LILA

Lyryx Interactive for Linear Algebra (LILA) is a self paced, interactive tutorial and assessment system available on the internet at greatly reduced cost to users of this book. It provides a college-level introduction to the concepts of linear algebra. Our objective has been to create appropriate tools to support students and instructors in all aspects of the course.

Below is a list of the key features offered by LILA. Demonstrations and further information are also available at the ILAW website.

Features for Students:

• Lessons. These are animated, audio enhanced tutorials, that reinforce concepts in much the way a patient human tutor would do it. Students find the lessons useful for study or review, and they are available any time of the day or night, whenever you are in the mood to study.
• Explorations. These provide hands-on student interaction with the concepts of the course to enhance understanding. We believe that exploring the concepts, and so developing your understanding through concrete manipulation, is an essential part of learning and doing mathematics.
• Labs. These allow you to gauge your understanding of the material by working problems, with feedback explaining how and why a submitted answer was incorrect, and guidance for improvement utilizing the Lessons and Explorations. The lab problems are randomly generated but similar each time, and scan be taken as often as desired.
• Computing Tool. This has an easy to use, cut-and-paste capability that allows you to do all the calculations in the Labs. Moreover, it utilizes the same standard notation used in the text, rather than the artificial programming format of calculators and computing packages, and so helps overcome another barrier to using computing tools for learning mathematics. In particular, matrix objects look like a matrix and behave as you would expect (when entering data directly, for example).
• Message Board. This is a feature that allows you to communicate with other students (and with an LILA monitor) and exchange views about the course.

Features for Instructors:

• Secure Testing. The lab grades are held securely on our server, and instructors can access them at any time, along with labs themselves. The labs can therefore be assigned to your students for course marks.
• Economical. Using LILA for your course has little or no cost to your college. We have found that most students have their own computer, so very little expensive infrastructure is required.

LILA is a trademark of Lyryx Learning Inc.