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thelab@langford
College of Architecture
Texas A&M University
3137 TAMU
College Station, TX
77843-3137
979.862.8584
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Class Folder Usage |
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Who needs to read this document?
What resources are available?
How are these resources structured?
Do I really need these resources?
What do I need to do to access these resources?
I still have more questions.
If you use Windows 95, 98, Me, or MAC OS X…
Who needs to read this document?
Anyone who is teaching or assisting a class in the College of Architecture needs to read this document.
What resources are available?
Every class in the College has been allocated storage space on our student server, Xavier.
This space can be used to store student assignments, class syllabi, hard copies of assignments, etc.
You do not need to request this, as it is automatically allocated for every class at the beginning of each semester.
How are these resources structured?
Class folders are accessible on \\xavier\classes.
If you follow that link (in Internet Explorer on a Windows machine), you will notice each class has a folder already allocated.
Inside each folder there are five folders, as seen below.
The Assignments folder is where students can turn in electronic assignments.
The Resources folder is for items like syllabi, assignment parameters, etc.
The Students folder is for any information related to students.
When you open this folder, you will see shortcuts to the class workspace folders for your students.
The Private folder is, as its name implies, only accessible by the professors of the class.
Inside of this folder will be a file called Roster.html. The only function of this file is to provide you with a list of the students in your class.
The Web folder is a ready-made website for your class. You need only to place html documents and the like in the folder and they are web accessible.
This brings us to a discussion about folder security. The following permissions are currently in place
(<classfolder> designates the root folder for each individual class)
- <classfolder>\Students – The professor and any assistants can read from, write to, delete, and change anything in this folder.
All other users have no access to this folder.
- <classfolder>\Resources – The professor and any assistants can read from, write to, delete, and change anything in this folder.
Students in the class have read-only access to this folder. All other users have no access to this folder.
- <classfolder>\Assignments – The professor and any assistants can read from, write to, delete, and change anything in this folder.
Students in the class have write-only access to this folder. All other users have no access to this folder.
- <classfolder>\Private - The professor and any assistants can read from, write to, delete, and change anything in this folder.
All other users have no access to this folder.
- <classfolder>\Web - The professor and any assistants can read from, write to, delete, and change anything in this folder.
Internet users have read-only access to this folder only through a web browser. All other users have no access to this folder.
The contents of this folder are accessible through a web browser at the following address:
http://thelab.tamu.edu/classes/clas101501/web/.
For your class, replace clas101501 with your course.
You may be asking, “What is write-only access?” This means that students in your class can drop assignments into this folder
(write access), but they can’t read what is already there.
Note: This is not a space to provide directions your students need to complete an assignment, as they cannot
read what is in the directory. These directions would be placed in the Resources folder.
The Assignments folder gives you a central location for all students to turn in their electronic assignments
without allowing students to be able to read and possibly copy other students’ work. The best way to utilize this feature
is to adopt a standard naming convention for each of your assignments that is a combination of the assignment name/number
and a unique identifier for each student, such as their login ID, full name, or an identifier you create for each student.
This is needed because with write access, one student could overwrite the assignment of another if they know the exact file name.
Students will not be able to read those filenames from the Assignments folder, since they only have write access.
But without a standard convention that includes a unique identifier for each student, someone could possibly duplicate a name
and overwrite someone else’s file. Once your submission deadline for a particular assignment is past, you can create a folder inside
the Assignments folder and drop all those assignments into that folder.
On the student folders side of things, the professor for a class has the same access to the student’s class
folder as the student himself has. For example if user Joe Smith was registered in Arch 305-501,
he would have a folder at \\xavier\home\j0s0000\Classes\ARCH305501, where he could read from,
write to, delete, and change anything in the folder. His professor for that course also has read,
write, delete, and change access for that folder and its subfolders only. His professor would not be able to
access any of his other data in any of his other classes or any of his personal space.
Do I really need these resources?
This is a question that really only you can answer, but if you need to or would like to be able to do any of the
following, then you need to consider using these resources.
- Provide syllabi, information, reference sheets, assignment parameters, etc., in electronic form from a central location
- Keep electronic copies of your students’ work in a central location
- Allow students to turn in assignments electronically
Again, these resources are already allocated and waiting to be used. The only decision you need to consider is
whether you and your class would benefit from using them.
What do I need to do to access these resources?
If you are a College of Architecture student who is also teaching a class, the following information does not apply to you.
Your access to your class folders will have to be set up manually.
In order to access these resources, you must have an ARCH login ID. Information listed in SIMS as to who teaches each course is used to search for IDs that currently exist.
For example, the professor listed as teaching Land 255-501 is “ELLIS C”. This translates into a user ID of cellis.
The ARCH domain is then searched for a matching ID. If one is found, the ID is added to the Professor group for that class,
and that user then has access as the professor for that class to all the class’s network resources.
This is all done automatically. If you have already have an ID on ARCH that conforms to this standard, and the information in SIMS
listing who teaches your classes is correct, then you don’t have to do
anything else but go and use your resources located at
\\xavier\classes. If your ID does not
fit this standard, you need to speak to Yurii Havey, the domain administrator for ARCH, to have it changed.
If your ID does fit the standard and you still cannot access your resources, contact Dan Basile.
I still have more questions.
Contact Ryan Simmons.
If you use Windows 95, 98, Me, or MAC OS X…
This system and these resources are hosted on a Windows 2003 Server environment and are intended to be used by those running a Windows
XP environment. If you use one of the above operating systems (including Mac OS
X), you should still have access to your class folders, but you may not be able to access
your students’ work. If you use a Mac with OS 9 or earlier, you will not be able to
access them directly from your Mac workstation. Due to limitations and different conventions of these operating systems, there is no way around this.
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