The Tracker Screen

The Tracker Screen allows an instructor to:

• See the names of all the students who have accessed the lesson and who are currently signed on.
• See a graphical display of the progress of each student as they go through the lesson.
• Print Tracker Screen.
• Select and listen to each recording made by a student.
• Select and see any incorrectly answered Multiple Choice and Fill-in questions for a student.
• Select an item for a student and record special instructions for that student. The student is then directed to the selected item and given the special instructions.
• Speak in real time to the whole class.
• Talk individually with a single student.
• Enable a class or individual test, monitor students taking the test, mark answers and review the test.
• Control data display and storage for students accessing the lesson.

Black

The student has not recorded a response to this item.

Grey

The student has recorded a response and has pressed the Next key. The response is now available for listening.

Green

The instructor has listened to the response for this item.

Red

The instructor has recorded special instructions for this item that require the student to take the item, but the student has not yet completed the item.

Yellow

The student has received special instructions for the item, taken the item, and has completed the item by recording a new response.

Cyan

The student has correctly answered this Multiple Choice or Fill-in question item.

Magenta

The student has incorrectly answered this Multiple Choice or Fill-in question item. The incorrect answer is available for review by the instructor.

Selecting Students and Items

The cursor indicates which student and which item is currently selected. The cursor is shown as a brighter coloured box on the screen. In the example the cursor is on the fifth item box for the student Nicole.

The cursor up and cursor down keys move the cursor from student to student.

The cursor left and cursor right keys move the cursor from item to item in the lesson.

The cursor can also be moved by clicking the mouse on an item.

The currently selected item is identified at the bottom left corner of the screen. The item index in the plan is followed by the item tag. The mark given for the response (if any) is shown over the highest mark (if any) for the item.

Listening to Student Responses

When a student takes an item that requires a recorded response such as an Example, a Read, or an Ask the student may record the response, listen to it, and re-record it several times to try and get it right.

While the student is working on this, the item indicator remains black. Only when the student has completed a satisfactory recording and presses the Next key does the indicator turn grey to show that the recording is available for listening.

To listen to the recording, the instructor selects the student and the item and presses the Play button. The volume display of the student response and a volume control for playback volume appears on the screen. The response is played to the end where the Pause button is pressed. While the volume display is visible, the Pause button can be used to stop and resume play.

The Play cursor can be moved by clicking the mouse on any spot on the volume display. The sound will play from that point.

Pressing the Play button returns to the Tracker Screen. The selected item now appears in green to indicate that it has been listened to.

Looking at Student Answers

The computer judges the student's answers to Multiple Choice and Fill-in questions. Question items that are answered correctly are displayed in cyan. Question items that are incorrect are displayed in magenta. Both can be displayed for examination.

Selecting a Multiple Choice question item and pressing the Play button displays the question text and the answers. Incorrect answers have red numbers; correct answers have green numbers. The number of the student's answer is shown on red or on green.

Selecting a magenta Fill-in question item and pressing the Play button displays the question text with the student's answers filled in.

Pressing Play again returns to the Tracker Screen. The question item will still be coloured magenta.

Marking Student Answers

While the Listen button has been pressed the instructor can also mark the student's answer. If an item has a mark (1 to 9) in the lesson plan, the student's answer can be scored. Entering a digit ranging from 0 to the item's mark will assign a score to the response.

The student's score and the mark for the item are displayed at the bottom left of the screen. The student's score is displayed as a blank if no mark has been given.

Not all questions have marks. The instructor decides in the lesson Planner what mark to assign to each item. The mark can reflect the difficulty of the item.

Multiple Choice and Fill-in questions are marked by the computer. A correct answer gets a full mark; an incorrect gets zero. The instructor can select question items that are incorrect and change the mark as desired.

For recorded answers, the computer assigns no mark to the answer. The instructor must mark the answers.

Exporting students answers

The tracker includes the capacity of exporting students' recorded answers into wave or MP3 files.

When exporting students answers, you may choose to export

• one specific answer from a student
• all the answers a student has recorded in a lesson Plan
• all the recorded answers from all the students in a lesson:

Exporting an answer

• In the Drives section, select the drive you wish to save the answer on, then locate the appropriate folder by scrolling in the Folders section. You may also use the the Network button if you wish to save this file on a network share.
  
  
• Next, Choose the format of the file you wish to save in the Save file as type field. By default this field is pre-set as Wave type. Click here for information on exporting an answer as an MP3 file
  
  
• Type the name and extension of the file in the File Name field.
  
  
• Finally, Click OK to finalize the process.
  
  

Exporting All of a student's answers

• In the Drives section, select the drive you wish to save the answers on, then locate the appropriate folder by scrolling in the Folders section. You may also use the Network button if you wish to save this file on a network share.
  
  
• Next, Choose the format of the files you wish to save in the Save file as type field. By default this field is pre-set as Wave type. Click here for information on exporting an answer as an MP3 file
  
  
• Each answer from the student will be saved in as a different wave file. In the File Name field enter the name of the folder that will be created and where these files will be saved. Since this is a folder, do not add the .wav extension in this field. If the folder already exists, you will get an error box:
  
  Select Retry, rename your folder and press OK again.
• Finally, Click OK to finalize the process.
  
  
  
  The wave files will automatically be saved in that newly created folder. The names of these files will be assigned by the system and will include their position in the Planner, followed by an under-score and the 4 first letters of this item's name in the Planner, as illustrated.
  
  Note that if the item's name in the Planner includes an accented character, this character will also be replaced by an underscore, as accentuation is not permitted in the 8.3 file name standard.
  
  
  
  

Exporting all students' answers

• In the Drives section, select the drive you wish to save the answers on, then locate the appropriate folder by scrolling in the Folders section. You may also use the the Network button if you wish to save this file on a network share.
  
  
• Next, Choose the format of the files you wish to save in the Save file as type field. By default this field is pre-set as Wave type. Click here for information on exporting an answer as an MP3 file
  
  
• In the File Name field enter the name of the folder that you wish to create. Since this is a folder, do not add the .wav extension in this field. If the folder already exists, you will get an error box:
  
  Select Retry, rename your folder and press OK again.
• Finally, Click OK to finalize the process.
  
  
  
  The system will create a folder for each student. The name assigned to this folder by the system is the code that was assigned to the user at his/her creation.
  
  
  An index.txt file is also created in the same folder, giving the corresponding user name for each folder.
  
  
  Each folder includes several wave files, one for each answer that this student recorded in that lesson. The names of these files are composed of 3 digits, corresponding to the item's position in the Planner, followed by an underscore and then the 4 first letters of the item's name in the Planner, as illustrated below:
  
  
  
  Note that if the item's name in the Planner includes an accented character, this character will also be replaced by an underscore as accentuation is not permitted in the 8.3 file name standard.
  
  
  
  

Exporting students' answers as MP3 or other formats.

SETTINGS

• an mp3 encoder/audio converter, which must be obtained from another source and installed on the instructor's station.
• adding the following setting to the sv.ini file:
  
  export="MPEG layer 3 (mp3)%mp3%cmd /C "CONVERTER_NAME %.wav %.mp3&&del %.wav""
  
  where:
  

  MPEG layer 3 (mp3)

  is the descriptive label that appears in the box for file types when saving files.

  mp3

  is the extension shown in the file save box.

  cmd /C "CONVERTER_NAME %.wav %.mp3&&del %.wav

  is the command line - the file name (without extension) is substituted for each occurrence of % in the command line and CONVERTER_NAME is the executable associated with the converter you chose.

  Example

  [general]
  version=sounds virtual windows 1.0
  wave=1
  files=1
  wime=1
  filter=1
  export="MPEG layer 3 (mp3)%mp3%cmd /C "c:\progra~1\lame %.wav %.mp3&&del %.wav""
  [server]
  server_name=
  

EXPORTING

1. the data is first exported to a wave file
2. this file is then converted to an MP3 format
3. The wave file created in step 1 is then erased.

Message to the Student

After listening to a response the instructor may decide that the student should redo the item. Pressing the Record button causes a volume display to appear on the screen and the computer begins to record a message for the student.

The Pause button may be used to pause and resume recording.

When the message is finished, pressing the Record button again will send it to the student and return to the Tracker Screen. The item will be colour coded in red to indicate that a message is waiting for the student.

The message will be given to the student when the student presses Next. At this point, the item in red is selected for the student and the message is played. The student must record a new response for the item.

Any item on the Tracker Screen, whether the student has answered it or not, can be selected for a message.

Talking Online to the Class

The instructor can talk online to the students who are signed on and using the network. Communication is over the network wires directly to the student's computer. As the voice is transmitted in real time over the network, the message cannot be saved or edited. Students who sign on later will not receive it.

Interrupting the Class

By selecting the Phone and then Broadcast option from the menu bar, the instructor may speak in real time to the entire class.

The SV Net Phone appears on the screen which shows the instructor's voice. Each of the students in the class will see a message telling them that their professor is speaking. All students who are using the language lab software will see this message and hear the instructor's voice. To terminate this broadcast the instructor presses the Exit button.

Calling a Student

When a student presses the F12 key or selects Help and then Call Instructor from the menu bar, the system notifies the instructor by changing the background of the student's name from blue to red on the Tracker Screen.

The instructor can choose which student to talk with (whether the student has called or not) by selecting the student and then accessing the Phone option from the menu bar and selecting Student.

The SV Net Phone showing the instructor's voice in the volume display appears on the screen as well as a volume control. The volume control can be adjusted to hear the student's voice better.

A similar phone is displayed on the student's screen asking them to speak to the professor.

To terminate the call to the student, the instructor presses the Exit key.

The Real Time Student Management function

The Real Time Student Management function is optional and may not be available at all sites. Where available, the Real Time Student Management allows the system supervisor and the instructors to view the student's screen and listen to the student activities in real time, from the instructor's station.

This option is not set by default. In order to make that option available to the instructor, the system supervisor must first enable the "Observe Online Users" option in the instructor's profile, by using the Change a User function.

Listening to a student in real time

From the Tracker, select the user you wish to listen to, then select PHONE -->LISTEN



The SV Net Phone window will appear on the screen with the message "Listen to..." followed by the name of the selected student.



The instructor will now hear the student in real time.

To talk to the student, select the Talk option in the SV Net Phone menu bar.



Selecting the option Talk a second time will stop the conversation, but the student can still be listened to.

To stop listening to the student, exit or minimize the SV Net phone window.

Note that a student cannot record while being talked to. If an instructor talks to a student while the student is recording, the recording will be stopped until the instructor either ends the conversation by selecting the Talk option in the SV Net Phone, or exits the window.

Viewing the student's screen

From the Tracker, highlight the student's name, then press PHONE -->LISTEN. Once the SV Net Phone window is displayed, select the WATCH option from its menu bar.


The student's entire screen will then be displayed in the SV Net Phone window on the instructor's station. Any other application's window displayed on the student's screen at that time will also be displayed on the instructor's screen.

Only the topmost menu bar displayed on the instructor's screen belongs to the SV Net Phone and is active. Anything else is only an "image" of the student's screen and is therefore inactive on the instructor's screen.



To exit the viewing mode, press Watch in the menu bar and the image will disappear.

Talking to the student while viewing

You may talk to the student, while in viewing mode, by selecting Talk in the menu bar.



If the student is recording at that time, the recording will be stopped until the instructor ends the conversation by selecting Talk a second time.

Leaving a note

While in viewing mode, you may leave a note on the student's screen. To do so, right click on the area of the SV Net Phone reserved to the image of the student's screen and select the Note option in the pop up menu.



Write a short note to the student.



The Edit option allows you to change the font from serif to sans serif as well as the size. Select the text in the Note window by dragging the mouse over the text, then select Edit and the font and size of your choice.



You can also resize the note, by dragging the edge in or outwards, and move it around the screen by clicking on the note's blue menu bar and dragging it to the location of your choice, within the student's screen image. Once the font, size and location satisfactory, press enter to send the note to the student's screen.

Limits:
- You may leave up to four notes on the student's screen.
- If you send a fifth note, the first one will disappear from the student's screen.
- Notes cannot be displaced or deleted by the students.
- Notes will remain on the student screen until the instructor deletes them or exits the tracker.

Notes can only be deleted from the instructor's station. To delete a note, right click on the image of the note. Select the option Delete in the pop up menu.

Using a pointer

The pointer is another tool available to the instructor through the Real Time Student Management function. The instructor can leave it on the student's screen to point at anything within the student's screen.

The pointer cannot be moved nor can it be deleted from the student's screen by the student.

To place a pointer on the student's screen, the instructor has to be in viewing mode. Simply click on the area of the SV Net Phone window where you wish to leave a pointer.

To remove the pointer from the student screen, double click on it.

Editing the Lesson Plan

The Planner can be used to make changes to the lesson. Items may be changed, added, or deleted as required. The changes take effect when the Planner is exited and control returns to the Tracker Screen. The screen is redrawn to reflect the new lesson structure.

The changes to the lesson also appear to the students at this time. Students who are working on an item see the new items on the menu when the Next key is pressed. Students who are in the process of selecting from the menu will see their menus redrawn (if necessary). Other instructors user the Tracker for this lesson will see their screens updated to reflect the changes.

Deleting Data

Two options exist for deleting data from the Tracker Screen.

By selecting a student and then accessing the File option on the menu bar the instructor may select the option to delete that student's data from the Tracker Screen.

Confirmation is required before the data is deleted.

When the student data is deleted all the student's progress and recorded sound files (for this lesson only) are deleted. When a student's data is deleted, the disk space used to store the recorded files will become available for other uses.

To delete all the data for all students, access the File option from the menu bar and select Del All. All student data will be deleted and the screen will be cleared. Data for other lessons is not affected.

Note that students who are currently signed on and using the lesson are not affected by either of these options and cannot be deleted until they have been encouraged to exit the lesson.

Administering Tests

The Test menu is accessed from the Tracker Screen menu bar. The Test menu allows an instructor to administer supervised tests to a class.

Unless otherwise specified, the lesson is used as a drill and practice. Students who select the lesson can record answers and take questions. The results (correct, incorrect, and marks) for questions are available to the student as running totals of questions taken and correct answers. The student item menus show correctly answered questions in green and incorrectly answered ones in red. As this is a drill mode, the previous recording or answer to a question is not shown to a student who re-enters an item.

However, the instructor can administer the lesson material as a test instead of practice. The test sequence proceeds through the stages of students waiting for the test to begin, taking the test, and finally reviewing the results.

The Tracker allows an instructor to display the students on the screen sorted by class rank at any time. The final marks for the test, including rank in class, can be displayed to the students as well.

When the test menu is displayed, one of the first four options will be checked to indicate which one is currently in effect. The Test menu options are:

Practice

In drill and practice students are given feedback by the colour of the items on the student menus. Items are green for correctly answered questions and red for incorrect.

Wait for start

When this option is set students who access the lesson can listen to the instructions recorded at the start of the lesson but cannot take items in the lesson. A message indicating that the test is not available is displayed to the student.

Take test

While taking a test students are not given feedback for test questions (questions that are scored). Practice questions (that have no mark) can still give feedback if this option has been selected in the planner. The item menus show how many marks can be awarded for each question. Questions that have been answered appear in green. No totals for questions or correct answers are given.

Start Student

If testing is done on an individual basis, it is possible to start one student at a time, with out permitting unauthorised access to the test. The lesson is marked Wait to start. When the student logs in and selects the lesson they see the "Waiting..." window.






In the instructor's Tracker Screen the student's name will appear.
Highlight the student's name and select Start Student from the Test menu. This starts the test for this student and this student only. There is no way to stop the test once the student has begun.

Start All

If testing is done on a group basis, all student signing in and accessing that lesson would have the Wait to start screen. To start the text, simply highlight one student on hold and select Start All from the test menu.





The test will start for all students that had accessed the lesson and were put on hold. In the instructor's Tracker Screen the student's name will appear.

Review results

At the end of a test the instructor can select Review. This ends the test. Students can no longer answer questions or record sound for items. Item menus are now shown even if test presentation has been set to sequential or random. The item menus now show the marks that have been given for each item. Questions that were correct show in green; incorrectly answered questions are shown in red. Items not taken are displayed in grey.

Show scores

Selecting this option sorts the students on the screen by score. The highest scoring student is displayed at the top of the screen. The scores for each student over the maximum possible (only for the questions taken) are shown at the right of the screen. As students take more questions or marks are given for items recorded, the scores and the maximum for the questions are updated. However, the list of students is not sorted again until Show scores is selected again. This option has no effect on the students themselves.

Final mark

Selecting this option when the test is in the Review stage will display the final marks to the students. Each student sees his own mark over the maximum possible in the test (including questions not taken). The student's rank in the class, the class average, and the highest mark in the class are also displayed to the student. The final mark is displayed to the student when the Review or Practice options are selected. The final mark does not change if the student answers further questions in Practice mode. Only deleting the student's data will remove a final mark.

View Options

The system allows the instructor to select which students they wish to see when using the Tracker. The default is to display all students that have ever accessed the lesson.

If the instructor belongs to the same class(es) as a group of students, then the Tracker will only show those students that exist in that class. There is no way to override this option for the instructor and it can be used for lab monitors or others who do not need to see all students using a particular lesson.

Online Only

This option causes the Tracker to display only the students that are currently on-line using the system. The rest are hidden. This is useful to un-clutter the display when working during class time.

Own Students

This option forces the Tracker to show only students that have been registered by the instructor that is using the Tracker. This removes all other students from the screen.

Sorted

This option will allow you to sort all the students listed in the Tracker by alphabetical order, thus giving you an easier access to a particular student's recorded data.

By Class

This option will allow you to sort the students listed in the Tracker by class, which makes monitoring, during a test or a practice, easier.

To sort by class:
From the Tracker menu, choose View ---> by Class


You will then get the following window:



By default, all classes belonging to the instructor logged in are listed in the "Selected classes" screen. If you wish to view only the students belonging to one of those classes, click on the " - All " button.

Your "selected class" field is now empty, classes list is now in the " Available classes" field.
Scroll down that list and double click on the class(es) you wish to view in the Tracker, or select the class(es) you wish to view by clicking once on it and then pressing the " + " button. The desired class(es) is(are) now listed in the " Selected Classes" window. Press OK and the Tracker will display only the students belonging to the class(es) you chose.


Depending of the instructor's needs and/or the amount of classes belonging to this instructor, an alternative approach is to click, in the "selected classes" field, on the class(es) he does not wish to view in the Tracker, and then click on the " - " button. This class will then move to the "available classes field".
This option is more convenient if the instructor wishes to view most of the classes.