Contact Information: My contact information is posted on my web page.
Office Hours for 2020 - 2021 Fall Semester: I will provide help online via text chat and video calls in the Teams program
Course Description: Course in discrete mathematical structures and their applications with an introduction to methods of proofs. The main topics are introductions to logic and elementary set theory, basic number theory, induction and recursion, counting techniques, graph theory and algorithms. Applications may include discrete and network optimization, discrete probability and algorithmic efficiency.
Prerequisites: C or better in MATH 2301 or MATH 263B and WARNING: No credit for both this course and CS 3000 (first course taken deducted)
Special Needs: If you have physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities that require accommodations, please let me know as soon as possible so that your needs may be appropriately met.
Course Format: Sections 100 and 101 (Class Numbers 6572 and 6573) will be asynchronous online courses. That is, there will be no face-to-face meetings, all content will be delivered online, all assessment will be done online, and all events will be on a flexible time schedule. (Days will be scheduled; time of day will not be scheduled.)
Available Help: Of course, I will not be holding any in-person office hours. I will also not be holding any regularly-scheduled online help sessions because in the past I have found that nobody goes to those online sessions. Students who need one-on-one help can e-mail me or send me a message using the Teams app, and we can arrange individual help sessions to be held via Teams video calls.
Required Computer Tools:
Microsoft Teams is an online collaboration tool that provides group chat, channeled conversations, instant messaging, live document collaboration, audio or video calls, and meetings. Teams is used extensively at Ohio University, and is made available free to students, faculty, and staff. It will be used extensively in MATH 1350. (In particular, our initial class meeting will be held in Teams.) For that reason, all students in MATH 1350 need to make sure that they are able to access Teams, either on a desktop or laptop computer, or on a mobile device. Click on the link at right for more information.
(link to information about Microsoft Teams)
Blackboardis an online learning management system (LMS) used at Ohio University. Access to Blackboard is free for students, faculty, and staff. Each class that a student takes has an associated Blackboard site. What exactly happens on that Blackboard site depends on how the instructor for the course has set it up. Students in MATH 1350 sections taught by Mark Barsamian will use Blackboard for Accessing MyLab Math and for seeing their current course grades. They may also take quizzes or exams on the Blackboard site. The Blackboard system for Ohio University can be reached by clicking on this link:
(Blackboard for Ohio University)
WebAssignis an online system system developed by Cengage, the publisher of the textbook. Students will use the WebAssign for accessing an eText version of the textbook, and for solving math problems as part of homework assignments, quizzes, and exams.
Students will access the WebAssign system, including the eText, through the Blackboard site for this ourse.
Access to WebAssign is not free, but rather is paid for through the Inclusive Access Program at Ohio University. See information below on this web page for more information about the Inclusive Access Program.
Camscanner is a very useful free cellphone app that uses a cellphone camera to take a picture of a document, and then crops and sharpens the image and turns it into a PDF file. This is very useful for students who need to submit homework electronically. It is helpful to the instructor, because when the instructor receives a PDF of the homework, it is easy to add comments. For that reason, all students in MATH 3050 need to install the app.
(link to Camscanner web page)
The Inclusive Access Program:
Ohio University MATH 3050 is part of the Inclusive Access Program at Ohio University. That means that when students register for MATH 3050, they automatically get access to the course materials that they will need for the course. These materials include the online WebAssignsystem and an online eText copy of the textbook. During the first two weeks of the course, students will use WebAssign and the eText for free. The cost of the online materials will be billed automatically to their student account AFTER the deadline to drop the class at the end of the second week of the course, Friday, September 4, 2020. (In other words, if they drop the course before the drop deadline, they will not be charged anything for having used the online materials.) Cost of the online materials is roughly $71.25 plus 7% Ohio sales tax, for a total of roughly $76.24. Students will access the WebAssign system, including the eText, through the Blackboard site for their MATH 3050 course.
Optional Upgrades:
If a student has more than one course that uses a textbook published by Cengage and that is part of the Inclusive Access Program, then the student might want to consider upgrading to Cengage Unlimited. This entails paying an additional $48.74, for a total payment of $71.25 + $48.74 = $119.99. The upgrade gives the student digital access to the online content for all of their courses that use books published by Cengage.
Students who prefer reading a printed book, rather than an eText, can purchase an optional loose-leaf print copy of the textbook for about $45 at the bookstore.
Syllabus: This web page replaces the usual paper syllabus. If you need a copy of the syllabus (now or in the future), unhide the next three portions of hidden content (Textbook, Calendar, Grading) and then print this entire web page on paper or print it to a PDF file.
Textbook Information:
Title: Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 5th Edition
Author: Susanna Epp
Publisher: Cengage, 2020
Obtaining the book: Ohio University MATH 3050 is part of the Inclusive Access Program at Ohio University. That means that when you register for MATH 3050, you automatically get access to the WebAssign system run by Cengage, the publisher of our textbook. This system includes an online eText copy of the textbook. You will access the WebAssign system and the eText through the Blackboard site for the course.
Paying for the book: Access to the WebAssign system and the eText is not free, but rather is paid for through the Inclusive Access Program at Ohio University. See information above on this web page for more information about the Inclusive Access Program.
Optional Upgrades: Students who prefer reading a printed book, rather than an eText, can purchase an optional loose-leaf print copy of the textbook for about $45 at the bookstore.
Calendar:
Calendar for 2020 - 2021 Fall Semester MATH 3050 Sections 100 and 101 (Class Numbers 6572 and 6573), taught by Mark Barsamian
Week 1 (Mon Aug 24 through Fri Aug 28)
Section 1.1 Variables
H01.1: 1.1#2,6,11,13
Section 1.2 The Language of Sets
H01.2: 1.2#4,5,8,12,15
Section 1.3 The Language of relations and functions