The Expert TA – Introductory Physics

A Powerful Assessment Solution for Introductory Physics

What is included with Expert TA’s Introductory Physics Platform?

Independent Library: Developed by active faculty, the Expert TA problems have been designed to work well with any textbook.
Academic Integrity: Expert TA offers a suite of tools to help ensure students are doing the work themselves on both homework and secure remote exams.
Hints/Feedback: Based on a data-mining initiative, specific, Socratic feedback for each incorrect answer is made available to students.
OpenStax: Expert TA has proudly partnered with OpenStax and offers enhanced versions of both College and University Physics.
Problem Authoring: Our new authoring tool allows instructors to create any of our powerful question types.
Cost: $32.50 per student per semester, $21.67 per student per quarter, and we cap the cost per student at $65.

Upcoming Events

Summer 2021 Series on Problem Authoring (Dates TBD): Pre-Register by using the provided form. We will reach out to you directly when dates have been finalized.

Recent Past Events

May 20th Problem Authoring Workshop: Please use the provided form to request access to the recording.
March 16, 2021 Webinar: Exam Security and Problem Authoring Preview (Recording available HERE)

Problem Authoring

Instructors need to have their own problems, especially when trying to deliver secure exams. With Expert TA’s new problem authoring tool (May 2021 release) you can design problems that contain any of our powerful question types, such as those seen below. This includes automatically-graded free body diagrams, symbolic expressions, any of our advanced graphical questions, algorithmic questions with random numbers for each student, and any of the basic questions that you would expect, such as: multiple-choice, true/false, etc. The following four minute video highlights the upcoming problem authoring tool.

Automatically-Graded Free Body Diagrams

Not only are Free Body Diagrams automatically graded, but Expert TA does so with partial credit and feedback specific to mistakes within the drawings.

This allows students to participate in guided practice while completing a step that is critical to solving many physics problems. Through flexible Grade Preference settings, instructors are able to control how students will be graded for FBD questions.

“Regarding your free body diagram exercises and drawing tool, I want to say Bravo! FBDs are a source of consternation for my students. This is a great resource for myself and my colleagues who use Expert TA.”
– Prof. Malcolm Rickard, Mt. San Antonio

Symbolic Expressions and Algorithmic Questions

With a focus on reinforcing the problem-solving process, students are asked to solve multi-step problems in Expert TA that require answering symbolic questions in intermediate parts. Of course we have numeric, multiple choice and other question types, but Expert TA focuses its efforts on reinforcing the problem-solving process. Our robust math engine interprets the expressions that students intend regardless of the form and our proprietary equation entry palette makes it intuitive for students to input expressions.

Both expressions and algorithmic questions in Expert TA are designed with specific feedback for the most common mistakes that students make. Our data-mining process is able to identify the most commonly submitted incorrect answers. Our team of physics instructors is used to author Socratic feedback specific to each mistake.

Interactive Question Types

Expert TA has a class of Advanced Graphical questions where students interact with diagrams, schematics, graphs, etc. The question types include Ranking Sorting, Matching, and Drag-and-Drop Labeling. See the cycling animation below for examples.

Studies show that students retain more information when concepts are brought to life with educational exercises that are more interactive.

Drag-and-Drop labeling: questions can really get students thinking about the material. We have questions that
Ranking: Students actively order elements related to their size, sequence, etc.

Sorting/Categorizing: Students group items based on specified criteria.
Matching/Pairing: Items are moved to be paired with their corresponding relational “mate”.

Solutions

Having detailed and thorough solutions available to students is critical. Expert TA’s Introductory Physics library has comprehensive, step-by-step solutions.

Formatted Math: Our solutions utilize MathJax and “LaTeX-for-the-web”, providing textbook quality presentation of math and scientfic equations.
Thorough: Students need much more than a list of the formulas used to get to an answer. Our solutions provide in-depth commentary about why each intermediate relationship is used and any nuance of how it was applied.
Student Specific Numbers: With our solutions, students see the random numbers from their questions rather than example numbers.
Instructor Control: Instructors have full control as to how solutions are released or whether they are released at all.
Step-Based: Detailed explanations can be released as students complete each part of a problem. This allows them to see the full solution for Part a of problem, before moving on to the rest of the questions.

To view examples of our full solutions please Click Here.

A Stress-Free Semester

You and your students should be thinking about physics, not about course set-up and technological configurations. Expert TA knows this and has gone to great lengths to make the entire experience as smooth as possible.

Simple Registration: You share a registration link, students go through an easy three-step process, and they are enrolled and taking assignments.
LMS Integration: Instructors can synchronize grades with their LMS gradebook. For students, single sign-on provides access to all the course materials from one location.
A Commitment to Customer Service: The company was created on the idea of building great educational solutions, but to the Account Managers at Expert TA we think of ourselves first as a customer service company.

I like the idea of guiding students, giving them a little more information each time they ask for help. I also think they should get the right answer. I am big about partial credit. If they got a number wrong, they got a number wrong. But I also believe in giving them a lot of credit if they have the right steps. With Expert TA’s true partial credit grading system, instructors can do both.
Ellen Siem, PhD., Senior Instructor, Department of Physics, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR

With my students, I found that Expert TA was a way for them to help themselves, rather than seeing it as something that is just being assigned so they can get a grade. Initially, I set it up so they lose very little for clicking hints. I also gave them up to 10 different times to submit an answer. They are able to work through a problem on their own rather than being worried that asking for hints would get them a zero.
Matt Evans, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire