CAPA Instructions

The Computer-Assisted Personalized Assignment system (CAPA), developed at Michigan State University, is used in many of the introductory courses in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. It is being used to generate individualized assignments for the students. The system allows you to enter your answers directly via networked terminals and the World-Wide WEB and gives you immediate feedback (correct/incorrect). You are allowed to reenter solutions to the problems before the due date.

It is strongly recommended that you answer the questions before you login to the capa computer. Team studying and problem solving is a good way to learn and understand, and is strongly encouraged.

Instructions: Connecting to CAPA via TELNET.

Each assignment sheet has your NAME and also a specific Personal Identification Number (PIN). Each set has a different PIN. The PIN number is printed on the top of your assignments (which are available on the GOPHER server and can be printed out in Taylor Hall).Your are now ready to start using CAPA.

• Find a terminal (a VT100 or a VT100 terminal emulator).

• Login on UHURA using your student account.

• Check that your terminal is setup as a VT100 (type: echo $term).

• If necessary change the setup to a VT100 (type: set term=vt100).

• Use TELNET to connect to the CAPA machine: telnet capa.nsrl.rochester.edu

• At the 'login:' prompt, type the username and password that was provided to you by your instructor. The first six characters of the username will specify your class (e.g. phy121 for Physics 121, phy122 for Physics 122, etc.) while the last two characters specify the term (e.g. f7 for fall 97, s98 for spring 98, etc.) Note: use lower case characters. Your terminal should look something like:

================================================================== 
          Computer-Assisted Personalized Assignments (CAPA) system 
                 -- phy121f6 Physics 121: Mechanics -- 
         Enter STUDENT NUMBER and PIN, hit ENTER/RETURN after each 


            Office Hours: Wolfs: T 11.00 am - 12.30 pm (B&L203D) 
                          De: 
                          Klebe: 
                          Williamson: 



              STUDENT NUMBER: 

                     CAPA ID: 


                    To exit system, just hit ENTER/RETURN 
==================================================================

 

• Enter Student ID number and PIN for the set as prompted.

   

• After a successful login your terminal should look like:

================================================================== 
         Student's Name                                     Section: ??? 

                                MAIN MENU 

                              H=Help 
                              S=Summary 
                              T=Try set 
                              V=View previous set 
                              X=eXit system 

                              COMMAND: 

     Enter a command from the list above and press ENTER/RETURN 
==================================================================

Use S to get an up-to-date summary of your homework grades.

Use T to try to solve the current homework set.

Use V to view the answers to previous homework sets.

Use X to exit the system.

 

• Follow the instructions on the menu screen and enter your answers to the problems (use T to start entering the solutions of the current homework set).

   

• When you start solving the current homework set (use T from the main menu) you will be asked with which problem you like to start. Note that you can start with any problem and that you can chose to answer any number of problems during each CAPA session. After entering the starting problem number your screen will look something like:

================================================================== 
1.[1pt] 
Two lengths a and b are measured with a meter stick, each with a possible 
error of 0.3 cm. The values obtained are a = 21.4 cm and b = 27.8 cm. What 
is the maximum fractional error in the quantity (a + b) ? 

Command/Answer                                                 *Unanswered 


Commands :M = Main Menu :7 = go to Problem 7        RETURN = Enter/Execute 
         :X = eXit                                   RETURN = Next Problem 
==================================================================

You can immediately enter your answer and CAPA will tell you whether your answer is correct or not. Note that you need to supply the correct number of significant figures. Most problems require 3 significant figures and answers with a different number of significant figures are in general not accepted ! Other options are:

• :M Return to main menu (NOTE: you have to type the : !)
• :X Exit CAPA (NOTE: you have to type the : !)
• :# Goto problem number # (NOTE: you have to type the : !)

The number of times you can try to reenter the solutions to the problems you missed is limited to a value set by your instructor. This value may vary from problem to problem. The system records the number of times you try each problem and the solution entered for each attempt.

 

• When you request a summary of your homework grades (via option S from the main menu) your screen will look something like this:

==================================================================
                                     TERM SUMMARY 

                          1         2         3         4         5 
                 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 
   1: 1/ 41( 2%) YN---------------------- 
                 112222222222222221211211 



   1 sets, total= 1/ 41 (2%) 

 Enter a command from the list below and press ENTER/RETURN 
 COMMAND: 
 M = Go to main menu         N = Next Page         P =Prev Page 
==================================================================

It shows that you have answered only question 1 and 2 from set # 1 and that your final answer for question 1 was correct. The total number of points for this assignment is 41 and the question that was answered correctly is worth 1 point. The average score so far is therefore 1 out of 41 (or 2%).

 

NOTE:

• Once a problem has been graded 'correct', and after you have exited CAPA (by entering 'X'), that credit can not be lost.

   

• If the problem does not explicitly state in what units you must provide the final answer, then you must enter the units as part of your answer. For example, if the answer is 1.23 m, then 123 cm or 0.00123 km will also be accepted by CAPA.

   

• The instructor can set the maximum number of tries for each problem individually. This maximum number will appear on the screen when you enter a wrong answer. The screen will also show you the number of time you already have tried a particular problem.

   

• The CAPA records are only updated when your request a summary or when you exit. If you have not logged out before the due date/time the credit received during that session will not be recorded.

   

• If you connect to the CAPA system and you receive a message that you did not exit your previous session correctly, you should make sure that you did not forget to logout from your previous session. If you are still logged in elsewhere when you start a new CAPA session, the credits received in this second session will not be recorded.

   

• If you encounter any problems using the CAPA software or if you have any problems connecting to the CAPA machines (for example when you are not able to login because of time-outs) report them to Prof. Wolfs using email (email address is wolfs@nsrl.rochester.edu).

   

Instructions: Connecting to CAPA via the WEB.

You can also use a WEB browser to enter your solutions to the homework assignments. The use of the WEB browser has the advantage that in most cases you will see the graphics on the screen, in exactly the same way as they appear on the printed versions of the assignments. In this section we will discuss the procedure to be used to enter your solutions via the WEB.

• Find a computer with a WEB browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer).

   

• Use the WEB browser to connect to the following location:

   

  http://capa.nsrl.rochester.edu/CAPA/class.html

   

  Note: you need to use capital and lower-case characters in exactly the way they are listed above. /CAPA/class.html is not the same as /capa/class.html ! It is probably best to define a bookmark that points to the CAPA login page.

   

• You will see the following screen appear on your WEB browser:

   

  

   

• Select the correct class by using the pop-up menu after "Class:"

   

• Enter your user id and PIN number.

   

• Click the "here" button to start to work on CAPA.

   

• You will now see the main CAPA menu appear on your screen:

   

  

   

• When you click on "Display term summary" you will see a summary of your performance so far:

   

  

   

• When you click on "View previous" you will be able review the correct answers on a previous set.

   

• When you click on "Try current" you will be able enter the solutions to the current assignment (an example of a screen associated with the current set is shown in the Figure on the next page). You can directly go to the problem by clicking on the corresponding number on the top of the screen. You will also immediately see the status of your assignment. A Y in the status line indicates that your have answered that problem correctly, an N indicated that you have answered that problem incorrectly, and a - indicates that you have not answered that problem yet.

   

  

  

   

• You can answers the problems in any order, and as many as you want at any given time. Please note that the computer will not check your answers until you hit the "Submit All Answers" button. Since checking your answers is time consuming, it is often best to wait with checking your answers until you have entered solutions to several problems.

   

• Please make sure to quit your WEB browser when you are finished using CAPA.

   

  NOTE: you can use both WEB access and telnet access to enter your solutions to the assignments. They both access the same data base.

---

Units

For many problems, you will be required to enter the units as part of the answers. The tables below list the units that are recognized by CAPA. Note that you can combine units in this table in order to create the units appropriate for the problem you are working on. For example, if you are required to calculate the density of a solution, you can use as units kg/m^3 which is a combincation of two base units (kg and m). However, CAPA would also have accepted a solution in tehrms of g/cm^3 etc. etc.

Base Units

name	(CAPA) symbol	comment
meter	m	length
kilogram	kg	mass
second	s	time
ampere	A	electric current
kelvin	K	thermodynamic temperature
mole	mol	amount of substance
candela	cd	luminous intensity

Prefixes

Prefix	(CAPA) symbol	factor
yotta	Y	10^{24}
zetta	Z	10^{21}
exa	E	10^{18}
peta	P	10^{15}
tera	T	10^{12}
giga	G	10^9
mega	M	10^6
kilo	k	10^3
hecto	h	10^2
deci	d	10^-1
centi	c	10^-2
milli	m	10^-3
micro	u	10^-6
nano	n	10^-9
pico	p	10^{-12}
femto	f	10^{-15}
atto	a	10^{-18}
zepto	z	10^{-21}
yocto	y	10^{-24}

Derived Units

name	(CAPA) symbol	unit	comment
gram	g	0.001 kg	mass
hour	hr	3600. s	time
minute	min	60 s	time
pound	lb	0.45359237 kg	mass
ounce	oz	1.77185E-3 kg	mass
inch	in	2.54 cm	length
foot	ft	12 in	length
mile	mi	5280 ft	length
yard	yd	0.9144 m	length
nautical_mile	n_mi	6080 ft	length, nautical mile (UK)
astroUnit	AU	1.49598E11 m	length, mean earth to sun distance
acre	acre	4840 yd^2	area, acre
hertz	Hz	1/s	frequency
litre	L	10^3/cm^3	volume
newton	N	m*kg/s^2	force
pound_force	lbf	4.44822 N	force
dyne	dyn	1E-5 N	force
pascal	Pa	N/m^2	pressure, stress
bar	bar	1E5 Pa	pressure
mmHg	mmHg	1.33322E2 Pa	pressure, millimeter of mercury
torr	torr	1 mmHg	pressure
atm	atm	760 torr	pressure, standard atmosphere
joule	J	N*m	energy, work, heat
electronvolt	eV	1.6021892E-19 J	energy
calorie	cal	4.1868 J	energy
Btu	Btu	1.05506E3 J	energy
watt	W	J/s	power, radiant flux
coulomb	C	A*s	electric charge
volt	V	J/C	electric potential, electromotive force
ohm	ohm	V/A	electric resistance, use this in /ANS
ohm	ohms	V/A	electric resistance
ohm	Ohm	V/A	electric resistance
ohm	Ohms	V/A	electric resistance
siemens	S	A/V	electric conductance
farad	F	C/V	electric capacitance
tesla	T	V s/m^2	magnetic flux density
weber	Wb	V*s	magnetic flux
henry	H	V*s/A	inductance
radian	rad	m /m	plane angle
degree	deg	1.745329E-2 rad	plane angle (Pi rad=180 deg)
steradian	sr	m^2 /m^2	solid angle
lumen	lm	cd*sr	luminous flux
lux	lx	cd*sr/m^2	illuminance
becquerel	Bq	1/s	activity (radioactive)
gray	Gy	J/kg	absorbed dose (of radiation)
sievert	Sv	J/kg	dose equivalent (dose equivalent index)