ENGR 101 | University of Michigan
Guide to Using PrairieLearn
Overview
We will use the online platform PrairieLearn for some of our work in ENGR 101 this semester. Click here to go to our course on PrairieLearn. If you have not already logged into PrairieLearn, you will be prompted to make an account:
Click the “Sign in with Google” button and then use your UMICH email address and Duo Two Factor Authentication to login, and then you will be automatically added to our course!
When you access PrairieLearn, you will see a screen that looks something like this image but with dates appropriate for this term:
Click on the name of an assignment to get started on that assignment.
Types of ENGR 101 Assignments on PrairieLearn
All assignments on PrairieLearn are called “assessments”. Which is fine because all of our assignments are really just there to help you assess your own understanding of course content. Only some of what you’ll do on PrairieLearn is a true “assessment” in the sense of being kind of like an exam.
We will use PrairieLearn for a variety of assignments:
- homework
- lecture reflections
- labs
- assessments (including practice assessments)
Homeworks, lecture reflections, and labs will work differently from assessments, so read on to learn more. Or, you can just go to PrairieLearn and start clicking on stuff! It should be pretty self-explanatory.
Homeworks, Lecture Reflections, and Labs
Homeworks, lecture reflections, and labs have no time limit. The “Assessment Overview” (remember, all assignments are called “assessments” on PrairieLearn!) will show you the points for the assignment, the available credit, and the questions for the assignment:
PrairieLearn will automatically apply the grade caps for late submissions, so if you complete an assignment after its original due date, you will see something like: Available credit: 95% until 23:59, <Day>, <Date>.
The homeworks, lecture reflections, and labs are meant for learning, so we’ve given you unlimited attempts for each question:
If you get an answer wrong, scroll down to the “Submitted answer” box for some help, advice, and ideas about what to look for to correct your answer:
After you have answered the questions correctly, check out the “Correct answer” box for more advice, feedback, and copies of programs for you to download and add to your set of ENGR 101 example code. A lot of what you will do in the homeworks and lecture reflections will be directly helpful in lab and on projects!
We recommend doing the questions in order for a given homework or lecture reflection, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. You can navigate through the assessment using the right hand side bar:
The labs are done as a group and are structured assuming you are doing each question in order.
That’s pretty much it for homeworks, lecture reflections, and labs! If you run into any problems, come to office hours or post on Piazza.
Assessments
The Assessments category on PrairieLearn contains our actual assessments for ENGR 101. The assessments will be timed, and we will release more information about the assessments about a week before each Assessment is open. However, you can learn about how the assessments will work through two “Learning to Use PrairieLearn” assessments. These “assessments” are purely to help you understand how we use PrairieLearn for assessments – they are not included in your course grade at all.
Before you take a practice assessment, or an actual assessment, in ENGR 101, complete the Learning to Use PrairieLearn assignments:
Read the next sections for helpful information about where to click to get started with assessments.
Taking a Practice Assessment
Let’s go through taking a practice assessment using the See How a Practice Assessment Works practice assessment.
To start a practice assessment, click the “New instance” button:
All of our assessments are covered by the College of Engineering Honor Code. You will sign an abbreviated version of the Honor Pledge for each assessment:
After you click “Start assessment”, you will be taken to the Assessment Overview page:
Follow the directions in the questions for the See How a Practice Assessment Works practice assessment, and you will see both the types of questions that we will be using and how they are graded.
 About Partial Credit |
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| Partial credit is assigned as demonstrated in the Practice Assessments. Please do not submit regrade requests for a further breakdown of partial credit; such requests will be ignored. |
After you have completed all of the questions, and done the “Save & Grade” to see your score, return to the Assessment Overview page and it will look something like this:
You can take practice assessments as many times as you want to. If you want to take another practice assessment, go back to the main assessment page and you will see this:
Click the “New Instance” button to start a new version of the practice assessment. Your previous “instances” are numbered and listed below the original assessment.
Taking an Actual Assessment
Let’s go through taking an actual assessment using the See How a “Real” Assessment Works practice assessment.
To start an actual assessment, click the name of the assessment:
Note that there is no “New instance” button for actual assessments.
All of our assessments are covered by the College of Engineering Honor Code. You will sign an abbreviated version of the Honor Pledge for each assessment:
 IMPORTANT! |
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| The assessment timer will start when you click “Start assessment” – do not click the button unless you are ready to take the assessment! |
It is your responsibility to make sure you start the assessment such that you have the full time allowed. Here is a graphic (courtesy of PrairieLearn) that explains how the time limits work on PrairieLearn:
If you have submitted a VISA form through the Accommodate system, and the form includes extra time, then we have added that to your settings for the assessment in PrairieLearn. It is still your responsibility to make sure you start the assessment such that you have your full allowed time.
After you click “Start assessment”, you will be taken to the Assessment Overview page:
Note that the grading options are different for actual assessments vs. practice assessments.
Follow the directions in the questions for the See How a “Real” Assessment Works assessment to answer and save your answers. PrairieLearn will show you how much time you have left in the upper right hand corner:
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Important! |
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| PrairieLearn “keeps the timer running” if you close the assessment window, lose internet connectivity for a minute, or your computer goes to sleep while you’re thinking about a problem. So, keep this in mind! |
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SUPER IMPORTANT! |
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| Make sure your answers are saved! |
We can’t give you credit for answers that aren’t saved! Fortunately, PrairieLearn will warn you if you have answers that are not saved. After you click “Save” for a question, check the status of your submitted answer. If you missed a part of the question, PrairieLearn will show an “invalid” warning box in your submitted answer:
If you see that “invalid” box, make sure to go back up and find what you missed and then RE-SAVE your answers:
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Reminder! |
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| On actual assessments, you will be able to save your answer but you will not be able to grade your answer immediately. |
You can also sanity check your assessment before you click “Finish” and end your assessment. When you go to the Assessment Overview page, look at the “Submission status” column:
PrairieLearn will warn you if you have “invalid” answers (meaning, you forgot to answer a part of the question) or if you have not yet answered a question – this could also mean that you selected an answer but didn’t yet save the answer. Go back to the questions that don’t say “saved” for their status and make sure you have the answers you want saved. Then, go back to the Assessment Overview page. You’re looking for the assessment overview to look like this:
Here, all of the questions say “saved” for their status. So, assuming you have saved the answers you want saved, you can click “Finish assessment” to close your assessment.
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Note |
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| if you forget to click “Finish assessment”, that is fine. PrairieLearn will automatically close and grade your assessment when the timer ends. You still need to make sure that your answers are saved, though! |
After you click “Finish assessment” and verify that yes you are done with the assessment, you will be taken to the grading page for the assessment. For the actual assessments, you will see your total score, like this:
Unfortunately, a question-by-question breakdown of the score is not currently available in PrairieLearn (they’re working on this). If you would like to see a breakdown of your score or to go over your answers on an actual assessment, you can come to in-person office hours and a staff member will go through your assessment and answer any questions that you have.
Retaking Assessments
If you earn < 90% on an assessment, you may retake that assessment for up to 90% of the original points. Here are the steps to retaking an assessment:
- come to in-person office hours within a few days of taking the original assessment
- ask for an assessment consultation
- a GSI/IA will privately and confidentially go over your assessment answers with you and help you straighten out any misunderstandings and answer any questions that you have about the assessment after your consultation, you will receive access to the assessment retake on PrairieLearn complete the retake before its close date (generally one week after the original assessment’s close date)
- your final score for the assessment will be whichever is higher: your original score or your retake score
To answer some anticipated questions:
- If you earn ≥ 90% on the assessment, you are not eligible for a retake. You are still welcome to come to office hours to have a staff member go through your assessment with you.