Suppose I have a commutative unital ring $R$ and an element $a\in R$. Let $\phi:R\to R$ be the map $\phi(b):=ab$.
I have been asked to find the cofiber of this map, with no context given (the text I am using is not publicly available). I cannot make sense of what I have read online regarding cofibers here or here (there is no topology involved in what I am doing right now, and most of the definitions seem to refer to homotopy theory).
What might be meant by the cofiber? It looks like it has something to do with pushout diagrams but I cannot quite make sense of this.