Mentoract™ Instructions

Mentoract™ allows students to take activities, such as the tests and assessments created with Marmot™, on a standalone computer. Typically, the following steps will occur:

1. The teacher creates a MAQRO activity using the Marmot™ information manager.
2. The teacher installs the activity on a machine running Mentoract™.
3. A student interacts with an activity using Mentoract™.
4. The teacher retrieves the student outcome and results.

Mentoract™ Configuration

Mentoract™ configuration information is stored inside a folder named ".mentoract" which is placed inside the user's home directory. For example, on Windows XP Mentoract™ configuration information for the user "jdoe" will be stored in a folder named "C:\Documents and Settings\jdoe\.mentoract\".

Starting Mentoract™

Start Mentoract™ by selecting Start|Programs|Mentoract|Mentoract from the task bar. If activities have been installed, these will be listed along with fields for user ID and user name. If no activities have been installed, the main Mentoract™ window will open, allowing the user to manually open an activity or configure Mentoract™ for use.

If activities have been installed, a teacher may still access configuration information by selecting Cancel when asked to select an activity.

Mentoract™ Password

Configuration information in Mentoract™ is password-protected—a user may not configure Mentoract™ without providing the correct password.

When Mentoract™ is first installed, the password is blank. The password may be changed by selecting Configure|Password... from the application menu. First enter the current password (which will be blank the first time Mentoract™ is installed), and then enter the new password when prompted.

Installing Activities

In order for activities to appear to students, and for student outcomes to be recorded, activities must be installed in Mentoract™.

1. Select Configure|Activities... from the menu. A list of installed activities is displayed.
2. Select Add... and browse to a MAQRO activity. If the activity was created in Marmot™ and Mentoract™ is installed on the same machine as Marmot™, browse to the Marmot™ burrow in which the activity was stored. Otherwise, you will need to browse across the network or copy the activity to a floppy and then browse the floppy's contents to find the activity.

Once one or more activities are installed, Marmot™ will display a list of installed activities whenever the application is started. To bypass the activities and access the configuration, select Cancel when asked to select an activity.

Retrieving Student Outcomes

The outcomes and results for each activity are stored in a file ending with a ".csv" extension, which may be opened with Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet applications. Each outcomes file is given the same name as the activity file, except with a ".csv" extension, and stored in the Mentoract™ configuration folder inside a folder named "outcomes".

For example, on Windows XP the outcomes for the activity "assessment1.maqro" woudl be stored in the file "C:\Documents and Settings\user\.mentoract\outcomes\assessment1.csv".

The time of each activity is represented in the outcomes file as a Microsoft Excel time field. After the outcomes file is loaded into Excel, the times may be viewed as times by changing the cell format for those cells to "Date" or "Time".

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