Selections for the Blackboard Academic Bulletin, September 2006
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The questions and responses below have been edited for consistency and style.
Topic: Course Design
Previous Topics:
Accessing students' files in CE 6
Question:
In CE 4, the instructor was able to view all files that were uploaded by students to the Presentation Area in the File Manager. Creating a group for each individual student automatically created a folder for that student under "student_pres" in the File Manager. This made it very convenient to set up a WEBDAV folder and be able to copy the files within Windows Explorer. Can the instructor access student files in a similar fashion in CE 6?
Response:
You cannot access the files via WebDAV but what you can do is compile all of the students' submissions via the Dropbox which will create a downloadable zip file containing all of the files and textual submissions in a single step.
-- Brian Morgan, Dr. C moderator
Follow-up Question:
Thanks for the quick response. I'm not seeing this functionality in the Dropbox although I have a demo student where I've uploaded a zip of files for a test assignment and have submitted it. I can view the assignment but not the files. Is there something I've possibly missed when setting up the assignment?
Just as a side note, the assignment consists of html, css, javascript, image files, etc. which together consists of a complete web site. In order to properly grade the assignment, we need to be able to download all the files submitted. CE 4.0 made this a very seamless process with the use of WEBDAV.
Response:
You may want to try resubmitting as the demo student then, especially if you cannot see the files. With a Web site assignment, the only way you can get all of the files is to compile them (Create Printable View after selecting the assignments). If you go into the assignment itself, you are correct, you can only view the results of the uploaded Web site.
-- Brian Morgan, Dr. C moderator
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Grading paragraph questions
Question:
In CE 6, faculty would like to ask students a paragraph question and, after submission, give a model answer. Is there any way to do this? Given that selective release criteria are based on the Grade Book results and paragraph questions are not automatically marked. We do not want to have to mark the questions. We want students to provide an answer then be shown an answer. If they have not entered an answer they should not be able to get the model answer. We need to collect their answers for later reference but we do not want to mark that before they get the model answer.
Response 1:
In CE 6, there is an option to provide students with a correct answer and, if you allow the students to review the quiz results as soon as they are submitted, before all questions are graded, then this can be done. Except that you cannot differentiate between those who have answered the questions and those who have not.
-- Brian Morgan, Dr. C moderator
Follow-up Question:
Thanks, but we really need to be able to differentiate.
Response 2:
Would the Assignment Tool work as an alternative method for this paragraph? With an assignment you can get email notification when it's submitted. You can also set it so that the student can re-submit later. You can set up the assignment to create a gradebook column or not, whatever you prefer.
When the student's paragraph is submitted (by attachment or they can work right in the tool), you can either paste the model answer in the feedback or add a file attachment. Of course, none of that is going to be automated, but it does accomplish what you want; students have to submit a paragraph before they get the feedback from you.
-- Kate Britt, Dr. C moderator
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Printing the Help files from CE 6
Question:
Is there anyway to print the information in the Help section of CE 6? It would make a wonderful manual. Is there a printable version? If not, what would you recommend?
Response:
Contact your instiution's CE 6 administrator and ask for a copy of the:
- Designer and Instructor Reference: CE 6.0
And if your institution has upgraded to CE 6 Application Pack 1, ask for:
- Designer and Instructor Reference: Application Pack 1 for CE 6
The references contain all the content in the CE 6 Help but formatted for print as a PDF.
Hope this helps.
-- Bob Boufford, Dr. C moderator
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Problems with HTML files created in Word
Question:
When I load HTML files made from Word, even if they have been stripped in Dreamweaver 8, when they are loaded and open they show a lot of question marks and small empty character boxes. When I try to edit them in CE 6 I get an error message saying the character set is incorrect. Character set is windows -1252
It is slightly better if I use an old copy of Dreamweaver MX but the problem is still there. I have tried a number of programs that claim to make HTML files from Word documents. I tried changing the declaration of the character set in the File Manager but it only helped a little. Have you seen this before and what do you suggest?
Response:
What font is the original document using? Try changing the fonts to Web-friendly fonts if you aren't using them already. They are Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, Helvetica or Comic Sans.
If you have Dreamweaver, why not use that to make your documents? Word documents are notorious for causing problems after the conversion to HTML.
-- Kate Britt, Dr. C moderator
Follow-up:
I do normally make my files in Dreamweaver but I got hooked into this problem trying to help other faculty members who are very Word bound and not HTML literate. The fonts being used are Arial and Times New Roman so that does not seem to be the problem Some of the faults can be traced to having quotation marks in the Word file. Thanks so much for your very quick reply.
Response 2:
When you save your Word document as an HTML format, try to use the Save As > Web page, filtered rather than Save As > Web page option. The Web page, filtered option helps to save the document's format without those characters and symbols.
Follow-up:
Unfortunately that didn't work. I did that and it opened perfectly in Internet Explorer. I uploaded it to CE 6 and it had question marks all throughout the document. It seems to me like a server problem or software problem. Am I wrong?
Response 3:
Strange problem indeed. I can't check your experience because I have Word 2000, not 2003. So I did a little more research and found this previous message in Ask Dr.C:
"This problem has re-appeared for designers who upload HTML files created with a MAC into content modules. Changing the HTML code charset=macintosh to charset=windows-1252 seemed to help with some problems."
However, you've already mentioned that the character set is windows -1252.
Try this: Do a side-by-side comparison in this way: View the *source code* for the document as it is on your computer and also as it appears within the CE environment. That way, you'll find out which text is switching to the strange characters in CE. It might give you some clues as to where the problem occurs, and whether it's consistent with certain text/characters.
From your description it does sound like something is being changed when the document is viewed in CE. Check this also: Are the changes happening in all views within CE? In the File Manager preview of the file? In which tool: is it a Content page, a Single Page, etc.?
All of the above information can help troubleshooting, especially if you need to eventually take the problem to WebCT Support via your local WebCT Admin person.
-- Kate Britt, Dr. C moderator
Response 4:
To add to the previous suggestions, be aware that Vista 3 and 4.0 and CE 6 utilize the UTF-8 character set. You may need to set the same character sets in both Word and Dreamweaver. Even with specifying UTF-8, other character sets may slip in through style sheets and inserted files or, as pointed out, from other operating systems, such as Mac and Unix/Linux.
Be aware as mentioned earlier, that Word tends to put a lot of style code and some Javascript into an HTML document that causes problems for the parser in Vista and CE 6 (the parser cleans up code, readjust paths, puts in glossary links and other behind the scene stuff).
If the faculty insist on using Word, you may want to take a look at Horizon Wimba's Course Genie. Hope this helps.
-- Bob Boufford, Dr. C moderator
Conclusion:
Thanks to everyone who chipped in to help. It is a character set problem. I finally sought help from Dreamweaver 8 Help that I should have looked up in the first place. It was fairly well hidden, though.
The trick is to avoid Word HTML altogether. Open a plain HTML file in Dreamweaver. Go to the Word file and copy the text. Then return to the Dreamweaver file and use "Paste Special" to paste the text into Dreamweaver. You have to fix the font and check the paragraph spacing but otherwise its fine. It does not use the Windows character set. It is a good idea to keep the Word file faily simple and not go mad with fancy bullets for example.
Nice to know that you were all interested in solving the problem.
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