Economics Graphing Tool Directions

Instructor Notes

We often find that the issues students encounter are related to skipping the directions and tutorial assignment, so we strongly recommend assigning the Tutorial activity in Smartwork. If your students experience further challenges with Smartwork or with the graphing tool, please have them submit a ticket to the W. W. Norton service desk. 

Directions on how to use the graphing tool may be found here; the tutorial questions are available as an assignment titled “Smartwork Tutorial.” The notes below are intended to help you answer some common questions your students might have. This information is also included in the student directions.

  1. I believe I answered the question correctly/my answer looks like the solution, but I was graded incorrect.

Ensure that your student carefully read the directions to the question. Some questions require students to take two distinct actions; for instance, plotting points with the point tool and then plotting a curve with the curved-line or straight-line tool. If the student plotted the curve but not the points, the question will be marked incorrect.

2. The question told me to shift the line, so I drew it in the correct area but was marked incorrect.

Shifting questions require the student to pick up and move the curves that exist on the graph, rather than drawing new ones.

3. At any time, should you wish to reset a student’s attempts on a question to allow them a fresh attempt, you may do so by following the directions here