SOLMateDirections

RCPS SOLMate Editing Directions
Updated 6/5/06

www1.rockingham.k12.va.us

Registered User | Edit/Add Questions | General Hints | Special Formatting Directions | Creating/Adding Graphics

Creating/Adding Reading Passages | View Assessments | Create Assessments | Assessment Reports

To use this site, you can log in with the same username and password that students are instructed to use.

In order to add or edit questions, you must become a registered user. When you select to become a registered user and fill in the form, a request is e-mailed to Joe Hill to allow you to become a registered user. After he approves your application you can add new questions and edit existing ones according to the directions below.

Please keep in mind that SOLMate is not a commercially-available program. It was written by Rob Lineweaver, a former employee of Rockingham County and Harrisonburg City Schools. And it is still a project in progress; expect enhancements to the program to continue.

Registered User Screen:

Sign in as a registered user (use your e-mail address as your username).

You should see a screen with this on the left hand side:

To Edit/Add Questions:
Choose the subject for which you want to add or edit a question and click on the Go button.

If you choose to add a new question, you’ll get a screen like this one:

If you choose to add a graphic, you’ll see this screen:

If you choose to edit a question, you’ll see this screen:

General Hints for Entering Problems to SOLMate

To see some good sample questions, review the SOL Released tests.
Put spaces between operations and before and after the = sign. For example, enter a problem as 12 + 5 instead of 12+5 As another example, enter 2x + 7 = -12 instead of 2x+7=-12.
Put zeros before all decimals between 0 and 1. For example, use 0.12 instead of .12
Do not use “none of the above” as one of the choices. Make the three incorrect choices answers a student would most likely get if he worked the problem incorrectly.
Remember that expressions are simplified whereas equations are solved. For example, you should say "Simplify 4(5 - 3)" instead of "Solve 4(5 - 3)" whereas you should say "Solve for N: 2N + 1 = 13"

Directions for Underlining, Exponents, etc.

Underlining
If you want something like this: Select the best answer.
Enter the text like this: Select the best answer.

Bold facing
If you want something like this: Which answer is in lowest terms?
Enter the text like this: Which answer is in lowest terms?

Italicizing
If you want something like this: In the book Rita Comes to America
Enter the text like this: in the book Rita Comes to America

Combining bold, italics, and underline
If you want something like this: Which is the best answer?
Enter the text like this: Which is the best answer?

Exponents
If you want something like this: Compute: 6²
Enter the text like this: Compute 62

Subscripts
If you want something like this: What is another name for H₂0
Enter the text like this: What is another name for H20

Fractions
Fractions can either be entered horizontally, such as 2/3 + 1/2 or you can use an equation editor, such as the one that comes with Word, to create them as graphics. And you can find many fractions in the graphic library. These would be uploaded as graphics.

Aligning columns
It is not easy to align columns, such as in a column addition. Perhaps you should just make your problems be stated horizontally.

Adding Graphics to SOLMate Problems

Adding graphics from the Internet to SOLMate problems

Use a graphic search engine such as Google’s Image Search to locate a graphic appropriate for your problem. Make sure you are not using a copyrighted image.
With the image on your screen:

On a Windows computer, right-click
On a Macintosh computer, click and hold until the window pops up

Select to Save Picture As
Your picture should be saved as a .jpg or .gif file and it is a good idea to name it with the appropriate suffix. Also, be sure to save it in a location you can easily navigate back to, such as your desktop.
The picture is now ready to be uploaded into SOLMate.
You can now select to add the graphic to a new SOL question. This is done, as with all graphics/documents, by selecting to Add a New Question then clicking on the "Add Image Document or Link" button.
Next, select to Browse to locate your file.
As instructed, please enter a short description for the file then select Upload.
As instructed, choose where you want the graphic to be placed.
Note: you won't see your graphic at this point. Finish the question then select to try it out to make sure everything looks the way you want it.

Adding graphics from a screen capture.

One way to add a graphic is to take a screen shot of a graphic that is on your screen.
With the entire graphic visible on your screen, press Apple-Control-Shift-4. The cursor turns into a crosshair. Highlight the graphic then release the mouse button. What happens is that the computer takes a picture of the highlighted area and puts the image into its clipboard.
Open AppleWorks and select to do a new Drawing document.
Under Edit, select Paste and the screen shot you took above will be dropped into the AppleWorks drawing screen.
Select to Save Picture As
Your picture should be saved as a .jpg or .gif file. It is a good idea to name it with the appropriate suffix. And be sure to save it to a location you can easily navigate to such as your desktop.
The picture is now ready to be uploaded into SOLMate.
You can now select to add it to a new SOL question. This is done, as with all graphics/documents, by clicking on the "Add Image Document or Link" button.
Next, select to Browse to locate your file.
As instructed, please enter a short description for the file then select Upload.
As instructed, choose where you want the graphic to be placed.
Note: you won't see your graphic at this point. Finish the question then select to try it out to make sure everything looks the way you want it.

Adding graphics from ClarisWorks/AppleWorks

Open AppleWorks and select to do a new Drawing document.
You can make your own drawing using the tools on the toolbar or you can open clip art from the library/clippings.
If you want to combine two or more graphics, be sure to select all of them and then group them to a single drawing using the Group option under the Arrange menu.
Save the drawing using the Save As option. Be sure to change the file format to JPEG or GIF. And be sure to save it to a location you can easily navigate to such as your desktop.
Now it is ready to be uploaded to SOLMate.
You can now select to add the graphic to a new SOL question. This is done, as with all graphics/documents, by selecting to Add a New Question then clicking on the "Add Image Document or Link" button.
Next, select to Browse to locate your file.
As instructed, please enter a short description for the file then select Upload.
As instructed, choose where you want the graphic to be placed.
Note: you won't see your graphic at this point. Finish the question then select to try it out to make sure everything looks the way you want it.

Adding graphics from MS Word to SOLMate problems

This is a little tough, but certainly possible. Open MS Word and select to Insert a picture. You can use any of the following:
- Clip Art
  Autoshapes
  Word Art
  New Drawing
Locate or create the graphic you want to use.
Save your Word document.so you can return to this document later if you want.
Select to save it again, but this time select to Save as Web Page. Be sure to save it in a location you can easily navigate back to, such as your desktop. When Word saves this as a web page, it creates a folder with your graphic in it. It will probably be named something like image001.gif. This file (NOT the webpage) is what you need to upload to SOLMate. You should rename it before you upload it to SOLMate.
You can now select to add the graphic to a new SOL question. This is done, as with all graphics/documents, by selecting to Add a New Question then clicking on the "Add Image Document or Link" button.
Next, select to Browse to locate your file.
As instructed, please enter a short description for the file then select Upload.
As instructed, choose where you want the graphic to be placed.
Note: you won't see your graphic at this point. Finish the question then select to try it out to make sure everything looks the way you want it.

Adding Graphics to SOLMate from a library of images

There is a library of images you can use in SOLMate at this website:

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/MathGraphics/index.html
The images are in alphabetic order.
Locate the image you wish to use. With the image on your screen:

On a Windows computer, right-click
On a Macintosh computer, click and hold until the window pops up
Select to Save Picture As
Your picture should be saved as a .jpg or .gif file and it is a good idea to name it with the appropriate suffix. Also, be sure to save it in a location you can easily navigate back to, such as your desktop.
The picture is now ready to be uploaded into SOLMate.
You can now select to add the graphic to a new SOL question. This is done, as with all graphics/documents, by clicking on the "Add Image Document or Link" button.
Next, select to Browse to locate your file.
As instructed, please enter a short description for the file then select Upload.
As instructed, choose where you want the graphic to be placed.
Note: you won't see your graphic at this point. Finish the question then select to try it out to make sure everything looks the way you want it.

Adding Reading Passages to SOLMate Questions

Adding a Reading Passage to a SOLMate question by taking a screen shot on a Macintosh computer

One way to add a reading passage is to take a screen shot of a passage then add the passage as if it were a graphic. This works well for relatively short passages.
With the entire text visible on your screen, press Apple-Control-Shift-4. The cursor turns into a crosshair. Highlight the text then release the mouse button. What happens is that the computer takes a picture of the highlighted area and puts the image into its clipboard.
Open AppleWorks and select to do a new Drawing document.
Under Edit, select Paste and the screen shot you took above will be dropped into the AppleWorks drawing screen.
Select to Save Picture As
Your picture should be saved as a .jpg or .gif file. It is a good idea to name it with the appropriate suffix. And be sure to save it to a location you can easily navigate to such as your desktop.
The picture is now ready to be uploaded into SOLMate.
You can now select to add it to a new SOL question. This is done, as with all graphics/documents, by clicking on the "Add Image Document or Link" button.
Next, select to Browse to locate your file.
As instructed, please enter a short description for the file then select Upload.
As instructed, choose where you want the graphic to be placed.
Note: you won't see your graphic at this point. Finish the question then select to try it out to make sure everything looks the way you want it.

Adding a longer passage to a SOLMate question.

Paste your text into an Appleworks blank word processing document.
Select to Save As and save the file as HTML. This saves the file as a web page. Be sure to save it where you can easily find it such as your desktop.
You can now select to add it to a new SOL question. This is done, as with all graphics/documents, by clicking on the "Add Image Document or Link" button.
Next, select to Browse to locate your file.
As instructed, please enter a short description for the file then select Upload.
When you see this screen, type in something like you see below. This tells the student how to get to the reading passage.
When the student gets to this problem, he'll see something like this:
Note: you won't see your document at this point. Finish the question then select to try it out to make sure everything looks the way you want it.

If you choose to View Assessments

From this screen you can make an assessment active or inactive, print the assessment, and edit it. You cannot edit assessments which others created. You can also delete your own assessments on this screen.

If you choose to Create Assessments

Assessments you create will be available to all users of SOLMate. To take an assessment, students need to know the Assessment ID and your e-mail address.

Assessments are created in sections. A section is a single problem if you choose the first option whereby you specify the exact question to be asked. Or, a section can be multiple problems if you choose the second option and instruct SOLMate to randomly select more than one question.

If you choose to View Assessment Reports

Select the grade level and subject then you will see the following screen. The types of reports are self-explanatory.