MyMathLab® versus Distance Calculus Comparison

Many online (and classroom-based) Calculus-level courses are driven by the MyMathLab® system from Pearson Education.

Many thousands of students use the MyMathLab® system for the Calculus courses. MyMathLab® is a website-based system for doing homework problems associated to traditional Calculus textbooks published by Pearson. For many students, MyMathLab is ubitious with doing Calculus homework in their calculus courses. MyMathLab® offers instructional videos, and multiple choice problem sets where you do your Calculus problems by hand and then choose multiple choice answers from a selection of correct and incorrect answer choices.

Perhaps you have taken a class using MyMathLab®. Perhaps you enjoyed it and benefited from their system, which for many students helps them progress through their Calculus courses more successfully than just doing homework on paper with pencil and handing these homework sets into their instructors.

Distance Calculus @ Roger Williams University does not use MyMathLab® - we do not believe in multiple choice based homework problem sets. Such multiple choice systems are good as a test-taking tool, but they are lacking for a true educational experience of doing mathematics with live human instructors.

If you have found success with multiple choice systems, there are plenty of options to choose from around the internet for completing such a course.

However, if you find multiple choice systems unappealing, we invite you to investigate the course structure and materials of Distance Calculus.

Comparison of MyMathLab® vs Distance Calculus

Topic	MyMathLab®	Distance Calculus
Multiple Choice	Yes	No
Use of Computer Algebra System	No	Yes, Extensive
Tied to Traditional Textbook	Yes	No, Reform e-Curriculum
Recursive Grading	Sort of	Yes
Comprehensive Course System	Mostly just homework	Yes
Drill & Practice	Yes	No

Here are a few videos about Distance Calculus @ Roger Williams University:

Is Distance Calculus for You?

Success Indicators for Distance Calculus

Distance Calculus - Student Reviews

Date Posted: Jan 12, 2020
Review by: Anonymous
Courses Completed: Calculus I
Review: This course is amazing! I took it as a requirement for admission to an MBA program, and couldn't have been happier with the quality and rigor of the course. I previously took calculus two times (at a public high school and then a large public university commonly cited as a "public ivy"), this course was by far the best and *finally* made the concepts click. Previously I had no idea what was going on because terrible PhD students were teaching the course and saying stuff like "a derivative is the slope of a tangent line" - ??? but what does that mean ???, but the instructors in the Shorter University course explain everything in ways where it FINALLY made sense (e.g., "imagine a roller coaster hitting the top of a hill, there's a moment where it shifts momentum and you're not accelerating or decelerating, that's what a 0 rate of change is - that's when the derivative would be zero"). They explain everything in multiple ways and relate it to other concepts. It all made perfect sense when I finally had a good instructor. Really recommend this class
Transferred Credits to: The Wharton School, UPenn

Date Posted: Apr 30, 2020
Review by: Hannah J.
Courses Completed: Probability Theory
Review: Probability Theory was a great course. Very very thorough. I thought it would never end :). I was very prepared for my coursework in economics. Excellent refereshher of derivatives and integrals - really forced me to remember that stuff from freshman cal.
Transferred Credits to: Boston University

Date Posted: Dec 9, 2019
Review by: Louisa A.
Courses Completed: Calculus I
Review: My microeconomics class required college-level calculus as a prerequisite, and I didn't want to wait until next year to take the class. So, I took DC's Calculus I class over the summer, so I could register for econ when I got back to school this fall. I actually think I got more help taking the class online than I would have in the huge lecture classes here. Prof. Curtis was really clear in explaining concepts and talking me through the topics that I was having trouble with. It took me about 10 weeks to finish the class, which didn't seem too long and didn't feel rushed. My friends who are in calculus now, trying to finish the prereq, are pretty jealous!