This guide has been updated following experience gained from 12 years of marking of eTMAs and now includes tips from other tutors, information on viewing the returned TMAs and some notes on how to avoid problems in submission. We are currently updating the matching Guide for Tutors. The system worked well for me with all my students participating. There are however a number of potential problems which can be avoided and the process smoothed by taking care in the way the TMA is presented.
The point to remember is that the purpose and outcome of the eTMA exercise is not a perfectly presented work of art by the student but an adequate marked script from the tutor which includes all the valuable feedback and marking information as well as the original input. It must be in a legible form which can be read by the student and the monitor checking selected scripts. The output is a document with two authors – it is the result of a partnership.
This actually makes your job as the student easier as you can concentrate on content without any fine tuning of the layout, which will change – some tutors may write as much text into the document as the student in a key area. A table of contents is, for example, pointless in an eTMA and please forget about custom styles; both cause far more problems than they are worth. When preparing an eTMA you must expect extra paragraphs to be added as well as in-line text, ticks and marks – you should anticipate these and leave 'landing pads'. Tutors will be using the standard mark-up tools of modern word processors such as Microsoft Word and Open/Star Office so their inputs will be easy to identify.
A particular problem during the early years was conversions between file formats which can make major changes in layout and further changes can occur when marking in different versions of Office software. The current versions of the marking tool are largely independent of the software used for marking which is a great improvement over the early days. There is a opportunity to submit a dummy TMA early in the process which is important if you have not used the eTMA system before.
The file conversion problem returned in the last few years because of the incompatibility of Microsoft Word 2007's default file format and fonts with almost everything including other earlier versions of Word and now we have another Microsoft version which will no doubt bring another set of incompatibilities.
Contact your tutor directly to check what to do if you have Microsoft Word 2007 or latter - the Assessment Handbook Appendix 2 states you must save files in the old .doc format or .rtf rather than the new .docx format and scripts are monitored anonymously to assure the quality of the tutors work so even if your tutor has Office 2007 or latter the monitor may not.
You may/[will] also have to change the default font if you use Word 2007 or latter. The default is Calibri which is loaded with Office 2007 and is not present on all operating systems. The layout can be very different and complex drawings are no longer rendered correctly if the font is wrong and text can be lost. See below for more on The Office 2007 Fonts issue.
Advice on Layout to aid marking and feedback
It has become clear that for electronic marking to work well and provide well presented feedback that some anticipation is required in laying out the TMA. A beautifully presented and polished TMA can have the whOIE layout destroyed by a single line being inserted! Anticipating the additions your tutor will make to your text and allowing for them will make it much easier to view. The additions which will be made include:
Addition, deletion and highlighting of text using the Change Tracking facilities built into modern Word Processors
Inserted text for clarification and corrections (In a different colour and/or font)
Ticks
Comments/Notes showing as popups on hovering over text or as links to Annotations
Marks (for parts and whOIE questions)
Most of these take up additional space and need a suitable location. Our advice is to:
Provide locations for feedback to land - add a few lines after every part of a question, under every table and under every graphic. Three lines is sufficient to allow for links to annotations, marks and ticks without changing your layout.
Avoid Blue and Red - the tutors comments are by default displayed in Blue or Red and deleted text in Red.
Let text flow - Reserve page ends for starts of questions or complex diagrams otherwise they will inevitably end up in the wrong places.
Do not use Tables of Contents as they are not compatible between Word processors and seem to be messed up by the marking in any case.
Do not use Macros - files containing macros are rejected by many virus checkers and will not be recognised if your tutor uses OpenOffice or StarOffice which is now provided by the OU.
Tabular output - Simple tables seem to be OK whilst there is evidence tab settings and margins can change.
Use Standard common fonts - many fancy fonts are specific to Microsoft and the particular versions of WP you use and will be substituted if read on a different system - this can destroy your layout and not fit within graphics and tables. Preferably keep to Times New Roman and Arial. See below for details.
Minimise use of "Styles" - in particular watch out if you include inserts from OU TMA questions. See below for details.
Avoid graphics when text will do - cut and paste text rather than graphics to reduce size and risk. Most tutors do not require big screen dumps (and telephone bills if not on broadband) as proof of postings!
Keep Graphics Small: It is easier to mark if the graphics are sized to a screen without changing magnification and losing detail
Keep Graphics simple - do not overlay graphics and text or other graphics - they will move and parts get lost.
Drawing tools - "Freeze" output from Drawing Tools into a single standard graphic so the parts do not move.
Do a screen capture and inserting the complex drawing as an image when it is complete. See below for details
Avoid wrapping text round Graphics
Avoid use of OIE - OIE (Object Linking and Embedding) is designed to link to files created by other applications to allow you to edit the object using its native program - your tutor or monitor may not have a compatible program installed. If a compatible program is not installed OIE objects may not be consistently displayed, for example, Visio objects will not display at all unless you have Visio installed whilst Minitab drawings appear correct but can not be edited under Star/Open Office. Even compatible programs may need format conversion on every open and close of the file. It is again best to "Freeze" the output into a graphic as with Drawing Tools. See below for details
Turn off Autocorrect options - they can "correct" your code capitalisation without you realising
Convert to Word 97 .doc file format yourself - (if you need to)
Force compatibility with your agreed format in latter versions of Word .
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) - Do not use fancy features which conversion or marking will change or lose or where inserts will destroy the effects.
Office 2007 and Office 2010
Office 2007 and Office 2010 file formats - .docx
The file conversion problem has once more raised it's ugly head because of the incompatibility of Microsoft Word 2007's default file format and fonts with almost everything including other versions of Word. Office 2010 has added more problems as it has a number of additional features to Word 2010 and the .docx file format which means that it is not backward compatible to Word 2007 - the advice from Microsoft is that if you are sharing documents with people who only have earlier versions of Word is that you should work in a compatibility mode so that they see your document exactly as you intend it to be seen. The OU instructions to students that it is mandatory to convert to the 'usual' .doc format which has been around since Office 97 still remains - it is now described as Word Format in the Save As dialogs in Office 2007.
File conversion can also be a problem with OIE (Object Linking and Embedding) which was designed to link to files created by other applications to allow you to display and edit the object using its native program - your tutor or monitor may not have a compatible program installed, some for example will have bought machines a while ago with Microsoft Works Suite installed which has Word but not any other Office programs. If you use Office 2007 and embed an Excel spread sheet into a .doc file the spread sheet should also be saved in an Office 2003 compatible format otherwise the embedded object may not be accessible or be changed on a machine running Office 2003 or Star/OpenOffice. The simple solution is to avoid embedding.
Office 2007 Fonts:
File Formats are unfortunately only part of the problem as Office 2007 also installs a number of new fonts including Calibri, Candara, Consolas, Cambria, Constantia, and Corbel. We understand that Calibri is used as the default font in Word 2007 and 2010 and also Powerpoint, Excel and Outlook. Even if you convert in Word 2007 to the old .doc format you are still using a font which is not available on every machine. An agreement with your tutor is not sufficient as a significant percentage of scripts are double marked and you will never know who the monitor is. There is a Wikipedia Article on Calibri if you are interested.
The consequences of font substitution can be very significant. The tutor or monitor will see the document differently as a font on their machine will be substituted and that will be machine dependent. A change of font will change the size and spacing of the text so the layout will be changed which may be acceptable. The worst problems occur with drawings and mixed drawings and text and we have one example where equations have used some drawings overlaid and the meaning has been completely changed due to text slippage under brackets - that was obvious although the cause was not initially. Worse still text boxes may no longer be large enough to contain the text and the ends of text strings can be lost again changing the meaning completely in several cases we have seen. Combined with a double conversion from .docx to .doc and to Open/Star Office which is used by many tutors, including ourselves, for marking one is no longer sure what one is seeing. This is not a satisfactory situation and the effects are not going to be limited to the OU, one can just imagine the effects in complex technical commercial documents and agreements even if everybody is using Windows - thank you Bill.
The advice to students using Office 2007/10 must now be:
Make sure the facilities used are restricted in the options setup (Tools -> Options -> Compatibility -> Office 97 in Office 2007) before you start
Start your document from the start in .doc format by doing a Save As at the begining or change the default for all documents
Change the font to one which is common and available on every machine - Times New Roman and Arial are as safe as they come.
Avoid drawings if possible.
Never mix text and drawings.
If you have a complex drawing then get a snapshot off the screen (screen grab) and save the drawing for ever as a graphic which you insert.
Do not bother with tables of contents - they convert very badly and are not needed.
Avoid use of OIE, even if you have made sure the file format is compatible you tutor or monitor may not see exactly the same as you do unless they are running an identical system.
Most of the above has always been in our advice on eTMA preparation which also formed the basis of the OU Etma advice, an early piece of contract work we carried out. The font issue is new and does not seem to have been recognised, nor have issues over OIE objects - this makes the other advice even more important.
Obtaining the Office 2007 fonts
This is for reference as there is no way you can be sure that a monitor will have them even if a Tutor can be persuaded to add them.
They come with Office 2007
They are loaded with the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack so if you have broadband and an Office product you can install the free. The compatibility pack is available free and currently at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en but you will probably have to Google (Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack .docx). It is 27 Mbytes and has an equally large service pack and it is mandatory to update Office 2003 to SP 3 (70 Mbytes) and the OS to the latest version - without Broadband or an Office product you are stuffed as you can not download the OS and Office updates even if you get the Pack and service pack on another machine.
I understand that they are installed with the Powerpoint 2007 viewer - I have not tried but it is worth a go.
If you use a Mac or Linux and Open Office you are even more stuffed and the options are:
You can 'borrow' them from friends machine from C:/Windows/fonts and copy them to the same location in a Windows XP machine or add in the appropriate way for an Apple Mac or Linux machine but read the licence conditions carefully
If you have a Dual Booted machine you may be able to mount and link to the Windows System Drive.
You can buy them - $35 each or $120 for the 4 needed for each character set.
Freezing Output from Drawing Tools and OIE objects into Pictures
Microsoft Windows and Word: Most students will have a graphics package with good screen grabbing facilities which they will be familiar with but there are some basic facilities which are good enough built into Windows XP and above which mean you can freeze a drawing in under a minute with practice.
Click Print Screen (Top Right on most keyboards) This does not print the screen but puts it onto the clipboard. On most Windows systems Alt + Print Screen will just capture the currently open window to the Clipboard.
Paste it into the Word Document where it will appear as an image
Click the image and an edit toolbar will appear
Click Crop and the cursor will change - Click and drag on the handles of the graphic to crop the image to just contain your diagram.
Click Crop again to leave that mode.
Drag the handles to scale to the size you want.
Star/Open Office has similar facilities regardless of the operating system in use.
Applications -> Accessories -> Screen Shot allows you to capture the screen or the open window and save it to a file.
Use Tools -> Insert Picture - From File to add the picture to an Open Office Document.
Crop by Right Click the picture -> Picture -> Crop tab and set Left, Right, Top and Bottom to the required crop - a preview is displayed.
OK to leave the mode
Drag the handles to scale to the size you want.
It is best to keep the complex drawings in a different file and not embed objects so you can change them and then repeat the above if required.
Styles and inclusion of OU TMA text
The OU TMA questions and answers make use of a number of advanced features of the Word Processor they use. They also use a number of Fonts which are not available in Word on most PCs. There is an increasing tendency to provide them as PDF files but when they are available as document (.doc) files you must take care when pasting in text from the TMA questions or using their documents as an outline for your answer. In Word the "style" of a paragraph is usually displayed in a little window on the left of toolbar for the paragraph containing the cursor. If this is "normal" then all is fine. It may also reflect any indenting/numbering. The "style" information will also migrate into paragraphs you add below a paragraph with a "style" - use the drop down menu next to the display of the "style" to reset to "normal". The same applies to fonts but that is much more obvious and easy to understand and change.
There are often problems with screen captures that either don't end up in the right place, or on top of one another when pasted in when complex styles are used. A reasonable form of presentation can be created in this case if:
at least one new paragraph is inserted before the pasting is done;
the pasting is done into that paragraph;
that paragraph is given the style called 'Normal'.
(Thanks to Tony Corbett for identifying these problems and a solution)
Tips on using the ETMA System
You must have Cookies and Java enabled to use the ETMA Web sites - Browsers rarely inform you if a Cookie is refused so you may never know. (Tip thanks to Gill Harrison)
It is best to use the web submission as you get better feedback and it is quicker. If you use the email submission route it is best to do so from the normal FirstClass software. If you use a different email package then it should be set to send plain text - the fancy rich text (HTML) available on Outlook Express, Outlook, Netscape and Thunderbird often ends up send text which is partitioned and looks like an extra attachment and thus will not be recognised by the e-TMA system and you will get messages back saying you have sent too many attachments.
On most Microsoft email systems "Plain text" can be set for an individual message using the Format button on the toolbar. Tools - > Options - > Mail Format (or Send) tab typically allows one to set the default format.
In Thunderbird Tools -> Account Settings -> Composition & Addressing -> Uncheck Compose messages in HTML format for each account you send from.
You don't need to re-configure Thunderbird if you want to send the occasional message in the other format. Just press the "Shift" key when clicking the "Write", "Reply", or "Reply to All" button and it will use the other format for that message.
Netscape Communicator/Messenger are now rarely used but for reference you can typically set all outgoing email to be plain text by Edit - > Preferences - > Mail & NewsGroups - > Formatting and set the Radio buttons to "Use Plain Text editor to compose messages" and "Convert the message to plain text" then click on OK . Other options allow you to compose in HTML and use the address book entry to choose the format sent
Zip Files must be a Binary Attachment: You should also make sure that, if you are given a choice, the attachment is set to be "Binary" not text otherwise you will get messages saying it is not a valid zip format from the eTMA system. (Tip thanks to River~~)
Do not break up messages: Some email packages allow long emails to be broken up to escape through firewalls. The eTMA system does not support this.
Disclaimer
The views here are entirely our own and are not endorsed in any way by the Open University. What is written on these pages is our own experiences and is not intended to replace in any way the documentation supplied with any of the Open University software. Always Backup before installing any Software and on a regular basis. Do a proper cost Benefit and Risk Analysis taking into account your circumstances and knowledge base before making any changes. Past performance is no indication of the future returns.
Before You Leave
We would be very pleased if visitors could spare a little time to give me some feedback - it is the only way I know who has visited, if it is useful and how I should develop it's content and the techniques used. I would be delighted if you could send comments or just let us know you have visited by Sending a quick Message to us.