The CourseWork Web site provides for a standard URL naming convention that gives a unique address for each student to host his/her course related material. The Web site is not authenticated, meaning that anyone can view any material posted on the Web site. The site provides universal read and secured write. The site supports delivery of HTML Web documents and documents in native format The benefit of using this method is that the delivery method is universal to all; i.e. through an Internet browser. (Netscape and MS Internet Explorer handle things a little differently. We recommend MS Internet Explorer.) Depending on your preferences you can put up an HTML page to introduce your documents or simply post the documents for listing and reading.
The naming convention for the Web site is composed of three components:
Server URL (http://coursework.uhcl.edu)
Course Identifier (subject + catalog number + section), and
NT userid of the student. As an example, given a student whose NT userid is “jonesr” and is a member of INST5635-01 the unique address for the student’s coursework site would be http://coursework.uhcl.edu/inst5635-01/jonesr .
Typically, each Web site has a beginning or startup document that contains the necessary links to all other pages in the Web site. The Web server provides automatic startup of the Web site if a “Default.htm” document is present within the student’s directory. If the “Default.htm” document is not present, then the document name must be provided by the student to start the Web site. As an example, assume the student “jonesr” from INST5635-01 web site and has placed a “Default.htm” document in the coursework site. When the user enters in the address, http://coursework.uhcl.edu/inst5635-01/jonesr , the default document will automatically start. However, if the student calls the beginning document “myhome.htm,” the web site will not automatically start and the student will have to provide the following address to the users: http://coursework.uhcl.edu/inst5635-01/jonesr/myhome.htm
The student support web site provides each student with two megabytes of disk space to post coursework-related material.
REQUESTING ACCESS
Any faculty member teaching a class in which web-related assignments are required to complete the class may request creation of a coursework support site. The faculty member must place a formal request to the UCT Help Desk prior to the first day of class.
A folder will be created for each student ENROLLED in the class. Folders are created through an automated process each night.
ADDING DOCUMENTS TO THE WEBSITE
The Web site provides two means of adding new documents to the Website i.e. NT File Sharing and FTP. NT File Share
NT File Shares provide an easy method to take advantage of “drag and drop.” When properly mapped to the user’s PC, an NT File Share appears as a new disk drive on the user’s PC.
The NT folder for the student Courswork Web site appears under the B3308-ACAD Web server in the PCLAB domain. The master folder for the course site is called COURSEWORK. The COURSEWORK folder contains a sub-folder for each supported class. Each class folder contains a sub-directory for each student ENROLLED in the class. Mapping a Web site folder to the user’s PC is handled through NT file sharing as follows:
XP - Right click on My Network Places and choose Map Network Drive: Vista and Windows 7 - Click on "Computer" in the Start menu and choose Map Network Drive:
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Windows XP
Windows Vista/Windows 7
The next available disk drive letter for the PC will automatically appear in the resulting dialog box. Enter in the server name (\\B3308-ACAD), “\coursework\”, the course identifier, “\”, and the NT userid. Check “Reconnect at Logon”.
Given the INST5635-01 student “jonesr” the file share mapping dialog would appear as follows:
(Note: Due to the length of the file path, some of the path has been truncated in the example.) Click “OK.” The Web folder will now appear as a mapped drive on the PC.
FTP
FTP access to the Web site is provided through a variety of tools: WS_FTP95 and Microsoft Internet Explorer are two popular tools that are described below. WS_FTP95
Start the WS_FTP95 program. For the first time, create a COURSE WORK profile by clicking on NEW. Enter “UHCL COURSEWORK WEBSITE” for the profile name. Enter “coursework.uhcl.edu” for the host name. Enter “pclab\” and the NT userid for the userid. Enter “coursework”, “\”, “the course identifier”, “\”, and NT userid. Assuming that the student will store his or her html documents in the HTML documents directory on the PC, enter “m:\data\html” for the local pc. Note: The “data” directory is for example purposes and would have to be created by the student.
Click “Save” to save the profile.
See example below of what a profile for student “jonesr” enrolled in INST5635-01 would look like.
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After the profile has been created, it may be used to connect to the Web site. When the profile is used, the FTP process will prompt the user for his or her NT userid. If the password is properly entered, the user will be granted access to his or her personal directory.
Files may be transferred to the Web site by selecting documents from the local system and using the right arrow to move the documents to the remote host. Conversely, files may be transferred from the Web site by selecting documents from the remote system and using the left arrow to move the documents to the local host. Note: Be sure to select “ASCII” for html files and “Binary” for pictures, movies, and sound files. See example below.
MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER
Start the Microsoft Internet Explorer (often referred to as MS IE).
Enter “ftp://coursework.uhcl.edu”, “/course identifier/”, and “NT userid” in the address line of the browser window. For student “jonesr” enrolled in “inst5630-01” the line would be “ftp://coursework.uhcl.edu/inst5635-01/jonesr” (without the quotation marks).
Press the “Enter” key.
When the NT authentication dialog box appears, enter the NT userid prefaced by “pclab”; i.e. pclab\jonesrj (without the quotes) and the NT password.
Click “Login”.
See the example below:
To copy a document from the local PC to the remote server:
Click on the "Page" menu and choose "Open FTP site in Windows Explorer".
Windows 7
Right click on the file (in the PC folder), and choose “Copy”.
Right click on the remote folder (in the browser window) and choose “Paste”. To copy a document from the remote server to the local PC:
Right click on the remote folder (in the browser window) and choose “Copy to Folder”.
After the pop-up window appears, navigate to the desired folder on the local computer, select the folder, and click “OK”.
FAQ: OFF CAMPUS ACCESS
To connect to the University of Houston-Clear Lake server the two machines pass a sequence of commands to create a secure connection. The FTP protocol definition provides at least two distinct mechanisms by which this sequence is initiated: Explicit (active) and Implicit (passive) security.
Your FTP software must either auto-negotiate the Active/Passive mode or the user must manually set the mode to ACTIVE for OFF CAMPUS access. It appears that with Windows XP SP2 or with Microsoft Internet Explorer upgrades now defaults the FTP client with the mode set to passive.
Open Internet Explorer from the Start Menu or command line.
On the Internet Explorer menu, click Tools to open the Tools menu.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options... . A new Internet Options window will appear on the screen.
In the Internet Options window, click the Advanced tab.
Find the setting called Use Passive FTP (located approximately halfway down in the list of settings).
To disable the feature, clear the checkmark in the box next to the Use Passive FTP setting.
Click OK or Apply to save the Passive FTP setting.
