Academic Use
Academic Use
At Carnegie Mellon and elsewhere, Logic & Proofs is offered as a semester-long or quarter-long course with varying degrees of instructor and TA support.
At CMU, in addition to working through the online material at a specified rate (approximately one chapter per week), the class meets in small groups once a week for an instructor-led discussion session. Active student participation is not only encouraged, but required.
At some institutions, Logic & Proofs is used as the main resource for a course with traditional weekly lectures, as well as meetings with a TA.
At yet other institutions, Logic & Proofs has been offered as a fully self-paced course, with online and drop-in instructor and/or TA support, but without regular class meetings.
In all three modes of use, Logic & Proofs has been found pedagogically effective. See the relevant research by Patchan, Schunn, Sieg, and McLaughlin at the AProS project site.
The course has been taken since 2007 by more than 13,000 students for credit at various institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Mellon Qatar, IUPUI, Francisco Marroquín University (Guatemala), Habib University (Pakistan), Haverford College, University of British Columbia, University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Kent State University, College of Lake County, University of Washington, University of Maryland (College Park), and the University of South Florida.
For instructors wishing to try out or start using Logic & Proofs, there are several versions of the material available in the OLI Course Builder, accessible via an instructor's account on OLI:
The full course, designed for the semester system (13+ weeks), including identity as a core chapter and with functions available as an additional topic. This version includes three midterms and one final exam.
The full course, designed for the semester system (13+ weeks), including predicate logic only in the core topics, with both identity and functions available as additional topics. This version includes three midterms and one final exam.
A slightly reduced course, designed for the quarter system (10 weeks), including identity as a core chapter and with functions available as an additional topic. Chapters omitted in the core material are made available for reference in the additional topics. This version includes one midterm and one final exam
Sentential logic only. This version includes a final exam.
The exams included in these versions are optional. They can be removed from the course syllabus in the Course Builder, or left in but not assigned, instead serving as optional practice activities. We also have available versions of the material that include different numbers of exams, with the exam timing being somewhat different. Please contact us for details if you are interested in the possibility of using a different exam suite.
For instructors wishing to include functions as a core topic, or make any other alterations to the selection of core vs additional material, we are able to accommodate most such requests (given advance notice), and are happy to work with you to determine the best selection of core material to suit your needs.
The versions of the material mentioned above make all lab problems available to students at all times. We also offer precondition versions with the same content and exam options as those above that restrict access to lab problems as follows: students must complete in-chapter lab activities to unlock the chapter review problems, and must complete the review problem sets (by finishing at least one problem in each set) in order to unlock the chapter lab assignment. Instructors interested in using these additional preconditions in their sections should please contact us for more information and assistance setting up a course that uses them.