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Frequently Asked Questions

This page contains a list of questions people commonly ask about the installation and maintenance of CoursEval. If you have a question or problem not addressed below, please call (716) 204-0464 or send e-mail to support@academicmanagement.com.


What do I do when a student or faculty member says they can't log-in?

Inform the Student/Faculty to click the "Forget your password?" link and the information will be e-mailed to them.
Note: They must use their e-mail that is in the CoursEval™ 3.0 to have the correct information sent.

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What do I do when a student or faculty member has forgotten their password?

Inform the Student/Faculty to click the "Forget your password?" link and the information will be e-mailed to them.
Note: They must use their e-mail that is in the CoursEval™ 3.0 to have the correct information sent.

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Why can't I attach certain faculty to this course?

Make sure that faculty are assigned a user role or they will not appear for selection in the course menu.

  1. Go to the Setup Menu ⇒ Faculty
  2. Click on the Faculty Member's Last Name
  3. In the Select a Role Section, click a checkbox for the role appropriate to that faculty member:
  4. Click Save

Once each faculty member has a role, they need to be assigned to the course:

  1. Go to the Setup Menu ⇒ Courses
  2. Find the appropriate number related to the course you are looking for (or you can use the Search Bar)
  3. Click on the Manage Faculty icon
  4. Click on the Edit List link for the appropriate section (Responsible Faculty, Participating Faculty, etc)
  5. If desired, select the necessary Selection Filters and click the Update Selection List Below button
  6. Click the check box for the faculty member(s) you wish to select and click Save
  7. Click the Save Link
  8. Repeat Steps D thru G until you are satisfied that everyone involved under each heading is selected
  9. Click back to list
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Why aren't any students enrolled in this course?

  1. Go to the Setup Menu ⇒ Courses
  2. Find the appropriate number related to the course you are looking for (or you can use the Search Bar)
  3. Click on the Manage Students icon
  4. Click on the edit list link
  5. If desired, select the necessary Selection Filters and click the Update Selection List Below button
  6. Click the check box for the Student(s) you wish to select and click Save
  7. Click the Save Link
  8. Repeat Steps D thru F until you are satisfied that everyone involved is selected
  9. Click back to list
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What are the requirements for having CoursEval™ 3.0 installed on my server?


Note: The requirements above apply only to single school installations of CoursEval. If you will be hosting CoursEval for more than one school on the same server, please contact us for our recommended server configuration.


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Is there more information on User Authentication?

Of course there is. Click the link below to get the complete technical information regarding User Authentication:

User Authentication Information

If you need more information please contact Support.

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I'm trying to set up External Authentication, but when I try the "Test" login at the bottom of the page the new window that comes up contains a program error. Why does this happen?

This is most likely a permissions issue. To resolve it, make sure that the server's "Network Service" account has "modify" rights to the eTalus installation folder and all files/sub-folders.

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I am having trouble importing my Excel™ spreadsheet. The number of Students/Faculty/Courses etc., Imported is 0. What is wrong?

This problem generally stems from the fact that CoursEval™ doesn't import files with the .xls file extension, only the .csv file extension.

Make sure your spreadsheet is using the necessary headers and that all required fields are filled for all items to be imported. Then:

  1. Open the file in Excel
  2. Click the 'Save As' option
  3. Name the file
  4. In the 'Save as Type' drop-down, select CSV
  5. Click 'Save'
  6. Try your import again and all should work

If there is still a problem please contact support.

It is also important to make sure that there is only one individual sheet in the file saved as .csv

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The menus are moving all over my screen! How can this be fixed?

PC Users

Mac Users

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Why won't e-mails send?

Either the e-mail settings in the Mail Server Settings are incorrect or port 25 may be blocked by your firewall on the server or network.

There is also the possiblity that the etalusservice is not running behind the application. If this is the case please contact your IT department.

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What browsers are supported by CoursEval™ 3.0?

CoursEval™ 3.0 is supported byt the following browsers:

For PC:

For Mac:

While CoursEval™ 3.0 may run in other browers it has not been tested in them.

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If a school doesn't have graduation years and has left both enrollment settings unchecked, is it still required to put a year in the field for students?

Yes, it's still required at this point.

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I was trying to send an e-mail and there were no recipients in step 3.

If the course was brought forward from 2.0, you will have to go into courses and click manage students for the course. Even though there appear to be selected students on the list page, you will need to reset/re-attach them to the course. Then you should go to the survey, detailed settings, and add the newly attached students in the selected/enrolled area.

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I received the following error when I tried to access any of the CoursEval 3.0 portals. -2147417842 (0x8001010e)

This error is the result of a conflict between ASP and another ISAPI-based technology on your server.

Follow the Steps Below to setup the redirect in IIS to recolve this issue:

  1. Log onto the server and open the IIS Management Console.
  2. In the left pane, expand the folders under the web site hosting CoursEval, (probably "Default"). There should be a /scripts/ folder in the list. Right-click on the /scripts/ folder and choose "Properties" from the menu.
  3. On the "Virtual Directory" tab, choose "A redirection to a URL" from the radio option set at the top of the page. (See picture.)
    4. screen shot
  4. In the "Redirect to:" text box, enter: /etw/ets/et.asp$Q
  5. At the bottom of this form, check the box labeled "The exact URL entered above" and leave the other two unchecked
  6. Click the "Apply" button and then the "Ok" button to close the form.
  7. Close the IIS Management Console
  8. Restart IIS by executing the following line in a command window or at the "Start > Run" prompt: iisreset
  9. Go to your old NexIIS index page and try any of the three links to the CoursEval application portals. You should see the URL change to point to the new, ASP-based version.

For example, the link:

http://www.yourschool.edu/scripts/nx.dll/nx3.nx.dll?nxappid=WCT&nxmid=start

will automatically change to:

http://www.yourschool.edu/etw/ets/et.asp?nxappid=WCT&nxmid=start

If you still have problems even after the redirect has been set up, there is another application on the server causing the ISAPI conflict. In order to make sure all ISAPI applications can exist in harmony on the server, one of them has to be run with "Application Protection" set to "High (Isolated)" in the IIS MMC.

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I receive"10053 – software caused connection abort" when I attempt to send e-mail messages

"Error 10053" occurs when the e-mail server rejects (or aborts) sending the e-mail for one reason or another. Sometimes this is caused by the server, sometimes the client PC. Two possible causes are:

Please check with your system administrator to see if the e-mail server can accept e-mail from CoursEval.

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My students are having trouble accessing CoursEval™ 3.0 in the computer lab or other campus facilities!

The problem is likely related to the settings on lab or library computers. If the privacy settings on the browser is set to not accept cookies, students will be unable to use CE3 until cookies are allowed.

To allow cookies in Internet Explorer (this problem doesn't occur in Mozilla FireFox), do the following:

  1. Go to Tools and select Internet Options
  2. Click on the Privacy Tab
  3. Move the slider to Medium
  4. Click "Apply" then "OK"
  5. If need be, contact the lab administrator to allow the CE3 URL

This should allow the user to access CoursEval™ 3.0, however, it may only last for that session depending on the practices of your Lab or Facility Administrator. This problem is generally only an issue for people using Internet Explorer who are hosted or piloting.

The CoursEval™ Team prefers the use of Mozilla FireFox.

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We use MS Internet Explorer™ to access CoursEval™ 3.0 and sometimes we can't get to it. What is wrong?

The problem is likely related to the settings in Internet Explorer. Mozilla FireFox is the preferred browser for CoursEval™ 3.0. If the privacy settings on the browser is set to not accept cookies, students will be unable to use CE3 until cookies are allowed.

To allow cookies in Internet Explorer (this problem doesn't occur in Mozilla FireFox), do the following:

  1. Go to Tools and select Internet Options
  2. Click on the Privacy Tab
  3. Move the slider to Medium
  4. Click "Apply" then "OK"
  5. If need be, contact the lab administrator to allow the CE3 URL

This should allow the user to access CoursEval™ 3.0. This problem is generally only an issue for people using Internet Explorer who are hosted or piloting.

The CoursEval™ Team prefers the use of Mozilla FireFox.

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When should I run my enrollment import?

You should run the enrollment import after your school's drop-add period has passed and the course enrollment data is more accurate.

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Why am I getting a "Response Buffer Limit Exceeded" error when I run large reports?

By default, the IIS web server will only return around 4 MB of information to the user. Your server administrator can alleviate this behavior by increasing the response buffer size in the IIS configuration.

Below are the steps needed to make the needed change:

  1. Stop the IIS web server.
  2. Open c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\metabase.xml in a text editor.
  3. Increase the AspBufferingLimit parameter value to a higher number. The default value is 4 MB. We recommend doubling this.
  4. Restart IIS after saving your changes to metabase.xml.

Note: This change can also be made without stopping IIS if the configuration allows you to edit the metabase while IIS is running. To make metabase.xml write-able, you will need to go to the IIS control panel, right click the server, select properties, and check off the box that says "Allow changes to MetaBase configuration while IIS is running".

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Why are my Comparative Reports are showing none found?

The response set used on surveys were set up was with the Graphing Option "Show Frequency of Responses (Raw Count)". Change the response set to the Graphing Option, "Graph Average Value of Responses" and the Comparative Reports will work.

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Why are my Comparative Report questions so long ? They are taking up a lot of space on the page!

For long questions, go to the Question Manager and add a short version of the question. The short version will appear on the report but when hovered over the entire question will appear.

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What happened to my closed surveys? I went to send a group e-mail to closed surveys and not all of my surveys appear in the list.

A survey will be available for a group e-mail up to 90 days after the close date. After the 90 days are up the survey will no longer appear on the list.

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Why are my graphs not appearing when I have graphs selected?

If graphs are not being displayed in an eTalus application, verify that DCOM settings for the graphing engine are correct. To do this, follow the steps below:

  1. In a command window or the Start > Run box, type: dcomcnfg
  2. When the Component Services screen loads, expand the 'Component Services' menu in the left frame to 'DCOM Config' and locate 'gfx.gfx' in the list.
  3. Right click 'gfx.gfx' and choose 'Properties' from the menu
  4. Click on the 'Identity' tab and verify that 'The launching user' is selected.
  5. Click on the 'Security' tab. Under 'Launch and Activation Permissions', click 'Customize' and verify that the Internet Guest and Launch IIS Process accounts for the local machine are in the list of allowed users. Both of these accounts must have the Allow boxes checked for 'Local Launch', 'Remote Launch', 'Local Activation', and 'Remote Activation'
  6. Save the changes and close the 'Component Services' form.
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Why are my imports not appearing?

If you are trying to import and, on the second step, nothing appears in the import columns, it is likely you have left a column empty in your CSV file.

Please check your import file for empty columns and feel free to contact us for further assistance.

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What size should my student/faculty pictures be?

When adding pictures, their size should be no larger than 200 X 200 pixels.

It is also a good idea to keep the name of the file as small as possible to make it easier to reference in the database.

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I am using external authentication, are there any special values that I need to set up in the import file to correctly import my faculty and students?

The most important import value concerning authentication is the user name. The user name imported into CoursEval has to match the user name in the directory service or SSO exactly, but it's not case sensitive. The password is only significant if the school thinks there might be a lot of users who will have to use internal authentication. Otherwise, any value can go into the password field.

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I added a Department Administrator after a survey was active. Why can't they see results for the survey?

Department Administrators must be attached to Department(s) before surveys are activated. If the department administrator is added after the survey is active, he/she will not be included in any of the group e-mails associated with the current survey, he/she will be included in the e-mails for future surveys.

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My CSV file is dropping the leading zero's in my import file, what do I do?

    If the zeros are not being displayed in the import file, follow these steps:

  1. Select the column that the leading zeros should be in (Clicking on the column header is fine).
  2. Select 'Cells' from the Format menu.
  3. On the 'Number' tab, select 'Custom' from the list.
  4. In the Type field, replace "General" with 0's that match the length of the field (example student ID is nine digits, then the 0's would be 000000000) and then click 'Ok'. This will put back the leading zeros when you save the file back to CSV that Excel initially stripped off.
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My Results Access icon is missing on the Survey List page, what do I do?

    If the icon is not being displayed your server administrator will have to:

  1. Navigate to the c:\etalus\web\eti\ folder
  2. Look for a file named 'feedbackbutton.gif'.
  3. If this file is not found, download the file CoursEval Images
  4. Unzip the file into the c:\etalus\web\eti\ folder.

The following error occurred when I tried to access any of the CoursEval 3.0 portals -2147417842 (0x8001010e)

    This error is the result of a conflict between ASP and another ISAPI-based technology on the server.

    To explain: The new version of CoursEval is ASP-based; the old one was a straight ISAPI implementation. By default, all applications run with 'shared' or 'medium' application protection on IIS, which means they share some memory space. Since ASP is an ISAPI filter, it doesn't play well with other ISAPI-based technologies, like our NexIIS server, Perl, or PHP unless one is set to run in its own memory space on IIS.

    It is likely the old NexIIS version of CoursEval is the cause since there does not seem to be an IIS redirect set up for the old URL. Unless there is a reason why you cannot set up a redirect to the new version of CoursEval, I suggest you do this now. The eTalus Control Center normally prompts you to set one up, but there are certain scenarios where it cannot do this and doesn't try to avoid problems with other applications on the host server.

    Follow the steps below to set up the redirect in IIS:

  1. Log onto the server and open the IIS Management Console.
  2. In the left pane, expand the folders under the web site hosting CoursEval, (probably "Default"). There should be a /scripts/ folder in the list. Right-click on the /scripts/ folder and choose "Properties" from the menu.
  3. On the "Virtual Directory" tab, choose "A redirection to a URL" from the radio option set at the top of the page.
  4. In the "Redirect to:" text box, enter: /etw/ets/et.asp$Q
  5. At the bottom of this form, check the box labeled "The exact URL entered above" and leave the other two unchecked.
  6. Click the "Apply" button and then the "Ok" button to close the form.
  7. Close the IIS Management Console.
  8. Restart IIS by executing the following line in a command window or at the "Start > Run" prompt: iisreset
  9. Go to your old NexIIS index page (http://www.yourschool.edu/nexiis.php) and try any of the three links to the CoursEval application portals. You should see the URL change to point to the new, ASP-based version.

    10. For example, the link: http://www.yourschool.edu/scripts/nx.dll/nx3.nx.dll?nxappid=WCT&nxmid=start will automatically change to http://www.yourschool.edu/etw/ets/et.asp?nxappid=WCT&nxmid=start

    If you still have problems even after the redirect has been set up, there is another application on the server causing the ISAPI conflict. In order to make sure all ISAPI applications can exist in harmony on the server, one of them has to be run with "Application Protection" set to "High (Isolated)" in the IIS MMC. I can tell you how to do this if necessary, but I think setting up the redirect and restarting IIS will solve the problem.

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After completing the eTalus installation, clicking on a link to access an application creates a program error message.

    After completing the eTalus installation, clicking on a link to access an application creates a program error message, it is possible that the appropriate permissions could not be set by the eTalus Control Center. To make sure this is not the problem, verify that the web server's IUSR_machinename and IWAM_machinename accounts both have 'modify' rights to the eTalus folder and all files/sub-folders.

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Clicking the link to the application does not bring up the login page.

    If clicking a link to the application does not bring up the login page, please Verify that ASP is enabled in IIS if the school is running Windows Server 2003.

  1. Open the IIS Manager
  2. Go to the Web Service Extensions tab.
  3. Highlight 'Active Server Pages'.
  4. Click the 'Allow' button on the left.

    5. Check the security settings on the c:\etalus\ folder and all sub-folders. The IUSR_ and IWAM_ accounts need 'modify' rights for that directory and all subfolders and files. The eTalus control center should have verified this, but that may not be the case.

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Moving eTalus to a New Server.

    Follow the directions below to move a working copy of eTalus from one server to a new one. If you have any questions or problems, please contact Academic Management Systems.

    Step 1: Archive the current, working version of eTalus and its applications on the server from which you are moving eTalus.

  1. Log onto your current web server as —"Administrator" or as a user with Administrative rights.
  2. Stop the web server.
  3. Zip the c:\etalus\root folder and all sub-folders.(Note: "c:\" is just an example drive. It may have been installed it on another drive on your server.)
  4. If your eTalus applications depend on images stored on the current server, such as pictures of faculty or students or your school's logo, you should also zip the folder where these files are stored on your web server. For example, c:\inetpub\wwwroot\images\.

    Step 2: Install eTalus on the new server, replace installed files with those from the old server, configure eTalus.

  1. Log onto the new server as – "Administrator" or as a user with Administrative rights.
  2. If you are running Windows Server 2003 and running IIS, ASP is not enabled by default. To enable it, you must open the IIS Manager, go to the Web Service Extensions tab, highlight "Active Server Pages", and then click the "Allow" button on the left. This must be done before you run the installation program.
  3. Copy the zip file(s)you created in Step 1 to the new server.
  4. Download the appropriate installation file. If you are using CoursEval, use the URL below. For other eTalus applications, please contact AMS Support. http://www.academicmanagement.com/etalus/dist/ce3setup.exe
  5. Run the installation program.
  6. Unzip the archive you created on the old server over the top of the \etalus\ folder created by the installer. This will replace the default configuration files and databases with those specific to your site.
  7. If you zipped image files on your old server, you should unzip those to the appropriate location now. If your image folder on your old web server had a non-standard name/location, you will need to create the folder first and make sure your web server can see it.
  8. Choose eTalus Control Center from the Start >Programs menu.
  9. When the eTalus Control Center opens, you will get a message that it is going to install the application service. Click "Ok".
  10. The eTalus Server Setup screen will appear. Your domain should have been transferred from the old server. If it was not or it will be different for the new server, enter it now. If you have multiple web sites on your server, you can also choose the web site onto which you want your application's (virtual) root folder created. Click the "Save" button at the bottom of the form.
  11. Select "Update Index Page" from the "eTalus Server" menu. When you are prompted to preview the page, click "Yes".
  12. After the eTalus Index Page loads in your browser, click the one of the application links. You should be presented with a login dialog. Log in using any valid user name and password from your old server. If you get a program error before or following the login prompt, please verify that the server's IWAM_machinename and IUSR_machinename accounts both have 'modify' rights for the .\etalus\root folder and all sub-folders.
  13. Verify your eTalus application is connected to the correct database by reviewing the contents of several program screens.

Function argument value, type, or count is invalid.

    Windows Server 2003 users need to get the updated control center right after running ce3setup.exe and to put it into the etalus root folder Updated Control Center Download

When my faculty and students log in they see a page that says 'Test User' instead of thier page, what is wrong?

    Go to Survey, Survey Site Set Up and make sure that there is a user name and password in the Test Mode Login area.

How do I get all the surveys I need to appear in the comparative report?

    The Comparative Reports are still in a Beta phase and we are continually working on improving them. This solution is a work around that will help generate the report for specific surveys, courses, or faculty. The search can be used as a filter to locate specific surveys, courses, or faculty with the same name or string of letters. If your surveys are named very differently, you may want to add a character or number to the beginning of the survey name to make searching easier.

How do I restart the service status?

    Check the service status under the Admin menu.If it is not running have your server administrator type the following from a command prompt on the server, hitting {enter} after each line:

What is the difference between the "Save as Default" and "Save Settings" buttons on the evaluation report options page?

    "Save Settings" only applies to the survey selected in the "Survey" filter at the top of the page. If this is ever clicked, it will create custom report settings for that survey only. Once this is done, any "Default" report options will not affect that survey.

    "Save as Default" will only save those settings for surveys that have not already had settings saved. If the "Options" have ever been opened for a survey and the "Save Settings" button has been clicked, the "Save as Default" will never affect settings for that particular survey. The dialog box that comes up when you click "Save as Default" explains this. It states:

    "Are you sure you want to save the options on this page as the default settings for ALL surveys?

    Note: This only applies to new surveys and existing surveys for which no report settings have been saved."

    If the "Save as Default" or "Save Settings" buttons did not work in the way described above, every time "Save as Default" was clicked it would overwrite the report options for individual surveys, which makes the ability to save specific options at the survey level useless.

    This is very important to know: If you have selected "Show All" from the survey list, only the "Save as Default" button will appear at the top of the Options page. The "Save Settings" button will not appear because it doesn't know the survey for which you are trying to save individual settings. It will look like you have saved those options for all surveys, but if a survey already has specific settings saved, , those settings will not affect them.

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How can I avoid Group Emails going to "SPAM"?

In order to avoid CoursEval e-mails from going to spam we recommend that customers ‘white list’ the CoursEval IP address. If you are hosted on our servers please contact a CoursEval product specialist for the IP address of your server.

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What message gets sent when someone requests their username or password?

The default message “Log-in Information” is the message that is sent to faculty and students that forget their password. Merge fields that include course information should not be used in this message.

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Can I edit my questions?

Questions changed in the Question Manager will change the question throughout CoursEval, including all past and present surveys. AMS recommends only making minor grammatical edits, if they are necessary.

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What do I do if my e-mails aren’t sending?

If e?mails are not sending please check the Admin, Service Status menu. Clicking this option will open a page that displays if the service is active (running) or inactive (needs to be restarted.)

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What is the Published Deadline?

Make sure when creating a survey that the “Published Deadline” is changed to the day the participants will see the survey closing. The "Published Deadline” can be edited by clicking on the survey name.

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