Add \overline to Math to Basic Math Equation Editor

[waz107]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

I am resubmitting part of an idea that was proposed last month by Glenn Johnson, Place x-bar and p-hat on the Equation Editor toolbar.

I teach introductory statistics and one of the most common symbols that we use is an x with a bar over it, the symbol for a sample mean.

Currently, this symbol can only be created in the advanced equation editor:

This requires knowledge of LaTeX.  The vast majority of my students are not statistics majors so they have no experience with LaTeX and it's really extraneous to the course so I don't want to spend too much time teaching it to them.

It would be awesome if the \overline function was added to the basic equation editor which is easier for students to use.

[waz107]

We used to do this as well. But, our online notes use x̄ and each semester there were always a few students who did not realize that "x-bar" and x̄ were the same thing. :smileyconfused:

[shawnjackson]

Haha. Of course not!

[gayleb]

Yes, please open the voting again.  I am adding work for geometry and having the symbol for line segments would be very beneficial.  For as many as I use typing as has been shown seems as a time drain.  I have been leaving it out for the most part and it does not feel like the right thing to do, but it is too late to go back and correct them all now. Hopefully I will know when voting starts up again.  Can we be notified of voting on this topic?

[smuir1]

I think it is ridiculous that the original date of this request was three years ago and the basic math equation editor is still missing some very basic and commonly-used math symbols. Why is Canvas not responsive to things that are very much needed by math instructors and math students? It is extremely frustrating not to be heard!

Overbar, sub and super on summation and product notation (sigma and pi), matrix entry, the ability to type on multiple lines without having to submit mulitple equations.... to name a few off the top of my head. :smileyangry:

[James]

Have you checked out the Advanced View where those things are available?

[smuir1]

Yes, I have been using that. But my students have enough trouble with the basic menu that expecting them to learn and use LaTex is completely unrealistic. I'm frustrated that Canvas has not supplied some very common and often-used symbols/fields and has not improved that in three years (going by the date of the original post). Meanwhile there are 29 arrows to choose from (not needed so much)....  

[thompsli]

For me, the Advanced View is a reasonable "teacher tool", but really not suitable for asking students to use. Non-WYSIWYG tools have a pretty big learning curve of their own at first, and I'm already trying to get through all of my math standards and can't really take an extended detour into how to mark up and troubleshoot something in LaTeX each semester. (My school has a lot of transfers in and out, so I can't count on them coming into any given class with a non-standardized skill just because we taught it in another class.) I used to write HTML by hand in the 90s, and used a non-WYSIWYG word processor in the early 80s, so I already had the basic mental framework in place that let me fumble my way through LaTeX pretty quickly when I first encountered it, but that's not background knowledge you can count on with typical elementary and middle school students.

Repeating decimals are shown with a bar over them, and repeating decimals are a 5th-7th grade math topic. It's not reasonable to expect typical 10-12 year olds to learn a special markup language in order to turn in their math homework. (The lack of a good way to show long division is also a major, related issue with the current equation tool and late elementary/middle school math, but that's to some degree a problem with LaTeX in general not prioritizing long division rather than a problem with Canvas's equation tool. It's still a major obstacle for me while teaching certain topics, though.)

[James]

As you mention, long division is normally handled through the use of a package in LaTeX. That's a non-standard package and Canvas doesn't support it. Those who use it, myself included, are frustrated by the way that it looks. It uses a right parentheses ) hooked up to the vinculum and doesn't connect them.

Math support is lacking in general in Canvas, not just in the equation editor.

My experience with having students use the advanced view was much more pleasant than your expectations. Mine were college students, but that doesn't mean that they have any more experience with HTML or LaTeX than your 10-12 year olds. How I handled it was to write explicit instructions when and make videos when the basic view wasn't sufficient. For complicated things, like augmented matrices, I made templates available that they could copy/paste into Canvas and then modify. Overall, it worked well.

If you want to add \overline, you need to take some other things off. It would be interesting to analyze the LaTeX that is actually used to see what features are commonly used.

[moja]

I'm a psychological researcher by training, so LaTex is entirely new to me.  I don't think that I should have to learn a coding language to write a basic statistical symbol used in the social sciences.  I hope this gets put into the Rich Content Editor insertion options soon!

[VHDL2STA]

Excellent idea to request that the Canvas Math Editor include icons for "x-bar" and "p-hat" so that LaTeX code will not be required to be invoked.

In the meantime the workaround is to use the superior Microsoft Word Math Editor and then  "copy and paste" to get the following: