Create Active and Engaging Online Math Homework with Derivita! 

When creating online math homework assignments, it's easy to fall into the trap of routine. While consistency can be good and necessary for both you and your students, creating unique and engaging take-home math assignments can be fun and something for your students to look forward to. 

Utilize these five best practices to create out-of-the-box math homework assignments within Derivita!

1. Step away from multiple choice questions. 

With Derivita you can choose from 25+ question types with our powerful Authoring Tools including the Simplified Question Editor and the Advanced Authoring platform. Derivita allows for the use of multimedia in the stimulus, stem, and student response modes (e.g. video, images, text, interactive graphs, and manipulatives). Derivita also supports both auto-graded and manually graded options along with multi-modal input to allow multiple opportunities and methods for students to demonstrate learning.

Choose between these question types

:

• Multiple choice
• Multiple select
• Matching
• Fill-in-the-blank
• Drag-and-drop
• Highlight and replace
• Lists
• Expression, equation, interval, matrix, odds
• Graphing and plotting (including 2D and 3D graphing and Desmos enabled questions)
• Simulations and animations
• Short answer or free response
• Sketching and drawing (including sketching and drawing on diagrams and images)
• Essay (including text, typeset math, sketching and drawing, video, web link, and image upload)

You can ensure compatibility with your State Standards, while customizing your take-home assignments to be fun and interactive. Say goodbye to the same old multiple choice questions that limit the students’ ability to show their understanding of and skills with key concepts!

2. Utilize Derivita question randomizations within our Math Test Bank. 

With the Derivita Math Test Bank you have access to over 65,000 questions ranging from grade 6 concepts all the way through AP Calculus and beyond. Each of these questions come with fully worked-out solutions and 10’s to 100’s of randomizations for each question. Additionally, each question comes complete automated meaningful feedback for each student as they work through the “derivitized” question and auto-grading options to save you time and effort. 

Remix your homework assignments with curated questions from the Derivita Math Test Bank and individualize each assignment for each student by choosing from a selection of randomized questions that range in difficulty levels. This allows each student to be challenged in their own way and also find success depending on their level of understanding of key concepts. 

This individualized approach to mastery-style education will improve student performance and confidence. 

3. Require students to demonstrate their thought processes with Show Work.

A lot of math teachers out there will recommend students work through a problem with pencil and paper to make room for mistakes and their full thought process even when working on a digital assignment. 

Derivita takes this recommendation one step further and allows students to upload images of their written work directly to a digital assignment. Students can snap a picture of their work with their phone or tablet and upload it directly to the Derivita assignment within their LMS without additional apps, downloads, or hardware. 

You, as the teacher, can then review images of their written work alongside their digital responses easily within the LMS Gradebook. You then get further insight into the students’ thought process and students still get to use their preferred paper materials without losing points, time, or effort in their digital classroom. 

4. Incorporate Free Response style questions. 

By incorporating free-response or essay-style questions into your math assignments, you are allowing your students to show more higher-order thinking. They get to fully demonstrate their skills and understanding of key concepts. 

Here students can upload images, links, graphs, or written responses with mathematical characters and the possibilities are truly endless!

Learn more about Free Response Questions in Derivita here. 

5. Incorporate “SpotCheck” into your homework review. 

As you review full homework assignments from the night before or questions that proved to be difficult for your students, try incorporating SpotCheck into this review period. With SpotCheck you can assess your students in real-time, increase in-class engagement and participation, and facilitate mathematical discourse. This tool can assist to bring a new level of interaction and socialization to your in-person or digital math classroom on a daily basis.