ADMINISTRATOR'S MANUAL: PROCEDURES FOR SETTING UP YOUR iWRITE SITE

Prepared by Margaret Procter, University of Toronto Coordinator, Writing Support, with the assistance of Jerry Plotnick. iWRITE is web-enabled courseware developed at the University of Toronto with the support of the provostial Instructional Technology Courseware Development Fund (ITCDF), the Resource Centre for Academic Technology (RCAT; now CTSI), the Faculty of Arts and Science, and Computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS). It is housed and administered by CHASS. Some components of iWRITE were reprogrammed by Alejandro Lynch of CHASS in Summer 2007 and 2008. Contact Margaret Procter if you have comments or questions about the program or the manual.

NOTICE: As of 23 April 2012, requests for new course sites will no longer be accepted, but current sites may continue in use as long as instructors run them independently. This manual will provide guidance for maintenance operations. CHASS has also offered to archive site content indefinitely. This decision coincides with the retirement on 30 June 2012 of Margaret Procter, the co-inventor of iWRITE (with Robert Luke). It also reflects the decline in need for this programming now that other types of online display are available for showing annotated samples of student work.

Many course instructors now make sample papers and comments available in Blackboard by posting Word, Open Office, or PDF files with inset notes for the comments. The Review/Comment or Add Note to Text functions in those programs make it easy to link comments to samples, and they also provide more choices for display. Here are basic instructions for downloading site content for re-use in this type of display: 

Samples and Comments:

  1. From the Samples screen, select all (Ctrl-A) in the samples column on the righthand side of the screen, then copy and paste the text into a file.
  2. Do the same for the comments list on the lefthand side of the screen, saving that also to a separate file.
  3. Then re-paste the comments individually into Comment notes that you open at the desired positions in the sample. Alternately, number the list of comments and insert the numbers into the sample text. The grade could appear as the first (or perhaps last) comment.

Other Site Components:

Other text from your site, such as introductory advice about how to read and learn from the samples, can be copied as in step 1 above. For Prompters, paste the accumulated steps into a single file.

This Manual was created to guide the inputting of content for an iWRITE site, and as a reminder of steps for repair and maintenance. For a description of the functions and uses of WRITE, see the file Notes for Course Instructors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Opening Your Course Site

Preparing Course-Specific Content

Inputting Course-Specific Content

  1. Student Samples
  2. Instructor Comments
  3. Prompter
  4. Questionnaire
  5. Welcome Screens and Grading Criteria

Inputting Class Lists
with notes on the new Blackboard integration

Tables and Graphics: Tips on Inputting Them

Appendix

Opening Your Course Site

{Applications for new course sites no longer accepted after April 2012.)

Preparing Your Course-Specific Content

Here are the two key components to prepare ahead of time. Our new editor functions let you paste in all your site content from electronic files, then adjust format if needed by using the editor menu. Or you may type in components by hand as you go.

  1. Sample student papers, as many or as few as you want to use. You can group them according to different topics. NOTE: We assume that you have secured informed student consent for the use of the samples. See below for an example of a generic consent letter.
  2. Instructors' comments on the samples: these can consist of a summative introductory note and running comments, OR comments under subheadings based on the grading criteria. The "comment" function in Word works well for planning the positioning of comments, or you can mark up hard copies of the samples.
You will also need the following material to complete your site:
  1. Introductory text for the Welcome screen, a statement of the Course Grading Criteria, and instructions for each of the Samples section, the Comment section, the Prompter, and the Questionnaire. Default text will appear for most of these components when your site is created. You will probably want to replace or revise it. NOTE: To preview the default text, ask Margaret Procter for a guest account to a special site that includes both the default screen text and some comments on ways of using the different components, including the Peer Review component (though it is no longer supported).
  2. Steps for one or more Prompter exercises if you are going to include them. You will need to group and number these as main steps and substeps to get started. You can adjust the number and order of steps and substeps after inputting.
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Inputting Your Course-Specific Content

To begin inputting content, visit your course site by going to the iWRITE login page at http://iwrite.utoronto.ca and entering your user name and password. For people with instructor accounts, the site will open showing the admin interface. You can see the student view by clicking on any of the links on the navigation bar at the top of the screen. To return to the Admin page, click on the red-letter course name at the left of the navigation bar

1. Student Samples

  1. Go to Essays: Add, and type or paste the first title into the box provided. It will automatically be displayed in bold. If you want it to be displayed also as centred, paste in the "center" tag from the list of HTML tags below.
  2. Paste the text of the sample paper into the blank editor box. Select the whole essay in your word processor, then click on the "paste from Word" button in the iWRITE editor. Your essay will appear instantly in the editor box. The editor's format buttons and the two dropdown menus let you check and modify format elements. The status bar at the bottom of the input box displays the codes applied to each section of your file. Click on the codes displayed there (e.g., "p" for paragraph) to select elements for modification (e.g., Style, hanging indent).
  3. What you see in the Editor box is very close to the final student view. You can make changes there (e.g., bolding or unbolding text, pressing Enter to make new paragraphs, deleting unwanted spaces or extra lines if any are imported from Word). You may also use the HTML button to view and edit the source code for your text. To save your modifications, be sure to use the "update" button at the bottom of the HTML input box, and then also the "modify" button in the regular editor box.
    4.
  4. The "styles" and "format" dropdown menus are special additions made by the CHASS programmer Alejandro Lynch to the editor. They let you instantly apply or modify coding for such complex elements as headings, blockquote format, hanging indentations, poetry quotations, bibliography entries, and endnotes hyperlinked to the note numbers. (The default format for endnotes is IEEE style with square brackets around the note numbers. If you want Humanities-style superscript notes, see the Appendix below for the tags needed for recoding.) These menus work in conjunction with the bottom status bar, which displays the coding tags governing the section of the sample where your cursor is. To use a "style" function, select the text to which you want to apply it by clicking the relevant tag on the bottom status bar (e.g., "p" to select the section that you want to turn into a bibliography entry).
  5. Each new iWRITE site is assigned non-indented (block) paragraphs as the default. That can be changed by selecting the text you want to be indented, then choosing "indented" from the Styles menu. Using Enter in the editor will give you new paragraphs in the style you have chosen. Use the Styles menu to reformat specific paragraphs as indented or non-indented: select the paragraph by putting your cursor in it, clicking on "p" from the status bar, and making your selection from the styles menu.
  6. The final step in inputting a new sample is to type a grade into the box at the bottom of the screen. You may use descriptive words or letters or numbers; you may include + or -; you may just input - without any letter or number to signify that you are not assigning a grade. Then click on Modify to finish the inputting.
  7. You can check the sample without making it visible to students by using the Comments: View function on the admin page. To see the sample exactly as it will look from the student view, go to step 2.h below (create group, select paper for inclusion in it, and make the group visible).
  8. To make any needed changes, return to the admin page and use Essays: Modify, which will take you to the editor again.
  9. ** Ensure that all the details of the sample paper are exactly the way you want before you start to input comments. Once you enter a comment, the sample can be changed only by removing all the comments and starting again. That's why we recommend performing step 2.h at this stage so that you can preview the paper from the student view. It may also be wise to look at it in several different browsers.
  10. Repeat for each of the sample papers.
[Table of Contents]

2. Instructor Comments

NOTE: To input and link your comments, you will need a Java plugin. If you need to obtain one, go to the downloads page of the Java site and choose a free download that meets your system's specifications.

  1. Go to Comments: Add. Select a sample paper from the dropdown menu.
  2. The sample paper will appear in a Java box on the left half of the screen. (Here it is displayed as a string of text, with some HTML codes visible. NOTE: If your text is unworkably clogged up with HTML codes, let us know and we can suggest a workaround and/or clean up the codes for you.)
    Select the passage in the sample to which your first comment applies. (It takes two clicks to complete this selection.) Then type or paste your comment on that passage into the right-hand column, which again uses the built-in editor.
    3. NOTE: You can select only one passage for each link. You may wish to point out that your comment refers to one example of a recurrent pattern.
  3. Next you will see your comment displayed in the left-hand Java box. Select the word or phrase in the comment that you want to serve as the link to the specified passage in the sample text. Note the new provision for general comments that are not linked to a specific passage in the essay. Then click on Activate Link.
  4. Repeat as needed for each of the comments.
  5. If you want to view the comments before making the paper visible to students, return to the Admin page and use Comments: View, selecting the sample by title from the dropdown menu. To check for the accuracy of the linking, scroll down through the sample to find the highlighted passage. (The scrolling works automatically in the student view.)
  6. To make any needed changes, return to the Administration page and use Comments: Modify. You may make changes in the comment text at any time. However, to change the selection in the sample to which each one is linked, you will need to re-do the entire comment, including re-ordering the comments as in the next step.
  7. To change the order of comments, use the Comments: Rank button.
  8. To make the samples and comments visible in the student view, go to Groups: Add, and follow the onscreen instructions.
    NOTE: For a sample to be visible to student users, you must include it as part of a group of essays, and that group must be set to "visible." The same sample can appear as part of more than one group. Groups may consist of one sample or more than one. To add a sample to an already existing group (or to drop samples from a group), go to Groups: Modify, and follow the onscreen instructions. Note that you can now order and re-order essays within a group by using the Essay, Rank button.
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3. Prompter (optional but highly recommended)

NOTE: All input boxes for Prompters now also use the new editor.

  1. Choose Enable Prompter near the bottom-right corner of the Administration page. Then choose "yes" and click on Modify Visibility. (NOTE: You will not see the link for the Writing Prompter at the top of the page until you log out and log in again.)
  2. Now choose Modify Writing Prompter, and click on the link Add New Prompter. You will probably want to set Visible? to yes at this point so that you can easily test the prompter after creating it. (If after testing you do not want to make the prompter available yet to students, you can then go back to turn visibility off.) Finally, click on Add Prompter.
  3. After adding the new prompter, you will automatically be sent back to Modify Writing Prompter. Click on the button Modify next to the name of your prompter. Then, when a new page appears, click on the button Add New Section.
  4. Paste in the name of your step and the number of subsections for the step. Then click on Define.
  5. Supply text for each step and substep. Use the basic HTML tags if needed. The first box allows unlimited text; the substeps allow only 255 characters.
  6. Click on the button Add Prompter Section, and then click on the button Back underneath the message "You have successfully added a new section."
  7. Click on the button Add New Section to add another step, and repeat for as many steps as necessary.
  8. To view the results, use the Prompter link on the navigation bar at the top of each screen.
  9. You can further modify, move, or delete the Prompter steps by returning to Modify Prompter from the main administration page.
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4. Questionnaire

The iWRITE developers include a brief generic questionnaire in each site to obtain feedback on the usability and effectiveness of the program. If you wish to add or change questions, or to construct your own questionnaire, follow the steps below. You can chose either to build your own questionnaire from the ground up, or you can base it on the default questionnaire.

  1. If you wish to construct your own questionnaire, go to Questionnaires (Main Info): Add, and type in a name for it (e.g., Spring 2003 Feedback), and then click on Add Questionnaire.
  2. If you wish to base your questionnaire on the default, go to Questionnaires (Main Info): Add Default. Type in a name for your questionnaire to overwrite the generic default questionnaire name, "iWRITE Questionnaire." Next, click on Add a Default Questionnaire.
  3. To add questions go to Questionnaire Questions: Add and follow the onscreen instructions to paste in text for each question (again limited to 255 characters). Include the number of the question in each.
  4. Specifying "Essay" gives a text box after the question
  5. Specifying "Multiple-Choice, 1 selection" allows for a "yes/no" type of answer, which can contain up to four choices. Specifying "Multiple-Choice Multiple Selections" allows for an "as many as apply" type of answer. Follow the onscreen instruction about using the ~ character between the choices you want listed.
  6. If you wish to follow a Multiple-Choice question with a blank text box for comments, type in "Comment" (with no following punctuation) for the next question, leaving the selection at "Essay." The input program has been set up so that this will create a blank box immediately following the list of choices, as in the generic questionnaire.
  7. To view the questions you're entering, return to the Administration page and use the Questionnaire Questions: View link.
  8. To modify questions from the default questionnaire or to make changes to a question you have added yourself, go to Questionnaire Questions: Modify and follow the onscreen instructions.
  9. You can add, delete or move questions by using the Questionnaire Questions: Add, Delete and Rank buttons from the Administration page.
  10. When you are satisfied with your results, return to Questionnaire (Main Info): Modify and choose Publish. The specific questionnaire can't be changed once it's published, but you can create new questionnaires by following the above steps.
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5. Welcome Screens and Grading Criteria

You can use the links listed under Modify Content on the right side of the Administration page to change the generic default versions of the screens that guide users among the sections of the site. Use the editor to format your text as you wish. Note that you can use Enter to create line breaks (new paragraphs) in any of these sections.

  1. Use the Modify Welcome section to provide guidelines specific to the aims of your course.
  2. The Grading Criteria box is empty until you fill it. Use the Modify Grading Criteria section to input a statement about what your grades mean. You may already have your own statement on a course outline or other handout. A generic statement from the Arts and Science calendar is available online at www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/general/grading-policy.
  3. The Modify Samples section contains several boxes that let you fill in introductory and linking screens for the display of student pieces and instructor comments. You are welcome to replace the default text that now shows up in these boxes.
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Inputting Class Lists

Class lists must be uploaded to iWRITE for each session of a course to create student accounts. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes per class. Please create the accounts in the first week of classes to avoid student questions, and then update your list once the class list has settled down. Students can now log into iWRITE by clicking a link on their course Blackboard sites, where their UTORid has already been validated. See Notes on Blackboard Integration below for ways to set up this connection. All students will still be able to log into iWRITE via <http://iwrite.utoronto.ca>, using either their UTORid or their student number (first as login and then again as password). Students in courses outside U of T will continue to log in from this page using the login boxes and their student numbers.

  1. To batch upload the list to iWRITE, prepare an Excel file listing student numbers in column 1, last names in column 2, first names in column 3, and UTORids in column 4 if available. (Do not omit the UTORids if they are available. Otherwise, students will not be able to log in through the U of T authenticate service.) ROSI does not supply UTORids as part of class lists, but Blackboard does. Use the Blackboard instructions to download your class list into a Comma-Delimited Excel file (.csv) with data in multiple columns. Select student number as well as UTORid, first name and last name. Save the Excel file, and then change the order of columns to obtain the order noted above.
  2. Before inputting a new class list, ensure that student accounts from the previous term have been removed. You can do a batch delete from the admin page by clicking on Batch Delete in the Users section. Next, click in the box at the top to select all student names. Accounts for instructors, TAs, and guest users should remain unselected, but you might want to scroll through the list of names in case there are others you want to de-select. Then click on the "Delete Users" button at the very bottom of the list.
  3. Now click on Batch Input in the Users section. Paste the data from the Excel file into the input window in the Batch Input page. Note that the cursor needs to be in the same line as the last entry, not in a blank line. Click on "Input Users."
  4. Please remember to keep your class list updated to reflect changes and additions after the initial class list. You can do that by adding individual names through Users, Add, OR by sorting for new names from the Excel file and inputting them though Users, Batch Input, OR by simply inputting your whole class list again and ignoring the error message listing names that could not be added because they were already on record.
  5. You can add individual students' UTORids through Users, Modify if necessary.

NOTES on BLACKBOARD INTEGRATION:

  1. ROSI does not supply UTORids as part of class lists, but Blackboard does. Use the Blackboard instructions to download your class list into an Excel file (either Tab-delimited or Comma-delimited, with multiple columns) that you can save on your computer. In the list of data items, you will see UTORid, first name and last name already selected; also select student number. Once you have saved the Excel file, change the order of columns to achieve the order noted in Step 1 above. Then use the file according to step 3 above.

    2.
  2. To let students get to iWRITE from within your Blackboard site, insert an External Link to the special login page at http://iwrite.utoronto.ca/login/ (note the specific URL, including the final forward slash) in a prominent place in your Blackboard site. To insert the link in the lefthand menu bar, use the Blackboard instructions for adding such links, and fill in these choices:
    • Course Options, Manage Course Menu, External Link:
      • [name] iWRITE
      • [URL] http://iwrite.utoronto.ca/login/
      • [check] Available for Students/Participants (N.B.: Please do not check the boxes for Observer or Guest access. The terms of student consent do not allow for open access to iWRITE material. Margaret Procter can arrange temporary guest access on request.)

  3. You may also want to give students and TAs the address of the regular login page (<http://iwrite.utoronto.ca>) so they can get to the iWRITE site directly without going through Blackboard. They can go to either the UTORId validation site, or they can use the login boxes to enter their student number first as login name and then again as password.
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Tips on Inputting Files with Tables and Graphics

Tables The editor now allows you to create a table or paste it in from Word using a button on the top status bar of the editor. You can edit and reformat the table within the editor, though it may be more efficient to do that in your word processor ahead of time.

Graphics You can include graphics such as figures, charts or diagrams into your site content. To reduce your image to a suitable size, we suggest that you try opening the graphics files directly in a picture management system (such as Microsoft Office Picture Manager) and manipulating the size in pixels. (NOTE: Support is no longer available for creating a .gif image from your file.)

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APPENDIX

Basic HTML format tags: The new editor provides coding functions automatically in nearly all components of iWRITE. The tags listed here may come in handy in exceptional instances where the editor does not apply, for instance in formatting essay titles or obtaining a specific footnote style. (Note that all quotation marks in these tags are straight quotes rather than curly ones. Tags are given in capitals for visibility, but lower-case is also acceptable.)

Bold:
<B>This text will be bolded.</B>

Centre
<DIV ALIGN="center">This text will be centred</DIV>

Italics:
<I>This text will be italicized</I>

Underline:
<U>This text will be underlined</U>

Superscript:
<SUP>5</SUP>: That tag will give you a superscript note5 number.

Humanities-style endnotes: To change the default endnote style (IEEE: numbered notes with the numerals in square brackets) to a style using superscript note numbers with no brackets, open the essay text in the editor and click on the HTML button to change to the source-code view. Then use the following tags to replace the ones that govern the in-text note and the endnote itself. This example refers to endnote 4 for a book by Versteeg:

In the text:
<a name="_endref4" href="#_end4" title="_endref4"><sup>4</sup></a>
That will give you a superscript4.

The note:
<a name="_end4" href="#_endref4" title="_end4"><sup>4</sup></a> Russ Versteeg, <i>Early Mesopotamian Law</i> (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1999), 19.
That will give you the following entry:
4 Russ Versteeg, Early Mesopotamian Law (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1999), 19.

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Internal Links: You may want to insert cross-links in the various welcome screens to help users navigate around the site. The editor now handles almost all of this linking. Just select the text you wish to serve as the link and click on the "hyperlink" button in the top bar of the editor, then select from the list of links provided there. A few other links are given here for special uses. These can be pasted into the "Link URL" box that opens with the hyperlink button.

Popup Mini-Lesson -- e.g., a prepared box on the Passive Voice in scientific writing -- replace passive.html with the name of your file:
<A HREF="javascript:openPopupNone('http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/iwrite/passive.html', 500,300)">mini-lesson</A>.
(Note that this link goes to a file held on an external server.)

Prompter Home:
<A HREF="/prompter/index.php">Prompter</A>

Prompter First Step:
<A HREF="/prompter/prompterSteps.php">Prompter Steps</A>

Sample Consent Letters: These are examples of the types of letters we have used to secure informed consent from students for the use of their papers in iWRITE. Note that these samples are signed by Margaret Procter as the developer of iWRITE, not by the course instructor, so as to avoid the sense of pressuring the student, and that the methods of collection are performed by someone other than the course instructor. As our tips on preparing material for a course site outline, we suggest giving out these forms to an entire class so no student feels either targeted or excluded. The letterhead and emphasis of the letter can vary according to the students' affiliation. The two letters below both assume that the students samples will not be used with the current class. Other variations are of course possible, including deletion of the statement about Turnitin.

A. For students in a class currently using iWRITE, incorporating instructions for accessing the course site:

[letterhead] iWRITE (Interactive Writing Tutorial Environment)
University of Toronto Writing Support
Faculty of Arts and Science and Provost's Courseware Development Fund

[date]
Dear Student:

You will have access this year to a web-enabled software program called iWRITE that has been developed at the University of Toronto to help students understand the expectations for written assignments in specific courses. It works mainly by displaying samples of writing from past students, alongside detailed comments by their instructors.

The developers want to keep extending the number and type of samples shown in the iWRITE site for your course, and this letter requests your consent for us to use one of your written assignments if it is chosen as a sample. Most samples are in the A and B range, but a few others will be chosen to exemplify typical student problems. To ensure that you have full choice about participating, your instructors will not know whether you have given consent until after the course is over. And your paper will remain anonymous. All student papers are displayed without any names attached, and only to students in future sections of the same course. We submit all papers to the plagiarism-checking software Turnitin, so you can be assured that future students will not misuse your work.

We ask that you sign the detachable form below to allow us to use your writing as a sample on iWRITE. If you have further questions or comments about iWRITE, you are welcome to contact me by e-mail.

Thanks for contributing to the learning of future students at the University of Toronto.

[signed] Margaret Procter for the iWRITE development team
University of Toronto Coordinator of Writing Support
procter@chass.utoronto.ca.

[scissors symbol]……………………………………… [detach here]

To the iWRITE developers:
I have read the letter describing the software project. I agree to allow my course papers chosen by the developers to be used as sample pieces under the conditions described in the letter.

DATE___________________ SIGNED____________________________

PRINT NAME________________________________________________

B. To collect samples from one class for use in a future class:

[letterhead] iWRITE (Interactive Writing Tutorial Environment)
University of Toronto Writing Support
Faculty of Arts and Science and Provost's Courseware Development Fund

[date]
Dear Student:

The University of Toronto has developed a web-based software program called iWRITE to help students understand the expectations for written assignments. Students use it in password-protected sites set up for specific courses, where it displays samples of past student work alongside detailed comments by the course instructors.

Your professor wants to develop a course-specific version of iWRITE for future classes using samples from your class. Most will be in the A and B range, but a few may be chosen to exemplify typical problems. All papers are displayed anonymously. The course sites are password-protected and we submit all papers to the anti-plagiarism software Turnitin, so you can be assured that future students will not misuse your work.

This letter asks for your consent to let us consider your papers for display in a future iWRITE site for this course. To ensure that you have full choice about participating, your instructor will not know whether you have given consent until after the course is over.

We ask that you sign the detachable form below to give your consent for this use of your work. If you have further questions about the project, or if you want to see a current version of iWRITE, you are welcome to contact me at the address below.

Thanks for contributing to the learning of your fellow students!

[signed] Margaret Procter for the iWRITE development team
University of Toronto Coordinator of Writing Support
iwrite@utoronto.ca.

[scissors symbol]……………………………………… [detach here]

To the iWRITE developers:
I have read the letter describing the software project iWRITE. I agree to allow my course papers to be used as sample pieces under the conditions described in the letter.

DATE___________________ SIGNED____________________________

PRINT NAME________________________________________________

Return this form to Margaret Procter in the envelope supplied in class, or e-mail a note to procter@chass.utoronto.ca.

U. of T. Writing Home
Site Administered by Dr. Margaret Procter
Coordinator, Writing Support, University of Toronto
Last modified 28 April 2012