Installation Instructions

RoboTutor should only take about 10 minutes to install and requires no special skills. The program must be installed on a WEB SERVER with WINDOWS 2000, WINDOWS XP, or NT as operating systems. It may NOT work on servers with other operating systems. Certainly the email feature will not work except on Windows operating systems.

Notice: The software on this CD is Copyright Protected 2004 by RoboTutor Software. All rights reserved. You are authorized to install it on only 1 computer, whether that be a regular PC or a server. For additional installation rights or help, email: Support@RoboTutor.com.

If you are installing the program on a server WITHOUT Microsoft FrontPage, use these instructions:

If you are installing the program on a server WITH Microsoft FrontPage, use these instructions:

After you finish importing RoboTutor9 from the CD, you still need to copy the RTDB9 folder to the root of your web.

You still need to set permissions, attributes, passwords, and email defaults . This is very important and if you don't set them properly, the program will not work:

To set Permissions for your databases*

* Student and Test Databases are referred to in the program as Student and Test Areas.

To Set Attributes for your Databases:

To Set Passwords for your Databases:

To Setup RoboTutor to send Email:

To Set Default Names:

That is all there is to it. To test and see if it is working properly.


Trouble Shooting:

Before you contact  us with installation problems, do the following:

  1. Check to make sure you followed all the above instructions.
  2. Make sure you have your Internet Information Services (IIS) installed.
  3. Copy Check1.asp and Check2.asp from the Installation folder into the root folder. Then open them in your browser and follow the instructions on the screen.
  4. Send support@robotutor.com an email with the following:
    • Your operating system on the server
    • Your browser and version
    • The full address to where you installed RoboTutor9
    • The full address to where you installed the RTDB9 folder with the databases.
    • The permissions you gave "Everyone" to access the RTDB9 folder.
    • What you see in the box when you open Check1 in your browser.
    • What you see in the box when you open Check2 in your browser.

Now that you have Version 9 up and running, here are some things to note:


You can directly link to tests from Word, PowerPoint, and HTML pages with this command:

http://www.RoboTutor.com/RoboTutor9/taketest.asp?studentarea=Students9&testarea=Everyone9&testpassword=Test1

To put a test link in a Word document:

To put a test link in a PowerPoint presentation:


Notes for Instructors:

Browsers:

Operating Systems:

Display Settings:


Notes for System Administrators:

Security:

  • Time-Outs: The program has a time-out of 60 minutes built into it for security purposes. If there is no input over a 60 minute period while in the testing or administration sections of the software, then it will automatically time-out. The teacher or student will need to Log-In again to use the software.
  • How Many: There can be any number of student or test databases. It is common for every teacher to have his or her own test database. Databases can have any number of passwords. Contact your server administrator to create new Test Areas or change passwords.
  • Operating System: RoboTutor is designed to be used on the web. It can, however, be installed on any computer that has Windows 2000, Windows XP, or NT operating systems. For specific instructions and licensing, contact Support@RoboTutor.com.
  • Passwords: All passwords can be optionally set in the "Access" table of the Student and Test Areas.
    • To change them, open the database in Microsoft Access, click on the "Access" table, and add, edit, or delete the passwords.
    • There can be any number of passwords for a database.

Maximum Student and Test Area Size:

  • There are physical limits to use of a Microsoft Access database to keep student and test records. Access is restricted by size to a maximum of 2 gigabytes and no more then 2.1 billion records. The max record set size is 1 gig.
  • We tested RoboTutor to see how big it would get when we added large numbers of students. After using a program to enter 4,000 students who took an average of 30 tests each, we found the database size to be 285 million bytes. The number of records was 435,000. This suggests the upper limit on the number of students in a single Student Area is around 12,000 students if they take an average of 30 tests each.
  • This means the practical size of a student database should not exceed 10,000 students if the students are taking an average of about 30 tests each. The number of student records permissible will vary with the number and size of tests taken.
  • The key is that the size of any single database should never exceed 1 gigabyte. For safety sake, no any single student database should probably be more than 7 hundred million bytes.
  • Test Areas never get anything near this size, so they are not an issue.
  • If a database exceeds the upper limit in size, the database will crash, and it is not repairable.

Changing the Path to the Databases:

'' The name of the temp database
Const cDBTest="Temp"

' The name of the system database
Const cDBSystem="System"

' Test Area location
const cTestLocation="/rtdb9/tests/"

' Student Area location
const cStudentLocation="/rtdb9/students/"

' Temp database location
const cTempLocation="/rtdb9/system/"

' System database location
const cSystemLocation="/rtdb9/system/"

' Model databases location
const cModelLocation="/rtdb9/templates/"

' Students database model name
const cStModel="StudentsModel9"

' Tests database model name
const cTestModel="TestModel9"

Changing default System Test Settings:

  1. ' max number of sub-options for any question
    Const maxNumberOption=10
  2. ' max number of questions can that be displayed on the screen at one time
    Const maxQuestionPageSize=30
  3. ' default page size
    Const defaultQuestionPageSize=30

In answer to common questions:

  1. Version 9 of RoboTutor will run on ANY computer with Windows 2000, Window XP, or NT installed on it. It must also have the web server option installed that come on the CD with the operating system.
     
  2. The server can be a stand-alone PC, connected to the intranet, or on the world wide web.
     
  3. There are no required links to the RoboTutor site in order for it to work. It is completely self-contained.
     
  4. There is no Perl  or CGI scripts used. Instead it uses ASP, Visual Basic, JavaScript, and XML.
     
  5. It will work on both Macs and PCs, but not all browsers. Some older versions of Netscape and IE do not support special features the program uses. We recommend Version 6+ of both browsers. To get optimum viewing, use IE 6.0 or higher.

If all of this went smoothly and the program is installed, you can start creating tests. If you experienced problems and cannot resolve them with the above instructions, please email support@robotutor.com or call: 801-750-2722  and we will help you fix the problems.