NetRecorder Beta Installation and Setup Notes FOR VERSION HISTORY AND THE LATEST UPDATES GO TO: http://netrecorder.dev.on-rev.com Requirements ------------ Mac OS X 10.4 or later Windows XP or later Quicktime 6 or later Microphone input NOTE: The stacks in this project were built with LiveCode v. 4.6.4 and use features not available in earlier versions. So if you have the LiveCode IDE and want to run the stacks in developer mode, certain features will not work in versions prior to 4.6.4. Installing the Software ------------------------ Mac OS X: Drag the NetRecorder folder to the desired location on your hard drive. Windows: Double-click the NR_setup.exe file and follow the on-screen instructions. First Run/Setup ---------------- The first time you run the NetRecorder program it will ask you to provide some settings information. This is information that is necessary for NetRecorder to run properly in your environment. Once you save the settings they will be stored in standard locations for the operating system. Windows settings are stored at C:\Documents and Setttings\All Users\Application Data\NetRecorder\nrprefs.dat. In Mac OS X it will be stored at /Library/Application Support/NetRecorder/nrprefs.dat. The file name nrprefs.dat should not be changed. You may be asked to supply a password before you can change settings. The default administrator password is "setmeup", but you should change it the first time you use the program. Optional Remote Preferences for Lab Use --------------------------------------- If you are using NetRecorder in a lab environment where you want all of the stations to use the same settings, and you don't want to do the first run/setup procedure for every machine, you can store a settings file on a web server and have all the stations look for the remote file for settings information. See the note below under "Use Remote Settings" Notes about the settings window: Use Remote Settings: If you want to store your settings information in a central location on a web server for all of your lab machines to access, check this box. You must also supply the URL to the remote settings file. For example, if your web server is myserver.myschool.edu and you are storing it in the directory "netrecorder", enter myserver.myschool.edu/netrecorder/nrprefs.dat. Note that the file name nrprefs.dat is supplied for you and cannot be changed. After you have entered all of the settings and you click Save, you will be prompted to save the settings file to a location on your local hard drive then manually copy it to the specified location on your web server. If you skip this step the copies of NetRecorder in your lab will be unable to get the proper settings. Once you enter the URL to the remote settings file it is stored in a file called "remotesettings.txt" in the same folder as your NetRecorder executable. This file must remain with the NetRecorder application wherever you install it. Don't move or rename it. You should also avoid manually editing this file unless you are sure of what you are doing. Institution Name: The name of your college or school; e.g., Generic State University. Institution Abbreviation: The standard abbreviation for you institution; e.g., GSU. (Note: please don't use "BYU" here because I use that as a flag in the program to search the BYU user database for user ids. If you use it, it just flat won't work. Sorry, Bjorn Yorgason University, you'll just have to use another abbreviation!) Require User Passwords: Set it to True. In reality it has no effect for now. The program will always require non-BYU users to create a password and use it to gain access to the program when they return. Administrator Password: This is the password required to change settings. You should change this the first time you use the settings feature. The password is stored in an encrypted form in the nrprefs.dat file, so you can't recover it easily. Choose wisely, remember well. Database Settings These are the settings you need to supply to connect to your MySQL database server. They will vary according to your setup. Type: MySQL. For now, this is the only choice and can't be changed. Host address: The DNS name or IP address of your server; e.g., myserver.myschool.edu. Port: The default port for MySQL is 3306, and this will be used if you don't specify a port. But if your MySQL administrator uses a different port for the MySQL service, you need to enter that port number here. Database name: netrecorder, unless you changed it to something else when you created the database. User: A MySQL user that has, at a minimum, SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE privileges on your netrecorder database. The MySQL server administrator has to create this user name. Password: The MySQL password for the user. Also created by the MySQL server administrator. Test Connection button - If all of the database settings are correct, and your database server is up and running, clicking this button will test the connection and report "Connection succeeded." If there is a problem, it will report the error message. Changing Configuration Settings after initial setup: On the first screen (login screen) after you launch Net Recorder there is a small button in the lower left corner of the screen labeled "Settings...". Clicking this button will allow you to open the settings dialog and make changes. You need to enter the administrator password to change settings. Creating the MySQL Database --------------------------- To create the MySQL database, use the commands found in the file "netrecorder_createDB.sql". If you use a GUI environment like PHPMyAdmin you can simply use the Import feature. But you could also just run the commands from a command line interface. If you want to change the database name to something besides "netrecorder" you should change the CREATE DATABASE and USE commands at the beginning of this file to reflect the name you want to use. THE NETRECORDER AUTHOR TOOL This is a utility that allows adminstrators and instructors to create, delete or edit recording assignments and to listen to, delete or save student recordings. To access this utility go to the first (login) screen of the Net Recorder application and find the small button labeled "Teachers..." in the lower left corder of the window. Click the button and enter the teacher password when prompted. The initial password is 'nihongo'. You are advised to change this password when you first set up Net Recorder. To change the teacher password, click on the Teachers... button on the NR login screen. Enter the current password when prompted. Once you are in the NetRecorder Author module look for the small button in the lower left corner of the window labeled "Teacher Password...". Click the button. You will have to enter the administrator password, then you will be prompted to enter, then re-enter, the new teacher password. The Author Tool is designed to be straightforward and easy to use. I do not yet have comprehensive written instructions for it. If you have problems or questions, please contact me at devin_asay@byu.edu. SETTING UP A RECORDING TASK. Here are a few notes to get you started. Structure of NetRecorder tasks. ------------------------------- When you create a recording task it must always come under the rubrik of a Course, and an Assignment in a course. Let's say you are teaching Spanish 201 and want your students to make a recording of a reading from a textbook. Here is what you would do: 1. Launch the Author Tool a. Open NetRecorder. b. Open the Authoring Module by clicking on the Teachers... button on the login screen. c. Enter the Teacher module password. The default is 'nihongo'. d. Register and/or Login to the Teacher Module. 2. Create a Course a. Create a New Course by clicking the + button next to the courses list at the top. b. Follow the directions and enter the course name, e.g., 'Spanish 201' and section number, then click Save to Database. 3. Create an Assignment a. From the Edit Course screen click Add Assignment, or, from the Choose Course & Assignment screen click the + button next to the Assignment list (bottom box.) b. Give the assignment a name. It should be fairly short, because it will appear in a list of available assignments when students log in to the NetRecorder application. For example 'Reading 1'. c. Provide whatever detailed instructions you wish to appear before the student starts the assignment. d. You can optionally provide short instructions that will appear with each recording task. e. Set the starting and ending dates for the recording assignment to be available to students. Click on the calendar icons next to the date fields to change these dates. f. Click Save to Data Base to save this information. 4. Create Recording Items. Items are the individual recording tasks that students will respond to. a. Click Edit Assignment Items button to go to the Edit Assignment Items screen. b. Click the + button at the top to add a recording task. c. Supply the following information as appropriate: > Recording Time Limit - This is the amount of time, in seconds, that should elapse before the recording function automatically stops. Leave ample time, but don't make it too long either. A good rule of thumb for beginning students is to allow 1 1/2 to 2 times the amount of time that it would take a native speaker to do the task. > Prompt - You can choose to give a text* prompt, audio prompt or image prompt for the recording task. All are optional, and more than one type of prompt may be used for each task. Just remember that the screen space in the NetRecorder is limited, so keep text prompts succinct and image prompts small. You shouldn't try to use an image prompt that is much larger than about 200 pixels tall. The tool tips and instructions on this screen should let you know what options and settings you can use for the different kinds of prompts. * You may use any character set that your computer supports to enter prompt text. NetRecorder should render it properly for students. If you see problems with displaying non-Latin texts, please notify the author. d. When you are finished, click Save to Data Base. 5. You are done. Click the Exit button to close the Authoring Tool window. 6. Make sure you test your assignments in the NetRecorder before sending your students to do them. License ------- This is beta software. That means that bugs probably exist and there may be a slight chance that you could lose data. However, I have been using this software in our computer labs at Brigham Young University and have experienced a high degree of reliability. I urge you to thoroughly test it before you use it with actual students. As a beta tester you should report any issues immediately to Devin Asay. This software is copyright © Devin Asay and Brigham Young University 2008, 2009. You have the right to use it in facilities owned by you or your institution, but not to sell or redistribute it. Contact ------- Devin Asay devin_asay@byu.edu