How To Submit Homework Assignments

Overview

This document describes how to submit your homework assignments. To ensure full credit, you need to follow these steps and meet the requirements explained in this document:

  1. Check your work
  2. Create a README.txt file.
  3. Archive your files
  4. Submit files to Blackboard

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Check Your Work

  1. Check your answers and solutions to make sure you have all the required information.
  2. Create a README.txt file like the one shown below.

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Create a README.txt File

You must turn in a README.txt file like the following for full credit on an assignment:

Name: Ed Parrish
Asn#: 4
Status: Completed
Files:
- debugger.html: Debugged HTML and JavaScript file
- mpl2.htm: Review assignment HTML page
- 0-9.jpg: Review assignment supporting image files
- mpl.jpg: Review assignment supporting image file
- mplstyles.css: Review assignment supporting CSS file
- random.js: Review assignment supporting JavaScript file
- README04.txt: This file decribing the homework files
Hours Total: 3.0
Extra Credit: None
  • README.txt file name: The name of the README.txt file must be README.txt, or README*.txt where the * represents any set of valid file-name characters. Points may be deducted from your assignment score if you use a wrong file name.
  • Your name: Put your name on the first line of the file. Points may be deducted from your assignment score if you use the wrong name.
  • Asn#: The number of the assignment.
  • Status: Completed if the assignment is done. Otherwise, describe the current state of the assignment. Claiming you are done when you are not, or not accurately describing the status, may reduce your score even further.
  • Files: Name of each file followed by a brief description.
  • Hours spent: Record the estimated hours you spent on the homework assignment. Use decimal numbers only, such as 6.5. Do not use minutes or fractions such as 1/2. Label the hours as shown and put the estimated hours on the same line as the label.
  • Extra credit: Describe any extra credit you attempted for the assignment. In addition, label the extra credit as shown in the example above. Failure to follow these instructions may reduce the number of any extra-credit points you receive.
  • Other information: If the assignment asks for other information to be included in your README.txt file, then label it clearly and place it after the other information.

Note to Mac Users: You can use TextEdit to save your README.txt file. However, you need to set up TextEdit to save files using plain text and not RTF. You will not get full credit unless you use plain text. For instructions on setting TextEdit to use plain text, see: Mac OS X: How to Set Up TextEdit as an HTML or Plain Text Editor.

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Archive Your Files

To make it easier to work with multiple files and directories, you may zip (archive) your files. Archiving your files means to create a file containing one or more files in a compressed format. Most operating systems include an achiving (ZIP) tool. Also, you can get a third-party tool such as 7-zip.

When submitting files for grading in an archived format, you need to include all your files, including README.txt, in the archive. The archive type must be ZIP and the archived file must end in a .zip extension and contain only letters and numbers. Please do NOT use special characters like spaces, #, : or $ in the name of the zip file or any folder or file name. Also, please do not put zip files inside of zip files.

In addition, do NOT submit Word or Excel documents unless specifically allowed in the assignment instructions. These types of files load slowly and often contain viruses. Because of these and other issues, the instructor will not grade your homework if you submit an unauthorized Word or Excel file. Failure to follow this requirement will result in a lower grade.

Submitting Web Sites in ZIP Files

Some assignments will require you to submit a ZIP file containing a web site composed of files with relative links. For these assignments, follow these steps:

  1. Create a single ZIP file with your web site composed of files with relative links.

    Include your README.txt file at the root of your web site.

  2. After logging in to Blackboard, click the Assignments link and click the correct assignment number.
  3. Press the Add Attachments button and open the Content Browser window.
  4. Click the My Computer icon to open the form labeled: Upload Files from Your Computer
  5. Press the Browse button to open the File Upload window and locate the file to upload on your computer.
  6. Select the file and press the Open button to finish selecting the file.
  7. In the Content Browser, press the OK button to upload the file.
  8. After uploading the ZIP file, press the Set Start Page button and select your main page from the list.

    Your start page is an HTML page that is the index or home page of your web site. From this page it should be possible to follow links to all the rest of your HTML pages.

  9. Check your work by pressing the Preview button.

    You should see your start page appear and display your images and other normal web page features.

  10. Press the Submit button before leaving the Balckboard page or you will lose your files.

    You will see a confirmation page after you submit your files.

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Submit Your Files to Blackboard

Submit the files using Blackboard. After logging in to Blackboard, click the Assignments link and then click the link for the correct assignment number. To upload files, you click the Add Attachments button for the assignment. For more information, see the FAQ on, "How do I upload my assignment files?"

Frequently Asked Question

In Case of Difficulty

If Blackboard is not available, or is giving you trouble, then contact the instructor for assistance. If the hour is late and your assignment is due early the next day, then email the instructor with a description of the problem and attach your assignment, with a copy to yourself. Also, bring your assignment to class in digital form so you can try to upload before class.

You will get a 0 unless unless you submit your assignment using Blackboard. Thus, the instructor will work with you to get your assignment submitted correctly. However, the final responsibility for submitting assignments to Blackboard on time rests with the student. Please plan ahead in case of difficulties.

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Last Updated: September 02 2009 @14:45:46