Last modified 6/10/09
NOTE: If you need to email me outside of Insight email, be sure to put CNIT 102 in the Subject, and send it to nwebb@ccsf.edu. Only those students already registered, with a Insight login for the online class, can use Insight email.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Textbook: Do I have to buy the Textbook?
-
Textbook: Where can I buy the Textbook?
-
Student Disks: How do I get the student disks?
-
Student Disks: If I change the student disk by working through a Tutorial, how will I keep the Tutorials separate?
-
Homework: If I have questions about the homework assignment, where should I ask them?
-
Quizzes & Tests: When I hit "begin quiz" the same screen re-appears.
-
Quizzes & Tests: What about practice and tutorial quizzes? Do they count?
-
Class Participation: what does that mean?
-
OS Version: I am using Windows XP, but the book says Windows 2000.
-
Homework Upload: How am I supposed to name the files that I turn in to upload assignments? what does xxxxx_Tutorial3.txt mean?
-
Homework Upload: What if I am late with a homework assignment - how do I turn it in? The link is no longer available in assignments.
-
Hills Password Problem: You want to login to your Hills account (for CCSF email) but can't remember your password.
-
Quizzes & Test Question Discussion: Are we allowed to discuss specific tutorial quiz, practice quiz and exam questions on the forums?
-
No quiz score after taking quiz: After I take a quiz or test, the score doesn't display in the Gradebook or on the quizzes page.
-
OS version: Do I really need Windows XP to do the homework? What if I have Vista?
-
Homework due dates: When is homework due? What is the grace period?
1. Do I have to buy the Textbook?
Yes, I'm afraid you WILL need to have the textbook, because part
of your homework will be to work through the tutorials at a computer, changing
the student disks as you perform the tasks at the command prompt. At the
end of every tutorial, you will print a list of files on your disk and turn that
in as part of the week's assignments.
2. Where can I buy the Textbook?
You can buy the textbook at the City College bookstore. Visit this link to find directions or reserve a
copy: CCSF Bookstore
3. How do I get the student disks?
You can download the 3 student disks from the top section of the class, or you
can go to www.course.com and search for the
information on our textbook. You will download a .zip file for each
student disk, to your desktop or a folder on your hard drive. You'll need
to extract the files to 3 USB flash drives, preferably empty of other material.
If you are using USB flash drives, you'll need to substitute its drive letter for A: whenever the book mentions student disks.
4. What about student disks that change?
Usually you will be told, while following the tutorial, to create a fresh copy
of the required Data Disk. I recommend that you use a different disk or
USB flash drive than
the one you used on the previous tutorial, at least until your grade comes back
for the homework assignment. You may need to resubmit the assignment, and
if you've erased your one copy of the Data Disk, you'll have to do the homework
assignment over again. In the first couple of tutorials you will not
be altering the data disk, but starting with Tutorial 3, you'll be reorganizing
the disks many times.
5. Where do I ask questions about the homework assignments?
Your first line of attack is to post a message on the appropriate forum, under
the tutorial topic, and ask your fellow students if they have an answer.
If the question is about a personal situation, then you can use Insight email and
ask me directly.
6. When I hit "begin quiz" the same screen
re-appears.
You have a pop-up blocker running. You the pop-up blocker needs to be disengaged before you take the quiz.
7. About Review Questions and
Tutorial
Quizzes.
Take available online Tutorial Quizzes and Review
questions after you have read the textbook and online lecture notes.
The Review Questions have no time
limit, and are open book. Although the score doesn't factor
into your grade, you are required to take the Review Questions
quiz. I recommend that you search yourself for answers before looking
them up - otherwise you won't know if you know the answer! You may
answer the review questions as many times as you like, and the questions
don't change.
The Tutorial Quiz for each tutorial may be taken up to 3 times, and the
highest score will be recorded as your grade. It has a time limit.
The questions are randomly selected each time you take the quiz, so you
may not see the same question twice. Although this quiz is open
book, you are not allowed to ask another person for an answer to
a question.
8. About Class Participation.
Since you are not attending classes, I will be using other tools to make sure
you are doing your homework. I
will be looking to see that everyone reads all postings on the
forums, and you should answer or start a posting at least 3 times a
month. I will also be making sure that
you read all online pages. I have access to a tool that tracks how many
times you visit a page, which pages you've visited, how long you spent on the
page.
9. Windows XP Users.
At the end of the textbook,
beginning on page 529, there is an appendix covering the differences between
Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Our book was written for Windows 2000, and
although there are really very few differences between Windows 2000 and Windows
XP there are a few. XP users should check the appendix for differences between
the textbook and what you see on the screen. If you are online, the XP
appendix is repeated by a link on the top section. I will also try
to alert you to chapters where there are considerable differences.
10. Naming files for uploading on
the Homework/Upload Dropbox.
When I look at files submitted on the Homework Upload/Dropbox, I often
download them all at once so I can look at them offline. If the Tutorial
says to save a file with a name like "tutorial3.txt", then EVERY file is called
tutorial3.txt, and I won't have an easy way to tell whose file is whose.
If you put your name as part of the file, then I will have an easy way to tell
who created a file. So I would create a file called webb_tutorial3.txt.
Jane Wu would put wu_tutorial3.txt. And Jay Gospodnetich would put
gospo_tutorial3.txt (limiting your name to 5 characters.)
Sometimes you have to create a word processing document. If so,
use SAVE AS to save your document using the DOC or TXT format (.RTF is good too,
because files cannot have a virus
in them!)
Submit your homework via the week's homework
upload/dropbox by
midnight PST on the
due date. There is an "Upload File"
Button. After you've uploaded, click on the
"Submit Assignment" button. You can
only submit an assignment once, so double check that
you uploaded the correct file(s)!
11. Late Homework
After the due date, you can no longer use the Homework Upload/Dropbox to submit your file. You must email
me from Insight and attach the homework file(s).
12. Hills Password Reset
Some students had previously logged into Hills and changed their password.
If you
forget your password, it can be reset back to your birthdate.
Anyone who needs their Hills password reset has to go in person to the
ACRC lab (check the link under student tools for lab hours and
information.) on the third floor of Batmale.
Bring your student ID and a picture ID. Sorry, but they don't want anybody
changing
the ID of another student, so you have to prove who you are.
If you can't get to campus, you can email me from within Insight
and I will ask them to do it for you.
13. Discussing Test Questions on the forums
Policy Statement Tutorial Quizzes: If there is an error on the
Tutorial Quiz (although all the questions have been thoroughly reviewed) the best thing to do is email me
privately through Insight email and I will check it. You may notice that
when you take the Tutorial quiz more than once, the questions change -
therefore your question 6 is not someone else's question 6. I can look
at your specific test and give you an evaluation. In fact I have already
improved some of the questions. If the question is wrong, I will let
everyone know. Since all the answers are in the book, and the tests are
open book, I sure don't mind your looking up the answer. IF the test is
wrong, or poorly worded, I want to fix it.
That said, if you want to discuss a point from the tutorial you can bring it up in the tutorial forum. For example, you might ask, is FAT 32 file system compatible with FAT 16? (And I might say that the book words the information poorly - it's worth a discussion). But I think on closely reading the particular Tutorial quiz question, you will easily see the correct answer.
Policy Statement Review Questions: Feel free to discuss the review questions!!!!
Policy Statement midterm & final exams: Please do not post answers and questions on the forums before the test period is completely finished. Once the test is closed off, you may then discuss as much as you want. Again, if you think the test is in error, email me, and I can individually correct scores.
14. After I take a quiz or test, the score doesn't display in
the Gradebook or on the quizzes page.
When you finish taking a Insight quiz, be sure to click on the Submit All
and Finish button. Of course make sure
you have answered all the questions first!
11. Do I need Windows XP?
Although you can use Windows Vista to access the class in Insight, the textbook is
based on Windows XP. All the homework questions assume you are using
Windows XP to get the answers, and if you use Windows Vista, your answers
will be wrong. NOTE: If you want to learn Windows Vista you can take
the in-person class which is teaching that program fall 2008.
You can use the school labs to do your textbook homework if you don't have a computer with Windows XP.
Do not try to install Windows XP to replace Windows Vista on your computer!
For advanced users only: You can install a virtual copy of Windows XP on your Vista machine, but you will have to already own Windows XP to do this. Around the fourth week of class you will be getting instructions on how to get a free copy of Windows XP (and/or Windows Vista Business edition) if you haven't already downloaded your free copy from the MSDNAA program.
You should always back up your hard drive before attempting something
this complicated. If you have an unusual hardware configuration, do not
attempt this. Instructions for creating a virtual Windows XP on your
vista machine are here:
Sam
Bowne's Virtual Machine Installation Instructions
The correct URL for downloading the free VMWare Player is http://vmware.com/products/player/
Note that although the instructions say you should already have Windows XP on your computer these instructions also work if you have Windows Vista.
Return to top of page
16. When is homework due? What is the grace period?
Check the class schedule for actual due dates - if there is a holiday the due
date might be different than the usual Friday.
Our class weeks start on Fridays and end on the following Friday at midnight. Homework is due on Friday night, but usually there is a 2-day grace period so you can complete the week's tasks by Sunday night without any penalty. The due date is shown as Friday at 11:55pm, but you can upload any homework or complete any quizzes by Sunday night without any loss of points. I usually do the grading of uploaded files and graded forums on Monday or Tuesday after the due date.
(In Insight, each week's section header shows the start date of the week, which is Friday, and then ends the week the following Thursday. In actuality, the week ends on Friday night, not Thursday. This gives everyone an extra day to do homework.)
NOTE: There is no grace period for the final exam. It must be completed by the date in our class schedule. Since the exam will close at 11:55 pm, be sure you begin taking it at least 2 hours ahead of time. You can view the close date/time for the midterm and final exams by clicking on Quizzes in the Activities Block of our class in Insight. (It's better not to wait until the last day since if you have technical problems you won't have time to find another place to take the exam.)
Return to top of page