NetTutor® v5.1 Manual

Administration

For Group Administrators: Manage my Classes

This displays a table having one row for every class you manage. For each class the class' name, type, Class Users, Update, and Access Codes are listed. These last three are explained in detail below.

Group Administrators are responsible for the class maintenance. This includes keeping the class parameters and active class member accounts up-to-date. Classes can be one of three types: public, protected, or private. In most cases, classes will be private, as this yields the highest level of protection against unauthorized access of your NetTutor® class. The class administrator can change the class specifications as detailed below. For more details about the different class types see here.

Add a New User

This is used to add a single user. It provides a form in which all red labeled fields must be filled in, all others are optional. You must also select at least one class for the user to belong to. Once you have entered all the necessary information, click the Add to Database button at the bottom of the page. If the user was successfully added you'll get a "user added" notification, otherwise it will tell you what error it encountered. Simply correct the errant entry and again click Add to Database.

Hint: If you do not have an e-mail address for the user enter: none@the.moment in the Email field.

Warning: All information entered here (except for the password) is available to all other class members, not just the tutors. Only enter information that you feel should be available to the rest of the class.

Batch Import

Batch Import allows you to quickly add a list of students to NetTutor®. It requires an ASCII file that contains one line per user, each line of the format

last name, first name, e-mail address, UserID, password

Minimally, you can just specify the "last name, first name" for each user. UserIDs must be lowercase and contain no spaces. Spaces are not permitted in passwords either. If either the UserID or password fields are left blank, NetTutor® will generate them for you. Typically the UserID consists of a first initial, last name, and possibly a number to disambiguate. If any UserID in your file already exists in the NetTutor® system, NetTutor® will add an integer to it to make it unique. At the end of a batch import, NetTutor® will display a list of the accounts added; please save this list in a safe place and review it for possible erroneous entries or UserID changes.

A sample input file is shown below:

Smith, John, smith@some_company.com, smith, oneNmillions Doe, Jane, ,jdoe Public, Jayqueue

To batch load a class of students:

Create your student list file described above.
Put the absolute path to this file on your system in the text window. If you're unsure what this is use the Browse button to select your file.
Select the classes you want your students to be members of.
Click Import this file.
Do a browser File->Save As... of the report generated by NetTutor® after a successful Batch Import. Review this information and distribute to your users if necessary.

Users

All classes in your "Manage my Classes" list will have a corresponding Users link. Clicking this link will display the list of current class members

Stats

This displays your NetTutor® usage statistics. These include the pages you visited, IP address you accessed NetTutor® from, and the date and time you connected to NetTutor®.

Update

This permits you to update the user's personal information. The primary uses of this feature are to reset a forgotten password for a student, and to disable an account for a disruptive or no longer active student by changing their password.

Update

The following class specifications can be changed by group administrators:

the full name of the class,
the brief name of the class (this is displayed on the status line of the tutor's WWWhiteboard™ to give them the context for the question),
the type of the class,
the tutor list of the class,
the schedule for your live on-line sessions, (see the Help! on the "Tutoring Hours" schedule to find out the format required to enter your online schedule),
the audio support option of the class,
the switch delay (in seconds) between live chat board switches (If you wish students to have the capability of canceling a switch request, then it is recommended that you set this value to 4 or 5, especially if you have students participating from home over a modem. If you do not want to permit students to cancel board switches, set this value to 0.),
the number of simultaneous WWWhiteboard™s you can have open (please consult with your site administrator before changing this field as your NetTutor® license restricts the number of simultaneous WWWhiteboard™s that can be open at the same time in the NetTutor® system),
the WWWhiteboard™'s default font size,
which WWWhiteboard™ options you want available (Language Option, Mathematics Option, Greek Option, Chemistry Option, and Accounting Option),
whether or not you want tutors to be able to boot participants of the Live Chat session,
the buttons and their order that are to appear on the left-hand side of the WWWhiteboard™ (see Help! for details on how to specify the button configuration).

If you require to delete users, contact your site administrator.

Access Codes

If the group is of the type Protected, then the group will support self-registration via access codes. This column will list all the access codes for that row's corresponding group. When a group is initially made protected, it has a random 10 digit access code assigned to it.

A single access code can correspond to one or multiple groups. For example, if you are group admin for the groups MAT101, MAT102, and MAT103, and all three of them are of type Protected, you can make an access code that will register new users into one of the groups, any two of the groups, or all three of the groups. Also, a single group can have multiple access codes associated with it.

To make a new access code for a group (or groups):

Make sure the group is of type Protected.
Click on the button. This will bring up a new window.
Enter the access code you wish to create. It has to be exactly 10 characters in length.
Click the checkbox by the names of the groups you wish to be associated with this new access code. You will only see the groups listed that you are a group administrator for and the groups that are of type Protected.
When you're finished, click the Add New button. You'll get a confirmation that the access code has been created, or that it already exists. If it already exists, you are prompted to try another access code.

Group administrators can also update existing access codes. If you click on an access code, a new window will appear. In this new window, you can change what groups are associated with this access code.

For Site Administrators: Manage this Site

Site Administrators can add, update, and delete classes and users. They can also review usage statistics through this center. Most commonly they will set up and delete classes and delete past user accounts.

Add a New User

See above.

Batch Import

See above.

All Users

This button provides a list of all of the users registered in the NetTutor® system that match a given search string. To search for a user, click All Users. Another browser window will open with a search text field. Enter in the string you want to search for and click the Go button. The search string will be compared to all users' information. The list of users that match the search string will be displayed in that window. If no users matching the string are found, an empty table will be displayed. For the users that do match, however, this information is displayed: their UserID, the class IDs of the NetTutor® classes they're currently registered in, their full name, their e-mail address, and three links: Stats, Update, and Delete. These links are explained in detail below.

Note: To list all users, use a colon (:) as your search string.

Stats

See above.

Update

See above.

Delete

This removes the user from the NetTutor® system.

Add a New Class

This allows you to add a new class. Below is a detailed description of the fields on this form (all red labeled fields are mandatory).

Class Name - The full name of the class.
Brief Title - The brief name of the class that is to be displayed on the status line of the tutor's WWWhiteboard™s along with the student's personal information to give the tutor the context for the question.
Type - There are three different types of classes:
- Private - This is what most of your classes will likely be as they are the most secure. Users can access private classes only if they have a NetTutor® account that has been created by the site administrator or a tutor of the class and has been registered into the class.
- Protected - These classes require that users specify a 10 digit access code (of the form XXX-XXX-XXXX) to register in to them. When creating a group that is of type Protected, NetTutor® will automatically assign it a random 10 digit access code.
- Public - These groups are open to everyone.
Warning: This mechanism is not very secure. Anyone knowing the access code for a protected class can self-register into it.
Hint: One common technique is to start a class as a protected, self registering class. The students are then given two weeks to self register into the class and then the tutor/instructor requests the site administrator to change the class to a private class. The site administrator accomplishes this via Update, and simply changing the class' type from "protected" to "private".
Tutors - The UserIDs of the tutors for the class (space separated).
Class Admins - The UserIDs of the class administrators for the class (space separated).
Expiration Date - The expiration date and time of the class.
Class Status - The status of the class.
E-commerce - Whether or not the class has the e-commerce functions.
Audio - Whether or not the class has audio support.
Switch Delay - The time (in seconds) between live chat board switches. If you wish students to have the capability of canceling a switch request, then it is recommended that you set this value to 4 or higher, especially if you have students participating from home over a modem and/or through a firewall. If you do not want to permit students to cancel board switches, set this value to 0.
Live Boards - The number of simultaneous WWWhiteboard™s tutors of the class can have open at the same time. Note that the total number of simultaneous WWWhiteboard™s that can be open in your NetTutor® system is limited by your license. You can over allocate these boards but it may result in some class not being able to hold a live session if the number of simultaneous live boards is exhausted. A reasonable formula for the WWWhiteboard™s a class may need is:

number_of_live_boards = number_of_tutors + 1.
Font Size - The WWWhiteboard™'s default font size.
Whiteboard Options - Which WWWhiteboard™ options you want available.
Logo - For LSI internal usage.
Boot Option - Whether or not you want tutors to be able to boot participants of a Live Chat session
Button Order - The buttons and their order that are to appear on the left-hand side of the WWWhiteboard™ (see Help! for details of how this is specified).

Once you have completed the form to your satisfaction, click the Add to Database button at the bottom of the page. If the class was not successfully added, it will inform you of what fields are in error. Simply correct these fields and re-click the Add to Database button. NetTutor® will inform you once a new class has been successfully added.

Note: Your license limits you on the number of classes you can have.

Users

Stats

See above.

Update

See above.

Delete

Clicking this link will remove the user from the NetTutor® system.

Update

See above.

Only the site administrator can change following class specifications.

The administrator list of the class,
The expiration date of the class,
The status of the class,
The e-commerce option of the class.

Delete

This will remove the class, deleting all of its related archive files. If you wish to backup these archives, note the q=# in the URL associated with the link. Go to the public_html/NetTutor® directory and backup the subdirectories g# and nt# before clicking this link.

Note: g# contains the threaded bulletin board and live chat archives while nt# contains the live tutorial and Q&A archives.

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