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This applet is normally invisible--it populates the table of assignment due dates.

 

Assignment Schedule

General Instructions for Assignments

Your browser must be configured to accept cookies, to allow pop-up windows and to use JavaScript and Java. Generally, it is a good idea to set up your browser to verify each document every time it is loaded, rather than to use a cached copy. That will ensure that you have the most up-to-date version of every assignment.

SticiGui assignments combine forms, instructions, and interactive tools to reinforce the material presented in the chapters and to assess your understanding. The assignments use two frames. The upper frame has the instructions and a form for your responses; the bottom frame has tools you might need to solve the problems, such as graphs, calculators, etc.

To access the assignments, you must provide the following identifying information:

last name, first name, student ID, email address.

At the bottom of the instruction frame, after all the questions, there are three buttons: one to submit the assignment for grading, one to save your intermediate results on your computer, and one to clear the answer form.

You must click the submit button to send your answers to be graded.

After you click the submit button, you must click another button to confirm that you really want to submit your answers for grading.

You will get confirmation in this window of your browser that your assignment was received by the server (a message from AutoGrader). Your score will be posted to the web.

After the due date, there will be no "submit" button. If the submit button is missing, but the assignment is not yet due, the clock on your computer is set incorrectly.

To see your grades, you need to enter your name, email address and SID, to protect your privacy. Click the button just under the assignment list, near the top of this page. Also, if you go back to the assignment after the due date, you can see the correct answers to your unique version of the assignment.

You can save intermediate results on the assignment using a button at the bottom of the instruction page. The assignments also save themselves on your computer when you submit them, if you have your browser configured to accept cookies. That lets you resubmit the same answers again in case, for some reason, your submission does not get to the server, and lets you see your answers with the correct answers conveniently, after the due date. Note: cookies are not very reliable. Some things will cause or require your cookies to be deleted. To use the save feature, you must use the same computer every time you work on a given assignment. You can use different computers for different assignments. After filling out the identifying information at the top of this page to access the assignments, the computer will look for a record of your previous work on the assignment on the computer you are using. If it finds your previous work, the assignment will have your previous answers filled in. If it does not find your previous work, the answer fields will be blank. Many of the questions and data in assignments are generated randomly. Different students get different questions and different data. You are scored based on the questions and data you receive.

Questions with multiple-choice answers. There are two types of questions with multiple-choice answers. The first kind allows you to select only one response. The second kind asks you to "select all that apply." How to select more than one answer depends on the computer operating system and browser. In Netscape and Firefox on unix systems, click each answer you want to select; clicking an answer again de-selects it. On Windows systems, hold down the control (ctrl) key while clicking each response to select more than one. On Macintosh systems, hold down the "apple" key to select multiple responses. In such "multiple-multiple-choice" questions, if you select an answer that is not correct, or fail to select one that is correct, you will not receive credit--there is no partial credit.

Numerical answers. The grader strips commas from numbers, so you are free to punctuate numerical responses. If your response includes a percent sign at the end, your numerical answer will be converted to a percentage (divided by 100). Scientific notation (e.g., 4.23e-7 as shorthand for 0.000000423) will work; do not put a space between the digits and the letter "e." Questions that do not have an exact numerical answer accept a small range of answers as correct. The precision required depends on the problem statement. When in doubt, don't round off your final answer. In this class, there is no such thing as an answer that is "too precise." Never round off intermediate calculations: see Assignment 0.

Troubleshooting

Most technical problems with the online book and assignments have one of three causes:

  1. Using a browser that is not supported, or that is not configured correctly. See minimum system requirements to run SticiGui.
  2. Scrolling before the page is fully loaded. Be sure to wait until the page has loaded completely before you scroll down.
  3. Corrupted cookies. See instructions for clearing cookies.

Clearing Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer. SticiGui uses cookies to store your answers to assignments and to remember your student ID when you log in to do an assignment or check your scores.

Some browsers do not digest cookies very well (Microsoft Internet Explorer has more trouble than Opera, Mozilla and Firefox, in my experience). You might get an error message that you need to clear the cookies in your browser. When you delete the cookies, your stored assignment answers will be erased, but the server will still retain your submitted answers and your scores---only the local record on your computer is affected. Current browsers allow you to delete cookies easily. In Firefox 2.0, you clear cookies using the Tools->Options->Privacy->Cookies menu. Click "Clear Cookies Now." In Opera 9.1, you clear cookies using the Tools->Delete Private Data->Advanced menu. Tic the box to "Delete all cookies" (while you are at it, tic the box to "Delete entire cache"), and click the "Delete" button.