Tutorial

GPInstruct Tutorial

Basics

A GPInstruct Project is divided into many levels. It is also known as a program in Programmed Instruction terms.

A project may contain categories, which may contain lessons, which may contain lesson elements.

A lesson elements can be a discussion, reading or test.

There are three types of test currently available: multiple choice, word pool and order.

A GPInstruct Log File contains the answers of an examinee, including the time spent in test items and order on which the tests are taken.

Viewer

The viewer is used to display your project. An examinee will then answer the questions from the project, then the viewer will output a log file which contains the answers of the examinee.

First, the viewer will ask for a project file if a default project is not available. The location of the default project is <GPInstruct Installation Directory>/share/gpinstruct/default-project.gpinstruct-project.

The viewer will then show a dialog box asking for the name of the examinee and the location where the log file will be saved.

You may access the viewer in Linux by going to Applications Menu > Education > GPInstruct Viewer. In Windows it is in Start Menu > Programs > GPInstruct > GPInstruct Viewer.

Editor

The editor is used to edit your project.

Window Components

The editor window is divided into 4 components: main menu, toolbar, project tree view and properties view.

Main Menu

The main commands of GPInstruct Editor are located in the main menu. In the File menu, you may create, open, save and close projects. In View menu, you may run your current project to see how it will look in the viewer, though it won't show the dialog box asking for examinee information.

Toolbar

The toolbar contains the four most important actions in the main menu, namely New, Open, Save and Execute.

Project Tree View

The components of your project, its Project Tree, is shown here. Right click on the project item to add a category, a category item to add a lesson, and so on.

Select a component here to edit its properties in the Properties Editor, described below.

Properties View

You may view the properties of a project component, such as the title of a project, here. The following are some of the properties you can see here:

• Title: All components have this property. Its use is different for each component, such as for the title for the project it is shown in the title bar of the viewer.

• Directions: The directions for a test, which will be shown before showing the first test item.

• Single Score: You may combine the scores of all tests in a lesson, so it will be shown only at the end of the lesson instead of after each tests.

• Explain: If enabled, the viewer will tell the user if his answer to each item is correct, and show the explanation, if available.

• Text: This is the contents of a discussion or reading. You may put some HTML tags here, such as <b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i>.

The items and choices for each tests is also shown here. The add and remove buttons are provided, and double-clicking an item or choice will show its properties, such as text, explanation and answer.

Basic Tasks

These are the basic things you need to know to edit your projects:

• To create a new project, go to File > New in the main menu or click the New button in the toolbar. You may also press Ctrl + N in your keyboard.

• To open a project, go to File > Open in the main menu or click the Open button in the toolbar. You may also press Ctrl + O in your keyboard.

• To save your project, go to File > Save in the main menu or click the Save button in the toolbar. You may also press Ctrl + S in your keyboard.

• To close the project, go to File > Close in the main menu. You may also press Ctrl + W in your keyboard.

• Right-click on components in the Project Tree View to create subcomponents or remove it. Click them to change its properties.

Analyzer

Use the analyzer to view the data obtained from the log files.

Window Components

The editor window is divided into 3 components: main menu, toolbar, and the current analyzer view.

Main Menu

The main commands of GPInstruct Analyzer are located in the main menu. In the File menu, you may create a new session and add log files to be analyzed.

Toolbar

The toolbar contains the two most important actions in the main menu, namely New and Add Log File.

Current Analyzer View

This is explained in the next section.

Views

The analyzer offers two views: Whole Project and Examinee view.

Whole Project View

The view that you can use to see the overall results of project components.

Examinee View

The view that you can use to see the performance of each examinee.

Basic Tasks

These are the basic things you need to know to use the analyzer:

• To create a new session, select File > New in the main menu or click the New button in the toolbar. You may also press Ctrl + N in your keyboard.

• To add log files, select File > Add Log File in the main menu or click the Add Log File button in the toolbar. You may also press Ctrl + A in your keyboard. Note that you can select multiple log files in the dialog box.

• In Project Tree Pane, you may select a test to view the test item results, which will be shown in Test Tree Pane below it.