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[dept_geek]

Completely online class. Undergrad. Math-ish course.

I am looking at ways of changing things up for next year. One of the areas is exams. Right now, my exams are pretty lame ( I depend more on homeworks, which I know I shouldn't). 

I began to explore the "Calculated Formula" kinds of text questions:

Using the blah-dee-blah formula, what is the blah of x?  And then BB uses the right formula (assuming you type it in correctly!) for some range of a variable called x.

It looks useful. BUT. Has anyone used it and was it successful?  I imagine this would appear in courses with a significant math component.

thanks.

[high_energy_photons]

I love this function!  I use it all the time.  You do have to be careful about the formula, decimal places for answers, and specifying how you want your answers (do you want it exact or is within 2% good enough?).  Otherwise, it is a fantastic tool, though with a steep learning curve for how to use it.

[magistra]

I can't say specifically about this function, but I want to agree with HEP about the steep learning curve.  Test it six ways from Sunday before you use it on students.  Really know the system; talk with your IT people, if they're any good; and get work study students to test it or in some other way do a "real time" test.  Do a homework or self-test that's set up exactly like the exams so the students know how to use it before they start.  A lot of Bb's functions are great once you've got them down, but there's always some unexpected tricky little thing that messes up everything.  You don't want it to happen on an exam.

[high_energy_photons]

I also strongly advise that you allow students to do more than one attempt, at least the first time you use this exam feature.  This allows for mistakes in exam writing, various technical issues, and a variety of concerns.  If you decide on only one attempt, you may want to require it in a testing lab or other facility with known technical level (or be VERY specific about technical requirements).  You don't want to have student X struggling through a test because he or she made the poor choice of taking it over dial-up.