MAG

Welcome to metauni Algebraic Geometry. This is a series of online algebraic geometry classes taught at metauni, using Roblox for the 3D virtual environment and voice chat and Discord for community.

We are currently lecturing MAG1, a first course in algebraic geometry, which will be free and open to anyone with an Internet connection who is over the age of 13 (Roblox voice chat requires age verification).

Enter MAG

Orientation is 07:00-08:00 Thursday 26/5/22 AEST, to join go to metauni.

The who is a community of volunteers:

Registration is now open, see below. Subscribe to the mailing list to receive course updates (if you keep an eye on the #mag channel in the metauni Discord, no need to sign up for this).

powered by TinyLetter

Registration

Registration is now open. Here is the registration process:

  1. Follow Steps 1 and 2 of the instructions to setup your Roblox and Discord accounts.
  2. Open the metauni Discord server and post in the #mag-registration channel with your Roblox username and how you want people to refer to you. This is mainly for your classmates, so you may wish to include a brief description of your interests and reasons for attending the class, and any links to personal webpages or Twitter accounts you want people to see. No pressure though, your Roblox username is enough (for administration purposes we need to know the connection between Discord accounts and Roblox usernames).
  3. Join the metauni Roblox group. This way we can give you permission to write on the blackboards throughout metauni.

If you have any problem with these steps, ask for help on the #mag channel of the metauni Discord, or email us. Before the beginning of the class we will circulate (on Discord and via email, so you may wish to sign up for the mailing list above if you haven’t already) some orientation videos and announce some drop-in orientation times where you can try out metauni before class begins.

Course content

There will be a two week pre-course

Each lecture will be 1.5hr. In the schedule below, S1.3 refers to Section 1.3 of CLO, (K) means Ken and (D) means Dan.

On the rare occasion that Roblox voice chat has some issues, we will fall back to using Roblox whiteboards with Discord for voice.

Exercise sessions

Mathematics is not a spectator sport: you learn by doing. Each week there will be assigned exercises, some marked Foundation and others marked Extension. You are expected to attempt all the Foundation exercises. There are three weekly 1hr exercise sessions:

You should join the main MAG venue for these sessions, where you will be working with other students at the virtual boards. Each week at least one of these sessions will be supervised by an experienced volunteer tutor (that session will be advertised on Discord). It is recommended you work on the problems outside of exercise sessions as well.

Problems are divided into Foundation Example (FE), Foundation Proof (FP), Extension Example (EE), Extension Proof (EP). Students are expected to attempt all foundation exercises. References are to CLO with x.y.z meaning Chapter x, Section y, Exercise z.

Illustrations

In a virtual world we can use the environment to communicate ideas, using code; we call these illustrations.

omg

Pre-requisites

High school algebra plus a little bit of linear algebra (a basic familiarity with matrices). More precisely, you should have experience working with polynomials in small numbers of variables and low degree. You should know

You should also be comfortable with functions and terms like domain, codomain, image and preimage, injective, surjective, bijective, union, intersection and complement. If you want to brush up, here are some modules from Khan Academy that cover the necessary background:

Hardware

At metauni learning is centered on virtual blackboards that we call metaboards. It is therefore recommended that you have access to a tablet with stylus, in order to collaborate on the metaboards with other students. Tablets that plug into your computer via USB can be found for as little as AUD$50. Members of our community have successfully used the following products:

In some countries Roblox may not be available through the Store for your device, in which case you should go with the USB tablet plugged into your PC. The USB tablets may not have a built-in screen, but when you hover the pen above a graphics tablet, the mouse onscreen follows your pen.

What doesn’t work:

What is it like?

Here are some videos of learning at metauni in action: