Students create website to help tutor finite math

Finite help is just a click away thanks to a website created by two IU students.

Finitehelp.com was created by math, economics and finance major Stephen Leung and entrepreneurship and informatics major Justin Tallant as a means of offering a fresh, technologically based source for students to find assistance.

After having experienced difficulty in finite math himself and turning to Leung for tutoring, Tallant said he wishes he would have had access to something more.
“I was not a math whiz of any kind, so I met up with (Leung),” Tallant said. “I happened to be into web entrepreneurship, and he’s very good at what he does so we’re like, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Leung, an experienced tutor, repeatedly shared the same information among his
tutoring clients.  
 
“I meet with many students, and I tell them all the same thing more or less so I figured, well, what if there is a way to just do it once and then hundreds or thousands of people can see the exact same thing?” Leung said.

From there, finitehelp.com was established. 

The site features video explanations that cover specific topics from the class itself along with practice problems, including video-recorded solutions, which correspond with these topics, according to the website’s homepage.

The site also features a listing of local tutors if a student needs further assistance.
Students have the ability to fast-forward, rewind and pause these videos should they not completely understand the material.

Unlike in a classroom setting, where a teacher might continue on without the students gaining full comprehension, here the students have full control, Tallant said. 
 
“This is your own pace 100 percent,” Tallant said. 

The lecture videos also include short quizzes that test the student’s retention of the information being presented.  

“I really like the idea that (Leung) has where when you pause the lecture, you’ll do the quiz problem,” Tallant said. “If you don’t know how to do it well, you can continue on with the lecture but below that is a video of the quiz being worked out digitally. He works it out and talks you through it.”

The display of the quizzes being worked out is a result of utilizing a digital chalkboard technology that allows the voice-over and work to occur simultaneously, Tallant said.

Although a lot of time has been put into the site and a lot of material has been added to it, Leung and Tallant said they still continue to work on it. 

“Most people don’t know about it yet. It’s still small. It’s still not done, and it’s going to get better,” Tallant said. “By next fall we hope to have all the kinks and everything worked out.”

As for the future, sites similar to this one depend on the success of finitehelp.com, Tallant said.

“If people use it and people like it and it’s a little bit of a hit at least, then we could think about doing another one,” Tallant said.