CUNY Academic Commons

Hi All,

We have a request from Brooklyn college about writing math equations on the Commons. They write":

I’m writing because a professor at Guttman College, who is using the AC to create Math OERs, has reached out to me regarding their need to write math equations for their courses.

Initially I advised they download the plugin “WP LaTeX” which they did. However that plugin requires knowledge of LaTeX coding. They are looking for a feature or plugin which won’t require coding to add math equations. They referenced how in Blackboard they can use "MathType" which allows them to easily write math equations on the website without writing any code.”

Is there a similar feature in AC? How have you advised other professors who need to be able to create accessible math and scientific equations for their AC sites?

I looked into this a bit and writing equations in wordpress using no Latex at all seems difficult. It's possible that if the professor turns on unicode on their own computer they may be able to write the equations in wordpress - see #1 here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-write-math-equations-in-wordpress/

The MathML block plugin might allow the prof to write HTML code to display directly equations in the post/page. But again, i think this requires code.
-- See #3 here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-write-math-equations-in-wordpress/
-- Math ML: https://wordpress.org/plugins/mathml-block/

This is how "Mathtype" works on Blackboard so I imagine this this what they are trying to recreate on the Commons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf7g3LrnuLc

It seems like it should be possible but a few questions:

1. do we know of any plugins that add functionality to the Commons editor that would mimic what's possible in mathtype? I looked around and didn't find anything quite like it but hoping you all may know more.

2. Is writing in latex the only way to create math equations in the editor?