1. Data Requirements
  2. Course Roster
  3. Scores File Format
  4. More Examples
  5. Uploading the Scores File
  6. Searching for a Student
  7. Displaying All Scores
  8. How Students See Their Scores
  9. Deleting Scores
  10. Protecting Your Data

1. Data Requirements

After you have created your account, the next step is to upload some scores for this class. The data you send must follow these conventions:

A spreadsheet program might be the easiest way to generate this file, and it will provide you the ability to weight and perform calculations on your scores before exporting them in the format Post'Em can understand. Spreadsheet programs provide a method to save a file, or part of a file, as comma-delimited or tab-delimited text. A file created in Quattro Pro® can be saved as a tab-delimited text (*.TXT), while one from Excel® can be saved as either comma- or tab-delimited text. For clarity, our examples contain only comma-delimited files. Tab-delimited files are identical to these, except the commas separating the values would be replaced by tabs. The tab character may not be visible on your screen.

2. Course Roster

An electronic version of your course roster can be obtained from the Office of the Registrar. One that contains e-mail addresses will have the usernames included in it. This electronic version can be imported into a spreadsheet, and the usernames can be copied and pasted into a spreadsheet for use with Post'Em  For more information about electronic rosters, see the URL:

http://registrar.indiana.edu/Services/elecrost.html

Roster acquisition change

UITS has discontinued the old roster-distribution system in lieu of peoplesoft-based options. While there are two options for getting rosters --- via OneStart and via Oncourse --- only the Oncourse system has the usernames necessary to use PostEm or QuizSite.

To get a PostEm-compatible roster out of Oncourse requires a few steps. Basically, in Oncourse, you need to (a) create a gradebook, and then (b) export it to Excel, and finally (c) get your students' userID's in the first column.

To Create A Gradebook (only do this once)

(taken from the Oncourse gradebook instructions)

  1. Use Internet Explorer to go to Oncourse and log in. Find the course you want.
  2. Go to the gradebook by clicking on "Tools" and then "Online Gradebook(s)".
  3. Click on the pencil next to "Create/Edit Gradebook" and choose to make a "New Gradebook".
  4. Give it a title (it doesn't matter what) and click on "Create Gradebook".

To Export The Gradebook To Excel

  1. Go back to the gradebook area, as in #2, above (you may already be here if you just created the gradebook)
  2. Click on "Gradebook Tools" and "Export Grades".

Your browser will then either download or open an excel (.csv) file -- choose to open it in Excel if you're given that option. Either way, get this file open in Excel, and then proceed.

How To Get The Excel File The Way You Need It

Basically, you need to move the usernames to the first column.

  1. Click on the "A" to highlight the whole first column.
  2. Choose the menu "Insert" and the item "Columns". A new empty column will appear to under the 'A'.
  3. Click on the letter above the userID column (probably 'D'). The whole column will again be selected.
  4. Copy (ctrl-C, or Edit:Copy)
  5. Click on the 'A' to select the whole first column.
  6. Paste (ctrl-V or Edit:Paste)
  7. Again, click on the 'D' to choose the whole userID column -- we need to get rid of it now.
  8. Choose Edit:Delete from the Edit menu. The duplicate column will disappear.
  9. SAVE THE FILE with a useful name so you can use it for keeping stuff you'll put on PostEm.

This Excel file is now your gradebook, and you can upload it to PostEm.

Also see

3. Scores File Format

The layout of the file you upload is simple, but critical for success. Here is a sample comma-delimited file with a few rows of data:

 Username, Midterm 1, Team Project
 hwells, 89, 84
 bknight, 94, 82
 mbrand, 94, 86
The first line of the file should contain the following "labels," or in spreadsheet parlance, the "column titles:" username, and a name for each score. If you are using a spreadsheet, the first column should have the label "username", with the following columns having the appropriate labels to indicate if the score is for a test, quiz, homework, project, term paper, presentation, or other instructional activity. Here is a sample of what the labels, the first line, of one file might look like:

 Username, Midterm 1, Team Project, Midterm 2, Final Exam
It is essential that the first label (column A in your spreadsheet) is username, and that comments, if any, appear as the final label. The last label must have a hard return following it, in order to separate the labels from data. If you are saving your work as a text file from a spreadsheet, the hard return is automatically placed at the end of each row for you. Whether labels are upper or lower case or whether spaces are within them does not matter. Your labels will be used exactly as they appear in your file, including spelling, spaces, and capitalization. Post'Em will take all of the labels and use them as variables to hold the data for each student. If you are using a spreadsheet and save it as a comma-delimited text file, the spreadsheet takes care of many of these details automatically.

It is critical that if you do not yet have a score for a particular label, (i.e., a missing score), a space followed by a comma must be included in your file. The following example shows both comments and a missing score. A file with a student's data might look like this:

 Username, Exam 1, Team Project, Exam 2, Final Exam, Comments
 hwells, 89, 84, 92, , Keep up the good work!
Notice the blank where a score for the final exam will appear. This blank tells Post'Em to leave the score for the final exam empty, and put the comment in its correct place. This format allows your score reports to remain flexible, so you can easily make updates as the semester progresses. You also have the freedom to report the scores in a variety of ways, including percentages, letter grades, and so forth.

Here are some more sample files that will be processed correctly in the Post'Em system:

4. More Examples

Notice there is no score for the second student's team project, or a comment. However, a blank is left for them in the file. In a spreadsheet, these values are displayed as empty cells:

 Username, Midterm 1, Team Project, Comments
 hwells, 89%, 84%, Keep working hard!
 bknight, 94%, , 
 mbrand, 94%, 86%, Nice job on a tough project.
You have control over the way the scores are displayed:

 Username, Quiz 1, Quiz 2, Midterm, Quiz 3
 hwells, A-, A, 91, A-
 bknight, B+, B, 86, B-
 mbrand, A-, B+, 88, A-
Tab-delimited scores might look like this: (note that columns might not line up) 
 Username	Quiz 1	Quiz 2	Midterm	Quiz 3
 hwells	A-	A	91	A-
 bknight	B+	B	86	B-
 mbrand	A-	B+	88	A-

5. Uploading the Scores File

Let's look at another example. Greg, an Associate Instructor (AI), has been given the responsibility of keeping the scores for course R500, section 1000. Greg wants to make the scores available to the students using Post'Em He has already created the account for this class, and uses a spreadsheet to keep track of the scores. Greg opens his spreadsheet, and saves the scores as a comma-delimited text file, called myscores.csv, following the preceding requirements for layout and naming. He then opens the URL:

https://www.indiana.edu/~best/cgi-bin/postem/instructors.pl

He types in his username and password and clicks OK. He types in the course and section number and clicks OK. From the Main Menu, he selects "Upload Scores" and clicks OK.

Following the directions, Greg clicks the Browse  button, and locates his file, myscores.csv, where he had saved it. He selects the file and its name appears in the box to the left of the Browse  button. Then Greg clicks the OK  button, and the file of scores is sent to the Post'Em system. Another screen appears, which confirms a file was received, and the first student record is displayed to allow confirmation of the data. Greg is satisfied with the match between his labels and the data. If he were not satisfied, he would open his file, myscores.csv, and edit it to make the desired changes. Then he would re-upload this file and check the results, until he is pleased with them.

Each time a file is uploaded, it overwrites the file that was previously in the Post'Em system for that class. It is not possible to append scores to an existing file in the Post'Em system; instead you must send a file which contains all of the scores you wish to have displayed.

To delete old scores from courses taught in past semesters, upload a file containing only a single blank space. Students will no longer see this section listed when they log in to Post'Em.

6. Searching for Student Scores

Post'Em allows authorized users, but not students, to search for and display a particular student's scores, or to display all the scores for a class. This lets you see how a particular student's scores are being displayed, or lets you see at a glance if there are any "holes," or missing information, in your data. You can look up scores even if you do not have your gradebook with you.

From the Main Menu, select "Display Scores" and click OK. On the following screen, you will have the option of specifying a search for a particular username, or seeing the data for all students in that course.

If you are searching for a particular student, select the appropriate radio button, and type the student's username in the text box, then click OK. The record for that student will be returned, and displayed using the layout specified for your class. For details about specifying layouts, see the section Customizing the Layout.

7. Displaying All Scores

If you select the "show all records" option, the results will NOT be displayed according to the layout that has been specified for an individual in the class. The results will be returned in a format that will let you easily see any "holes" in your data. This format will resemble the file you submitted in order to return the results to you as quickly as possible, and to minimize the amount of scrolling.

8. How Students See Their Scores

Students can view their scores by opening this URL:

https://www.indiana.edu/~best/cgi-bin/postem/students.pl
and they login with their Network ID and password. Post'Em then searches for that student in all of its class accounts. The next screen returns the list of classes in which Post'Em has a record of that student. The student then selects from the list the class for which they want a report, and clicks the Display Scores button. If the student is in only one class using Post'Em,  the scores report is automatically returned.

9. Deleting Scores

To remove a student who has dropped the course, remove the row of the scores file containing the student's scores and upload the scores file to Post'Em again.

To delete old scores from courses taught in past semesters, upload a text file containing only a single blank space. Students will no longer see this section listed when they log in to Post'Em.

10. Protecting Your Data

Anytime you are using a computer for important data, you should always make back-up copies of your data. A thorough back-up plan includes two current, duplicate copies on a removable media (floppies, etc.) in addition to any copies on your hard drive. Storing another copy off-site (e.g., at your home) is an excellent practice to follow for added data protection against theft, fire, file corruption, or other disasters.

Scores are critical and the importance of hard copies cannot be over-stressed. Printing the on-screen results after showing all the scores for your class in Post'Em  is one easy way to maintain a hard copy of the scores you have uploaded.

Because of the way Netscape operates, you should always empty the Netscape disk cache before quitting Netscape. To do this, go to the Options menu, and in Network Preferences, select the Cache option, and click the Clear Disk Cache Now button. An alternative to performing this is to set your disk cache to zero megabytes, but this may have a slight effect on overall browsing performance.