CompuServe Messages

Hi Ken, Thanks for the feedback. We have a similar type of approach – our focus is not on the prevention of cheating, but on the reduction of maintenance time. We use dual drive 486s in the main CAD lab – and students use only 3.5" diskettes on B: drive (no unauthorized access by booting from A:). Students may take their diskettes home with permission, but very few do as few have Acad at home. They can, with a bit of fiddling, copy a file from someone else, but few do – just as you say. We encourage the "quicker" students to help others rather than get too far ahead and entrench inequities. The menu system we use is from Hyper Technologies in Bellingham WA, but Direct Access and others are similar. A menu selection initiates a batch file which deletes drawing files from the student directory and then prompts the student to insert his drawing disk into drive b: (where it is scanned for any nasty viruses),… the student drawing files, if any, are then copied to the student directory. AutoCAD is loaded and students open their own files from the hard drive. When they are finished their drawing session, the batch file copies their drawing(s) back out to disk. Most marking is done from plots – just like yourself – students do their own plots and again we encourage students to help each other (without cheating). Cheers, John