2008 Stanford Summer Session e-Learning Mathematics

Developed by the Stanford Mathematics Department and the Stanford Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), these university-level distance-learning courses are designed for disciplined, enthusiastic, self-motivated students who desire the flexibility and self-directed nature of this nontraditional learning environment.

These courses are available to undergraduates or graduate students (or high-school graduates) enrolled in the Stanford University Summer Session Summer Quarter (regardless of whether these students will be physically present at Stanford).

Note: These courses are not open to students who have not yet graduated high-school; those students should apply directly to EPGY and enroll in the appropriate mathematics courses offered year-round. For information about EPGY in general and the courses it offers year-round to students of all ages, go to the EPGY home page.

For more information on these special Summer Session e-learning courses, use the links just under the yellow bar at the top of the page. If you have any other questions, please contact Marc Sanders.

Course Model

The e-learning courses consist of streamed (shockwave flash) multimedia lectures in which voice is accompanied by synchronized text and graphics, capturing the informal nature of classroom instruction, while preserving a level of rigor appropriate to the subject matter. Off-line work includes traditional textbook reading assignments and exercises. Tests are emailed to the student as pdf attachments and returned to the instructor via fax or regular postal mail. For tutorial support, your instructor will be available by email and telephone.

The courses run for eight weeks. However, by their nature the courses are self-paced; therefore, a student may progress through the lessons more quickly, and may complete the course in fewer than eight weeks, if so desired.

The course grade is determined by the student's performance on the tests, which must be submitted on or before certain dates throughout the quarter.

Students are expected to purchase their own textbooks.

As mentioned above, the lectures are streamed, so you will need a recent version of one of the standard web browsers (such as IE, Firefox, etc.), and it's best to have a Windows machine running Vista, XP, or 2000, or an Intel-based Mac with OS X (10.4 or better).