Under Construction

This page is still under construction and is not yet considered official. For questions, please contact Emily.

Forms for Pongo

Background

This page lays out the policies pertaining to user accounts and software installation on Pongo and links to the forms that are used to carry out the policies.

User accounts

All Pongo users must have a signed copy of the Pongo Policy form on file with the system administrator/lab director. By signing this form, users agree to abide by the policies outlined there.

Student accounts will be active if the student is currently enrolled in a course using Pongo resources or if the student has filed an Account Extension form, signed by the Lab Director. On-going accounts will be reviewed quarterly by the lab director.

Student accounts that are not extended are suspended at the end of the quarter. Accounts which have been suspended for more than one quarter are removed. This includes the data stored in the accounts.

Backup

At present, our backup system is only rudimentary. Users are responsible for maintaining other backups of critical data.

Information for faculty regarding student accounts

Faculty using Pongo for course assignments must provide the system administrators with class lists in order to establish student accounts, link the accounts to the instructors "dropbox" (used for making data available to students), and deactivate accounts for students who have dropped. In order to achieve this, faculty should submit their class lists at least twice, according to the following deadlines:

• One week before the start of classes, submit the Class Accounts form filled in with the course list as it appears on MyUW. The sysadmins will use this to create the initial set of student accounts and link them to the instructor's drop box.
• On the first day of class, distribute the Pongo Policy form to any students who haven't filled it out for previous classes, collect the signed forms, and return them to the system administrator.
• On the add/drop deadline, submit the Class Accounts form again. Sysadmins will use this to ensure that all and only the students currently enrolled have Pongo access.

Students who add after the initial form is submitted can get accounts by sending the Class Accounts form again, with the information on the new students, along with a signed copy of the Pongo Policy form for each student. Please try to group these requests into batches as much as possible. The sysadmins will try to respond within one business day.

If any students drop after the add/drop deadline, the sysadmins should be notified and a new final version of the Class Accounts form shluld be submitted.

Tips for filling out the Class Accounts form

• Get a tab delimited text file corresponding to your class from MyUW
• Import it into Excel or OpenOffice Calc. (Note that for the latter, you need to rename the file with a .csv extension, or OpenOffice will assume you want its word processor)
• Open the Class Accounts form in Excel or OpenOffice Calc
• Copy the rows for each student from the course list into the Class Accounts form
• Email the result to llhelp at u.
• NB: This form should be turned in electronically.

Deadlines for upcoming quarters

Information for faculty regarding software installation

Software requests must be made 2 months prior to the start of the quarter they are needed in. The Software Request form elicits the information necesary install software, test to see that it runs, ensure that it is used according to its license, and record the details of the installation so that the software can be reinstalled with minimal delay should the system need to be rebuilt. It is expected that there will be some back-and-forth between faculty and sysadmins ont he testing, as detailed testing can often only be figured out once the software is installed.

Note that the last portion of the form (list of authorized users) only needs to be filled out if the license agreement for the software requires that we maintain a list of authorized users.

To request software, fill out the Software Request form and email it to llhelp at u. Be sure to test any previously installed software you are counting on using by the software request deadline, in case it needs updating too.

Deadlines for software requests

NB: A request is not considered received until the form has been filled out.

Information for students reqarding software installation

Student requests for software should be directed to the lab director (ebender a u). If the lab director approves the request, she will ask the requesting student to fill out the Software Request form.

List of forms

• Pongo Policy form
• Account Extension form
• Class Account form
• Software Request form

-- EmilyBender - 15 Feb 2006