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Differential Equations - The Modern Approach

Differential Equations is a sophomore-level course in the calculus sequence, taken after the Calculus II course (integration theory with Taylor Series, Sequences, et al.)

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Classical Differential Equations is all about being presented with a type of differential equation, and then learning the paper and pencil techniques to solve the given type differential equation. Classically, you run out of easy differential equations very quickly, and the second half of the course is usually tasked with generalizing functions to Power Series representations, and finding - by hand! - the power series definitions that solve the next level of more difficult differential equation types.

A modern approach to differential equations is forget all of that paper and pencil classical technique - after all, is it really important to learn how to calculate the square root of 3 by hand? Our Modern approach to Differential Equations via the Calculus&Mathematica curriculum is to look at differential equations as what they mean - not how to solve the (rather trivial) cases you can do by hand. Having a powerful tool like Mathematica means you can obtain the solution of a differential equation (if there is one!), but what does the solution mean? How do you interpret it? What does its graph mean? What if the differential equation changes just slightly? What is a driving term?

This modern approach to Differential Equations is a superior approach for physics, economics, and data science. Instead of having a bag of "here's how you solve this differential equation by hand", students leave the course with an appreciation to engage against any differential equation!

Here is a video on the Differential Equation course:

Differential Equation Course



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Freshman Mathematics Courses
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Distance Calculus - Student Reviews

Anonymous★★★★☆
Posted: Jan 12, 2020
Courses Completed: Calculus I, Calculus II
I needed to brush up on my high school calculus and finally take Calc II before starting a graduate program that needed them as prereqs. This was perfect choice to fit in that summer. Got done at fast pace that I wanted and needed. Also had added bonus of one on one feedback and help when needed. Video lessons were better than many on campus instructors in large lecture settings. Recommend for anyone needing to satisfy prereqs at home institution.
Transferred Credits To: University of Michigan
Brian Finley★★★★★
Posted: Jan 12, 2020
Courses Completed: Calculus II
I took Calculus II through Distance Calculus and can't recommend it enough. Being able to take the course at my own pace while I was working full time was tremendously helpful, especially since I hadn't taken a math course for 5 years prior. The instruction was excellent and the software they used to teach the course was intuitive and facilitated the learning process very well. This calc II class enabled me to take multivariable calc, linear algebra, and real analysis at Harvard University's extension school, which ultimately qualified me for the economics PhD program that I will graduate from next year. 8 years on, I'm still grateful to Professor Curtis and Distance Calculus.
Jenny Zuercher★★★★☆
Posted: May 18, 2025
Courses Completed: Precalculus, Calculus II
Dr. Curtis's courses are very difficult, but they are definitely worth it! I took Calculus 2 from Dr. Curtis in my senior year of high school and went into a combined Calculus 2 and Calculus 3 course my first year of college. This course prepared me, and I found that I already knew much of the Calculus 3 coursework. The most difficult part of these courses, in my opinion, is pacing yourself. If you can keep yourself on track, then you are all good to go!
Email: jenz2.home@icloud.com
Transferred Credits To: University of Iowa
Aiden B.★★★★★
Posted: Jul 29, 2026
Courses Completed: Calculus II, Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra
After completing all the math offered by my highschool, I switched over to Roger Williams for Calculus II and onward. Overall, it has been a pretty great way to understand the topics online, with transferrable college credits. The exams are not terrible, and the courses cover the vast majority (if not all) of topics covered by traditional courses, with some unique ones added to. So far, I have taken four courses, with another one or two before I graduate.

The only problem with the course is the lack of pen and paper work. This shouldn't come as a crazy surprise with an online course, but there is not much emphasis on symbolic computation. Mathematica or other software does most of the heavy computation for you. The lectures usually show how to solve the problems through paper, but those skills are rarely put into practice. Literacy Sheets act as a way to do some of that (especially with the Calculus II & III course).

All in all, this isn't a huge issue. I just memorize and practice things like double integration, Laplace, ODE solving, matrix diagonalized form, row operations, etc. With a little outside work, this resolves itself. Without Roger WIlliams, I probably would not have been able to take any of these math courses in highschool.

So overall, a great choice for highschool advanced math, especially with transferrable credits.
Email: abarger@protonmail.com
Lucas L.★★★★★
Posted: Jun 25, 2026
Courses Completed: Multivariable Calculus
The professor as well as the TAs give great feedback when you need help with problems and the videos are great at explaining concepts. Return time on work is good and the work is not too much to handle.
Transferred Credits To: University of Wisconsin
Hari K.★★★★☆
Posted: Jun 24, 2026
Courses Completed: Linear Algebra
This course gives a perspective on Linear algebra that no traditional course does. I’d say i gained much more intuition for this subject from the DC course than my friends who took traditional courses elsewhere. As a cs major, this version of learning with visualization has helped me a lot in understand ML models. However the course doesn’t have videos for the last 2 chapers so i had to self learn with the mathematica notebooks. Response times are a little slow but since it’s a remote class, i guess it’s justified. Overall amazing course and definitely take this over traditional lin alg classes.
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