Updated: February 21, 2009

Tip Sheet for Administrators of Flashlight Online 1.0

These hints respond to the problems that most often frustrate users (especially new users) of Flashlight Online. Print these pages and keep them beside your computer the first few times you use Flashlight Online.  For questions not covered here:

·       see the video tutorials on <http://www.tltgroup.org/Flashlight/FLO/training.htm>

·       the list of Frequently Asked Questions about Flashlight at <http://www.tltgroup.org/Flashlight/FAQs.htm>.

·       Information about Flashlight Online 2.0 begins at < http://www.tltgroup.org/Flashlight/FLO2/flashlight_online_2.htm>.

 

Here are the most important things to understand about Flashlight Online 1.0:

·       There is no software to install locally. You and your authors just use web browsers.

·       Inside Flashlight Online, there are two kinds of workspaces (called “groups”): one admin group from which you administer the system, and as many “member groups” (authoring workspaces) as you want to create. Any author (you or anyone else) can be given access to any group, so groups are usually topic-specific. When you want to create a survey about a topic, go to that group to create it. That way, when you or anyone else wants to see all the local surveys on that topic, you just go to that workspace (click that member group) and there they are! Authors can then look at other surveys, copy them, modify the copy, see data and so on.

·       In order to create a group, or an account for a new author, or to give an author membership in a group, you need to go into your local admin group. When you or anyone else is in a member group (authoring workspace), the only commands you’ll see are authoring commands. You can only use your administrative powers when you are in your administrative group.

 

First Steps as an administrator and author

  1. The Flashlight Online system is available from The TLT Group home page (http://www.tltgroup.org) .  Click the button to log-in. You’ll see plenty of help on that first page, for you and for your authors.
  2. Getting Started as an Administrator: When you log onto the system, the first page you see after entering the username and password we sent you will be the “Select Group” page.  The first time you log on, the only group showing will be the administrative group we have created for you.  In order for you (or anyone else at your institution) to create surveys, your first step must be to enter this group and use the commands there to create at least one member group, and then, if you want to create a survey, give yourself the privilege of entering at least one of those groups (workspaces) you have just created.  Let’s take this process one step at a time.
  3. Click on your administrative group. You should now see a page that says “Administrative Main Menu” at the top.

Creating a Group: To create a “member” group (workspace for a group of authors) scroll down the Local Administrator page to the Select Group box. Click on the login group drop down box and select your local administrative group (name of your institution). Then go to the button “Add a local admin or member group”; click on it.  Fill in the Group name, Institution name and Department. Then click on “create new subgroup.”

  1. Adding members (such as yourself) to a Group: Now that you have created a “member” group you can make yourself a member of that group if you would like to create surveys and if this is to be a group of authors with whom you may want to share work.  (IMPORTANT: a user can be a member of more than one group; if, for example, you want to author surveys as well as administer the system, you add privileges to your account, rather than creating a second account for yourself).  On the Select Group box, select a “member” group in which you want to work. Then click on “Search for current member & Add.”  You only need to put in one piece of unique information about the person (yourself) that you are adding for the system. For example, type in your login id, go to the bottom of the form, and click on search. The system will bring up a box with your name, login and groups in which you are a member. Check to make sure this is you. If it is, click on “add to group.” 

đ     Tip: The search system only works if you identify just the person you want. Suppose you want to add someone named Steve Stinikowski and you enter just “Steve” in the first name field. The system will show you every Steve who can author in Flashlight Online, including Steve Stinikowski. But there will be no way for you to add Stinikowski to your group. You need to do a search that yields Stinikowski and no one else (use his last name, for example; if there are two Stinikowski, then use his log-in or figure out some other search that will yield just the person you want. Once only one person turns up in the search, there will be a button beside the name to add him or her to the Group.

  1. You are now back at the top of the local administrator page. Click on the Select Group icon. This will take you back to the page you first saw just after you logged into Flashlight Online.
  2. Exploring the Authoring Environment: If you have gone through steps 2-6, you should now see at least two active groups in which you can work: the administrator group and the new member group (authoring workspace) you just created. Select the “member” group.

Exploring Flashlight Online

  1. Many of the features of Flashlight Online (e.g., the item bank of almost 500 validated questions) are invisible until you start creating a survey by using the “new survey” button. 
  2. If you are a new user exploring the system and looking for studies done by others, your options are limited. Users can only see surveys done by others in their groups (with exception described below) and ordinarily can’t see data collected by others; this is part of the privacy protection that is part of Flashlight Online.
  3. Help and Handbook: An extensive set of help screens are available if you click the help button on the top row of icons near the right.  That’s also where you can find an e-mail form to send questions, ideas, and complaints to the administrators of the Flashlight Online system. The Flashlight Evaluation Handbook is also available when you’re creating a survey; its icon is in that same row, toward the left hand side of the screen.

Creating a Survey

  1. "New survey" creates a blank questionnaire (just as "new.." creates a blank word processing document or a blank spreadsheet).  To add questions (also known as "items"), choose "Add items" from the second row of icons at the top or "template" from the top row of icons in order to put questions into your survey.

q  "Add items" lets you search almost 500 validated items (the “Current Student Inventory”) or create your own (custom questions  -- see below)

q  "Template" lets you start a survey by using someone else's published survey as a draft (or you can use that survey 'as is') click the template button (top row of icons) to see current templates.

  1. DANGER: don’t confuse "New Survey" with "Start survey." The two buttons sound alike but have very different functions.  "Start survey" has two functions: a) it assigns your completed survey a URL so that respondents can start answering it online, and b) it reformats your survey to a 'read only' format - it can no longer be altered. The two go together - if items could be altered after people began responding, interpreting data would become impossible. 

                 

q  “What if I click “Start survey” and then decide I want to alter the survey?”  Some changes can be handled with html editing (adding explanations, deleting questions, even changing the wording of questions. But, if you want Flashlight Online to record responses, you cannot add questions after clicking “Start Survey.” So click “copy survey” instead. The copy can be altered so you leave the ‘start’ed survey behind and add your items to the new survey.

  1. The crucial "submit" and “OK” buttons: As you write a survey, there are really two versions of it – the one that matters (on the CTLSilhouette computer at Washington State University) and the one you can alter (the version on your own machine.)  The things you type on your machine do not become part of the real survey on Silhouette until you click the "submit" or “OK” button at the very bottom of the page you’ve been working on.  It’s easy to miss this button; it is often out of sight unless you scroll to the bottom of the page. Clicking it saves only what you’ve done on that particular page.  If you go to a new page without first clicking the ‘OK’ or ‘ submit’ button, you will lose the work you've done on that page!
  2. Print-friendly: Want to see what the survey will look like to a respondent, or print it out so you can distribute it on paper? Click the “print friendly” button. But remember what we said in hint #4: the version of the survey that matters is on the server. So when you click “print friendly” Silhouette sends to your screen a print-friendly version of your survey as of the last time you clicked “OK” (i.e., ‘Save’).
  3. Custom questions: most authors will want to use their own language or ideas to craft some (perhaps all) items. That's the function of 'custom questions.' Novices experience two problems in using these questions: the "10-40 puzzle" and the "checkbox unchecked mistake."

q  The 10-40 puzzle:  Flashlight Online creates custom questions in blocks of 10 (you can choose “10,” “20,” “30” or “40”).  What if you only need one such question? Or thirteen? No problem.  Unless you actually put words into the blank question and check the box beside it, it won't appear in your survey. So, for example, if you only need two custom questions, pick "10,” just fill in two of them, and click the box beside each one.

q  The checkbox unchecked mistake:  To repeat: when adding a question to your survey, you must click the box to the left of the item so that it has an X in it. The most common (and frustrating error) that novices make when creating a custom question is to write it, click "Submit" at the bottom of the page, and wonder why their questions have disappeared.  If this has just happened to you, don't panic - you might be able to recover by clicking on the 'back' (left) arrow on your browser.

 

 

Please send problems we’ve missed, or suggestions for clarifying these answers, to Ehrmann@tltgroup.org.