Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning

Welcome!

We are living in truly unprecedented times, so I'm sure you all have a million questions about this course. I don't know that I have answers to all of them, but here is some basic information about how the course will run that I wanted you to know right away:

  • We are using an open-access textbook called Book of Proof. You can access it for free, online here: https://www.people.vcu.edu/~rhammack/BookOfProof/. This is not the textbook listed on the department's website. I'll also be posting lots of extra notes and videos for the course content.
  • This class will run asynchronously. What that means for you in practice is that you will not be required to log in at a pre-determined time.
    • All of the course content will be available to you on this site and on Canvas as soon as I'm finished preparing it.
    • Your assignments can be completed whenever makes the most sense for you, as long as they are done by their respective deadlines.
    • You will have to schedule meetings with me and possibly with some of your classmates, but you'll have flexibility in choosing the days/times those happen.
    • This does not mean there will not be any student-instructor or student-student engagement. Quite the contrary. I am building in many opportunities for discussion, feedback, and other modes of engagement in the course.
  • You are required to have some sort of camera and microphone. A webcam on a laptop or other computer would be ideal, but a smartphone will also get the job done. If you don't have access to this technology, we may be able to come up with a workaround, but you'll need to talk to me about that before the class starts.
Those are the main things for now. This announcement is on the Canvas site as well, but you'll notice that there's not much else there at the moment, because most of the rest of it isn't ready. I hope to have a lot more on here in a few weeks. For now, focus on your spring finals, and I'll see you at the end of May. If you have questions that haven't been addressed here, you are always welcome to email me at ceu11@math.rutgers.edu.

Syllabus

Click here for a PDF of the syllabus.