0. Introduction ----- The WILD software package is used to turn traditional lectures with great numbers of students into Interactive Lectures, where communication between student and teacher is enabled in both directions. This communication can be used to offer several services. These may be quizzes, call-in questions, feedback, virtual handraising, and so forth. To do this, every student must be equipped with a portable, wireless LAN enabled computer capable of running a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). These are usually notebooks with any kind of operating system and PocketPCs. The server is run on the teacher's computer. ----- 1. Requirements and Recommendations ----- For the server, any computer which has a JVM installed and which is capable of handling multiple network connections is sufficient (which means that Windows XP home and Windows 9x should not be used!). As a rule, a large main memory is more important than a fast CPU. At the moment the software has been tested on Windows PCs only. Although it should be possible to use it on Linux or Macintosh computers, problems may occur. You should have the latest JVM installed; Java version 1.4 is required; the software will not run with prior versions. The students' computers also have to be Java enabled, but for the client software Java version 1.1.8 is sufficient. On PocketPCs the Jeode JVM published by Insignia should be used (www.insignia.com), although the free Personal-Java Implementation from Sun may suffice. Jeode is bundled with quite a few PocketPCs. The client and server computers should be in one network to be able to connect to each other; of course, wireless LAN (802.11) is the best choice. Native Bluetooth is not supported yet. ----- 2. Installation ----- Unpack the downloaded archive to any directory you want. Make sure, that the directory structure contained in the archive is preserved. Two directories with several subfolders are created: "WILD" and "WILDmobile" If you are running Windows and have the Java Runtime Library (v1.4 or above) properly installed, you can use the Batch-files inside the "WILD"-folder to start the different components of the software: - start_Admin.bat runs the admin client - start_Server.bat starts the server application - start_Client.bat opens a client window - start_Quizdisplay.bat runs a small quizresult display application All needed property resources are included but may have to be adjusted to your needs. For more details, see Chapter 4. If you are using Linux, Mac or other O/S you have to create your own starting scripts based on the included batch files for the moment. Client (PC): To run a client on a Notebook, use the start_Client.bat Batch-File. Client (PocketPC): Usually the PocketPCs are preinstalled with the MS PocketPC 2002/2003 operating system. Make sure, the Jeode Java VM is installed. Using ActiveSync you have to copy the "WILDmobile" directory contained in the downloaded archive to the root directory of the mobile device. To do this, click on the "Browse Mobile Device"-Button on the right. An explorer window will pop up, showing the contents of the file system of the PocketPC. Use the first entry in the file list (called "Workspace" or similar) to change to the root folder (you should see "Windows" and "Program Files" in the file list). Now transfer the WILDmobile directory simply by drag and drop from a standard explorer window. To start the client on the device, use the preinstalled file explorer on the PocketPC to navigate to the WILDmobile folder and click on the "WILD"-Link. It will take several seconds before the login screen appears. ----- 3. Manual (Admin) ----- The admin client is the piece of software that will allow you to manage every aspect of the WILD system. Unfortunately quite a few features are still missing, but will be added in the near future. For the moment, the Admin-software may be used to create, edit, publish and manage quizzes. You don't have to start the server to be able to work with the client, but only if you are connected to a server, you are able to send a quiz to the students' devices. To get connected, enter the needed data in the four fields on the first tab of the client (username, password, IP address and port; see chapter 4 how to set up users), then click on "connect". If you are running the admin client on the same machine as the server, you can use "127.0.0.1" as IP-Adress, otherwise use the IP-Adress of the machine the server is running on. The default port is 2904, this may be changed in the server configuration file (see Chapter 4). The default administrator login is "teacher1" as username and "teacher1" again as password; of course, this may (and should) be changed, too. All other areas on this tab are unused right now, including the user window (it remains empty regardless how many users are logged on). On the second tab "Quiz" you can manage your quizzes. Questions are stored either in a quizpool (then they are unfiled and can not be directly activated) or in sheets. Sheets are objects containing one or more questions and may be sent to the students at large. It is not possible to activate a single question included in the quizpool or in a sheet containing other questions as well. If you want to do this, you have to create a new sheet and then move the one question to the sheet. Sheets are organized in sessions. For example, you can create a session for each course. Each session has exactly one quizpool. All sessions, sheets and questions are displayed in the left field in a hierarchical order. Use the small handles left of the descriptor to expand sessions and sheets. To select an item, click on its descriptor; it is not possible to select more than one item. Depending on your selection, several buttons on the right will be enabled or disabled. The buttons are grouped in a "Session", a "Sheet" and an "Item" field. As a rule, if you select an item, you are able to change the properties of its parent, too. For example, you select a question titled "compression" contained in the sheet titled "lecture 2" which is stored in the session "multimedia" you can perform the same actions on "lecture 2" and "multimedia" as if you had only selected the sheet resp. the session. Possible actions are: - New session : this is the only button that is always enabled; creates a new session. - Delete (session) : Deletes the current session and the corresponding file. May not be undone! - Rename (session) : Renames the current session. - New sheet : creates a new sheet in the selected session. If a sheet is selected, the new sheet will be placed directly in front of it; otherwise it will be put at the end (before the quizpool). - Delete (sheet) : deletes the current sheet; if the sheets contains any questions, you will be asked if you want to move them to the quizpool; otherwise they will be deleted, too. - Rename (sheet) : renames the current sheet. - Copy (sheet) : creates a copy of the current sheet that is placed directly underneath the original sheet. The copy is identical except the postfix "copy" appended to its title. All questions contained in the original sheet are copied, too; these are actual copies, not just links to the original questions, so if you change a question in the copied sheet, the changes will not reflect in the original question. - Export (sheet) : exports the current sheet and all contained questions to an external XML-file. - Import (sheet) : imports a sheet and contained questions into the current session. - Activate (sheet) : only enabled if you are connected to a server and if the sheet contains any questions; activates the current sheet and sends the questions to the students. A small window with status and progress will pop up to keep you informed. You can select a timeout value prior to activating a quiz; after this time, the quiz is automatically terminated. - New item: opens an editor to author a new quiz question. When you have entered all needed information, the new question will be placed: in the quizpool of the selected session if no sheet is selected, or as last item of the current sheet if a sheet but no item is selected, or before the selected item in the current sheet. - Delete (item): deletes the current item. - Edit (item): opens an editor to modify the current item. - Copy (item): creates a 1:1 copy of the selected item, placed in the slot behind the original. - Export (item): export the current item only to an external XML-file. - Import (item): imports a previously exported item back to the current session/sheet. Everytime you use a sheet, detailed results (i.e. the answers of the students) are stored with each item. These result sets are displayed with the exact time (when the sheet was activated) in the result combo box in the "Item" group. The "view" button may be used to get a graphical overview for the selected result set. Result sets common to all questions contained in the current sheet (i.e. result sets with exactly the same activation time) are displayed in the "Sheet" group, too. The "view" button in this group shows the results of all items. To author a new question or to edit an existing question, editors are currently available for three question types: Multiple Choice with exactly one correct answer, Multiple Choice with an ambiguous number of correct answers and clickable images. The editors for the two Multiple Choice types are quite similar. In the top area, you have to enter a title and the score (number of points a students can possibly get by answering correctly). Optionally, you can enter a tip that is displayed on the student's computer if he clicks on a small icon (this is not reported back and does not reduce the score!). You can use the tip to clarify some statements, so the main question is kept as small as possible. In the left fields you can enter the text body of the question. Additionally you can add some text that is displayed in a smaller font size for additional information. Finally you can add a picture with the buttons below. On the right side, you have to enter the statements from which a student can select the right answer(s). First select the number of statements you want to provide (a number between 2 and 6), then use the fields to enter the statements. With the buttons left to the text fields you can select which answers are correct, and by leaving them unselected which are wrong. Optionally, you can provide explanations to each statement, why is is correct or wrong. These will be displayed after the quiz round on the students' computers. To do this, select "Explanations" from the "Edit"-Combobox. The text fields will then show the explanations instead of the statements (so they are blank if you author a new item). By selecting "Statements", you will see the statements once again. Use the two buttons at the bottom to save or discard your changes. The editor for Clickable Image also has fields for title, tip, score and question, but instead of statements you have to load an image and select a specific area, where the student has to click on to answer the question correctly. To load the image, use the "Load/Replace Image" button; the image is then displayed in the central field. You can then click into that image to mark the center of the area of correct answers. Hold the button and move it to expand that area. All clicks inside that area are correct. Release the button and the area will be stored. ----- 4. Manual (Server) ----- The behavior of the server is controlled by several property files which are described shortly in this chapter. The User/Password file: A file called "IOServer.pass" is placed in the "WILD/resource" folder. For every user supposed to log into the server, it contains one line formatted in a special way: name|password|access|-|- "name" is the user's login account name and can be any character sequence, but should be limited to letters, numbers and only the most common symbols. "password" is the user's password in plain text; same rules as for "name". You can use "*" as the password, then any password (even if the field is left blank) is accepted. "access" is a number specifying the access to server functions. Students have a "2", Administrators a "4". The fourth and fifth position is reserved for data written by the server; if you add a new line, simply put a "-" sign there. Properties: The properties are stored in a file "WAM_Server.properties" in the same folder. The various fields are explained inside that file, so any further explanation will be skipped for now. Usually you won't have to edit this file. Note: When you start the server, it will tell you, that it uses the IP-adress "0.0.0.0", regardless of the actual IP-address of the machine. This is o.k., it just means that every built-in network adapter can be used to establish a connection. ----- 5. Manual (Client) ----- When the client is started, a login window will appear. The student has to provide username, password and the server he wants to connect to. Use the IP-Adress of the machine where the server is running on; the IP-Adress can be provided either alphabetical (e.g. "wildserver.uni-mannheim.de") or numerical (e.g. 134.155.48.200). The preselected port is 2904 if not changed in the server configuration file (-> Chapter 4). To start right away, several default user accounts were created: "student1", "student2", ... "student6"; the password field may be left blank, if you are using these. After clicking on the "login" button, it will take a while on handheld computers before the client user interface appears. This is due to the limited processing and memory speed of the PocketPC. The user interface is divided into three parts: A menu bar, where the student can select a service (Quiz or Feedback or Call-In...) or log out, the main screen and a status bar at the bottom where information of all services are displayed (for example, if a new quiz has been started). The main screen is a virtual sheet of paper with textual or graphical information on it. If it is too long to fit on the screen, you can use the stylus or mouse to move it around (just click on a empty portion of the sheet, hold the button/stylus down und move the stylus/mouse up or down). Alternatively you can use the small scrollbar to the left. Several elements displayed on this virtual sheet are interactive, like checkboxes, text input fields or sliders. These can be used to control the client application and to enter quiz answers for example. The client software detects a broken connection after a short while and automatically tries to reconnect. ----- 6. Contact ----- If you want to have additional information, the source code or if you are simply interested in the software, you can send me an email to: scheele@lecturelab.de Thank you!