General Mallard Help

Welcome to Mallard, our new WWW interactive learning environment.

The purpose of this system is to make learning easier - and hopefully more fun. Instructors can use Mallard to create and present interactive course material.

Mallard Icons

On your Mallard homepage, you have icons to provide access to all Mallard features available to you. A number of the features you will need most often can also be accessed by the icons always available along the left edge of your browser window.

In the following we describe the usage of these Mallard icons.

Home

Click on the Home icon to go to your personal Mallard homepage; from there you can access all Mallard services available to you.

Lessons

Click on the Lessons icon to go to the Lessons Page, which lists available topics. By clicking on a closed book you can "open the book" and display the individual lessons and/or books in that topic. Click on an open book again to close it.

Current Lesson

Click on the Current Lesson icon to take you directly to your current lesson. Mallard keeps track of which lessons you have completed, and the "current lesson" is the first lesson you have not yet passed (and which is not late).

Announcements

Click on the Announcements icon to check for announcements posted by your instructors.. You should be sure to check for new announcements each time you log in to the Mallard system. For convenience, the announcements icon displays the word "NEW!" when there is a new announcement - that is, when there are announcements you personally have not yet read.

Course Information

Click on this icon to access course information such as office hours, course syllabus, exam dates, or other information your instructor chooses to provide. Your instructor may have chosen to use this link for something other than information - or it might not be used at all.

Newsgroup

Your course may have a newsgroup or conferencing associated with it. Alternatively, your instructor may use this link for some other purpose.

User Configuration

Click on the User Configuration icon to configure various options for your Mallard account. Options you can set include

your preferred email address (this is useful to your instructors, as it allows them to "automatically" send you email),
the URL for your non-Mallard homepage (this sets up a link from your name on the Mallard homepage directly to your non-Mallard homepage - or to whatever page you choose),
whether you want the icon bar (along the left edge of your browser) to display in one or two columns (the double column format is particularly useful to staff who have many icons in the icon bar),
whether you want the instructor-provided grading icons to be displayed next to your graded responses (in the future you will also be able to set the colors of the graded responses, according to your visual preferences).

Mail Staff

Click on the Mail Staff icon if you wish to send email to one of your instructors. You cannot receive email within Mallard.

View Grades

Click on the View Grades icon to see your own grades. Mallard automatically records your scores for Mallard quizzes. In addition, your instructor has the option of providing non-Mallard grades such as exam scores.

About Mallard

Click on the About Mallard icon to see the names of people who have contributed to the Mallard project.

Help

Click on the Help icon to access Mallard help information. Specific help is available for some topics. Otherwise, the general Mallard help page will be displayed.

Answering Mallard Questions

We hope that you will find Mallard easy to learn to use. As with any computer software, the hardest part can be remembering that Mallard sees only what you type in - what you actually said, not what you meant to say. Hence, if an answer of yours is called "incorrect", and you believe it is really correct, then you should examine closely what you typed; a spelling error can make the problem incorrect. Depending on the problem context, even capitalization, punctuation, or extra blanks can also make a problem incorrect.

The Mallard grading scheme varies from course to course and is determined by the course instructor, who will explain it. Be sure you understand how many times a quiz can be retaken for credit, the minimum allowable score, and whether there is a late penalty (or if late submissions are even allowed). You may be able to retake a quiz for credit by "going back" to this same quiz and correcting only the wrong answers, or you may need to load a NEW quiz.

You should feel free to experiment by retaking WebQuizzes. Mallard records only your highest score, so you can retake a WebQuiz without fear of penalty. Also, all WebQuizzes remain available even after their duedates, in case you wish to review previous course material.

Suggestions for Using Mallard

The following are some suggestions for using Mallard.

We strongly recommend that you use a browser such as Internet Explorer 3.0 or Netscape 3.0 (or higher) to access Mallard. It is quicker and will allow you to use some of the more advanced features of Mallard.
When answering a question which has multiple blanks, TAB can be used to move you from one blank to the next.
Bookmark the URL of your Mallard student homepage.
The browser's reload key reloads the entire page, including the top and side frames. You will end up back at your Mallard homepage, which is probably not what you intended. If you wish to reload a page, you may wish to use the browser's back key and re-access the desired page from there.
Use the icon bar when you wish to move around within the Mallard system - especially if speed is a concern for you.
With any browser, it occasionally happens that a page does not fully load correctly. If this happens, go to another page and then try this page again.
For security reasons, you may periodically be required to reauthenticate - especially if you are idle for an hour or more. It may be prudent to try to complete a quiz (i.e., submit it for grading) within that time period (or at least load some page during this time).

When a Problem Is Encountered

This system is "breaking new ground", doing things that have never before been done. Please direct any Mallard-related questions/problems to your course instructors. They are responsible for all course material and can resolve most Mallard questions that might arise. Realize, however, that if your problem cannot be replicated or understood then it cannot be corrected; be sure to fully document any problems.

We hope that you will be able to access Mallard from any location you choose, but some online providers have restricted Web access. Also, instructors cannot debug individual students' machines. If you encounter difficulties, it is possible that you will need to use an alternate site, such as a university computer lab.

How to document a problem:

Send email to your instructor, including the following information:

A description of the problem, including the exact statement of any error message received (if applicable).
Precise location of the problem (e.g. ECE 290, week #3, quiz entitled Boolean Algebra, question #3, second input blank). Moreover, in many courses not all students see the same question #3, and so you would also need to include the question text or data.
If the problem concerns system behavior rather than the correctness of an answer, then you should also provide the date, time, what computer and browser you are using and your location. (E.g. 12/25 at 4:13 AM, running Netscape 4.0, using a Macintosh IIsi, on a modem at home.)

Mallard development continues, as we try to provide the best possible learning environment for you. We always appreciate hearing your constructive suggestions (and compliments!). Send comments to mallard-comments@uiuc.edu.

Have a Good Semester!

Comments? Questions? General harassment? Mail it to maiko@wocket.csl.uiuc.edu