- Read my emails! I put important info there. If you aren't getting 2-3 emails per week from me, check your spam folder and make a point of visiting the Announcements forum in Moodle.
- Commit to working every day M-F. Distance Education courses require a lot of discipline and organization. Many students like to schedule "working hours" for themselves. (This may look like one block of time, or perhaps a morning session and an afternoon session.)
Good luck!