unrami hq · for mathematics departments
Tokenizingmath education.
unrami hq compiles your syllabus into rules a computer enforces. It breaks mathematics into atoms: a step, a tool, a definition, a check. From those atoms it writes your teaching materials and runs your office hours, in your notation and by your method.
Part I The syllabus, compiled
§1 Syllabus as code
Your syllabus,
as machine code.
A syllabus is already a program. It is written in English, so until now the only thing that could run it was you, one email at a time.
HQ reads each policy and emits a rule with an id, typed conditions and an outcome for every kind of request: approve, deny, answer (a question the syllabus settles) or route to you. Every rule carries the sentence of the syllabus it comes from, and that sentence is what the student is shown.
A rule is a sentence of the syllabus together with a function from requests to {approve, deny, answer, route}; the first rule whose conditions hold decides, and a missing fact is asked for, never assumed.
Late passes
Each student has two late passes. A pass extends any homework deadline by 48 hours. No reason is needed, and a pass carries no penalty. Late homework is not accepted once both passes are used.
{ "id": "hw.late-pass", "request": "late_homework", "outcome": "approve", "when": [ "passes_used < 2", "hours_late <= 48" ], "reply": "… no penalty," "no explanation needed.", "then": "hw.late-after-passes", "evidence": "A late pass lets" "you finish one assignment up" "to 48 hours after its due date" "with no penalty …", "source": "wizard" }
Your late pass is used automatically: finish it up to 48 hours after the due date, no penalty, no explanation needed.
§2 Rewrite service
Every detail,
every policy,
every year.
Departmental guidance changes every year. Last year's syllabus is usually out of date on the first day of term.
The rewrite reads your whole syllabus line by line against the current package and returns LaTeX plus a change list. Each change says what changed, why, and which clause it came from. Some fixes are guaranteed in code rather than left to a model: the university policy paragraph, the midterm wording, and grades written out in words.
When the department publishes new guidance, we update the package and re-check your syllabus against it.
§3 Policy packages
The policies you can add,
word for word.
Pick the packages when you build or rewrite a syllabus. Each clause goes into the syllabus as written here, and the office-hours desk answers students from the same text. Open a package to read its clauses.
Department guidelines (Fall 2026)required, always included11 clausesEverything the department head asked for this year.
Please read and make sure you are familiar with the important policies that apply to all UO courses, which can be found at University Course Policies: a Guide for Students. The University is committed to providing equal opportunities to all students in a learning environment free from discrimination and harassment. Students with disabilities may request accommodations by contacting the Accessible Education Center (AEC) at uoaec@uoregon.edu or 541-346-1155. Students in need of accommodations due to pregnancy, military leave, and religious observances should contact the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access at eoa@uoregon.edu or 541-326-3123.
This course does not have excused or unexcused absences, and I will never ask why you missed something; you do not need to tell me. The flexibility is built in for everyone: your two lowest homework scores dropped, two late passes, your two lowest quiz scores dropped, and the missed-midterm rule. Attendance itself is not graded, except that quizzes and exams must be taken in class.
As in every UO class, there are required exceptions for religious observance, specific AEC accommodations, military deployment, and University-sponsored events. For these, contact me with documentation as early in the term as possible, and at least 7 days before the planned absence, and we will arrange an alternative.
Everyone in this class, students and instructor alike, can expect to participate and contribute, to have their perspectives respected, and to help each other learn. Behavior that undermines, demeans or marginalizes others is not welcome; we disagree with respect. During class, phones stay silent and put away unless we are using them for an activity. Recording class, or using AI-enabled glasses or other AI wearables, is not allowed without my permission or an AEC accommodation.
The course policies are meant to cover ordinary, day-to-day absences. I understand that some students may experience an extraordinary circumstance. In the event of such a circumstance, I will work with you to consider how we might make adjustments to course requirements where possible. Please let me know as soon as you are able if you experience an extraordinary event. There is no need to explain or offer personal information about the nature of your emergency; I will trust you only to activate this policy in an emergency situation.
Each midterm counts for 20%. After the final exam I may apply one midterm rule to the whole class. In the exceptional event that a midterm is cancelled for the entire class, the other midterm counts for all 40%.
Using AI, solution websites, solution guides, or any other electronic help to solve an assigned homework problem is not allowed. You may not copy and paste homework solutions from another program into WeBWorK. Using AI in a way this syllabus does not allow is academic misconduct. Using AI to learn is fine: ask it for a problem similar to your homework problem and solve that one, ask for a hint on the similar problem, or ask it to check your work on the similar problem. Then do the real homework problem yourself. The same applies to tutors, classmates and roommates.
The math department is working hard to make WebWork more accessible to students with vision-related disabilities or who have other accessibility needs. In the meantime, we encourage students to seek accommodations from the AEC if you experience any barriers to access.
All weights are entered in Canvas from the first day, so the Canvas total is your real grade as it stands. Two rules are not in it: a midterm rule I may apply after the final exam, and a missed midterm's weight moving to the final exam. They are applied once, after the final exam, when final grades are computed. Canvas may still count your lowest homework and quiz scores. They are dropped when final grades are computed. Up-to-date grades will be on Canvas by the end of week 6 and again before the final exam.
Free drop-in tutoring is available at the TAEC Fenton Math Hub (Math Library, Fenton Hall), Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm, starting in week 2.
Any note card allowed on an exam must be handwritten by you. Printed, photocopied, or shrunk notes are not allowed.
AI policy, completerecommended3 clausesA full AI section: what is allowed, what is not, and what happens.
Allowed: asking AI to explain a concept or a textbook example; asking it for new practice problems similar to the homework and for hints or feedback on those; checking your own finished work on practice problems.
Not allowed: using AI, solution sites, apps that solve from a photo, or any other tool to produce any part of an answer to an assigned homework problem, quiz, or exam; pasting an assigned problem into an AI tool; copying and pasting an answer from another program into WeBWorK.
Homework is how you build the skills that quizzes and exams test, and exams are taken without any of these tools. Homework done by a tool leaves you unprepared, and the gap usually shows on the first quiz.
If your homework and your quiz and exam work do not match, I may ask you to explain a homework solution in office hours. In accordance with UO policy, if I believe you have handed in work created in whole or in part by generative AI in a way this syllabus does not allow, I will submit a report of suspected academic misconduct to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards for that office to make a determination of responsibility. If you are unsure whether a use is allowed, ask me first.
Student successrecommended7 clausesEarly feedback and support: readiness quiz, study guides, outreach, where to get help.
This is a 4-credit course, so plan on about 12 hours of work each week, including class time. Some weeks, like exam weeks, take more. Working a little every day is much easier than catching up the night before.
Office hours are for you: bring a homework problem, a question from class, a study plan for the next exam, or just come to work. You do not need an appointment during office hours, and you are welcome to come with a classmate. If the times do not work for you, email me to set up another time.
In the first week there is a short readiness quiz on the precalculus skills this course uses. It is returned before the drop deadline so you can decide early whether this is the right course for you this term.
Before each exam you will get a study guide, a practice exam, and full solutions to the practice exam. Solutions to each exam are posted after it is returned.
If your homework and quiz scores suggest something is not working, I may email you in week 2 or after the first exam to set up a short meeting. It is an invitation, not a warning.
If you are having trouble with food, housing, or your health, the university has help: see https://dos.uoregon.edu/basic-needs and https://counseling.uoregon.edu. You are also welcome to tell me, if you are comfortable doing so.
Last day to drop without a W: Saturday, October 3. Last day to add: Monday, October 5. Last day to withdraw: Sunday, November 15. Last day of classes: Friday, December 4. Last day to request an Incomplete: Friday, December 11. I believe every student in this class can succeed; if you are thinking about dropping, talk with me first.
Coordinated coursefor multi-section courses2 clausesFor multi-section courses: defer to the coordinator on exams and shared policies.
This course has many sections that share the same material, the same level of difficulty, and exams of the same look and feel, overseen by the course coordinator, the course coordinator. Section instructors may differ on small details listed in this syllabus.
If an exam is given at a common time outside class, its time and room are announced on Canvas at least two weeks in advance. Conflicts must be reported by the date in that announcement.
The questions students ask (Fall 2026)recommended5 clausesThe four things students write about that a syllabus usually leaves open: a review packet, office hours, a missed class, an extension. Each is stated so the office-hours desk can answer it from the syllabus.
A practice exam with full solutions goes out one week before each midterm and before the final. That is the review: there is no separate review packet, and the practice exam is not a list of what will be on the exam.
Office hours need no appointment and no reason: come with a question, or without one. If none of the times work, email me and we will set one up. The online office hours (the course's problem walk-through) are open all week.
There is no need to tell me why you missed a class. The notes and handouts for every class are posted: read them, do the homework, and bring your questions to office hours. I do not re-teach a class by email, and attendance itself is not graded.
Homework follows the late-work policy above. For a project, paper or take-home assignment, ask for an extension in writing at least 7 days before the due date, saying what you need; I will answer with a date. A request made after the due date is handled as late work, not as an extension.
Final grades follow the published scale. There is no rounding on request, and no individual extra credit: any extra credit is offered to the whole class at the same time.
Instructor protectionoptional, Standard or Maximum34 clausesClauses that close the gaps a dispute looks for, at two levels: Standard (27 clauses) or Maximum (stricter wording for some, and more clauses).
This syllabus plus written Canvas announcements is the whole policy. Nothing said in class, in office hours, or by a TA changes it unless it is confirmed in writing on Canvas or by UO email. If it is not in writing, it did not happen.
This is version 1 of the syllabus, dated the date of this version. The current version is on Canvas and is the only one that counts.
An adjustment under a university-required exception or the emergency clause is for that situation only. It is not precedent for anyone else.
An adjustment under a university-required exception or the emergency clause is for that situation only. It is not precedent for you or anyone else, and I will not tell you who received one.
Anything I say about your likely grade, and any Canvas what-if score, is a guess. The published scale applied to the final Canvas total, with these rules applied where they are used (a midterm rule I may apply after the final exam, and a missed midterm's weight moving to the final exam) and with your lowest homework and quiz scores dropped, is the grade. Nothing else.
Using AI on any graded work in this course is academic misconduct. Graded work means every homework problem, quiz, exam, and anything else that earns points. "Using AI" includes asking any AI tool, solver app, photo-solver, or answer site for a step, a hint, a check, or an answer on an assigned problem, and copying or pasting anything from one of them into WeBWorK. AI is allowed for learning only: ask it to explain a concept, or to make a similar problem and help you with that one. Then do the real problem yourself. Suspected AI use is reported to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (SCCS). SCCS decides responsibility. If SCCS finds you responsible, the consequence in this course is a zero on the work.
Using AI or any outside help on graded work is academic misconduct. Graded work means every homework problem, quiz, exam, and anything else that earns points. Banned on graded work: any AI tool or chatbot; any solver or photo-solver app; any answer site, solution manual, or solutions from earlier terms or other sections; any group chat, forum, or messaging channel where answers are posted; any tutor, classmate, roommate, or other person who produces any part of your answer; and copying or pasting anything from any of these into WeBWorK. A tool that produces answers is banned no matter what it is called. AI is allowed for learning only: explain a concept, make a similar problem, help with the similar problem. Never the assigned problem. Suspected use is reported to SCCS. SCCS decides responsibility; I do not. While a case is open your course grade is recorded as Grade Pending. If SCCS finds you responsible, the consequence in this course is an F for the course.
Your homework, quiz, and exam work should match. When they do not, I may ask you to work a similar problem in front of me. What I see goes in the report.
Your homework, quiz, and exam work should match. I check homework by a short oral or written problem like the one you submitted, chosen by random sample and whenever homework and quiz results do not match. The homework score for that assignment is the score on the check. What I see may go in a report.
Submitting work says: this is mine, and I followed the AI and help rules above. Every submission. No exceptions.
I do not settle suspected misconduct privately and I do not invent my own penalties. If the evidence meets the standard, I report it. SCCS decides. Asking me to skip the report does not work.
Substantially identical work, including identical mistakes, is reported for every student involved. I do not decide who copied whom. SCCS does.
Canvas and WeBWorK keep timestamps and attempt histories. They stay, and they go in a report if there is one.
Write the names of everyone you worked with at the top of each homework. Help you did not list is undisclosed help.
Keep a copy of everything you submit and your scratch work until final grades post. "Canvas lost it" with no copy is "not submitted."
Before every quiz and exam, all electronics go inside a closed bag: phones, smartwatches, fitness bands, earbuds, headphones, laptops, tablets, and AI glasses or any other wearable with a camera, microphone, or screen. Powered off. The bag goes at the front of the room or under your seat, as I direct. Not in a pocket. Not on the desk face down. Not on your wrist. No bag? The device goes on the front table before you receive an exam.
The only calculator allowed is one from this list: scientific, non-graphing calculators. I may inspect it and clear its memory. A calculator not on the list is put away; you work without one.
A device on you or at your seat after the exam starts is unauthorized material. I take it until the exam ends, write the time on your exam, and report it to SCCS. You finish the exam. Whether you were using it does not matter; having it there is the violation. If SCCS finds you responsible, the consequence in this course is a zero on that exam.
A phone ringing or buzzing from inside a bag at the front is not a violation. I will silence it.
Every quiz and exam is device-free. Before the exam starts, all electronics are powered off, not silenced, and inside a closed bag at the front of the room: phones, smartwatches, fitness bands, rings with sensors, earbuds, headphones, laptops, tablets, e-readers, and any glasses or wearable with a camera, microphone, or display. Nothing electronic on your body or desk except a calculator from this list: scientific, non-graphing calculators. Brimmed hats off or backward. Hoods down. Ears visible. Religious head coverings are exempt.
I inspect calculators and clear memory. A calculator not on the list is held at the front until the exam ends; you work without one. No sharing calculators. No bag? The device goes on the front table before you receive an exam. You do not receive an exam until it is there.
A device on your body or at your seat at any time after the exam starts is unauthorized material. I take it, write the time on your exam, move you if I choose, and report it to SCCS. You finish the exam. Possession is the violation; "I forgot it was in my pocket" is a possession. A device seen in use, meaning screen on, in hand, or glasses active, is recorded as use as well as possession and stated in the report. While the case is open your course grade is Grade Pending. If SCCS finds you responsible, the consequence in this course is an F for the course.
A phone ringing or buzzing from inside a bag at the front is not a violation. I will silence it.
Once the exam starts, you leave the room only for the restroom, one person at a time. Come to the front, sign out with the time, hand me your exam and note card, and leave your phone and bag at your seat. You take nothing. Sign back in with the time when you return; you get your exam back when you sign. The clock keeps running. There is no extra time.
In the last 10 minutes, hand in your exam before you leave. Handed in means finished.
Leaving without signing out, or taking anything with you, ends the exam: I collect it and grade what is there. A device found on you outside the room is unauthorized material and is reported to SCCS.
Once you hand in your exam you leave the room. You do not get it back.
AEC and other university-approved accommodations take precedence over this section.
After the exam starts, the only reason to leave is the restroom. One person out at a time; if someone is out, you wait. Before you go: come to the front, sign the sheet with the time out, hand me your exam and your note card, and leave your phone, watch, bag, and jacket at your seat. You take nothing. Sign the time in when you return; you get your exam back only after you sign. The clock does not stop. There is no extra time for any reason other than a university-approved accommodation.
The sign-out sheet is the record. An absence I judge unusually long is noted on your exam with the times. It may be included in a misconduct report if there is other evidence.
In the last 10 minutes, hand in your exam before you leave. Handed in means finished. If you need the restroom and intend to return, sign out as above; you still get no extra time.
Leaving without signing out, taking anything with you, or being seen with a device outside the room ends the exam: I collect it and grade what is there. A device found on you is unauthorized material and is reported to SCCS with the times from the sheet.
Handing in your exam is final. You leave the room and do not return during the exam.
Nothing in this section overrides an AEC, pregnancy, medical, or other university-approved accommodation.
Credit is for the written work. A correct answer with no work is worth zero.
Credit is for the written work. A correct answer with no work, or with work that does not lead to it, is worth zero. I do not fill in your steps for you.
Use the methods of this course as of the due date. A solution by a method we have not covered gets reduced credit, and full credit only if every step is justified from what we have done.
A regrade request is in writing within 7 days of return, names the problem, and shows where the rubric was not followed on your paper. A regrade changes a score only if the rubric was not followed or your error was graded differently from the same error on other papers. "A different grader would have been nicer" is not a reason. The whole problem is regraded, so the score can go down.
Someone else's score is not an argument. I will not discuss another student's work with you; the law does not allow it. Show the error in your own paper against the rubric or there is nothing to regrade.
Scores reflect the paper, nothing else. Effort, hours spent, scholarships, visas, and graduation do not change a score. If a grade puts you in a hard spot, talk to advising; I cannot move the number.
Grade concerns go in this order: written regrade request; my written decision; the department; the university grade-appeal process. Skipping a step sends you back to it. Nothing here shortens any university deadline.
I decide regrades. TAs and graders do not change scores outside the regrade process, no matter who asks.
One regrade request per problem. My written answer is final at the course level.
A score is provisional until the assignment is released in Canvas. Scores you see during grading can change.
Course business happens on UO email or Canvas. Not text, not social media, not through a friend. If it did not arrive on those two channels, it did not arrive.
Course business happens on UO email or Canvas. Not text, not social media, not through a friend, not my personal accounts. If it did not arrive on those two channels, it did not arrive. Anonymous or non-UO messages are not read. I write only from a uoregon.edu address or Canvas.
I answer Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. No deadline in this course needs an answer outside those hours. Do not plan on one.
Once a request is decided in writing, I do not answer the same request again unless you show a factual error.
Once a request is decided in writing, it is closed. Further messages on it are logged and not answered.
Grades are on Canvas. I do not email scores or discuss them by phone. Office hours are shared; I do not discuss your grade with other people in the room. I talk about your grades with you, not parents, partners, or coaches, unless a FERPA release is on file with the Registrar. I do not discuss any other student's grade or conduct case. Do not ask.
One-on-one meetings are in my office or a public campus space, during business hours. For a meeting about a grade dispute or a conduct matter, I may have a colleague or department staff member present.
One-on-one meetings are in my office or a public campus space, during business hours. For a meeting about a grade dispute or a conduct matter, I may have a colleague or department staff member present. Office hours and meetings are not recorded; Oregon generally requires that everyone in an in-person conversation be told it is being recorded. If a meeting turns hostile, it ends, and the matter continues in writing or with department staff present.
Threats or harassment toward anyone in this course go to the Dean of Students and, if needed, UOPD.
No recording without my permission or an AEC accommodation. A permitted recording is for your own study only. Posting or sharing recordings, images, screenshots, or excerpts of class or meetings is reported.
Extra credit, if any, is announced in writing to the whole class in advance and is capped at 2%. None after the last day of instruction. None for individuals. Asking is a wasted email.
An Incomplete needs the Registrar's contract listing exactly what is missing and the deadline. Miss the deadline and the grade is the course grade with zeros for the missing work. It is not a retake.
Missed proctored work is handled exactly as this syllabus says. There are no substitute papers, projects, or assignments.
Drop, withdraw, and grade-option deadlines belong to the Registrar. I cannot move them after they pass.
Part II Tokenizing math education
§4 The core idea
Mathematics,
broken into atoms.
A language model sees a solution as a string of characters. We see a sequence of numbered steps, and every step is tagged with the skill it tests. That tag is what the rubric weighs, what office hours step back to, and what a drill collects. Every problem in the bank, every line of your notes and every hint in office hours is written in the same atoms.
Definition
What an object is, stated once in your wording. The bank keeps non-examples and motivations that each serve one definition.
role: non-example · about: 2.2/d1
Tool
A skill with an id, a weight from 1 to 3, and the week it is taught. Prerequisites such as factoring a trinomial are skills too. Related skills sit under an idea (the chain rule, antiderivatives), and a class's rating for the idea is its skills together.
limit-cancel · factor-trinomial
Step
One numbered line of a solution, tagged in double brackets with the skills it tests. The tags never print.
2. Factor top and bottom. [[factor-trinomial]]
Check
A step may end in the expression it should produce. Office hours check the student's line against it exactly.
=> (x+1)/(x+3)
The signature of a solution is its sequence of atom types with their names. Two problems are in the same cluster when they have the same signature.
# lim_{x→4} (√x − 2)/(x − 4) 1. Substitute x = 4: 0/0. [[limit-cancel]] 2. Multiply by (√x + 2)/(√x + 2). [[difference-of-squares]] => (x-4)/((x-4)*(sqrt(x)+2)) 3. Cancel x − 4, since x ≠ 4. [[limit-cancel]] => 1/(sqrt(x)+2) 4. Substitute x = 4. [[limit-laws]] => 1/4
§5 The problem bank
A tree of problems,
clustered by signature.
Every problem in the bank is written once, in one plain-text format, and tagged step by step with the skill each step tests. The bank is a hierarchy, course › section › cluster › problem › version. A cluster is the set of problems whose steps use the same skills in the same order. A version keeps every step and every tool and changes only the numbers.
figures functions, not images
The machine keeps the formula. The student sees the graph.
A graph problem stores a piecewise function. HQ plots it, with hollow dots where a piece stops short, and checks a student's reading of the graph exactly against the hidden formula. Nothing is photographed, so nothing has to be guessed from pixels.
§6 Teaching materials
The week
writes itself.
You arrange it.
HQ follows the master syllabus: the coordinator's section list, the learning outcomes, the exam look and feel. From it, it writes lecture notes, worksheets, quizzes and homework as LaTeX, in your own macros, compiled to accessible PDF.
Then rearrange whatever you like. Drag a card to another day. The master syllabus acts as a type checker, and it tells you when a quiz would test a section before it is taught.
Try it: drag a card to another day.
Every problem knows what it is for.
Each problem carries a role in the textbook's sequence. A worksheet leads with warm-ups and build-ups. A quiz takes core and homework problems. An exam takes core, homework and challenge problems, mixed 40 / 40 / 20 across problems the class has seen, similar ones and new ones.
The difficulty mix of a quiz or exam is counted over steps, not problems, so one problem with a single hard step counts for what it is.
§7 Pedagogy
We studied every way
to run a class.
Worked examples with fading, peer instruction, inquiry, jigsaw, productive failure. Each style is a template for a 50-minute meeting, and the generator writes the same atoms into a different shape. The bank keeps 425 pedagogical atoms for the styles to arrange: motivations worked before an idea is named, concept checks with one tempting distractor, non-examples, and contrasts. Pick the style closest to how you teach.
Direct instruction
Part III Office hours
§8 Standardization
Office hours that teach
from your notes.
A department with twelve sections has twelve ways of teaching the same limit. One TA reaches for L'Hôpital in week one, another draws a graph, a third factors. Students notice, and exams pay for it. Office hours in HQ teach directly from the teaching materials, atom for atom, with a citation to the page.
notes · day 3 · Ex 3 · 0/0 check
notes · day 3 · Ex 3 · factor-trinomial
Without HQ four sections, one problem
With HQ same problem, same page
§9 Step-gated help
Responsible AI shows
the next step, never the answer.
Students advance only by typing a correct partial answer. SymPy checks each step against the tokenized solution. When a student fails a basic operation twice, such as factoring a quadratic, the problem pauses and a drill on the prerequisite skill that step is tagged with is offered; a miss on a step that uses a prerequisite the course does not reteach makes the drill required. After a graded quiz or exam, the drills for what a student missed are required before their next problem.
Attempt log · instructor only
| t | atom | input | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:14 | CHK | 0/0 | ✓ |
| 1:02 | factor-trinomial | (x-3)(x-1) | ✗ |
| 1:40 | factor-trinomial | (x+3)(x-1) | ✗ |
| 1:41 | DRILL | factor ×3 | open |
| 4:55 | DRILL | 3 / 3 | ✓ |
| 5:20 | factor-trinomial | (x-3)(x+1) | ✓ |
§10 The requests desk
The syllabus answers.
You get the rest.
Students ask office hours for extensions, make-ups and regrades the way they would ask you. Whatever the compiled syllabus covers is decided on the spot and logged. Anything it does not cover goes straight to you, with no email for the student to write and none for you to answer from scratch.
approve
0Decided by the rule and answered with the syllabus's own sentence.
deny
0Declined, quoting the syllabus.
to you
0Sent to you, unchanged. The ledger marks it pending.
∎ unrami hq
One source of truth
for the whole course.
The syllabus, the notes, the problem bank and office hours are written in the same atoms and follow the same rules. Start with the syllabus. The rest follows from it.
unrami mailThe same rules file drafts your replies to student email. The inbox that knows your syllabus like you do.