Using the ePupils software
We will use the ePupils software to take weekly quizzes. This software allows you to click in you answers to quizzes (called projects there) and then I grade them and you see your grades all online.
The software isn’t too hard to use, but lets make sure we can do it. Here are the important hurdles to bound over.
You need to logon. This requires you to supply a username and password. By default your username is your student ID, but you can make an alias when you change your password. The logon screen should appear for you. A few things that are important.
Case is important! That is Logon is not logon is not LoGOn.
The logon needs to set a cookie. A cookie in general is a means to store data on the users hard drive. This cookie in particular stores a bit of encrypted information about you such as your name and password. Make sure you browser is set to accept cookies. (I personally set me browser to only accept cookies I authorize.)
The books website will also have a password. This is different from your class password. Please try not to get the two confused.
You can logon securely if you are paranoid that someone is trying to intercept you password. (They probably aren’t, but that may not convince you.)
If you are using the AOL browser there may be a problem with logging on. If you can’t get it to work, try to use a different browser such as Netscape or Internet explorer.
The course syllabus is the first thing that pops up. From here you can follow the links. Projects (our quizzes) that have been graded appear with a grade. You can see the grade and comments by clicking on the number. The lecture links should send you back to the lecture page on the main web site.
It is confusing, but our “quizzes” will be called projects. These allow me to record your grades. If you click on the icon for a project you are presented with the quiz to take. It is a form that you fill out by answering the questions and then submitting. If you want time to think about the quiz, you can save your work, This stores it away for the next time you logon. Submitting turns it in to grade. After you submit you can make no further changes.
It is important that you wait until there is a confirmation that you have successfully saved or submitted. If it takes too long there was a problem (Oops. Don’t a panic, problems are fun too.) If you find a problem, send an email and we’ll take care of it. Hopefully, most of the bugs have been ironed out, but this is not guarantee.
In your preferences, you can set your password and alias for loggin in. As well, you can set an email address. You will need to do this, as I will use it to communicate with you. Other students in the section will also have this email address as well. There is a form that makes it fairly easy to email the students in the section.
When you logout you erase the contents of the cookie from loggin in. This means someone else can’t come along and change your work. As well, the cookie will expire after a certain time frame, so if you forget to logout, it is not to great a deal.
The software has occasional bugs. Please report them and we will try to knock them off. You can use the bug report form. The more information the better.