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.. IVLE - Informatics Virtual Learning Environment
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Copyright (C) 2007-2010 The University of Melbourne
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.. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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.. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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.. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
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Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
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This page is designed to give a brief overview of IVLE, from a users point of
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view (including administrator and lecturer users). Here we assume that you
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have :ref:`set up a fresh copy of IVLE <ref-install>` and :ref:`installed the
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sample data <sample-data>`. This page refers to the sample data specifically.
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If you are just using an existing installation of IVLE, it might still make a
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bit of sense, but your mileage may vary.
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We will take the tour in three stages: first as a student, then as a lecturer,
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and finally as an administrator.
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Begin by logging into IVLE as a student (username: 'studenta', password:
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You will see the IVLE home screen, which displays the subjects you are
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enrolled in, and your files for each subject. Along the top is the blue bar
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which is always visible in IVLE. Clicking the IVLE logo always returns you to
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The user "studenta" is enrolled in several subjects, and has several files
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already in her Subversion repository, but they aren't immediately accessible.
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First, click all of the "Checkout" buttons, to check out the Subversion
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repositories. Now you can explore the sample files, for example, in the
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Go into the "stuff" directory and left-click the file "hello.py". This will
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open the build-in text editor, which lets you modify the file. Along the top,
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there is a button marked "Serve". Clicking this will *run* the Python code as
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a CGI application -- this should open a new window which reads "Hello,
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world!". You can also click "Run", which will run the program in the built-in
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Python console (which pops up from the bottom of the screen). This will be
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much uglier, printing the CGI output.
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* "Serve" runs Python programs as CGI applications, showing their web output.
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* "Run" runs Python programs as command-line applications.
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Note that you can also use the console at the bottom of the screen as a
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generic Python console, whenever you wish.
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You can also serve other files, such as HTML files (try "Welcome to
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IVLE.html"). This will just present them as normal web pages.
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Files also have full Subversion histories. If you click on a file in the file
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view (such as "hello.py"), and go to More Actions -> Subversion -> View Log,
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you will see the history of a file, and be able to "select" then view a "diff"
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of the file. If you edit a file, you need to commit it (More Actions ->
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Subversion -> Commit). If you create a new file (More Actions -> Directory
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actions -> New file), you need to add it (More Actions -> Subversion -> Add),
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This student has already completed a project, and is ready to submit it. Go
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into the Intermediate Ivle -> mywork directory. Select "phase1.html" and
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choose More Actions -> Publishing -> Submit. This takes you to the Submit
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Choose to submit to Phase 1, and click Submit Project. You should see a page
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telling you the submission was successful, with a link to "verify". Verify
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shows you exactly which files were submitted, and their contents at the time
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of submission (if the files have changed since then, you'll still see the
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submitted version). You should verify after each submission -- you can verify
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any submitted project from the subject page.
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If you go into the Intermediate Ivle -> group1 directory, you will be able to
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make a group submission to Phase 2 (which is a group project). Note that the
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Phase 3 submission has already closed.
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Also note that the file here ("phase2.html") was edited by studenta and
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studentb collaboratively, as you can see in the project's revision log.
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Click on Intermediate Ivle -> Subject Home from the home screen (or, from the
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IVLE pulldown menu, choose Subjects and select Intermediate Ivle). There is
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one worksheet, Worksheet Basics. Clicking this takes you to the worksheet,
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where students are challenged by Python questions.
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After reading the worksheet, attempt the first simple programming question,
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which is to write the Hello world program.
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First, click Submit without writing any code, and note that the system
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automatically runs a test case, which fails. Now change the code to be "almost
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right" (for example, write "Hello world" instead of "Hello, world!"), and
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press Submit again. It will tell you that you almost got it right. In this
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way, the IVLE test framework can show users that they're on the right track.
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If you get it exactly right and click Submit a third time, you will pass the
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Note that you can also click "Run", and it will execute your solution in the
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Python console. This doesn't cost you an "attempt", nor does it run the test
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cases. It just lets you test it out for yourself before making an official
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Back on the subject page, you will notice that the exercise appears complete,
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and you have been awarded a mark.
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A sample solution to the second exercise follows::
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Log into IVLE as a lecturer (username: 'lecturer', password: 'password'). Many
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of these things are also possible as a tutor (try username: 'tutor', password:
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Being a lecturer or tutor is a per-subject privilege, so it only applies to
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certain subjects. All of your special powers are under the subject home for
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the subjects you are a tutor in. Note that everything a lecturer can do, an
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admin can also do, for all subjects in the system.
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Click "Intermediate IVLE - Subject home". From here, you will see largely the
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same view as a student, but with more buttons. "Change details" allows you to
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modify the subject properties. "Enrol users" allows you to add existing IVLE
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users as students or tutors of the subject you are teaching (this is currently
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an irreversible action).
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Click "Manage projects" to go to the project management screen. Note that the
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3 projects are grouped into "Solo projects" (projects submitted by each
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individual student) and "Group projects". Try adding a new Solo project, by
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clicking on "Add a new project" within that box. The fields should be fairly
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You can't currently edit or delete a project after it has been created.
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Group projects are complicated by what we call "project sets". A "project set"
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is a set of group projects where the student groups are the same throughout.
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For instance, you will see Phase 2 and Phase 3 inside the same project set
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box. This means students will get into groups of 3 to submit Phase 2, and then
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the same group will submit Phase 3.
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Clicking "Manage groups" lets you put students into groups for a given project
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Click "Add a new project set" and enter a group size of 6. Then, create a
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project in the new set. Each student must get into a new group for each
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project *set*. Note also that the groups will share a Subversion repository
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for all projects in a set, but if you create a new set, the students will have
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to start using a new repository.
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Usually, the hassle of getting into new groups and creating new repositories
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means that you will want to create just two project sets for a subject: one
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for solo projects, and another for group projects.
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Lecturers and tutors can view any student or group's project submission, using
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an external Subversion client. As submissions are really just Subversion
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commits, you can examine a student's work by simply checking out the correct
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revision of the repository.
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From the offering page, click "View submissions" under the project of interest.
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This takes you to a page which lists the latest submissions from every student
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(presumably you will just see the submission made by "studenta" earlier in
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this tour). Next to each submission is a command line, beginning with
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``svn co``. For instance, you might see the line::
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svn co --username lecturer -r7 http://svn.ivle.localhost/users/studenta/ivle-102/phase1.html
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Paste this line into a command-line (or, if you use a GUI Subversion client,
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use the username, revision and URL given). Subversion will likely prompt for a
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password. For the sample data, this password is "password", but in general, it
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will **not** be your normal IVLE password. You can learn your Subversion
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password by opening a Console in IVLE and typing::
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ivle.config.Config()['user_info']['svn_pass']
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This will check out the student's work into the current directory, to inspect.
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You can also try to check out the group submission from Phase 2.
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It is currently not possible to check out a single file (not a directory)
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submission using the instructions given. Instead, run ``svn cat``, and
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redirect the output into a file.
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Managing worksheets and exercises
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---------------------------------
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Return to the subject home page. Click "Manage worksheets". On this page, you
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will see all of the worksheets for the subject. Here you can edit worksheets,
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add new ones, and re-order them. You can also edit any worksheet from its own
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To get an idea of what a worksheet looks like in edit mode, click the edit
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action (pencil) next to "Worksheet Basics".
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* The "URL name" is the name of the worksheet as it appears in URLs.
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* The "Assessable" checkbox will make the exercises in the worksheet count
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towards each student's worksheet mark, if checked. Uncheck it for
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informational worksheets.
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* The "Format" selection controls the format used to write the worksheet in
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the box below. Leave it on "reStructuredText" unless you have a reason not
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Now, you can edit the worksheet content in reStructuredText. The existing text
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briefly explains this format. See `A ReStruecturedText Primer
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<http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickstart.html>`_ for a full
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guide. Note that the exercises themselves are not in the worksheet. They are
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separate resources, which can be shared across subjects. Exercises can be
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embedded with a line like this::
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.. exercise:: factorial
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Click "Manage exercises" to see the exercises (in the sample data, just
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"factorial"). An exercise is a very complex thing, due to the fact that it
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runs automated testing on the student code. The details are outside the scope
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of this tour. Hopefully, you can figure out how they work by examining the
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existing "factorial" exercise.
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If you are game enough, create a new worksheet from scratch. If you are
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*really* game, create a new exercise for your worksheet.
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An administrator's view
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=======================
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Log into IVLE as an admin (username: 'admin', password: 'password').
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Administrator users in IVLE have significant privileges. Note, however, that
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for technical reasons, admins cannot read or write other users' files. This
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requires root access on the machine IVLE is installed on.
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Firstly, pull down the IVLE menu (top-left). There is an additional item for
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admins -- the "Users" page. This lists all users with an account in IVLE.
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Clicking on a username takes you to the user's profile page. Try it with the
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The profile page is exactly the same as the user himself would see it, but
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with a few more buttons on the side. "Change password" is the same as the
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user's own "Change password" page. However, "Reset password" is a special
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admin page which lets you change a user's password without knowing the old
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one. "Administer user" also lets you change administrative settings for the
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user, such as their full name (more formal than display name, which the user
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themselves can change) and student ID. You can also add/remove admin status
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for, or disable/enable (i.e., ban from IVLE) any user (except yourself, of
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course -- that could be bad).
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Use this with care. Making a user an admin gives them complete control over
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the system. They could even revoke *your* admin rights!
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Admin users also enjoy the same privileges as lecturers, for all subjects on
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the system. In addition, admins can enrol users in a subject as lecturers
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(this is the only way to become a lecturer). Go to the subject page for
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"Advanced IVLE" and enrol the user "lecturer" as a Lecturer in the subject.
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Unfortunately, there are still a few tasks which admins need to do which
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haven't been implemented in the UI for the IVLE web application. These tasks
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are available as command-line scripts which can be run by someone with root
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access on the machine IVLE is installed on. They are gradually being migrated
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over to proper UI features in IVLE itself.
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Details on these scripts can be found in :ref:`ref-admin-scripts`.
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doc/man/tour.rst
