How to Set Up a Class Using Tycho

Make any changes on the course web page in order to personalize your course by editing the files in the //Phyugwww/www/…. folders (these files are mostly html files and/or images). The Default Course given to you is a "bare-bones" course, thus to make it more interesting for students to view you may want to add a course syllabus, calendar, course info, graphics, backgrounds, related links, etc. Somewhere on the main page, you should keep links to the course gradebook and the homework page so these sites will be quickly accessible to the students who use this site. It is important to keep the links on the gradebook and homework page (the links that take students to the "secure" files generated by Tycho) unchanged as the exact address already in place is necessary to call on the Perl Scripts to run the gradebook and homework.

Later, when you add or change homework problems or sets (see below), you may need to come back to the homework page to modify dates, links, etc.

The default course you are setup with includes many problems in the homework folder (located in the //Phyugwww/Secure-s/…. folders). The "homework" folder (for example //Phyugwww/Secure-s/cc/parkland/phy121/fall01/homework) has folders in it number by week (for example week "01" may be 1-D kinematics, week "02" may be 2-D kinematics, etc.) In a given week, all the assigned problems from that folder will be due at one specified time. In addition to the actual problems in each weeks' folder is a "top" file, an "end" file and an "assignment" file (each of which can be edited by using a simple text editor such as notepad). The top file is what is displayed first when a student clicks on that given week from the homework web page. The assignment file determines which homework problems are linked to from this homework page, how many points they are worth, and when they are due. The end file is displayed at the bottom of the homework assignment page. Within each weeks' folder there may be multiple problem folders labeled either by a number or name. Within each problem folder there is at least a text file (pr.txt) and maybe some picture files (such as pic.gif).

To choose the problems you want to use in a given week go to the gradebook and under the instructor gradebook choose the "view standard homework problems" link. Follow the instructions listed. When you find a problem you want to use, make note of the name of the folder the problem is in and the location of that particular problem folder (what week it is in). Once you find the location of the problem you want to use, you can move it into any week you would like – the default location of the problems correspond to the week we use them here at U of I, but can be altered for your course! (Note: you can also view the "interactive examples" in a similar manner as described above.)

To setup any given weeks' problems, you must do three things. 1) Be sure each the folder for the problems you want to assign is in the correct week's folder. (For example in the folder //Phyugwww/Secure-s/cc/parkland/phy121/fall01/homework/01 should include the entire folder of each problem you want to use such as "01", "02", "03", "04", "ball_on_string", and "catch_the_ball"). 2) Add these problems to the assignment file being sure to include all the necessary parameters (the name of the folder the problem is in, the link name you want the problem to be displayed as, the total points you want this problem to have, and the color dot you want displayed next to the problem link). In this file you must also set the due date (when you do this, make sure you also change the date in the top file and the main homework page on the "www" side of the file structure). 3) Make the necessary changes in the gradebook – see below.

Whenever you change the homework assignment you must make appropriate changes in the gradebook. Under the "Course Director Gradebook" link, choose the assignmentsB button. Here the number of homework weeks must match the number of assignments you have provided to the students on the web page. Also, the point totals must match the point totals in the assignment file for each week and the date should match the assigned due date. When making changes to the weekly assignments, you may consider keeping the total at the default setting so it would not be necessary to make any changes in the gradebook.

Another component to setting up the gradebook involves entering students, instructors, and directors (directors have full access to all aspects of the web site, instructors can only enter options under the "Instructor's Grade Book" link). All people associated with the course must also be added as students, thus begin by entering all students, instructors, and directors as students. To do this use the "Maintain the Roster" link under the Course Director Gradebook Option (here you can enter an entire class or one student at a time). Put any directors and instructors in the "DROPPED" section. Next, you must be sure to enter all directors into the gradebook by choosing the "Course Director Gradebook" link and clicking the "instructors" button. Here type "DIRECTOR" and their net-id. To add an instructor, in the same place you added directors type the section they are an instructor of and then their net-id (or just type "ALL" and their net-id).