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Recently, a number of questions have been marked [Homework] which is highly correlated with start of the new fall semester. While it's good that OR-Exchange is attracting new visitors, it should not become a problem solving forum for students. However, we might be able to provide these students with some resources for solving their problems. As someone who has taught OR courses and has been a TA for various OR-related courses, I think introducing students to some of the tutorial software (or websites) which are interactive can enhance their learning (in fact, some famous textbooks in OR have them as one of their accompanying materials). On the negative side, some of these software (or websites) can be a problem solving machine and do many of the works a student should do by himself with no help from outside (some of these software come as far as creating the whole Simplex tableau for solving a LP automatically). Therefore, use of these tutorial software must be ultimately the instructor's choice. Since many OR educators are members of this site, I thought surveying their opinion before posting such list would be for the best. So, please let me know about your opinion. After reviewing all the pros and cons, I'll mark this question a wiki and start compiling the list with help of other members. |
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I definitely think that a list of tutorial resources would be great. I don't think there is any advantage in making tutorial sites hard to get to, even though some students may overuse them instead of doing work themselves. Anyone motivated enough to hunt down resources on the internet and figure out how to use them will probably be ok anyway. Another point is that by having a list of resources, motivated educators can see where they might be lacking and perhaps develop new tutorials themselves. I completely agree with you. As I've seen students who are not capable of a simple search for finding these software or don't even know about them, I think compiling this list would be a great help to them.
(Nov 07 '11 at 05:16)
Ehsan ♦
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In regard to students on ORX, then majority of users here do want to help, if the student just did some thinking on his own and asked a specific question. The problem is the homework question we have now is just someone completely arrogantly pasting a question from a assignment. Those questions will keep coming no matter what we do. That being said I do like the idea of providing more information for self help.
(Nov 07 '11 at 05:23)
Bo Jensen ♦
@Ehsan: I'm in need of a complete idiot's guide to COIN-OR, by the way.
(Nov 07 '11 at 12:15)
fbahr ♦
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@fbahr: Me too. I really want to use COIN-OR in my research. However, I think its help is not suitable for self study and you might need someone to guide you through. Maybe it would be a good idea to compile a list for good tutorials of various optimization software.
(Nov 07 '11 at 12:40)
Ehsan ♦
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@fbahr: I just came across this tutorial for COIN-OR and thought perhaps you've not seen this before. http://coral.ie.lehigh.edu/~coin/ The examples seem nice and detailed.
(Nov 18 '11 at 03:16)
Ehsan ♦
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This answer is marked "community wiki".
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Similar to LEKIN: LiSA, a library of scheduling algorithms - that also comes with a simple GUI (which, and that's a nifty feature, integrates Brucker's problem complexity database: http://lisa.math.uni-magdeburg.de/img/scr/classify.png)
(Nov 20 '11 at 05:01)
fbahr ♦
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A new paper has been recently published on the subject in INFORMS Transaction on Education entitled "The Effectiveness of Using a Web-Based Applet to Teach Concepts of Linear Programming: An Experiment in Active Learning" by Christine T. Kydd. The author has introduced some of available web-based applications for learning linear programming in addition to a new applet she's been using in her courses. The author's comparative study has demonstrated the positive effect of using web-based applets. I think it's worth checking out for everybody who is interested in the topic. In addition, the applet developed by the author seems decent and user friendly. |
I'll post my initial list as an answer and I mark it as a wiki. Should I edit the title of the question to show that this is list or should create a new question? If our admins think the answer would be better as a separate new question, please feel free to convert it.