Students hate doing it and teachers dread grading it.
But innovators say homework on the World Wide Web can be more educationally challenging for students and easier to grade and record for teachers. Now, North Carolina State University is offering grants to high school teachers in North Carolina to try WebAssign, an online homework system that delivers, collects, grades and records assignments. NC State educators developed the service, which currently provides homework on the Web for more than 5,000 students at NC State and 1,500 at high schools and colleges nationwide. WebAssign saves teachers time in grading homework while offering students individualized homework problems and immediate feedback, says Dr. John Risley, professor of physics at NC State and coordinator of the system. The system has a number of customizable features that give flexibility to teachers and create unique learning environments for students.