I received a message from a student who reported that he was unable to log into his WeBWorK section and was receiving the error message that an incorrect username or password was entered. As administrator, I logged into his section and checked to verify his username and password. When I tried to log in with this information, I received the same error message. In the past such occurrences appeared at the very beginning of the semester and I would simply delete the student completely from the database and re-enter the student's information. However, given that it was now the middle of the term, if I deleted the student from the database, all records related to his performance would be deleted also.
Do you have any suggestions about resolving this problem?
Thank you.
Sherman Wong
On the class list page there is an item for changing a student's password. (Give new password to selected users.) Use this to reset the student's password and then try to login using the student's user name and reset password.
Let us know how this goes.
There is no way to determine a student's current password -- you can only reset it to a new (or old or known value). This is in accordance with the way passwords are usually handled.
You are right not to delete the student -- that would destroy all his records.
Hope this helps. if not let us know and we'll think of something else. :-)
-- Mike
Let us know how this goes.
There is no way to determine a student's current password -- you can only reset it to a new (or old or known value). This is in accordance with the way passwords are usually handled.
You are right not to delete the student -- that would destroy all his records.
Hope this helps. if not let us know and we'll think of something else. :-)
-- Mike
Hello again, Mike:
I reset the student password to something different and the program still
indicates that an incorrect username or password was used. If ``push comes
to shove'', I'll contact the instructor and just have the instructor keep a
record of the student's performance so far. Then I'll delete the student
and create the database entry for the student.
Sherman
From the unix side you can access the mysql database directly and
download the information. (A tool such as phpMyAdmin can be used or one can do it from the commandline. ) It would be good to get some experienced help for this since you are working on a live course.
Is the student's status enrolled (C) or was it accidently reset to something else? (You can check on the classlist page.)
The other thing I check for is hidden characters or spaces in either the login or the password -- but that seems unlikely in this case.
Anyone else have ideas?
-- Mike
I reset the student password to something different and the program still
indicates that an incorrect username or password was used. If ``push comes
to shove'', I'll contact the instructor and just have the instructor keep a
record of the student's performance so far. Then I'll delete the student
and create the database entry for the student.
Sherman
From the unix side you can access the mysql database directly and
download the information. (A tool such as phpMyAdmin can be used or one can do it from the commandline. ) It would be good to get some experienced help for this since you are working on a live course.
Is the student's status enrolled (C) or was it accidently reset to something else? (You can check on the classlist page.)
The other thing I check for is hidden characters or spaces in either the login or the password -- but that seems unlikely in this case.
Anyone else have ideas?
-- Mike
You might try looking in the login.log file in the course's logs directory. That will at least tell you if the failure is due to a wrong password or an unrecognized userID. If it is the password, reset it again. If it is the userID, make sure you have capitalization correct.
Davide
Davide