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Emerging Issues in Smart Learning pp 329–336Cite as

Thinking of Everyone: Responsive Web Design for a Math OER Project

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Educational Technology ((LNET))

Abstract

Presenting mathematical symbols and equations for online learning has been a challenge for educators and web developers. An open educational resource (OER) math website called Math Support for Calculus was built in 2008 at Athabasca University with the goal of supporting learners in first year undergraduate calculus courses. In the project, Flash was used to develop learning activities, for computer users. As the online learning environment is becoming diverse and ubiquitous, this OER project requires a new website with responsive design and a cross-browser mathematical display engine. In this paper, the problems that learners encountered while accessing the current website are described, the rationales for choosing Drupal, MathJax and MathML as the framework to develop this new site are discussed, and the advantages of using MathJax over Flash are analyzed.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Learning Design and Development, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada

    Hongxin Yan

  2. Faculty of Health Disciplines, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada

    Lawrence Poon

Authors
  1. Hongxin Yan
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  2. Lawrence Poon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hongxin Yan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Guang Chen

  2. Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada

    Vive Kumar

  3. Athabasca University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Kinshuk

  4. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Ronghuai Huang

  5. Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

    Siu Cheung Kong

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cite this paper

Yan, H., Poon, L. (2015). Thinking of Everyone: Responsive Web Design for a Math OER Project. In: Chen, G., Kumar, V., Kinshuk, ., Huang, R., Kong, S. (eds) Emerging Issues in Smart Learning. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44188-6_46

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