This page is designed to give a brief overview of IVLE, from a users point of view (including administrator and lecturer users). Here we assume that you have set up a fresh copy of IVLE and installed the sample data. This page refers to the sample data specifically. If you are just using an existing installation of IVLE, it might still make a bit of sense, but your mileage may vary.
We will take the tour in three stages: first as a student, then as a lecturer, and finally as an administrator.
Begin by logging into IVLE as a student (username: studenta, password: password).
You will see the IVLE home screen, which displays the subjects you are enrolled in, and your files for each subject. Along the top is the blue bar which is always visible in IVLE. Clicking the IVLE logo always returns you to the home screen.
The user studenta is enrolled in several subjects, and has several files already in her Subversion repository, but they aren’t immediately accessible.
First, click all of the Checkout buttons, to check out the Subversion repositories. Now you can explore the sample files, for example, in the stuff directory.
Go into the stuff directory and left-click the file hello.py. This will open the build-in text editor, which lets you modify the file. Along the top, there is a button marked Serve. Clicking this will run the Python code as a CGI application – this should open a new window which reads “Hello, world!”. You can also click Run, which will run the program in the built-in Python console (which pops up from the bottom of the screen). This will be much uglier, printing the CGI output.
Note that you can also use the console at the bottom of the screen as a generic Python console, whenever you wish.
You can also serve other files, such as HTML files (try Welcome to IVLE.html). This will just present them as normal web pages.
Files also have full Subversion histories. If you click on a file in the file view (such as hello.py), and go to More Actions ‣ Subversion ‣ View Log, you will see the history of a file, and be able to “select” then view a “diff” of the file. If you edit a file, you need to commit it (More Actions ‣ Subversion ‣ Commit). If you create a new file (More Actions ‣ Directory actions ‣ New file), you need to add it (More Actions ‣ Subversion ‣ Add), then commit.
This student has already completed a project, and is ready to submit it. Go into the Intermediate IVLE ‣ mywork directory. Select phase1.html and choose More Actions ‣ Publishing ‣ Submit. This takes you to the Submit Project screen.
Choose to submit to Phase 1, and click Submit Project. You should see a page telling you the submission was successful, with a link to Verify. Verify shows you exactly which files were submitted, and their contents at the time of submission (if the files have changed since then, you’ll still see the submitted version). You should verify after each submission – you can verify any submitted project from the subject page.
If you go into the Intermediate IVLE ‣ group1 directory, you will be able to make a group submission to Phase 2 (which is a group project). Note that the Phase 3 submission has already closed. Also note that the file here (phase2.html) was edited by studenta and studentb collaboratively, as you can see in the project’s revision log.
Click on Intermediate IVLE – Subject Home from the home screen (or, from the IVLE pulldown menu, choose Subjects and select Intermediate IVLE). There is one worksheet, Worksheet Basics. Clicking this takes you to the worksheet, where students are challenged by Python questions.
After reading the worksheet, attempt the first simple programming question, which is to write the “Hello world” program.
First, click Submit without writing any code, and note that the system automatically runs a test case, which fails. Now change the code to be “almost right” (for example, write Hello world instead of Hello, world!), and press Submit again. It will tell you that you almost got it right. In this way, the IVLE test framework can show users that they’re on the right track. If you get it exactly right and click Submit a third time, you will pass the test.
Note that you can also click Run, and it will execute your solution in the Python console. This doesn’t cost you an “attempt”, nor does it run the test cases. It just lets you test it out for yourself before making an official submission.
Back on the subject page, you will notice that the exercise appears complete, and you have been awarded a mark.
A sample solution to the second exercise follows:
def fac(n):
if n == 0:
return 1
else:
return n * fac(n-1)
def main():
f = int(raw_input())
print fac(f)
Log into IVLE as a lecturer (username: lecturer, password: password). Many of these things are also possible as a tutor (try username: tutor, password: password).
Being a lecturer or tutor is a per-subject privilege, so it only applies to certain subjects. All of your special powers are under the subject home for the subjects you are a tutor in. Note that everything a lecturer can do, an admin can also do, for all subjects in the system.
Click Intermediate IVLE – Subject home (the one which does not display a semester – implying the currently active semester). From here, you will see largely the same view as a student, but with more buttons. Change details allows you to modify the subject properties. Administer enrolments allows you to add existing IVLE users as students or tutors of the subject you are teaching, change the roles of existing members, and revoke enrolments.
Click Manage projects to go to the project management screen. Note that the 3 projects are grouped into “Solo projects” (projects submitted by each individual student) and “Group projects”. Try adding a new Solo project, by clicking on Add a new project within that box. The fields should be fairly self-explanatory.
Group projects are complicated by what we call “project sets”. A “project set” is a set of group projects where the student groups are the same throughout. For instance, you will see Phase 2 and Phase 3 inside the same project set box. This means students will get into groups of 3 to submit Phase 2, and then the same group will submit Phase 3.
Clicking Manage groups lets you put students into groups for a given project set.
Click Add a new project set and enter a group size of 6. Then, create a project in the new set. Each student must get into a new group for each project set. Note also that the groups will share a Subversion repository for all projects in a set, but if you create a new set, the students will have to start using a new repository.
Warning
You can’t delete a project set after it has been created (this could cause problems for groups and their repositories).
Usually, the hassle of getting into new groups and creating new repositories means that you will want to create just two project sets for a subject: one for solo projects, and another for group projects.
Lecturers and tutors can view any student or group’s project submission, using an external Subversion client. As submissions are really just Subversion commits, you can examine a student’s work by simply checking out the correct revision of the repository.
From the offering page, click View submissions under the project of interest. This takes you to a page which lists the latest submissions from every student (presumably you will just see the submission made by studenta earlier in this tour). Next to each submission is a command line, beginning with svn co. For instance, you might see the line:
svn co --username lecturer -r7 http://svn.ivle.localhost/users/studenta/ivle-102/phase1.html
Paste this line into a command-line (or, if you use a GUI Subversion client, use the username, revision and URL given). Subversion will likely prompt for a password. For the sample data, this password is password, but in general, it will not be your normal IVLE password. You can learn your Subversion password by opening a Console in IVLE and typing:
import ivle.config
ivle.config.Config()['user_info']['svn_pass']
This will check out the student’s work into the current directory, to inspect.
You can also try to check out the group submission from Phase 2.
Warning
It is currently not possible to check out a single file (not a directory) submission using the instructions given. Instead, run svn cat, and redirect the output into a file.
Returning to the subject home page, click Manage worksheets. On this page, you will see all of the worksheets for the subject. Here you can edit worksheets, add new ones, and re-order them. You can also edit any worksheet from its own page.
To get an idea of what a worksheet looks like in edit mode, click the edit action (pencil) next to “Worksheet Basics”.
Now, you can edit the worksheet content in reStructuredText. The existing text briefly explains this format. See A ReStruecturedText Primer for a full guide. Note that the exercises themselves are not defined in the worksheet. They are separate resources, which can be shared across subjects. Exercises can be embedded with a line like this:
.. exercise:: factorial
Click Manage exercises to see the exercises (in the sample data, just factorial). An exercise is a very complex thing, due to the fact that it runs automated testing on the student code. The details are outside the scope of this tour. Hopefully, you can figure out how they work by examining the existing factorial exercise.
If you are game enough, create a new worksheet from scratch. If you are really game, create a new exercise for your worksheet.
You will probably have already noticed that the lecturer’s worksheet view is not quite like the student’s. It has a table at the top which shows some statistics about how students in this subject are going with each exercise. (Depending on settings, tutors may also be able to access these stats.)
Lecturers (not tutors) can also get more specific feedback on individual students by selecting “View worksheet marks” at the bottom of the subject page. This shows the marks in each worksheet, and in the subject overall, for each student, and can be used to calculate each student’s final grade.
Note
The marks are calculated from the current time, by default. However, normally, there is a cutoff time after which students cannot gain any additional marks for worksheets. You can set this cutoff in the offering edit page. Once set, the marks will be calculated based on submissions up until that date, and students will be notified of the cutoff time.
The “Download as CSV file” link provides these same statistics in CSV format, which can be easily parsed.
Log into IVLE as an admin (username: admin, password: password).
Administrator users in IVLE have significant privileges. Note, however, that for technical reasons, admins cannot read or write other users’ files. This requires root access on the machine IVLE is installed on.
Firstly, pull down the IVLE menu (top-left). There is an additional item for admins – the Users page. This lists all users with an account in IVLE, and lets you create new ones. Clicking on a username takes you to the user’s profile page. Try it with the user lecturer.
The profile page is exactly the same as the user himself would see it, but with a few more buttons on the side. Change password is the same as the user’s own Change password page. However, Reset password is a special admin page which lets you change a user’s password without knowing the old one. Administer user also lets you change administrative settings for the user, such as their full name (more formal than display name, which the user themselves can change) and student ID. You can also add/remove admin status for, or disable/enable (i.e., ban from IVLE) any user (except yourself, of course – that could be bad).
Warning
Use this with care. Making a user an admin gives them complete control over the system. They could even revoke your admin rights!
Admin users also enjoy the same privileges as lecturers, for all subject offerings on the system. In addition, admins can enrol users in an offering as lecturers (this is the only way to become a lecturer), and change or delete a lecturer’s enrolment. Go to the subject page for Advanced IVLE and enrol the user lecturer as a lecturer in the subject.
Admins can also administer subjects. Here it is important to distinguish between a “subject” (a course on a specific topic which is repeated over a number of semesters or years) and an “offering” (a particular instance of a subject, for one semester). Lecturers can administer offerings they are enrolled in, but not subjects.
As an admin, go to the Subjects page. You will see a link Manage subjects and semesters. The list at the top of the page shows all registered subjects. Click Create new subject to create a brand new subject (i.e., a new course). Call it “Introduction to Programming”, with the URL name intro-prog and subject code 200101.
Now we have created a subject but not an offering, so nobody will be able to teach or enrol in this subject. From the “Introduction to Programming” page, click Create new offering. Select the semester in which the subject will be first taught. If you wish to create the first offering of a semester (e.g., 2011 semester 1), you will have to create a new semester first. Type in a subject description. (Note that each offering has an independent description.) Once you have created an offering, you can enrol lecturers, and they can in turn enrol students.
Lecturers can take over administration duties of an offering (such as editing the description and managing projects), however it remains the admin’s duty to administer the subjects, including creating new offerings each semester and enrolling lecturers.
An important duty of the administrator is controlling the state of each semester. Return to the Manage subjects and semesters page. Note the Semesters table contains a list of all known semesters, and whether they are “past”, “current” or “future”.
Note
IVLE could automatically create and manage semesters based on the system clock, but it presently does not. That is because your institution may have a different concept of a “semester” to ours. (For example, what are the semester start and end dates?) IVLE has therefore been designed to require admins to manually activate new semesters and disable old ones.
In the sample data, 2009 semester 2 is the “current” semester. Let us assume that we are moving into the start of 2010. Edit 2009 semester 2 and set its state to “Past”. Then, edit 2010 semester 1 and set its state to “Current”. This affects the system in several ways. Mainly, it just changes the UI for all users, in terms of which offerings are presented as “current”.
Warning
Marking a semester as anything other than “current” will make it impossible for students enrolled in offerings for that semester to submit projects. Only do this after the semester has fully closed.
It is possible for multiple semesters to be marked as “current”, if this is desired. Therefore, there is no need to disable one semester before enabling another.
Unfortunately, there are still a few tasks which admins need to do which haven’t been implemented in the UI for the IVLE web application. These tasks are available as command-line scripts which can be run by someone with root access on the machine IVLE is installed on. They are gradually being migrated over to proper UI features in IVLE itself.
Details on these scripts can be found in Admin scripts.