iLabs - HELP Startup Screen and Settings Lab Screen Data Entry for Reports Creating Content

iLabs helps you keep notes during your science lab and to collect all the information you need to create a great lab report. Once you are done with your lab notes and have recorded all your data, including any pictures, you can send the data to yourself so you can edit it on your desktop (most conveniently) and turn it into the perfect lab report. Note that you must have a valid Internet connection to use this app.

Startup Screen and Settings

• The Startup Screen is the first screen you'll see when you open iLabs. It lets you select which course and lab to load, define new settings, and access (this) help information.

Select a course from the left-most list of available courses by tapping on the course name, e.g. DEMO 101.

Note: If no courses are available, you might not have an active Internet connection. If you are certain that you can access the Internet, you may have inadvertently set an invalid "base address". In that case, go to Settings, tap the "Host Name with Base URL" category and enter the default base URL http://www.mathcs.org/iLabs/ (including the slash at the end).

After you select a course, you will see a list of labs available for that course. Tap your desired lab, such as Lab 1: Measurement and Density, then click the "Cloud Load" button to load that lab. If this is the first time using iLabs, you will need to enter a username and email address before you can load a lab. Enter the required information, then pick lab 1 for the Demo 101 class again and load it.

Settings

You can access the Settings screen from the menu (on the top-right corner) to set the following options:

• User name: you should enter a username that defines you for your instructor. The name can only contain letters, digits, and the underscore character. The username is used to create a unique file name for your report so that your instructor can easily recognize your report after you submit it.
• User email: you should enter a valid email address to which iLabs will send your report. iLabs will not collect or use this email address (or username) in any way other than submitting your report to it when you tap the "Submit report" option.
   
  
• Host name with Base URL: The location where iLabs will find its data files. Only change thisif you have another valid address for iLabs XML data file. The default value is "www.mathcs.org/iLabs". If you can not see any courses, reset this to its default value.
• Local Data Folder: The name of the folder on your local SD card where iLabs stores its data files. The default value is "/iLabs/". Note that this folder will not get deleted even if you uninstall the application.
• URL for default Help Information: Location of this help file, or a suitable substitute. Default value is "http://www.mathcs.org/iLabs/help/"
  
  
• Restore Settings: Resets all settings to their default values.

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The Lab Screen

If a lab loads successfully, you will see the information pertaining to that lab divided into four tabs:

Safety

Contains safety information for a lab. You should familiarize yourself with every entry listed in this category.

Prelab

Contains prelab information and quiz questions you should complete before creating your report.

Data

This is where you enter your own information or pictures regarding the lab your are working on. You may find some categories already specified, which you will need to edit, and you can add additional information as necessary.

Resources

Contains additional resources for the selected lab. You should check this category if you have any additional questions regarding the lab you are working on.

Each of these categories consists of a list of topics to select from on the left and information about the selected topic, usually in the space on the right. Each topic in the list is of a particular type, indicated by its icon. Not all types might be represented in every tab, and some tabs could be empty.

• Web: Tapping on this topic will bring up a web page on the right side with relevant information. If you see this type in the Report tab, the information will appear inside the rest of the report instead of a separate page.
  
  
• Audio: Tapping on this topic lets you listen to an audio file. You can pause, fast forward, or rewind the audio file. Can not appear inside a Report.
  
  
• Video: Tapping on this topic lets you view a video file. If the link points to a YouTube video, the standard YouTube Android app (selectable) is used. For links to MP4 or 3GP video files, a dedicated video viewer is used in full-screen mode. You can click the standard Android "Back" button to return to iLabs. Can not appear inside a Report.
  
  
• Quiz: Selecting on this topic lets you take a multiple choice quiz. If you tap the quiz title once, you will see the question and the possible choices on the right. When you are ready to answer the question, long-tap the quiz title and choose your answer in the dialog that appears. Note that more than one answer could be correct for each question, and you can answer a question as often as you like. Can not appear inside a Report.
  
  
• Text: Selecting this topic lets you read and edit information. If you tap once, you will see the corresponding entry highlighted on the right. If you long-tap the topic, you will be able to edit data for that entry in the dialog that will appear. You can not edit the title. You can also add your own new text by tapping the "add text" icon
  
  
• Photo: Selecting this entry will highlight the corresponding photo on the right. You can long-tap to edit the title for this photo, but you can not change the data. You can add a new photo by tapping the "add photo" icon

Each entry initially appears in white in the left list. If you visited an item, it will turn green. Quizzes will only turn green after you answer them correctly. Text entries will turn light-green after you edit them.

Note that some topics may be listed prefaced with a star *. If so, that entry is mandatory: you must tap it and review the corresponding information before you can add or edit your report.

You can also tap the "Add Photo" button  to add a new photo, the "Add Text" button to add a new text topic, or the "Cloud Submit" button to submit your finished report data. Moreover, you can access an additional menu that allows you to delete an entry, delete the entire report, or get additional help.

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The Data Tab

The Report tab is the main feature of iLabs. After you visit all mandatory items in the Safety and Prelab tab, you can work on your Report. You can actually view this information any time, but you can only modify it after visiting all mandatory items.

On the left is a list of items, which can be either URL-like information, text entries, or pictures. On the right is your report, consisting of the information contained in all items in the list in the order listed.You should read through the URL entries, which can not be edited, and they as usual will turn green after you visit them. Each time you tap an item in the list, the corresponding info in the report on the right will highlight.

Text items can be edited in their own dialog box by long-tapping on them. Each entry has a title (mandatory) and some data. Note: If you know how, you could insert HTML formatting tags, but be careful to insert only proper HTML.(If you edit an entry, the original text will be saved in a special file.)

To add a new text item, click the "add text" item on the top. Provide a title and some text, then tap "okay". The new item will be inserted immediately after the currently selected item, if any, or at the end of the list.

To add a new picture, tap the "add photo" item on the top. The standarrd camera app will appear from where you could choose to take a picure or cancel the operation. Photos are useful to capture your experimental setup, or to make a copy of some drawing or sketch. If you do insert a new photo, it will be added immediately after the currently selected item in the list, if any, or at the end of the list.Each photo must have a title, which you can edit any time.

To delete an entry, first highlight it in the list, then select "Delete Item" from the menu. If you confirm, the selected item will be removed from your report (a copy of the deleted item is saved in a special file).

When your report is complete and you added all the information and pictures you will need to create your final report, you can click on the "Cloud Submit" button . An email message will be prepared that should open in your default email app. It contains some text, a recipient (the email address you specified in Settings), and a number of attachments:

• The HTML attachment will contain your actual report as you see it in the Report tab. Once you receive the email - assuming your email was correct - you can save this HTML file to your computer's disk and edit it, using for example Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.
• Any pictures you embedded in your report will show up as separate attachments. Once you recieve the email you should save each picture into the same folder you saved the HTML document to.
• An XML attachment contains all items you deleted or edited. It is usually of no interest to you and you can simply ignore it. It does, however, provide a trace of the process you undertook to create your report data.

Note that a copy of your report will also be emailed to an address associated with the lab. You could edit this address or delete it, but if you do, your instructor will not receive a copy of your report data.

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Creating Content

You can easily create your own content for iLabs which requires some technical expertise and you need access to a web server to store your labs. Alternatively, you could email your desired lab information to "wachsmut@shu.edu" to have your lab checked for inclusion in the official iLabs list of courses/labs. If your lab is suitable, you will receive an estimate for how much it would cost to add your lab to iLabs, a proposed timeline and some general information. Generally it will take about 2 - 3 weeks to prepare a new lab. To learn more about creating your own lab, please click here.

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Bert G. Wachsmuth (c) 2011