# How do I add equations to my blackboard site using MathJax?

Watch a tour (from MathJax.org) on how to use MathJax in Blackboard

You can, of course, produce PDF files containing mathematical notation and upload them to your blackboard site.  Many people use the LaTeX language for writing such documents.  But sometimes you want to include just a small amount of math and not force your students to download a file.  For example, maybe you want an equation in the text of a blackboard item or a quiz question. The Blackboard Visual Text Box Editor used to offer a "WebEQ" button for creating equations to display in the "text" of an Item, but it doesn't work well, and we discourage its use for new content.  Instead, use MathJax.

The basic idea of MathJax is that you (a) add a bit of javascript to your blackboard page that enables mathematical formatting, then (b) in the blackboard page include an equation written in LaTeX notation.  For example, you might type the following:

\ [ x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4 a c}}{2 a} \]

(note: do not include a space between the first backslash and bracket)

This would produce $x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4 a c}}{2 a}$

To enable this conversion, you need to add the following HTML code snippet, either within the same text box as the LaTeX equation or elsewhere on the page:

<script type="text/javascript"
src="https://d3eoax9i5htok0.cloudfront.net/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=T...
</script>

In order to insert this code as HTML you will need to temporarily disable the Visual Text Box Editor as described in the video tutorial.  Once you have the <script> tag, though, you can simply type your LaTeX code into the VTBE, and it will be formatted each time a student views the page.

Notes:

• Surround your mathematics with backslash[  ... backslash] for a display equation, or backslash( ... backslash) for an inline expression (use "\"; we write "backslash" in the above since we don't want to have this paragraph interpreted as including actual LaTeX notation!)
• If you need to use a less-than sign in an equation, code it as \lt to avoid having it interpreted as the beginning of an HTML tag.
• MathJax implements only the equation-rendering subset of LaTeX, so you can't easily use it to include arbitrary typesetting commands in your Blackboard pages, or to produce vector graphics, chemical notation, bibliography entries, etc.
• Immediately after you edit a page you may have to click Refresh to view the formatted version of the equation.
• Rather than including the <script> code in every text region where you plan to use an equation, you could instead include it only once in the whole folder for a content area.  If you are using equations in a test, you could include the <script> code in the test instructions, in which case blackboard would include it on each page of test questions and hence it would apply to all questions in the test.
• The script tag can not be placed in a Blackboard "syllabus" item, though if it appears elsewhere on the same page then equations in the syllabus will be formatted correctly.
• Although students could in principle use a similar technique to add equations to their discussion board postings, we believe that this is too complex, and do not recommend trying to use equations in a discussion forum.  On the other hand, if you create a blog you could add the <script> tag to the Instructions (part of Blog Information) and then the students could simply surround the equation with backslash( and backslash) if they knew enough LaTeX to compose equations.
• Including large blocks of equation text may confuse the browser and result in extra scrollbars.  The MathJax approach is best for short mathematical expressions or single-line display equations.  For longer mathematical presentations, consider generating a PDF file instead.

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tags:MathJax, Math Jax, equations, math, LaTeX, La Tex, MathML

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