Help

Basic help regarding the running of the system

  • Information
  • Log in
  • Browse
  • Student Options
  • Supervisor Options
  • Administrator Options
  • Help

Information

This section consists of fixed information split into four categories:

  • Information for Students
  • Information for Supervisors
  • Marking Criteria
  • Project Prizes

The sections provide the necessary background information for both students and supervisors.

Log in

Everybody with a Sussex ITS account can log in as 'guest' which allows one to browse old projects. If you are a 2nd year student then at some point in June/July you will receive an email that the site is open. From this moment on your status after log in will be that of a student (see Student Options help panel above to see what your possible actions are).

Note that if you can't log on at all then this must be because of a problem with your ITS account, so please contact ITS helpdesk. If you can log on but only as guest and you think you should be able to log on as student then mail the site administrator. But only after you made sure you got the information that the site is open for you. In other words, you can always log on as "guest" until you get an email from the site administrator.

Browse

Ability to browse existing and historic projects is based on the log-in permissions of the user.

  • A logged-in guest user can look at the summary details of closed projects.
  • An active user (student/supervisor/administrator) can browse current projects.
  • An active user (student/supervisor/administrator) can browse projects by supervisor.
  • An active user (student/supervisor/administrator) can search by keyword or project topic.
  • A supervisor (or administrator) user can additionally browse their own projects.
  • A supervisor (or administrator) user can also browse by status of projects and create new projects by making a copy of old ones.

All browse screens have the ability to sort in ascending and descending order by clicking the column name. Projects are split into pages should more than 20 need to be displayed.

Student Options

A user logged in with student permissions will have the Student Options menu displayed, this will make the following available:

  • Propose a Project gives the student the ability to propose a project to either a specific supervisor or generally to any supervisor.
  • List all supervisors, their load and what/whom they supervise.
  • List all students and what projects they have selected.
  • Withdraw and edit a proposed project. The corresponding buttons can be found on the student's home page just below the project descritpion.
  • Note that a project selected from a specific supervisor's list can't be withdrawn. In this case the student needs to ask the supervisor to reject the selection to release the student.

Supervisor Options

A user logged in with supervisor (or administrator) permissions will have the Supervisor Options menu displayed, this will make the following available:

  • Propose a project allows the supervisor to add a new project.
  • Add project topic allows the supervisor to create a new category of project topic.
  • List all supervisors, their load and what/whom they supervise.
  • Browse transactions related to their own projects.
  • List all students and what projects they have selected.
  • A supervisor or administrator can choose to opt-in or opt-out of emails refering to transcations on their projects.

Administrator Options

A user logged in with administrator permissions will have the Administrator Options menu displayed, this will make the following available:

  • Summary Report Students - A report showing which students have selected which projects giving the administrator the ability to email groups.
  • Summary Report Supervisors - A report showing which students are allocated to which supervisors, links can be removed.
  • Log in as Different User - A method for administrator to perform tasks for other users.
  • Amend Supervisor Arrangements - The ability to change limits and preferences for supervisors.
  • Overall Parameters - The selection of year and earliest dates.
  • Add User - The ability to manually add a new student or supervisor.
  • Edit User Details - Manually change a users' detail.s
  • Browse Transactions by Project - examine project transactions.
  • Browse Transactions by Time - examine all transactions by date.
  • Amend Topics - amend or delete project topics.
  • End of Year Archive - archive old data at the end of an academic year.
  • Import New Students - Imports an XML file of new students.
  • A supervisor or administrator can choose to opt-in or opt-out of emails refering to transcations on their projects.

Data resetting options are also available whilst the system is under development

Help

This menu allows the following options:

  • System Help - displays this screen
  • General Information - displays the public home page
  • About - shows information about the devlopment of the system