What is LON-CAPA? Who is LON-CAPA? Documentation Installation Scholarship Developers Events
The LearningOnline Network with CAPA
Computer Algebra System
LON-CAPA works with
the MAXIMA
CAS 
and the R project systems.
- This allows for problems that check student answers for mathematical properties rather than simply for agreement with a system-provided answer. For example, the problem depicted on this page has infinitely many correct answers.
- Answer can be checked for exact algebraic equivalence, for example, sqrt(2) is different from 1.41421356..., which a numerical calculation would not reliably reveal.
- MAXIMA can also be used to generate problems, for example, generate algebraic expressions with certain properties.
- R can be used to randomly generate distributions with desired properties.
Some problem examples can be found on the demo page.
You can also see some LON-CAPA code examples, click on the "Text" of the most recent version to see the XML:- Formularesponse with Maxima
- Mathresponse with Maxima
- Using MAXIMA to generate the problem
- Numerical problem using R
We have combined this with the DragMath formula
editor.
If you are interested in the implementation, please find these notes on how to use MAXIMA as a server.
Contact Us: lon-capa@lon-capa.org
Site maintained by Gerd Kortemeyer.
Supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF-ITR 0085921, NSF-CCLI-ASA 0243126, and NSF-CCLI 0717790. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Initial funding for CAPA has been provided by the Alfred. P. Sloan Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
