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How to get rid of “Questions completed” feedback in Hot Potatoes quizzes

2013/12/20 Leave a comment
  1. If you dig into the JavaScript in the HTML, looking for the default feedback t4ext (“Questions completed so far”), you see (as I have done here manually; this could be relatively easily done also for an entire batch of course quizzes with a global replacement) that you turn this option off:
    1. var CompletedSoFar = ‘Questions completed so far: ‘;
    2. var ShowCompletedSoFar = false;
  2. But that does not get rid of the #/# being displayed.
  3. There is an option to get rid of the Feedback text: image
  4. If I read the options correctly, there is no such setting (we tried the obvious suspects here): image
  5. function CheckQuestionsCompleted(){
    // trp: trying to disable showing to student QuestionsCompleted 
// (entire function  even if somebody changes the variable ShowCompletedSoFar) 
    // if i understand correctly, what users really do not want to show 
// is a misleading completed correctly for completed 
// (which leads to students not know that they have finished?) - \
// is there no better way? 
    // was: if (ShowCompletedSoFar == false )){return '';} 
// trp: cannot find a gui to set ShowCompletedSoFar  to false
    var QsCompleted = 0;
    for (var QNum=0; QNum<State.length; QNum++){         if (State[QNum] != null){             if (State[QNum][0] &gt;= 0){
                QsCompleted++;
            }
        }
    }
//Fixes for 6.2.2.2
    if (QsCompleted >= QArray.length){
        return ExerciseCompleted;
    }
    else{
        return ''; // trp: CompletedSoFar + ' ' + QsCompleted + '/' + QArray.length + '.';
    }
}
  6. Since you can edit the sourcefiles of a HotPotatoes installation, you can turn it also off for a machine permanently:
  7. If this variable is there in the underlying code, shouldn’t there be also an option in the GUI (not necessarily, maybe was never implemented – or maybe I just have not found it…).
  8. For what the output will look like, see here.
Categories: assessments, Authoring-tools, e-learning, sourcecode Tags: ,

Download for free Arabic diacritizer, romanized to Arabic script converter for Office 2013

2013/12/20 3 comments
  1. “The Arabic Authoring services help users read and write Arabic faster.
    1. Maren Reader helps users read Romanized Arabic by converting the Romanized script into Arabic script.
    2. Diacritizer restores the missing diacritics in the Arabic text, which allows users to write text without diacritics and have the service restore them.”
  2. image
  3. These tools should be useful for fledgling learners of Arabic – but don’t solely rely on them, since computers processing human language still make errors.
  4. These tools were developed by Microsoft Research Labs Cairo, learn more about them.
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, office-software, Writing Tags:

Firefox and Chrome – Enterprise version in computer lab image?

2013/12/19 Leave a comment
  1. The tension between having to update the platform while not leaving the ecosystem behind seems one of the oldest issues IT – does the web browser platform add something fundamentally new  to the mix?
  2. My understanding has always been that campus computer labs should run the “enterprise versions” of the Chrome and Firefox web browser, especially if they advertise the non-default web browsers to students on the start menu right next to Internet Explorer (which IT, with the help of the Windows Update tools that allow to shut out forced Internet Explorer’s upgrade, upgrades very conservatively, in order to not break applications).
  3. Reason for installing enterprise versions in the (ahem!) enterprise is that – I believe to know this for Firefox ESR   – the enterprise version:
    1. is kept up to date with security patches, but
    2. is feature-stable (as opposed to the consumer version which gets updated every few weeks) which allows our software  vendors – textbook websites etc. – to make sure their software works on a mainstream, non-cutting edge version of the web browser. Case in point which would likely cause havoc when trying to use online language textbooks in the LRC over the next term: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/10/firefox_26_blocks_java/
    3. Running the enterprise version of the software should also relieve
      1. IT departments of constant updates and testing, and
      2. students using deep-frozen lab computers to – every time they log in on a computer – having  to wait for the auto update of the web browser to go through.
    4. E.g. you can see from this Firefox ESR version history graphic, that it  has been on version 17 since November 2012, and that version 17, after an overlap of a few weeks, is now  (December 3) deprecated, in favor of version 24.
    5. That means: with Firefox ESR, we were spared from having to deal with (test application software compatibility, like online textbooks) the 7 individual upgrades in between. If we upgrade to ESR version 24 now, we will likely for another full year receive security patches, but not have to deal with features that break instructional websites.
  4. Given this, I assume we should upgrade to Firefox ESR (and the Chrome equivalent, if it is one, i.e. works like Firefox ESR) in the LRC image
Categories: e-infrastructure, service-is-it-managing, service-is-project-managing, textbooks, web-browsers Tags: , ,

First steps with Publish or Perish citation analysis software program

2013/12/03 Leave a comment
  1. Here is the result for a somewhat less basic query. You can (1) merge identical results by drag and drop, (2) sort by clicking the column header – for finding more duplicates and other examinations of the result set –, with the 1st sort level being the (3) checked/unchecked status. Note that the s”results”summary conveniently aggregates only the items from the query result set that you have not unchecked:  image
  2. Common pitfalls:
    1. Do not search author names without quotation marks, here is why: image
    2. Think about including multiple versions of the author’s name, especially first name: image
  3. You can export,
    1. e.g. as CSV which you can import into MS-Excel (note that MS-Excel does not autodiscover all settings, you  have to set these:)
    2. image
    3. and convert into an Excel table, for further analysis and distribution:
    4. image
Categories: e-research, Learning-logs, software Tags: , , , ,

Managing responses when organizing workshops with meeting requests

2013/11/25 Leave a comment

You can use “copy status to clipboard”

image

to move to and manage in excel:

image

image

Use an excel table autofilter to drill down to the actual participants:

image

image

and paste them right back into an outlook message:

image

Outlook can handle that (“check names”):

image

Categories: e-infrastructure, office-software Tags: , , , , , ,

How to save your MS-Office files on SkyDrive

2013/11/18 Leave a comment
  1. Having to work on important documents from different locations – including office, classroom, and home – and getting tired of  lugging thumb drives around (or worried about losing or inadvertently destroying them)?
  2. image
  3. Use your university email and your password from last June (this one does not get force-updated every 90 days any more, you can manage it yourself).
  4. Upload your important files: image
  5. Drag and drop, e.g. a PowerPoint file: image
  6. image
  7. Click the file  – e.g. a Word file – to view it in your web browser.
  8. To edit the file , while viewing, click top menu: “Edit document”. Choose between  editing it in the browser (has still some  – ever fewer – limitations for complex documents) image
  9. You will have to log in again (on a non-shared computer I prefer to choose to be “signed in automatically”). image
  10. You have to click “Enable Editing” again, but then you are in your familiar MS-Word environment.
  11. image
  12. No need to re-upload the file: Save and close your file, when you open it again in the web browser, it got synched automatically: image
  13. To keep an additional local file backup, use the free MS-SkyDrive App which sets up a local copy of your MS-SkyDrive cloud storage – useful when you have to work offline (e.g. I used to travel every weekend on a plane, but needed to make good use of my travel time).
  14. Troubleshooting: If you run into problems, the first thing to try usually is a different web browser.
Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, office-software Tags: ,

Exam integrity considerations during mock and proctored written exams in the LRC

2013/11/17 Leave a comment

The easiest way to hold a mock or proctor a written exam in the LRC is provide the students a printout of the exam. For larger classes preparing, and under some circumstances (writing impediment due to injury), providing the MS-Word file on a computer to the student would seem a more convenient solution.

However, the LRC prides itself in the large collection of MS-Office proofing tools it has installed and preconfigured – accessing which from within MS-Word could be construed as cheating during a writing exam. As a matter of fact, since MS-Word auto-detects language, under-waving of misspelled words and incorrect Grammar provides unsolicited and unavoidable extra help.

MS-Office proofing tools could be turned off by using a special MS-word template as the basis for the exam. Easier and quicker is using the SANAKO which can not only block internet access of the examined students, but also block use of entire applications like MS-Word.

Instead of in MS-Word, your students could write their responses in an application that is not part of the proofing tools infrastructure, like Notepad. Western language diacritics can easily be written  in any application on LRC PCs thanks to US-International keyboard layout, and non-Western characters even easier than on paper.

For full security, the best environment for exams we can offer remains Respondus lockdown browser, integrated with Moodle, but this requires converting the exam to into a Moodle quiz (which Respondus has tools to facilitate).  In certain cases, it might be easiest to create a “dummy” quiz with one long text input field, which your students could type everything in, without having access to any other resources (internet, proofing tools, chat, what not…). However, this quiz still would have to be  in your Moodle course so that your students can access access, and their results get put into your gradebook.

Outside of Moodle – if you do not want to go down the Respondus-path – , you can rely on the SANAKO homework collection feature and my langlabemailer to receive the results.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, English, French, lms, office-software, Writing Tags: , , , , , ,

How to type phonetic symbols on a computer

2013/11/16 2 comments
  1. Web-based On-screen-keyboards (point-and-click; low learning curve, but no fast typing speed; typing into a textbox from where you can copy/paste the result into other programs):
    1. http://westonruter.github.com/ipa-chart/keyboard/: Sounds are systematically organized. Suitable for learners, but also good for teacher demonstrations. image
    2. Partially based on keyboard shortcuts: http://www.ipatrainer.com/user/site/index.php?pageID=ipawriter: image
      1. http://ipa.typeit.org/full/: Other than the English version, the full version includes non-English sounds. The interface is optimized for fast typing (sorted by keyboard key). Presumably better for teachers using a screen projector as a whiteboard. image
      2. i2speak.com (reviewed here earlier): imageimage
      3. Update: Richard Ishida’s seems also impressive,
        1. image
        2. and you can use phonetics terminology to get characters selected, like so: image
  2. Windows-based:
    1. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/phonetics/: MS-Windows keyboard layout. May be good for even faster typing, if you can memorize the keyboard layout or add keyboard stickers (we unfortunately have too many languages vying for our hardware keyboard space already). Requires download & installation (may be added to the LRC keyboards during next imaging if we receive enough requests).
    2. http://staff.washington.edu/dmontero/IPACharmap/.
    3. http://sourceforge.net/projects/allchars/: If you are use to the ALT+### method of entering characters and are still on XP, this may be for you: You can generate your own keyboard shortcuts for phonetic characters.
    4. MS-Word:
      1. http://email.eva.mpg.de/~bibiko/downloads/uniqoder/uniqoder.html: Allows to select IPA-Symbols from a toolbar. Untested.
  3. There are also always X-Sampa and CXS and ASCII-IPA: ways of writing IPA in plain ASCII messages  – but yet another thing to teach novices in phonetics may be a bridge too far.
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, learning-materials, Mandarin, Operating-system, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, Spanish, Speaking, Swahili, websites, Yoruba Tags: ,