Guidance in Preparing eTMAs for Students

Guidance in Preparing eTMAs

Introduction

This guide has been updated following experience gained from eight years of marking of M206 TMAs and now includes tips from other tutors, information on viewing the returned TMAs and some notes on how to avoid problems in submission. We are currently updating the matching Guide for Tutors. The system worked well for me with all my students participating. There are however a number of potential problems which can be avoided and the process smoothed by taking care in the way the TMA is presented.

A particular problem during the early years was conversions between file formats which can make major changes in layout and further changes can occur when marking in different versions of Office software. The current versions of the marking tool are independent of the software used for marking which is a great improvement over the early days. There is a opportunity to submit a dummy TMA early in the process which is important if you have not used the eTMA system before.

The file conversion problem will return this year (2008) because of the incompatibility of Microsoft Word 2007's default file format and fonts with almost everything including other versions of Word.

Contact your tutor directly to check what to do if you have Microsoft Word 2007 - the rules say you must save files in the old .doc format or .rtf rather than the new .docx format and scripts are monitored anonymously to assure the quality of the tutors work.
You may/[will] also have to change the default font if you use Word 2007. The default is Calibri which is loaded with Office 2007 and is not present on many operating systems. The layout can be very different and complex drawings are no longer rendered correctly if the font is wrong and text can be lost. See below for more on The Office 2007 Fonts issue.

Advice on Layout to aid marking and feedback

It has become clear that for electronic marking to work well and provide well presented feedback that some anticipation is required in laying out the TMA. A beautifully presented and polished TMA can have the whole layout destroyed by a single line being inserted! Anticipating the additions your tutor will make to your text and allowing for them will make it much easier to view. The additions which will be made include:

Addition, deletion and highlighting of text using the Change Tracking facilities built into modern Word Processors
Inserted text for clarification and corrections (In a different colour and/or font)
Ticks
Comments/Notes showing as popups on hovering over text or as links to Annotations
Marks (for parts and whole questions)

Most of these take up additional space and need a suitable location. Our advice is to:

Provide locations for feedback to land - add a few lines after every part of a question, under every table and under every graphic. Three lines is sufficient to allow for links to annotations, marks and ticks without changing your layout.
Avoid Blue and Red - the tutors comments are by default displayed in Blue or Red and deleted text in Red.
Let text flow - Reserve page ends for starts of questions or complex diagrams otherwise they will inevitably end up in the wrong places.
Tables of contents are not compatible between Word processors and seem to be messed up by the marking in any case.
Do not use Macros - files containing macros are rejected by many virus checkers and will not be recognised if your tutor uses OpenOffice or StarOffice which is now provided by the OU.
Tabular output - Simple tables seem to be OK whilst there is evidence tab settings and margins can change.
Use Standard common fonts - many fancy fonts are specific to Microsoft and the particular versions of WP you use and will be substituted if read on a different system - this can destroy your layout and not fit within graphics and tables. Preferably keep to Times New Roman and Arial. See below for details.
Minimise use of "Styles" - in particular watch out if you include inserts from OU TMA questions. See below for details.
Avoid graphics when text will do - cut and paste text rather than graphics to reduce size and risk. Most tutors do not require big screen dumps (and telephone bills if not on broadband) as proof of postings!
Keep Graphics Small: It is easier to mark if the graphics are sized to a screen without changing magnification and losing detail
Keep Graphics simple - do not overlay graphics and text or other graphics - they will move and parts get lost.
Drawing tools - "Freeze" output from Drawing Tools into a single standard graphic so the parts do not move. Do a screen capture and inserting the complex drawing as an image when it is complete. See below for details
Avoid wrapping text round Graphics
Turn off Autocorrect options - they can "correct" your code capitalisation without you realising
Convert to Word 97 .doc file format yourself - (if you need to)
Force compatibility with your agreed format in latter versions of Word .
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) - Do not use fancy features which conversion or marking will change or lose or where inserts will destroy the effects.

Office 2007

The file conversion problem will return this year because of the incompatibility of Microsoft Word 2007's default file format and fonts with almost everything including other versions of Word. The instructions to students are to always convert to the 'usual' .doc format which has been around since Office 97 and is now just described as Word Format in the Save As dialogs.

Office 2007 Fonts:

That is however only part of the problem as Office 2007 also installs a number of new fonts including Calibri, Candara, Consolas, Cambria, Constantia, and Corbel. We understand that Calibri is used as the default font in Word 2007 and also Powerpoint, Excel and Outlook. Even if you convert in Word 2007 to the old .doc format you are still using a font which is not available on every machine. An agreement with your tutor is not sufficient as a significant percentage of scripts are double marked and you will never know who the monitor is. There is a Wikipedia Article on Calibri if you are interested.

The consequences of font substitution can be very significant. The tutor or monitor will see the document differently as a font on their machine will be substituted and that will be machine dependent. A change of font will change the size and spacing of the text so the layout will be changed which may be acceptable. The worst problems occur with drawings and mixed drawings and text and we have one example where equations have used some drawings overlaid and the meaning has been completely changed due to text slippage under brackets - that was obvious although the cause was not initially. Worse still text boxes may no longer be large enough to contain the text and the ends of text strings can be lost again changing the meaning completely in several cases we have seen. Combined with a double conversion from .docx to .doc and to Open Office which is used by many tutors, including ourselves, for marking one is no longer sure what one is seeing. This is not a satisfactory situation and the effects are not going to be limited to the OU, one can just imagine the effects in complex technical commercial documents and agreements even if everybody is using Windows - thank you Bill.

The advice to students using Office 2007 must now be:

Make sure the facilities used are restricted in the options setup Tools -> Options -> Compatibility -> Office 97 before you start
Start your document from the start in .doc format by doing a Save As at the begriming or change the default for all documents
Change the font to one which is common and available on every machine - Times New Roman and Arial are as safe as they come.
Avoid drawings if possible.
Never mix text and drawings.
If you have a complex drawing then get a snapshot of the screen and save the drawing for ever as a graphic which you insert.
Do not bother with tables of contents - they convert very badly and are not needed.

Most of the above has always been in our advice on eTMA preparation which also formed the basis of the OU Etma advice, an early piece of contract work we carried out. The font issue is new and does not seem to have been recognised - this makes the other advice even more important.

Obtaining the Office 2007 fonts

This is for reference as there is no way you can be sure that a monitor will have them even if a Tutor can be persuaded to add them.

They come with Office 2007
They are loaded with the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack so if you have broadband and an Office product you can install the free. The compatibility pack is available free and currently at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en but you will probably have to Google (Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack .docx). It is 27 Mbytes and has an equally large service pack and it is mandatory to update Office 2003 to SP 3 (70 Mbytes) and the OS to the latest version - without Broadband or an Office product you are stuffed as you can not download the OS and Office updates even if you get the Pack and service pack on another machine.
I understand that they are installed with the Powerpoint 2007 viewer - I have not tried but it is worth a go.
If you use a Mac or Linux and Open Office you are even more stuffed and the options are:

You can 'borrow' them from friends machine from C:/Windows/fonts and copy them to the same location in a Windows XP machine or add in the appropriate way for an Apple Mac or Linux machine but read the licence conditions carefully
If you have a Dual Booted machine you may be able to mount and link to the Windows System Drive.
You can buy them - $35 each or $120 for the 4 needed for each character set.

There is also a good write up on obtaining the new fonts for Open Office under Windows XP and Linux in the OpenOffice Ninja Article on Install Free Office 2007 Fonts for XP and Linux

Freezing Pictures

Windows and Word: Most students will have a graphics package with good screen grabbing facilities which they will be familiar with but there are some basic facilities which are good enough built into Windows XP and above which mean you can freeze a drawing in under a minute with practice.

Click Print Screen (Top Right on most keyboards) This does not print the screen but puts it onto the clipboard. On most Windows systems Alt + Print Screen will just capture the currently open window to the Clipboard.
Paste it into the Word Document where it will appear as an image
Click the image and an edit toolbar will appear
Click Crop and the cursor will change - Click and drag on the handles of the graphic to crop the image to just contain your diagram.
Click Crop again to leave that mode.
Drag the handles to scale to the size you want.

It is best to keep the complex drawings in a different file so you can change them and repeat the above if required.

Linux and Open Office has similar facilities

Applications -> Accessories -> Screen Shot allows you to capture the screen or the open window and save it to a file.
Use Tools -> Insert Picture - From File to add the picture to an Open Office Document.
Crop by Right Click the picture -> Picture -> Crop tab and set Left, Right, Top and Bottom to the required crop - a preview is displayed.
OK to leave the mode
Drag the handles to scale to the size you want.

Styles and inclusion of OU TMA text

The OU TMA questions and answers make use of a number of advanced features of the Word Processor they use. They also use a number of Fonts which are not available in Word on most PCs. There is an increasing tendency to provide them as PDF files but when they are available as document (.doc) files you must take care when pasting in text from the TMA questions or using their documents as an outline for your answer. In Word the "style" of a paragraph is usually displayed in a little window on the left of toolbar for the paragraph containing the cursor. If this is "normal" then all is fine. It may also reflect any indenting/numbering. The "style" information will also migrate into paragraphs you add below a paragraph with a "style" - use the drop down menu next to the display of the "style" to reset to "normal". The same applies to fonts but that is much more obvious and easy to understand and change.

This also causes problems with screen captures that either don't end up in the right place, or on top of one another when pasted in. A reasonable form of presentation can be created in this case if:

at least one new paragraph is inserted before the pasting is done;
the pasting is done into that paragraph;
that paragraph is given the style called 'Normal'.

(Thanks to Tony Corbett for identifying these problems and a solution)

Tips on using the ETMA System

You must have Cookies and Java enabled to use the ETMA Web sites - Browsers rarely inform you if a Cookie is refused so you may never know. (Tip thanks to Gill Harrison)

It is best to use the web submission as you get better feedback and it is quicker. If you use the email submission route it is best to do so from the normal FirstClass software. If you use a different email package then it should be set to send plain text - the fancy rich text (HTML) available on Outlook Express, Outlook, Netscape and Thunderbird often ends up send text which is partitioned and looks like an extra attachment and thus will not be recognised by the e-TMA system and you will get messages back saying you have sent too many attachments.

On most Microsoft email systems "Plain text" can be set for an individual message using the Format button on the toolbar. Tools - > Options - > Mail Format (or Send) tab typically allows one to set the default format.
In Thunderbird Tools -> Account Settings -> Composition & Addressing -> Uncheck Compose messages in HTML format for each account you send from.
- You don't need to re-configure Thunderbird if you want to send the occasional message in the other format. Just press the "Shift" key when clicking the "Write", "Reply", or "Reply to All" button and it will use the other format for that message.
Netscape Communicator/Messenger you can typically set all outgoing email to be plain text by Edit - > Preferences - > Mail & NewsGroups - > Formatting and set the Radio buttons to "Use Plain Text editor to compose messages" and "Convert the message to plain text" then click on OK . Other options allow you to compose in HTML and use the address book entry to choose the format sent
Zip Files must be a Binary Attachment: You should also make sure that, if you are given a choice, the attachment is set to be "Binary" not text otherwise you will get messages saying it is not a valid zip format from the eTMA system. (Tip thanks to River~~)
Do not break up messages: Some email packages allow long emails to be broken up to escape through firewalls. The eTMA system does not support this.

Disclaimer

The views here are entirely our own and are not endorsed in any way by the Open University. What is written on these pages is our own experiences and is not intended to replace in any way the documentation supplied with any of the Open University software. Always Backup before installing any Software and on a regular basis. Do a proper cost Benefit and Risk Analysis taking into account your circumstances and knowledge base before making any changes. Past performance is no indication of the future returns.

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