STEM Toolbox - Using LaTex to Teach Effectively Online

The challenge in taking hard sciences like Mathematics and Chemistry online is that these languages needs to be precise. An important step in helping students develop their own understanding of these complex problems is not giving students the answers and having them reverse engineer how to get to the correct response. Or guessing whichever multiple choice answer is close to the answer they arrived at after doing their work.

A better approach is to use an online assessment tool which allows for flexibility as well as precision in submitting their response. This is particularly important as schools devote more resources towards developing STEM curriculum for distance and hybrid learners. For schools using light boxes or whiteboards to draw out complex formulas the experience is only flowing one way (Instructor to Student). In order to enable a two-way information flow between the students and teachers, or student to student, you need to give them the tools necessary to speak the language.