EthiSkor Help

EthiSkor is a program for keeping track of student scores from EthiCola, an instructional program that goes with three Routledge books by Gensler (Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction, Ethics and the Golden Rule, and Formal Ethics). Both programs (including their help files) are copyrighted © 2009+ by Harry J. Gensler.

Both programs can run in Windows, Macintosh, or Linux. EthiSkor running in any of these systems can process EthiCola scores generated in any of these systems.

EthiCola Assignments
For each written exam, you'll want to assign the EthiCola exercises that go with the chapters on the exam. Your syllabus might say something like this:

You'll do some of your homework on computer using the EthiCola program. Download EthiCola from http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/ec or http://www.harryhiker.com/ec. You're required to get at least 90 on each assigned exercise (if you don't get 90 the first time, you can do it again until you get 90); for each exercise not done at this level, your corresponding exam score is lowered by 2 points. If you fake scores, your course grade will be lowered by one grade.

An alternative policy might say: "You're required to get at least 85 on each assigned exercise (if you don't get 85 the first time, you can do it again until you get 85); for each exercise not done at this level, your corresponding exam score is lowered by 2 points. If your overall average on assigned exercises is 97 or above, then you get a 2 point bonus added to your exam score." While you can figure out your own specific policy, I strongly suggest that you give some grade-motivation for doing the exercises.

At exam time, most of my students send me their scores by e-mail; but a few bring their USB flash drives to the test, where I process scores using the classroom computer or my laptop.

Collecting Scores by E-mail
To send EthiCola scores by e-mail, students bring up TOOLS | VIEW SCORES within EthiCola, click PASTE TO E-MAIL, and then follow the directions. You'll receive an e-mail with score data and directions about how to process this data, like this:

  EthiCola scores from Frank Sinatra (Dec 22, 2012).

  Teachers: To process the scores, start EthiSkor; then
  highlight the whole e-mail (or hit Ctrl-A), or at
  least highlight the dashed lines and everything in
  between, and then just click COPY (or hit Ctrl-C).

  ===-==-===
  BE6C4E39DA Sinatra Frank
  : Formal 1 - What is Formal Ethics? = 77
  6053FBE4B2 Sinatra Frank
  : Formal 5 - The Golden Rule = 97
  ===-==-===

  Students: Don't delete or tamper with any
  part of what you pasted!

This method works fast and checks the authenticity of the scores. If you want to respond to a student's e-mail, then in your e-mail program click REPLY, click PASTE (Ctrl-V) to put "Thanks, I recorded the scores!" into the e-mail, and then click SEND.

In Macintosh, use the command key (⌘) to highlight, copy, and paste. So ⌘-A highlights the whole e-mail, while ⌘-C copies it (so EthiSkor can get the scores); and ⌘-V pastes "Thanks, I recorded the scores!" into your return e-mail.

Collecting Scores from Flash Drives
At exam time, I use the classroom computer (or bring my laptop), attach a couple USB extension cords to the computer (some USB hubs work well too), start EthiSkor, check AUTORECORD, and have my students insert their USB flash drives into the extension cords. Scores record automatically. When the student's name appears on the screen (and the student can see this or else I call the student's name), then the student's scores have been recorded. AUTORECORD automatically records scores from all folders of inserted flash drives; several flash drives can be inserted at once.

If you're running EthiSkor under Windows, students can remove their flash drives after their scores have recorded.
If you're running LogkSkor under Macintosh, you have to eject properly each flash drive (e.g. right-click it and then pick eject) before the flash drive is removed, or else your Mac will complain and the files on the flash drive may be corrupted.

If you prefer not to use AUTORECORD, you can double-click a flash drive that is listed in the right-hand box, or else single-click it and then click the RECORD button.

All these methods search the flash drive for all Score.ec files, even those on deeply buried folders. If more than one Score.ec file is found, you can examine the contents of each by clicking the down arrow next to the BROWSE button. A flash drive whose scores have been recorded has its name displayed in lower case.

Processing Collected Scores
After I've collected scores, I click SELECTED EXERCISES to display just the exercises I assigned. I click EVERY STUDENT to display scores from every student, and I click VIEW SCORE COLLECTION FILE. Then I click PRINT to preview a score report that lists the students, what exercises they did, and their resulting bonus or penalty. If it all looks right, I again click PRINT to get a neat printout of student scores.

The score report will mirror your current settings. So you can generate a score report for every student, or just one student; for all exercises, or just selected exercises; and based on a student score-file, or a score collection file. Generally you'll want a score report for every student, for selected exercises, and based on a score collection file.

EthiSkor Boxes and Buttons
EthiSkor has three listboxes at the top, the first two listing student names and exercises. You can set these two to display in various ways:

You can have the exercise listbox display scores from EVERY STUDENT or just ONE STUDENT (click the name of the student whose scores you want to display).
You can have the exercise listbox display ALL EXERCISES or just SELECTED EXERCISES.
You can have the information be based on a specific STUDENT SCORE.EC FILE (for example, a score file on a USB flash drive or one just sent by e-mail) or on your SCORE COLLECTION FILE.

To select just some exercises (such as the ones you assigned), first use the settings that display the most exercises (show ALL EXERCISES from ALL STUDENTS and the SCORE COLLECTION FILE). Then hold down the CTRL key and click-highlight the exercises you want to select; you may have to click the scrollbars up and down to get to some of them. Then click SELECTED EXERCISES.

To delete a student from the SCORE COLLECTION FILE (perhaps a student who dropped your course), highlight the student's name and hit the DELETE key; you will be asked to confirm the deletion.

The third listbox at the top displays USB flash drives. These display when you insert them. To display a flash drive that is already inserted when you start EthiSkor, remove the flash drive and then insert it again. (In Macintosh, eject it properly before removing it.) As mentioned above, you can use AUTORECORD or else double-click a flash drive or else single-click a flash drive and then click RECORD. EthiCola will record every Score.ec from every folder of a flash drive, and then put the drive's name in lower case to show that its scores have been recorded.

On occasion, you might want to browse for a folder containing a Score.ec file; then you can click the BROWSE button to find the desired folder, and then click RECORD. You might do this, for example, if you want to record a specific Score.ec file from a flash drive without recording ALL the Score.ec files on a flash drive. You'll might never need to do this.

If somehow the flash drive doesn't show on the list, just type its letter followed by ":" (like "F:) and click RECORD. If you type "F:\" instead, then EthiSkor will just search the root directory for the Score.ec file.

If your flash drive is "F," then a Windows or Linux flash drive will generally have the score file on a "F:\EC" folder, while a Macintosh flash drive may have it there or at "F:\" or at "F:\Ethicola.app\contents\resources\drive_c\program files\Ethicola\ec" (sometimes with a duplicate at "F:\Ethicola.app\drive_c\program files\Ethicola\ec"). But you'll generally not have to worry about this, since you'll just have EthiSkor record ALL the Score.ec files on a flash drive.

The instructor's SCORE COLLECTION FILE is initially named "Data.eco," and you could just keep it that way. Then at the beginning of a new semester, you'll want to erase the old "Data.eco" file that had scores from the previous semester's students.

There's no command for saving score collection files, since these are saved automatically when you add student scores to them.
If you want to create a new score collection file, type a suitable name (e.g., "Fall12" or "Fall 2012 Ethic classes") in the score-collection-file box; the ".eco" ending will be added if you don't type it. If you've used various score collection files, you can switch between these files by clicking the down arrow.
If you want to keep score collection files in a folder of your own choosing, then click the OPEN button. This brings up a file browser where you can travel to other folders and open their score collection files or create new such files (by typing a new name in the little box).
If EthiSkor isn't running, you can click an ".eco" score collection file to load it into EthiSkor. (If you click a student "Score.ec" file, it instead brings up a little dialog box from EthiCola for viewing or printing the scores.)

Students who complete an exercise more than once get credit for the highest score at which they completed it. Special codes verify that the scores listed come from the program and not from a student manipulating the Score.ec file. If the verification code isn't authentic, EthiSkor will note that the score is faked and not give the student credit. The code is sophisticated and should be difficult or impossible to break.

Menu Commands
EthiSkor's menu bar has various commands:

FILE MENU:
- PRINT: Previews the score report and gives various printing options. The score report mirrors how you set things up -- for example, to list all exercises (or only selected ones), to include all students (or only one), and to be based on your score collection file (or on individual student Score.ec files).
- EXIT: Quit the program.
TOOLS MENU:
- HELP BALLOONS: Lets you turn these off once you know how the program operates.
- BIG WINDOW: Lets you choose between a smaller and a larger size window for EthiSkor. The larger size is useful if you have students insert flash drives in "Autorecord" mode where they remove their drive when they see their name appear.
- CLOUD SYNC: Lets you sync configuration info (in the EthiSkor.ini file) and EthiSkor score collections (files ending in ".eco") between various computers.
- UPDATE: Checks if you have the latest version of the program. If you need to update EthiSkor, you can then do so by just clicking YES.
- RUN ETHICOLA: This displays if you have EthiCola in the same folder.
HELP MENU:
- HELP: Gives you the help file you are now reading.
- ABOUT: Gives you the "about box," which displays the current version, program folders, and important Web addresses.

A small toolbar to the right of the menu provides additional access to the PRINT, ETHICOLA, and HELP commands.

Concluding Remarks
I finished EthiSkor in December 2009, and then thoroughly revised it in December 2011; I urge you to e-mail me at gensler@jcu.edu about any bugs or suggestions. EthiCola and EthiSkor use a different format for scores than did my earlier MultiCola program.