TigerNet Frequently Asked Questions for Faculty

We get lots of questions about TigerNet. This page will compile some of the more frequently asked. Keep checking back, because questions will be added to the list on a regular basis.

At any time, please direct TigerNet questions to Mike Albright, Instructional Technology Specialist, at mialbrig@dwu.edu or 995-2638.

Use the following links to go directly to these questions:

General

• How can I change my password in TigerNet?
• I'm minding my own business and moving from one part of my course web site in TigerNet to another, and I get this...What's this? Why can't I get back into the course, and why do I have to notify the President or Dean?
• Students in my advanced class would benefit from reviewing the materials we covered in the beginning and intermediate courses. How can I make those materials available to them without re-enrolling them in those courses?
• I have put a lot of work into my course on TigerNet. Do I have to start from scratch and re-develop the same course for the Spring semester, or is there some way to "port it over" ?
• Is there any way to archive a course in TigerNet? I've put a lot of work into it and don't want to have to rebuild it when it is offered again in two years.
• How can I copy files from someone else's TigerNet course into my course?
• Where can I see an example of how TigerNet is being used by a faculty member to teach a course?

Gradebook

• I allow my students to drop their lowest quiz grade when I calculate their final grades. This will be different quizzes for different students. How do I handle that in the gradebook?
• One of my students is telling me that she has taken three quizzes that don't show up in my Gradebook as being taken. Is there any way to track student access to TigerNet to tell whether or not she has actually done this?
• Why does TigerNet show a grade of incomplete, even after a student has taken a quiz or test?

Coursework

• I'm really nervous about this whole idea of cheating in online exams. How can I prevent that?
• My online exam contained essay questions. How do I access the essay questions to grade them?
• All of the quiz questions I'm writing are automatically saved to my Question Bank. How can I organize these, so I can find questions easily?
• Can I create subheaders under headers?
• How can I sort the Question Bank to find specific questions for my final exam?

Course E-mail

• Can I send e-mail to my students through TigerNet and the course management system?
• Well, I tried that, and it DOESN'T WORK!!! [expletives deleted] When I click on the Email All link, all it does is refresh the screen, and there is no message window. What's wrong?
• One of my students says she doesn't get the e-mail messages I send to her through Coursemates, even though everyone else does. Why?

General

Q. How can I change my password in TigerNet?

A. Easy. While logged in to TigerNet, click on My Info. On you're my Info page, you should see a hot link, Change your password, in the Name and Address field. Click on this to make the change.

Please note that your TigerNet password is completely independent from your DWU network password. However, it is OK to set the two as the same password to assist in remembering them.

Q: I'm minding my own business and moving from one part of my course web site in TigerNet to another, and I get this:

An error occurred within 'Navigation'. Please notify your school administrator.

Sub(Edit): spIMSNavigationRetrieveDefaultNavigationSelectXML: [Data Access Error] Number: 265946 / Description: Error converting data type varchar to uniqueidentifier. / Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (Severity: 1) The user must be a real dumb bunny to let this happen….

What's this? Why can't I get back into the course, and why do I have to notify the President or Dean?

A: Whoa. Wrong school administrator. This means the TigerNet system administrator, and you don't have to contact him, either. This was probably triggered by using the Back button in your browser instead of TigerNet's internal navigation tools. TigerNet doesn't like that. Use the Restore button () when you have it, or the Navigation menu. (With some pages in TigerNet, you have no choice but to use the browser's Back button.)

The fix is humbug, but easy. All you have to do is this: Go back to Faculty > All My Courses and access your course again. You should be able to get right back in, without contacting anyone.

Q: Students in my advanced class would benefit from reviewing the materials we covered in the beginning and intermediate courses. How can I make those materials available to them without re-enrolling them in those courses?

A: In the course web sites for the beginning and intermediate courses, click on Course Preview in the Navigation menu. In the Students column of Course Preview, click on the boxes for the portlets you wish to make available to non-enrolled students, then click on the Save Changes button. That will make the materials available to students in the advanced course (and all other DWU students).

For privacy and common sense reasons, we caution against making the Coursemates and Forums portlets visible to anyone outside your class. Online discussions will be extremely quiet and reserved if students know that the Forum is available to the public and can be monitored by Mom and Dad in Sisseton, or the boy friend in Rapid City (or even on campus), or a minister or social activist, etc.

Q. I have put a lot of work into my course on TigerNet. Do I have to start from scratch and re-develop the same course for the Spring semester, or is there some way to "port it over" ?

A. We have good news for you. TigerNet provides an easy way for you to copy your existing course materials into your Spring courses. Use the Copy Course Materials portlet in your Navigation window for any course. Click on that link, and you can copy any portlet from any course into any other course. (Your own courses only.) You may have to edit information, such as dates in the Forums and Coursework portlets, but that is a relatively simple process. The only hassle is that you can't edit Word documents in TigerNet. If your syllabus is a Word document, for example, you need to edit the file on your desktop and then reload it into TigerNet. Same for PowerPoint presentations, if you need to make revisions to those.

If you don't see Copy Course Materials in your course Navigation window, you may have edited the Navigation menu to make it hidden. Click on the Edit button in the blue Navigation bar and make sure Copy Course Materials is in the Active Links window.

Q. [variation on a theme] Is there any way to archive a course in TigerNet? I've put a lot of work into it and don't want to have to rebuild it when it is offered again in two years.

A. At the moment, there is no way to archive an individual course in TigerNet. However, this shouldn't be a concern. The TigerNet server has sufficient memory that we shouldn't run out of space for quite a while, certainly more than two years. There are no plans to remove old courses from the server anytime in the foreseeable future. If and when that time arrives, faculty will be given plenty of advance notice, and hopefully by then, Jenzabar will have installed a course archive capability.

Should you wonder about back-ups, Information Systems backs up all servers nightly. Once a week, the servers are backed up to tape, and the tapes are stored in a secure location off-campus (not Mike Marx's garage). In the event of a catastrophic server failure, we shouldn't lose much.

Q. How can I copy files from someone else's TigerNet course into my course?

A. Whoa, partner!! Haven't you heard of intellectual property rights? Oh, this is with the other professor's permission!!! That's different.

The solution is a little tricky, but it's not difficult. We need to create a group in TigerNet with you and the donor professor as the only members. The donor transfers the files into the group space (such as the Handouts Bank in the group), using the Copy Course Materials portlet. Once that is done, you can use Copy Course Materials to copy the files from the group into your course. You need to get assistance from Mike Albright in setting up the group.

Why do it this way instead of burning the files onto a CD or e-mailing them? You don't have to re-install the files into your course. The files transfer over intact, in the portlet in your course in which you want them located. Takes you a couple of mouse clicks.

Q. Where can I see an example of how TigerNet is being used by a faculty member to teach a course?

A. Open the TigerNet home page at http://bozeman.dwu.edu/. In the Course Search portlet on the right side of the page, select 2003-2004 Summer as the Term. Enter "edu701" (without the quotes) in the Course Code field, then click on the Search button. (No other information is required.) When that page opens, click on Technology & Instructional Design. All active portlets in that course are viewable on a "read-only" basis, except for Forums and Classmates, which are restricted to course members.

Gradebook

Q: I allow my students to drop their lowest quiz grade when I calculate their final grades. This will be different quizzes for different students. How do I handle that in the gradebook?

A: Change the lowest quiz score for each student to an Incomplete. Incompletes are not calculated in the final scores for each student. To do this, click on Gradebook in the Navigation menu, then Edit in the blue Gradebook bar to get to the Gradebook Edit page. Click on the individual student's score you wish to change. If you gave the quiz online, that will take you to the student's completed quiz. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Mark as Incomplete.

Q. One of my students is telling me that she has taken three quizzes that don't show up in my Gradebook as being taken. Is there any way to track student access to TigerNet to tell whether or not she has actually done this?

A. TigerNet provides a way for you to check that. Click on Gradebook in the Navigation menu. When the Gradebook opens, click on Edit in the upper right corner. You will then see each student's individual grades, as in this edited example:

If you click on the individual coursework grade, such as the 85% circled here, you will see something like the following:

As you can see, this student took the quiz from 3:50 to 4:00 p.m. on September 24. You see also that you have the option of allowing the student to re-take the quiz, and set a time limit.

We have received no documented reports of TigerNet ever not accurately recording when a student accessed an online quiz. However, if you feel that the student is telling the truth and actually has experienced technical problems, you have the option to make alternative arrangements. You could allow a Re-Take, or have the student make up the test in your office.

Q: Why does TigerNet show a grade of incomplete, even after a student has taken a quiz or test?

A: If the quiz was taken offline, e.g., in the classroom, TigerNet shows the quiz grade as Incomplete until you grade the quiz and enter the scores in the Gradebook portlet. By default, all assignments, including quizzes and tests, are indicated as Incomplete in Jenzabar until grades are entered by the instructor, or the quiz has been completed and graded online.

If the quiz was taken online, the score will appear immediately, but students will not see the results (which questions missed) and correct answers until after the window of time for all students to take the quiz has passed. For example, if you set the window of time for students to take a quiz as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, with a 30-minute time limit, students can take the quiz at any time between 8 and 5 and will be limited to 30 minutes. The correct responses will not be revealed until after 5 p.m. This procedure prevents the first student from taking the quiz at 8 a.m., getting the correct answers confirmed, and then sharing them with the rest of the class while they still have time to take the quiz. (Obviously, this doesn't apply if the student scores 100%, which is a limitation of online testing.)

Students do not have a Gradebook portlet, only faculty. In the student view, grades are posted in the Coursework portlet.

Coursework

Q. I'm really nervous about this whole idea of cheating in online exams. How can I prevent that?

A. We've got very bad news for you. If your students are taking the online exams independently and not in a controlled computer lab setting (which is inconvenient if your course is totally online and you have students in Uzbekistan and Tasmania), you can make cheating as difficult as you can, but you can't prevent it.

With the current version of TigerNet, you cannot stop students from printing or saving the quiz. In the next version, you will be able to present questions to students one per screen. The questions still can be printed or saved, but it will be a lot of bother.

Our first suggestion is to avoid online objective testing whenever you can. Find more appropriate ways to measure student ability to meet course outcomes. (See suggestions elsewhere in the Teaching Online section of this web site.)

If you absolutely must give a multiple choice quiz, we suggest that you populate the test item bank with at least twice the number of questions that the exam contains. (E.g., for a 25-question quiz, write 50 questions - time consuming, but effective.) Randomize the selection of questions for each student. Randomize the order in which the questions are given to the student. Randomize the order of choices presented in each multiple-choice question. Limit the total window of time the quiz is available to the students. Limit the amount of time the students have to complete the quiz once it's started (such as 30 minutes), to minimize the time available to look up answers. All these are parameters you can set when you create the quiz. For all practical purposes, each student will receive a different quiz.

Q. My online exam contained essay questions. How do I access the essay questions to grade them?

A. Click on Gradebook in the Navigation menu, then Edit in the blue Gradebook bar to get to the Gradebook Edit page. Click on the individual student's score for the exam that contains the essay questions to be graded. That will take you to the student's completed exam. As you scroll down the page, you will see the responses to the essay questions. Each will have a field for you to enter the item score, as well as a field for you to enter comments for the student. (Actually, that feature exists for all exam and quiz questions. Under the student's response, click on the green Add button next to Personal Explanation:.)

Q.All of the quiz questions I'm writing are automatically saved to my Question Bank. How can I organize these, so I can find questions easily?

A.When you create a question, at the top of thatform is a Headerfield and a link for Add a Header. The Header refers to your filing system in the Question Bank. You can create as many headers as you wish to organize your questions. In this case, the header is Chapter 9.

It might be a good idea to organize your filing system on paper and then create all of your headers at one time in the Question Bank. With all the headers created, then every time you create a new question, all your filing options are available to you when you select the header:

Q: Can I create subheaders under headers?

A: The answer is No, not in this version of TigerNet. All your questions for all your courses go into the same Question Bank, so, in the absence of subheaders, you can use header titlesto organize your questions. For example, your headers might be:

EDU301 - Quiz 1
EDU301 - Midterm
EDU301 - Quiz 2
EDU301 - Final
EDU305 - Exam 1
EDU305 - Exam 2
EDU308 - Chapters 1-4 exam
EDU308 - Chapters 5-9 exam
Etc.

Q: How can I sort the Question Bank to find specific questions for my final exam?

A: TigerNet gives you a couple of sorting options.

At the top of the Question Bank page, you can set the sorting parameters. By clicking on the drop-down menu in the Display Only field, you can select a single header for searching. You can also search by specific terms, or you can do both. Once you have done the sort, click on Edit in the blue Question Bank bar (not shown in the illustration above) and select the questions for copying into your exam.

Course E-Mail

Q: Can I send e-mail to my students through TigerNet and the course management system?

A: Yes. Use the Coursemates portlet for your course in the course management system. At the top of the Coursemates page, you see two links: Email Selected Coursemates (select them by checking the boxes next to their names) and Email All. When you click on either of these links, a new window appears in which you type your message. When you click on the Send button, the message is sent through the Exchange server and is integrated with the recipients'other incoming e-mail.

You can make sure that a student's e-mail address is in the system by clicking on her or his name in Coursemates. Information that the student has revealed in her or his My Info portlet will appear in a pop-up window, including the e-mail address.

Q: Well, I tried that, and it DOESN'T WORK!!! [expletives deleted] When I click on the Email All link, all it does is refresh the screen, and there is no message window. What's wrong?

A: You probably have a pop-up blocker active in your web browser. Turn it off and try clicking on the Email All link again.

That merits some explanation. Some resources that you place in TigerNet, such as in Handouts and Web Links, open in new browser windows. Pop-up blockers 'don't affect those. Others, such as Coursework descriptions, full text of Announcements, and the window for sending e-mail messages to your students in Coursemates, open as "pop up" windows. If you have a pop-up blocker active in your browser, those windows won't open for you until you turn off the pop-up blocker and click on the link again.

Q: One of my students says she doesn't get the e-mail messages I send to her through Coursemates, even though everyone else does. Why?

A: You might check to see if her e-mail address is in TigerNet. In Coursemates, click on her name. Does her e-mail address appear in the pop-up window containing information about her? If not, that's the problem. She can add her own e-mail address by clicking on My Info (in her TigerNet account, not yours). In the Name and Address field, she should click on the lower of the two blue Edit buttons. She can enter and save her e-mail address on that page.

If that's not the problem, she should contact the Information Systems Help Desk.