Copyright: 1995 by Paul W H Cheung. All rights reserved.


TRUE 1 2yesyesnonoyesyesyesCoursework Assistant Helpassistyes19/11/95


Table of Contents
Coursework Assistant - Table of Contents

Basic

Quick Start Information

Overview

The Main Screen

The Reminder File

Step by Step Tutorial

Menu

File

Edit

Option

Help

Others

Disclaimer

Registration

Version History

Acknowledgment

Contact the Author

Remove Coursework Assistant


Quick Start Information

1	Add a new degree file, enter the title and file name.

2	Add students or import name list to this degree file.

3	Add subjects to this degree.

4	Add coursework to this subject with deadline date.

5	Add students from degree to this subject

6	Under Option | Preference check the required reminder boxes.

Setup complete.  Re-run Coursework Assistant to see the reminder file!

See also Step by Step Tutorial.


Overview

A project called:

Identifying And Advising Students At Risk From Deficient Study Skills:

A Computer Based Package For Departments

was funded by the TLTP(Teaching and Learning Technology Programme) for Higher Education in the UK. This project seeks to achieve a substantial reduction in failure rates among first year students. It is hoped that the outcomes of this study can be used nationally across all disciplines.

From investigations made in Bradford University's Computing Department, one reason why many students fail to reach a satisfactory mark is because they forgot to hand in their coursework on time. To overcome this little known problem, these students will need someone constantly remind them then their courseworks are due; but the secretary is already busy with many other tasks, who could help the student?

Based on an original idea by Mr. J C Brown(University of Bradford), Coursework Assistant is a simple program designed to keep track of coursework, tutorial or experiment completion . It was intended to be used:

by higher educational departments for recording student coursework;

but it may also be used:

by lecturers or school teachers to keep track of their student coursework status;

or even be used:

by students to remind themselves of their coursework deadline.

Student names may either be imported or manually entered. Once setup, it will remind the user whenever of a coursework deadline in term of a reminder file.

Coursework Assistant is not a database package, and so avoids the complicity involved in using and learning a database program, students can also use this at their home PC.

Coursework Assistant was written in C/SDK using Borland C++ 3.1 for Windows.


The Main Screen

The main screen consist of four list boxes, holding data items for Degree, Subject, Coursework and Student.

Selecting a degree:

the student list box will show all the student within this degree;

the subject list box will show all the subjects within this degree.

Selecting a subject:

the student list box will show all the student within this subject;

the coursework list box will show all the coursework within this subject.

the lecturers' name will be displayed in the caption bar

Selecting a coursework:

the student list box will show all the student in this subject and their coursework status (i.e. coursework handed in - marked with a sign, not handed in - without a sign);

the deadline date will be show in a small box.

Selecting a student:

the update button will be enabled if the student have not handed in the coursework. When it is enabled, you can click on it, and the student detail will be stored in the reminder file immediately.

The status indicator:

indicate if your are correctly clicking list boxes in the correct sequence in order for the update button to be activated.

when there is no item defined, the message "No item found." will be displayed in the list box. You can add item by selecting the menu item Edit | Add. For other menu options see also File, Edit, Option and Help. The Step by Step Tutorial can be used to learn the package quickly.


The Reminder File

The reminder file will be in ASCII text format. The file will contain the latest file generation date, which has the format as specified in the international section in the control panel. Therefore, it does not matter if you are using MM/DD/YY, DD/MM/YY or YY/MM/DD so long as it is specified correctly in the control panel.

This will followed by multiple lines of student coursework detail.

the letter R indicate this coursework is yet to be handed in, a Normal Reminder.

the letter D indicate this coursework is already overdue, a Delayed Reminder.

the letter T indicate this coursework has just been handed in, a Thank You Reminder.


Step by Step Example
Step by Step Tutorial

The following is a simple example on how to use Coursework Assistant.

Step 1 Add a new degree

Step 2 Add a new name to the degree OR Import a name list to the degree

Step 3 Add a new subject

Step 4 Add a new coursework

Step 5 Add students from degree to subject

Step 6 Modify a selected degree/subject/coursework/student

Step 7 Delete a selected degree/subject/coursework/student


Step 1 Add a new degree
	Up
 Step 1

Add a new degree

Click in the degree list box

Select Edit | Add...

Enter degree title

Enter save as file name

Enter description(optional)

Select Add

You may choose to import straight away


Step 2 Import a name list
	Up
 Step 2

Add a new name to degree

Select the degree, and then click in the student list box

Select Edit | Add...

Enter name

Enter alternative name/email

Select OK

You should see the name is added

OR Import a name list to degree

Select the degree to be added

Select File | Import Name List...

Select 55_studs.txt(say)

Select OK

You should see the names are added


Step 3 Add a new subject
	Up
 Step 3

Add a new subject

Select the degree, and then click in the subject list box

Select Edit | Add...

Enter subject title.

Enter lecturers' name(optional)

Select Add

You should see the subject is added


Step 4 Add a new coursework
	Up
 Step 4

Add a new coursework

Select the degree, then the subject, and click in the coursework list box

Select Edit | Add...

Enter the coursework name

Enter the coursework date

Select Add

You should see the coursework is added


Step 5 Add student from degree to subject
	Up
 Step 5

Add students from degree to subject

Select the degree, the subject, and then click in the student list box

Select Edit | Add...

Choose the name from the degree list box to the subject list box

Select Add

You should see the names are added.


Modify a degree/subject/coursework/student
	Up
 Step 6

Modify a selected degree/subject/coursework/student

Select whichever item to be modified

Select Edit | Add...

Modify the item's properties

Select OK

You should see the item selected is modified.


Step 7
	Up
 Step 7

Delete a selected degree/subject/coursework/student

Select whichever item to be deleted

Select Edit | Delete

Select Yes

You should see the item selected is removed.


File

The following describes the options available under the menu File.

Import Name List...

Select this option allows a name list of the format:

name1

name2

name3

etc.

to be imported. Any ASCII text editor will do the job (such as Windows Notepad)

View Reminder File Using...

Select this option to view the latest reminder file either using Windows Notepad or Windows Write. You may than print this file for reference.


Edit

The following describes the options available under the menu Edit.

Undo

Selecting this option will undo the previous operation.

The only exception is that it cannot undo the creation of a new degree file, the user must manually delete the file. See Delete below.

Add...

Selecting this option will bring up a properties dialog box.

You may choose to add a new degree, a subject, a coursework or student but unlike other properties dialog boxes, you must select OK/Add to confirm your action.

Delete

Selecting this option will delete the selected item.

Note that a student will be removed from a selected subject if a degree and a subject are both highlighted while a student can be removed completely if only a degree is selected.

Modify

Selecting this option will bring up the properties dialog box for  the selected item.

You can modify the selected item, for example changing the subject title name if a subject is selected.


Option

The following describes the options available under the menu Option.

Refresh

Selecting this option will force Coursework Assistant to re-read the directories for degree files.

New Window

Selecting this option will launch another copy of Coursework Assistant.

Edit File Using...

Selecting this option will bring the current selected degree file.

This option is not normally recommended for beginner. It is used for printing the degree file for reference purposes.

Preference...

Selecting this option will bring up the program's main properties dialog box.

Frequency boxes, the user must check at least one of them for the program to work.

Update String is simply a sign to indicate when a coursework is handed in.

The user may substitute this with other character symbols.

Set Base Year is needed if this program is used until the year 2000!

Create Reminder in Background allows the program to work in the background.

It is generally slower but allows the user to interrupt the task or to carry on with other duties.


Help

The following describes the options available under the menu Help.

Index

Selecting this option will bring up this help file.

Home Page

Selecting this option will bring up the Home Page of Coursework Assistant if the user has direct access to the Internet.

If a browser is not selected, the user will be prompted to enter the path of a browser. The Home Page carries the latest information about the program.

About

Selecting this option will display the copyright information and system resources.


Disclaimer

Coursework Assistant is distributed as-is. The author(and the University of Bradford) disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied.  The author(and the University of Bradford) will assume no liability for damages either from the direct use of this product or as a consequence of the use of this product, including any loss of profit, damage to equipment or data, interruption of business, or any other damage, direct or accidental. It is recommended that you back up any programs and data on your hard disk before installing this software.


Registration

As you may have already noticed, the function Disable Start Up Screen does not work because the program is not registered. To register this program, simply send an email to the address in Contact the Author. When you register, you can also request a User Manual from me, I will email it to you provided you have an email account.


Version History

Original Idea	Mr. J C Brown

Version 1.00	Sept. 1995 internal release	Mr. Paul W H Cheung

Version 1.1	Nov. 1995 first public release	Mr. Paul W H Cheung

Version 1.2	Nov. 1995	 correct error in help file

Version 1.5	Nov. 1995 	correct coursework update error indroduced in version 1.1


Acknowledgment

The Author would like to thank Mr. J C Brown ( Department of Computing, University of Bradford, UK. ) for his support and advice during June 95- Sept. 95. I shall also express my best regards to Dr. R Cheung, Mr. P Patel, and finally to Mr. K P (Santa) Chan for their generous help.

"Borland 3D Custom Control (c) 1991-1992 Borland International. All Right Reserved."

"Setup2. Freeware by Frank Imburgio (original) and Stewart McSporran (updates)"

"Date Validation and Conversion Utility Copr. (c) 1990-1993 A. Schmitt.  All Rights Reserved."


Contact the Author

Please report any bugs to the author.

You may contact the Coursework Assistant author Mr. Paul W H CHEUNG via electronic mail at

Before January 1996

pcheung@bradford.ac.uk

After January 1996

100302.3060@compuserve.com


Removing Coursework Assistant
Remove Coursework Assistant

Coursework Assistant was designed to be Windows-friendly, i.e. no files are copied to the Windows directory nor any system files would be altered. Hence, to remove the program from your system simply delete the installed directory.

For your information, the following files are expected in this directory:

assist.exe	Main Program

assist.hlp	Help File

assist.wri	Read Me File

assist.ico	Icon File

datevld.dll	Date Validation DLL

bwcc.dll	Borland 3D Custom Control DLL

*.deg	Degree Files

~degree~.tmp	Undo File

~remind~.tmp	Undo File

reminder.txt	Reminder Text File

ddmmyyyy.tmp	Old Reminder Files renamed by the date of the reminder, the user must remove these files manually