OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL STACS SERVER VERSIONS:

Use the network workstation on which the STACS Main Application is installed to add teachers, classes and students. Make sure if you are using a full server version (not evaluation version) that a valid security dongle supplied on purchase of a full STACS Server licence is attached to this machine. Double click the STACS Main Application in the install folder or the desktop shortcut to start the application. You will be presented with a Licence Key validation screen on which you must enter a valid Licence Key to proceed. The Evaluation Version Licence Key is 20612061. If using the Server Multi Teacher version rather than the Server Single Teacher version, the Licence Key needs to be distributed to all teachers who wish to use the system.

You can enter STACS with instructions or bypass the instructions once you are familiar with STACS. You are presented with the main menu strip and a set of toolbars. You can now build your teacher folder by adding your teacher’s name and then adding classes and students. This is the preferred method for adding teachers, classes and students, but if you wish, you can use the STACS Local Machine version to create and populate your teacher folder, back it up to a distribution medium and upload it to the server using the ‘Restore Teacher Folder from Backup’ item of the Update menu. Take great care to follow the instructions for the teacher’s name and student names when creating a teacher folder using the STACS Local Machine version if this teacher folder is ever to be used with a full server version of STACS. For security reasons, STACS requires that the teacher log on name being used for the teacher being added is the same as that of the currently logged on teacher. The server versions can read this directly but this is not possible with the Local Machine version. Instructions for using all the main menu items of STACS are covered on the STACS Features page of this site and in the ‘Main Menu and Sub Menu Items Descriptions’ page of the Installation and Operating Instructions Manual.

One area of STACS that may appear confusing at first is the Upload…. Menu items. STACS maintains a repository for tests for each Teacher / Class combination. Any tests created or acquired by other means can be uploaded to any of these repositories. When the time comes for testing, any of these tests can be uploaded to the student folders of any class.

To evaluate the most valuable feature of STACS, The STACS Sit Test application you can first upload the tests from the Sample Tests folder in the relevant STACS install folder using the ‘Upload Test File(s) from External Medium to Teacher/Class Test Bank’ item of the Upload menu (you can actually use the local machine installation folder). Then upload one of these tests to student folders using the ‘Upload Test File from Test Bank for Student Group to Sit Test’ item of the Upload menu. The STACS Sit Test application is run from server workstations to which students have logged on. You will have to log on to a server workstation as a student to simulate sitting a test.

To use STACS productively, you will need to create your own tests (which you can then share with others if you wish).  The Sit Test Application of the STACS server versions will check that the student being tested is actually the student logged on to the workstation to prevent impersonation.

To create your own tests, proceed as follows: Write out one or more tests with the format of twenty questions, five possible answers for each question and a note of the correct answer for each question. Use the Offline Test Creator Application (present in all installation folders) to create any tests you have written out. Tests that have been created are stored in a temporary location of the teacher’s choice ready for future upload. Tests are first uploaded to a Teacher/Class Test Bank using the ‘Upload Test File(s) from External Medium to Teacher/Class Test Bank’ item of the Upload menu. When students are about to sit a test, the test is uploaded to the student folders of the relevant class using the ‘Upload Test File from Test Bank for Student Group to Sit Test’ item of the Upload menu.

Prior to sitting the first test, distribute a copy of the Sit Test Application to each student’s desktop. This is a once off process that can be done by passing one or more memory sticks around to logged-on students. If you have access to student login names and passwords, the Sit Test Application can be distributed unknown to the students.

Sometime before the students are due to sit a test, upload the test file to the relevant student folders using the ‘Upload Test File from Test Bank to Student Folders for Student Group to Sit Test’ item of the Upload menu.

The students run the Sit Test Application which directs the students to navigate through teacher, class and student to the test file. The students select the test file and complete the test. When the last question is answered, the test is scored and the result stored on the server. For security reasons, the test is then deleted from the student folder. As an extra security measure, there is an option for the teacher to delete an uploaded test file using the ‘Delete Test File Already Uploaded’ item of the Delete menu, in case a student for whom the test is uploaded does not turn up to sit the test.

Once results have been stored, they are available to be manipulated for classes or individual students using all the facilities of STACS including viewing, printing, exporting to Excel, etc.