Dear Friends,
I have been doing this for a long time. However, I was never satisfied with how I set up the course for new students. I had to delete old students and upload new students. Is there an easier way to set this up? Please help. .. Raghu
Hi Raghu,
Probably many people have different ideas on this. One way is to do what you have been doing. Here's one assuming you will use the same (or mostly the same homework problems).
1. I'm assuming students are all finished with the old course.
2. Goto the Hmwk sets editor and export all the sets. This will make copies of setdefinition files for all the sets which will contain the locations of the problems (and due dates, etc which you can change later).
3. Rename the course (e.g. mth101 to mth101_fall08).
4. Add a new course (mth101) and use mth101_fall08 as a template (not the modelCourse which is the default).
5. Add the new students to mth101 (hopefully using an electronic copy of the classlist from your registrar which you will probably have to edit with e.g. Excel).
6. Goto the Hmwk sets editor and import all the sets you want. You will have to change the due dates, etc.
7. The saved course mth101_fall08 will still be active. If you don't want it you can archive it or even delete it but we almost always save these courses. Actually if you plan to delete the old course, you might as well delete the old students and add the new ones as you have been doing all along. If you want to keep it active but hide it's URL, do the following. To hide a course place a file named
8. I'm not sure this is any less work than what you have been doing but it does maintain your old courses.
Arnie
Probably many people have different ideas on this. One way is to do what you have been doing. Here's one assuming you will use the same (or mostly the same homework problems).
1. I'm assuming students are all finished with the old course.
2. Goto the Hmwk sets editor and export all the sets. This will make copies of setdefinition files for all the sets which will contain the locations of the problems (and due dates, etc which you can change later).
3. Rename the course (e.g. mth101 to mth101_fall08).
4. Add a new course (mth101) and use mth101_fall08 as a template (not the modelCourse which is the default).
5. Add the new students to mth101 (hopefully using an electronic copy of the classlist from your registrar which you will probably have to edit with e.g. Excel).
6. Goto the Hmwk sets editor and import all the sets you want. You will have to change the due dates, etc.
7. The saved course mth101_fall08 will still be active. If you don't want it you can archive it or even delete it but we almost always save these courses. Actually if you plan to delete the old course, you might as well delete the old students and add the new ones as you have been doing all along. If you want to keep it active but hide it's URL, do the following. To hide a course place a file named
hide_directory in the course directory and it will not show up in the courses list on the WeBWorK home page. You can use the file manager to do this.8. I'm not sure this is any less work than what you have been doing but it does maintain your old courses.
Arnie
Dear Arnie,
Thank you so much for the detailed instruction. This process, although longer than what I have been doing, is better for me because I could save data files just in case I need to visit it again in the future. However, I was not sure how to rename the course and add courses with the web access that I have as an instructor (I do not have unix access). Please tell me how I can do that.
.. Raghu
Thank you so much for the detailed instruction. This process, although longer than what I have been doing, is better for me because I could save data files just in case I need to visit it again in the future. However, I was not sure how to rename the course and add courses with the web access that I have as an instructor (I do not have unix access). Please tell me how I can do that.
.. Raghu
Hi Raghu,
At your site the main page containing the list of all WeBWorK courses will be something like
http://math.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2
There is an "admin" course on that page although it is usually hidden so it's link does not appear. But you can access it with the URL (appropriately edited)
http://math.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2/admin
You have to login to this course to rename and add courses, etc. If you do not have permission to login to this course as a professor, you will have to ask someone who does (e.g. your WeBWorK administrator) to do this for you.
Arnie
At your site the main page containing the list of all WeBWorK courses will be something like
http://math.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2
There is an "admin" course on that page although it is usually hidden so it's link does not appear. But you can access it with the URL (appropriately edited)
http://math.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2/admin
You have to login to this course to rename and add courses, etc. If you do not have permission to login to this course as a professor, you will have to ask someone who does (e.g. your WeBWorK administrator) to do this for you.
Arnie
Thank you very much, Arnie, for everything. .. Raghu