Welcome to CLIPS (Computerized Language Instruction and Practice Software)
There is a lot of information contained on this page. If you would like to go directly to one of the following, just click on the heading.
How CLIPS works
Administration Setup
Administration Setup Continued
CLIPS FAQs
Students log on to CLIPS with their personal account using an Internet browser and complete an assessment section covering the broad range of grammar topics for the selected language of study. CLIPS returns a rating of Green (student has command of the language rules), Yellow (student has partial command of the language rules), or Red (student needs significant study in this area). Students are then directed to study lessons and practice questions on topics where they are weak. Students practice until they feel prepared and retake the assessment.
Once you have signed up for CLIPS you will receive an administrative login and password; from there you should do the following:
When you log in you will see several buttons.
As site administrator you will first use the button
'Site Administrator Menu' to set up your school's name,
colors and period (aka semester or term). Use the
'Change School Info.' option near the bottom of the page
to do this.
After setting up your school information, you should
register instructors. This can be done two different
ways:
1) Have your instructors visit the site and register
themselves, using the 'Register' button on the login page.
Then you should change their role to instructor using the
administrator's menu option: 'Change Student Info.'.
2) Use the 'Create a New Student' option on the
administrator's menu and enter their information. Then
inform them of the URL, and their log in name and password.
Note that instructors should have strong passwords to
protect student records. Strong passwords consist of
numbers, punctuation, and letters combined. At the very
least they should be two unrelated words combined.
Instructors may then create classes by logging in,
pressing the 'Instructor Menu' button and using the 'Create
Class' menu option. Be sure they know the current period
(semester) and name their classes so that student's can
identify them.
Administration Setup Continued
At this point students may be registered. There are three
ways to do this:
1) Students can visit the site and register
themselves. Then log in and use the 'Add a class' button
to add classes.
2) You or the instructors may use the instructor's menu
option 'Create a New Student' to register the students,
then use the 'Add Student to Class' option to put them in
the appropriate classes.
3) You may use the 'Import Class Roll' options on the site
administrator's menu. Detailed, technical directions are
given on the page shown after selecting the option.Student passwords are optional, and they may be changed by
the student at any time by using the 'Change info.' button
after logging in.
During the period (semester) you and the instructors may
view progress reports for individual students and classes
using the report options on the instructor menu.
Occasionally, a student may have problems with tests or
scores. You or instructors may use the 'Change Student
Scores' menu option to make corrections.
When the period (semester) ends you should use the site
administrator's menu to do the following:
1) Save to a file and/or print the output of 'Report All
Classes at School'.
2) Use the 'Delete All Students and Instructors' to clear
out students scores and classes.
3) 'Change School Info.', changing the period (semester).
4) Register instructors, create classes, and then register
students as described above.
When anyone logs in to webCLIPS they see the hello page. on
this page they can:
1) See a list of classes, each with buttons to begin working,
view a progress report, or drop the class. Dropping a
class does not erase any work done in it. Adding a class
for the same course will show that the work done has
been preserved. This makes it possible for students to
change classes by first dropping the current one and then
adding another.
2) Add one or more classes.
3) Change their name, login, and password information.
4) Log out. Logging out prevents another student from
accidentally or deliberately modifying a user's information.
Instructors are encouraged to register for courses and use
CLIPS a while so that they will be able to help students.
| Q. What does WebCLIPS stand for? | A. It stands for Web-based Computer Language Instruction and Practice Software It is designed to help students develop their grammar abilities in their studied language. CLIPS is now completely web-based and is multi-browser compatible. |
| Q. Which languages are available? | A.
|
| Q. What does it cost? | A. The costs of CLIPS are shown on the CLIPS Pricing Pages, depending on your organization. |
| Q. How do I order WebCLIPS? | A. Currently orders are taken by email or phone, however an automated on-line registration system is being created. |
| Q. What type of payment is accepted? | A. Credit Card, Purchase Order, Purchasing Card, Check The preferred means of payment is credit card. |
| Q. Which Browsers/Platforms are supported by CLIPS? | A. WebCLIPS is designed to work with most popular modern browsers for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix computers that support Javascript and stylesheets. These include:
Sadly, it is known not to work with:
|
| Q. How many schools are using WebCLIPS? | A. About 15 institutions are using CLIPS. |
| Q. Who hosts the software? How secure are the servers? | A. Our high-reliability hardware is located in an off-campus professional hosting center with a 99.9% quality of service guarantee. Therefore we have about the same reliability as most commercial web sites. In our recent experience, most outages experienced by schools (including BYU!) were the result of their own IT department interrupting internet service to all or part of their campus. (The second most likely cause was incorrectly typing the URL.) But, as an added precaution, we also maintain a backup system on campus that can be brought on-line in a few moments when it is necessary. |
| Q. How will the tests be setup for our institution? | A. Depends on the model (option) your institution chooses. |
| Q. How often do you issue updates? | A. Since we host the exam over the web, software and content updates are theoretically issued constantly and immediately. But, as far as the content of the exam is concerned, the last time a question needed to be changed was in 2002. But whenever a question is found to be a problem we are prepared to replace it immediately. The format and presentation of the exam was last updated in November of 2004. We will continue to keep the exam up to date as technology advances. |
| Q. Why doesn't my student's work appear on the progress report? |
A. Students must attempt the lesson test before scores appear on the report. Details can be seen in the 'Change Student Scores' option. |
| Q. How do I access exam results? | A. Go into 'Change Student Scores' and set the lesson and all segments back to gray. |
| Q. How can a student who has forgoten their login and/or password get back in? | A. You can go into 'Change Student Info' and look up the student's login and password. |
| Q. What can I do about a student that has created several log-ins and done some work in each? |
A. Tell them not to do that anymore! Then you can either use 'Change Student Scores' to consolodate their scores into one of their log-ins, or just tell them they have to do it all over again. (I like doing the latter, as soon word gets around and they stop doing it.) |
| Q. How do I delete a student? | A. Can't do that. You can change the login and password to something very difficult to guess and drop them from all classes. The student will go away when the site administrator does the end-of-term procedures. |
| Q. I have a question not answered here, how and who should I contact? | A. info@softstudy.com |