Technical Note - Submission System

Summary

The ECS Submission System allows students to submit assignments and projects electronically. This document illustrates how the submission system works.

Details

The Submission System allows students to submit assignments and projects electronically into a secure directory. Students can see a course's assignment and project deadlines as soon as they enter the submission system.

The three steps of submission

Students are able to choose a course in the system, but usually students will have a direct link to the course page.

1. Choose an assignment or project.
2. Select and upload files.
3. Complete submission.

If there are multiple files to be uploaded, it would be wiser to archive them in a .tar or .zip file, which the system will automatically expand when the file is submitted. The student is then emailed the submission details, and performs a script as required by a course co-ordinator (for example, to compile code and output it to the "Submission Complete" page).

Deadline

Once the deadline has passed, files can still be submitted, but will be marked as late. An email is sent about an hour after an assignment is due to let students know what files they have submitted.

For staff only

Setting up online assignment submissions

Staff can set up an online assignment submission by going to http://ecs.victoria.ac.nz/cgi-bin/submit-edit (or click on the Edit Submissions link in the assignment system menu). Select the appropriate course and then click on the "Add new assignment" link. Supply the assignment name and deadline (which is optional) and save it. The new assignment will immediately be available in the submission system. If you want to change a deadline select the appropriate course and then click on the assignment to change. Change the deadline and save it.

If the course is not in the initial course list, or if any other options must be changed, please submit a job to the programmers.

Submission location

Submissions can go wherever you please, but generally they go into /vol/submit/[coursecode]/[assignment]/. For security reasons, this area is not available for writing to from a workstation.

Marking directories

When students submit code you will often want to be able to change or compile their code. To do this, you will need to copy their submission into their marking directory. This is a sub-directory of a student's submission that has write permission for staff. This way we keep the original submission intact without any changes. There is a Copy to Marking button on the submission report page.