HOW TO USE OWL
IN MATHEMATICS
To use the OWL system, you will need to get access to a computer with an internet connection. If you do not have your own computer, there are several places on campus that you can use. If you need help finding and using a machine, please see the OIT Help Desk on the first floor of LGRC (the lowrise, not the tower).
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Use
Netscape or Internet Explorer version 4 or higher.
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Go
to http://owl.oit.umass.edu.
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Select
the Mathematics (Umass Amherst) link.
Logging On
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Enter
your Login.
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Enter
your Password.
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Click
on the LOG IN TO OWL button. (You
may have to scroll down the page.)
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If
you see the Invalid Login page, read
the directions
and then TRY AGAIN.
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If
you continue to have problems, click on REPORT
IT.
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Carefully
read the Welcome page, then click CONTINUE.
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Enter
your email and phone so that you can be contacted about your message
submissions.
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Click
CONTINUE.
Working on Your Assignments
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On
the Course Menu page check that you
are rostered in the correct OWL course.
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If
it is incorrect, click Add/Switch Class to the left and follow
the directions.
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Click
on the underlined name (i.e. link) for your course.
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After
reading the Course Notes page, press
the View Assignments button.
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Click
on the link of the name of the assignment on which you want to work.
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IMPORTANT:
Do the Tutorial first to learn to use OWL! (This counts toward your grade.)
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Click
on the link for the unit on which you want to work.
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Read
the question, type in your answer(s), and then click CHECK ANSWER.
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Your
score, the correct answer(s), and feedback will be shown. (You may have to
scroll down the page.)
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When
you are ready to move on to another question, either:
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click
Prev or Next to the left,
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click
Unit Menu to the left to return to
the complete unit list,
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or
choose a question number link from the status bar at the top of the page.
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Each
unit has a mastery value. You must get
this number of problems correct in one
attempt at the unit to master it. If you have not mastered a unit, you
may select it again to receive a new set of problems. You must master all the units to master the assignment.
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When
you are done working, return to the Unit
Menu and then click Assignments. Make sure that your score for the assignment
is what you think it is. Work done
after the due date will not improve your score.
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Click
the Logout button on the left side
of the page to exit the OWL system.
Miscellaneous
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Click
Course Notes to see any instructor announcements.
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Click
Contact Info to change your email
and phone information.
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Click
Help for the User’s Manual including
the online tutorial, Browsing for Beginners.
§
Click
Send Message to report a problem or
ask a question.
Some of the questions in the OWL system that you are using require the use of the symbol font. (NOTE: The second unit, Answer Types, in the OWL Tutorial begins with an example to test this. You should do the Tutorial before doing any other assignments. You will receive credit for it.) If some questions do not seem to be displaying correctly, you may need to make some changes to your computer. There are two issues involved in getting symbol font characters to display correctly: making sure that the font is installed and setting the correct character set encoding in your browser.
Most
PC and Macintosh computers should already have the symbol font installed. You can check this using any application
that allows you to change the font for items that you type (word processor for
example). Simply look through the list
of available fonts to check that Symbol is in the list. If it is not listed, you’ll need to find and
install the font.
Character
set encoding is a browser setting. The
required setting depends on the type of computer you are using. Finding the location in the browser to
examine and change the setting depends on whether you are using Netscape or
Internet Explorer and which version. In
general, look under either the View
or Options menu for the item Character Set, Encoding, or Document
Encoding.
The character set encoding setting should be Western European (Windows) for Internet Explorer and Western(ISO-8859-1) for Netscape.
The current value for this will probably be Western(Latin1) or Western(ISO-8859-1). Change this to Western(Mac) or Western(MacRoman).
Notes:
ú
For
other web sites you may need to change the character set encoding back to what
it was for their pages to display properly.
ú
Unfortunately,
there are some Macs where this still doesn’t fix the problem. In that case, you may need to try another
browser or a higher version of the browser that you are using.
Symbol
fonts may need to be enabled for Netscape running under X:
1.
Edit
your ~/.Xdefaults file and add the following line
Netscape*documentFonts.charset*adobe-fontspecific: iso-8859-1
2.
Execute
the command: csh> xrdb .Xdefaults
3.
Restart
Netscape
You
may also need to change your character set encoding setting to
Western(ISO-8859-1) if it isn't already.