Use it to

The MakePageApplet is the module used to create and edit web pages containing questions. The question pages generated will reside on the Server, the student can download these pages using her browser and answer the questions of the web page.

Quick guide

Making a Cross Page

Making a Alternative Page

Making a Written Page

How to start

Select the appropriate link (depending on the browser) from the systems start page. The Applet will start to load to your browser, please be patient as the loading might take a while, depending on your Internet connection. When loaded a username/password window will be showed. Enter the user name and password given to you bt the system administrator and press the Ok button. After approximately 5-10 s the subject select list will display the courses that you have access to, double-click on the subjects which question pages you would like to create/modify. After a few seconds the Applet will have loaded the necessary information from the server and you may start working with it.

The MakePageApplet could be used for creation of three different types of question formulas.

• Cross
• Alternative
• Written

When you entered the title you are ready to fill in the question and answer text, this differ a bit depending on the question type see below. When you are satisfied with the questions you should choose the feedback mode for the question. There are two modes of feedback auto and save. If you use the former the student will get direct feedback from the HTML question page about which answers where correct. If you choose the later (Save), the student answers will be saved on the Server. You can later use the Read Answer Applet to look at the answers of the students.

The question page is now ready to be saved on the server, do this by pressing the Save button. If everything went all right a message saying "Page successfully saved on server" will be shown at the bottom of the window. If you want to take a look at the newly created question page click just on the Show Page button. A browser window will be launched displaying the new question page. This is exactly the same page as the student later will see. If you would like to link to it from other pages you should here make a note of the URL address to the page.

Cross

The Cross question pages are made up of one or more question pairs. Each question pair in return is made up of the question, the answer and the correct answers row number.

Add the questions and answers you like in the text fields marked Q and A. The small text field to right of the question text field shows the row number of the right answer. If you want to add more than four questions, just click on the right arrow button. When all questions have entered you can click on the Random answer button to assign a random row answer number to the question. The number will be between one and the number of questions entered. It is also possible to assign the numbers yourself, but you must then make sure that you only write numbers and that you have entered sufficient many questions. For example in Fig.1 one could have changed the 2 in the first question to a 3 but not to 14. Before saving the page on the server you should select the feedback type. Auto or Save.

Quick guide for making a cross page:

1. Choose New Cross in the page selection list.
2. Enter the page title, don't forget to press Return
3. Fill in the question-answer pairs, use the arrow buttons to switch between the sub questions.
4. Click on the Random answer button to assign answers, or assign them yourself.
5. When finished, select the feedback type. Auto or Save Answer.
6. Save the page on the server by clicking on the Save Page button.
7. Look at the page by clicking on the Show Page button.
8. Make a note of the direction of the question page. The direction is normally displayed by the browser e.g. http:\\www.distancia.edu.uy\Coursename\MyNewPage.html

The Alternative question pages are made out of one or more questions. Each question in return contains a question text and one to five different alternative answers.

Write the question text in the field marked Q and the alternatives in the fields marked Alt.1-5. Please note that if you leave an alt. field empty it, and the alternatives below won't be saved.

Select the correct alternative by clicking on the corresponding radio button to the right of the field. When you have entered all questions select the desired feedback and save the page.

Quick guide for making an alternative page:

1. Choose New Alternative in the page selection list.
2. Enter the page title, don't forget to press Return.
3. Fill in the questions, the alternatives and select the right answer, use the arrow buttons to switch between the questions.
4. When finished, select the feedback type. Auto or Save Answer.
5. Save the page on the server by clicking on the Save Page button.
6. Look at the page by clicking on the Show Page button.
7. Make a note of the direction of the question page. The direction is normally displayed by the browser e.g. http:\\www.distancia.edu.uy\Coursename\MyNewPage.html

The Written question pages are made of one or more questions. Each question contains a text area with the question text.

Write the question text in the field marked Q, note that the answer field is not editable as it is not used in this Applet. When you have entered all questions, save the page.

Note that you can't select feedback to be Auto for the Written type of question pages. This is because there is no way for the question page to know which type of written answers are correct. In future version however it may be possible to enter one or more keywords and the question could be judged as correct if the student answers contains these keywords.

Quick guide for making a written page:

1. Choose New Written in the page selection list.
2. Enter the page title, don't forget to press Return.
3. Fill in the question text and select the right answer, use the arrow buttons to switch between the questions.
4. Save the page on the server by clicking on the Save Page button.
5. Look at the page by clicking on the Show Page button.
6. Make a note of the direction of the question page. The direction is normally displayed by the browser e.g. http:\\www.distancia.edu.uy\Coursename\MyNewPage.html

Editing a page is done in exactly the same manner as creating a new page. The only difference is that instead of choosing one of the three New Question Page in the page select list, you select the name of the page that you would like to edit. When you have made the necessary changes press the save button and the page will be saved. ATTENTION!!! If the page edited was of feedback type Save, you will lose all student answers. 

Deletion of question pages

To delete a question page, select the page in the selection list and click the delete button (not shown in the images). A dialog window will ask you weather you are sure, if you are, clicking on the Ok button will erase all files associated with the question page from the server.

A good idea when working with pages that saves the students answers on the server (mode Save) may be to change the page to mode Auto after all the students have answered it. In this way the student could discover the right answers to the pages himself.

As Java is a relative new technology there are still numerous bugs and strange things might occur when using it. The following is highly recommended when using the applet.

• Try to have as few other applications running as possible.
• Avoid  resizing the browser window, use the slider bars instead.
• There is a bug (at least when running with Netscape 4.04 batch version) that makes it impossible to save a page two times without closing the browser and start it again.
• When the Java is starting, have patience and wait. Don't try to click on two many buttons.