Webassign: To Do or Not To Do

by Nathaniel Rabin, Germantown Friends School '11

           They stare at you, mocking your failure, making you feel like you just caused all of the puppies in the world to be choked to death. Their mere presence provokes swearing, fist-pounding, and momentary insanity in even the most complacent of GFSers. What could possibly have such an effect on the upstanding young men and women produced by GFS? The red Xs on WebAssign, of course.

            WebAssign, created at North Carolina State University in the late 1990’s, is an online homework site used at GFS for several science classes including Advanced Physics and Advanced Chemistry. WebAssign provides the problems, teachers assign them, and the site immediately grades the answers upon submission by the student. And, as I imagine a proper Englishman smoking a pipe would say, “Therein lies the problem.”

            A correct answer warrants a green check mark. A beautiful, glorious, green check mark, like a pat on the head after a job well done. But an incorrect answer gives you the red X, so small and yet so powerful. As if the frustration and shame brought about by the X isn’t enough, WebAssign often feels the need to insult you even further. If your answer is nowhere near the correct answer (a common occurrence in 20-step physics problems) this phrase appears on the screen, in the same harsh red-colored font:

“Your response differs significantly from the correct answer.”

Or sometimes,

“Your response is not within 100% of the correct answer.”

When this pops up, the aforementioned moment of insanity will often lead me to curse at the little man inside the computer for being so mean to me. Teachers using WebAssign can also limit the number of the submissions for each problems, which adds another degree of intensity. James Hall ’11 says, “I knew I was on my last submission - I was sweating I was so nervous.” But, as torturous as the process is, nothing in the academic world quite compares to the feeling of spending 20 minutes on a problem, typing in the answer, and being rewarded with the green check mark. Even better is typing in the answers to the different parts of a multi-step problem and getting a neat column of check marks, like your own little audience giving you a round of applause.

            But the most important aspect of WebAssign is this: it makes people do their homework. If it’s late at night and I only have time to do homework for one class and I have to choose between physics WebAssign and something else, I’m choosing WebAssign 100% of the time. Whereas I would be fine with turning in, say, my Calculus homework having completed all but one problem, I would never do that with WebAssign. There’s something about those red X’s that seems to dare me to finish the assignment, just to get rid of them. And I’m not the only one. Alex Nalle ’11 says, “I spend way more effort on WebAssign than I do on my other homework.” Ian Longhore ’11 agrees, “I always keep working until I finish it. Those green checks are just so satisfying.” As aggravating as WebAssign is, there is no better way of getting students to prepare for class than by this electronic carrot-on-a-stick, the perfect column of green check marks.