Overview of Tycho and its File Structure

Your class web page is what your students will use to interact with Tycho. As a student they can navigate to any web page you add to your site (a course info page, a syllabus, announcements, etc.) and they can also access the online assignments offered by Tycho (standard homework, interactive examples, pre-flights, etc.). The files of the web page itself are found in the "www" folder on "Phyugwww" (for example //Phyugwww/www/cc/parkland/phy121/fall01). Here there is an "index.html" file (the main site) and any other files and/or folders associated with your course page. Anything in the "www" folder is open to viewing by the public (through the web) - no password is necessary to access these sites. The URL's for any of these sites will begin with "wug" (for example, http://wug.physics.uiuc.edu/cc/parkland/phy121/fall01/index.html). On some of your web pages there will be links to homework sets/problems or the gradebook. These sites will begin with "wug-s" and are secure sites. Upon trying to access these sites, Tycho will ask for authentication. The information displayed on these secure pages is found in the "Secure-s" folder on "Phyugwww". The actual web sites are generated by secure Perl scripts on the Tycho server.

The homework files are located in the "Secure-s" folder on "Phyugwww" (for example //Phyugwww/Secure-s/cc/parkland/phy121/fall01). These folders/files are not seen directly by students but are called by the Perl scripts when a student clicks on the link to a homework set or problem. Thus within these folders are the actual homework problems and also answers to the problems and homework deadlines (for grading purposes). This is where you determine which problems will appear for the students to do, how much the problems are worth, and when the students must complete the work by. (Interactive Examples, Preflights, Online Quizzes, etc. are also located in the "Secure-s" folder.)

Students and instructors/directors access the gradebook through the web interface (after providing a user name and password). Here the students can check their performance and instructors can add/drop students, form sections, setup different aspects of the course, enter grades, calculate grades, and much more.

In addition to traditional homework problems, a variety of other resources are available through Tycho including Interactive Examples, On-line Quizzes, Pre-flights, Surveys, and more! Interactive Examples begin like traditional homework problems, but help comes in the form of further questions that break down the problem solving techniques and associated concepts. On-line Quizzes are multiple choice, delayed feedback exercises; the student submits his/her answer but is not told if the answer is right or wrong until after the deadline for changing answers is over. Pre-flights can be used as pre-assessments to encourage students to read and respond to concepts presented in the text before lecture/discussion begins - the instructor can then alter instruction accordingly! Surveys can be used during the semester or at the end of a semester to gain feedback from students on various aspects of the course. Tycho is a dynamic teaching tool – it is continually being improved and modified with respect to the needs of all instructors and students utilizing its benefits!

A final aspect of Tycho are the Perl Scripts that run the entire system. These scripts are already setup for you and presently perform all the necessary functions provided to you through Tycho. You do not need to (and cannot) modify these scripts. If you have any questions about the scripts, send an email to tycho@uiuc.edu.