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Voltmeter Challenge Manual

Voltmeter Challenge is a set of interactive activities for use in teaching troubleshooting with digital voltmeters. The activities give students immediate feedback to reinforce correct responses. All student responses are corrected and graded by the program. The program can also be used to perform classroom demonstrations using a LCD video projector or large screen monitor.  Instructors can lead students through procedures without having to draw circuits on chalkboards or marker boards.

 

Voltmeter Challenge is easy to use and highly interactive. The program is designed for users who may have little experience with using computers. Voltmeter Challenge allows students to learn by experiment and discovery.

 

New parameters are selected every time an activity is used. This allows students to practice a particular activity numerous times without becoming bored or memorizing the answers. Because of the simple interface, most students will be able to experimentally learn to use this program within a short time. Most option selections are forgiving because a confirmation is required for important selections.

 

Each activity in this program begins with viewing an introductory page. The introductory page presents formulas and important ideas about the topic. Selection of the "BEGIN" button moves students from the introductory page to the interactive activity. The program measures the time that is required to complete each activity. Students have the option to print a certificate showing Topic Title, Student Name, Student ID, Date/Time, Score, Time on Task, and a Validity Code. The Validity Code can be used to verify that the score certificate is authentic. In addition, students have the option to have scores recorded in a disk file. The "Check Certificate Validity" option can be used to determine if a certificate has been altered.

 

Progress can be reported to the instructor in three ways. First, students can turn in the program-generated certificates for each topic to the teacher. Second, students can have the program record scores in a file on a diskette to be turned in to the teacher. Third, the teacher can have students perform the computer-based activity on a computer under direct observation.

 

PRINTING SCREENS

 

Most screens displayed by this program can be printed by typing Alt/p. Alt/p is typed by typing a letter “p” while holding down the Alt key. Moving a form before printing may cause an incomplete printout. The quality of the printout will be low as this procedure does a simple screen print in 256 colors. This option will not function on all hardware configurations. A few inexpensive video display cards do not transfer the color palette to the printer. This results in a blank page being printed. In addition, some networks may restrict printer access for programs.

 

 SCORE STORAGE

 

Student scores can be stored on a diskette. A diskette must be in the drive prior to choosing this option. Errors and possible loss of the score data may occur if the drive does not contain a diskette. The file generated by the disk storage feature is given a DOS compatible file name, gxxxxxxx.xx, where the lower case "g" is always the first letter in the file name. The xxx… is the student ID that is a sequence of two to nine numeric digits. The file is a simple ASCII text file that can be read and examined with any word text editor. Do not examine and resave a student grade file under the original name with a word processor! This can make the file appear corrupted by the score printout utility. Word processors inject formatting characters into a file. This program calculates and stores a code with each record in the student score file. This Validity Code is a simple encryption signature designed to reduce the possibility of file entry alteration and the generation of duplicate records. The Validity Code provides some low-level security but is certainly not hack proof. The validity of records can be checked by use of the "Print Grade File" option.  This option produces a formatted printout of a selected student grade file. Never attempt to use this option to print any other file type. Each grade record in the file is validity checked. An "E!" is printed after all records that fail the validity test. The program also checks for duplicate records that are indicated by "D!" printed after the duplicate record.

 

This program stores student grade files on diskette drive A: by default. One may want to store grade files on another drive or directory under some circumstances. See the next paragraph for instructions on changing the path for student grade files. The student records will be stored in a file named gxxxxxxx.x where the x(s) represent the digits of the student's ID Code. The ID Codes are a series of numeric digits. The ID Code must contain at least 2 digits but no longer than 9 digits. A DOS filename is generated with an appended lower case g followed by up to 7 digits. Any additional digits are added after a period to produce a standard DOS file name. The file is a simple ASCII text file that can be viewed with any word processor. The score printing options in this program can detect modifications to the file. In addition, individual records in the file can be validity checked by use of a procedure in this program. These validity-checking procedures are not intended to offer high data security.

 

INITIAL OPTIONS

 

This program reads the file "options.ini" on each startup. The file options.ini is located in the same directory as the program file. The first entry sets the condition for the certificate printing option default condition. The two possible settings are:

 

CERTIFICATES ON or CERTIFICATES OFF

 

The second entry in the "options.ini" file sets the default condition of the disk storage feature for grades. The two possible settings are:

 

DISK STORAGE ON or DISK STORAGE OFF

 

The third entry in the "options.ini" file sets the default condition of the Wallpaper option. The possible settings are:

 

WALL PAPER ON or WALL PAPER OFF

 

All characters in the above initialization options must be in upper case characters. All characters are significant including spaces. Any error in spelling, spaces, or case will cause the option to default to the ON setting.

 

Line 4 of the option.ini file contains the path for student grade file storage. Errors in formatting this line may cause program execution errors. Any directory or subdirectory paths given must exist prior to program execution. The program will not create directories. No entry on line 4 will cause the program to default to a:\ as the path for student grade storage. A few examples of paths and explanations are given below.

 

b:\

 

The student grades will be stored on drive b:

 

c:\stuff\

 

The student grade files will be stored in the "stuff" directory of c: drive. Caution! You must create the "stuff" directory prior to running the program.

 

c:\records\student\

 

Grade files will be stored in the "student" subdirectory of the "records" directory of c: drive. Again, you must create the directory structure prior to running the program.

 

Additional program options are documented in the file OPTIONS.INI. This file is located in the install directory of the Voltmeter Challenge program. Caution should be observed in making changes to the OPTIONS.INI file. Additional options include hiding utility buttons and hiding the grader (graphic) on certain activities.

 

DISKETTES

 

Floppy disk data is easily corrupted or destroyed in several ways. Students should be strongly advised to make backup copies of their floppy disk grade files frequently to avoid data loss problems. Teachers can prevent massive data losses by processing student floppy disk files often.  This also encourages students to have assignments completed on time.

 

VIDEO DISPLAY

 

This program should run on any Windows Vista, XP, 98 or Me platform. The evaluation version of the program should be tested on target machines prior to licensing the program. The best graphics display is obtained with a 16-bit or 24-bit color setting with 600x800 or higher resolution. Where resolutions above 600x800 are used, the working window is centered with the unused area wallpapered by default with the image chips.bmp found in the program install directory.

 

The file chips.bmp can be deleted or renamed to allow normal task switching as no wallpaper will be displayed. This can be useful to more advanced students who are familiar with task switching. The wallpaper is useful to beginners because accidental task switches are unlikely. Another bitmap file can be substituted for chips.bmp. The file will be tiled as wallpaper across the unused portion of the screen. Some institutions may want to display school or department logos on the wallpaper.

 

NETWORK INSTALLATION

 

The installation process described on the CD cases is for stand-alone workstations. Use the modified process below to install programs to network servers.

 

(1) Log on to a workstation as an administrator.

(2) Insert the installation CD in the drive. Install the program to the network drive.

(3) Run the program after installation while still logged on as an administrator.

(4) Enter the license key information exactly as given on the license document.

(5) Copy a shortcut to any computers required to run the program.

 

INSTALLATION TO MASTER HARD DISKS

 

(1) Install each program to the master hard drive.

(2) Run each program after installation.

(3) Enter the license key information exactly as given on the license document of each program. Failure to perform this step will cause each copied disk to request the license key information.