This set of files will generate a series of 'prelecture
preparation pages' for a course.  The idea is to provide
objectives, reading assignments, learning resources, and
an on-line quiz prior to each lecture in class.  The goal
is to increase student's preparation and allow class 
discussion to take place at a higher level.

Quick Start
1) Create a list of the days that lecture will occur (like in
the example file 'spring2001').  The format is 
  20010131
 (yearmonthday)

2) Run setup 
  ./setup spring2001  
With no flags, the script will simply print out a list of 
dates -- make sure they are getting parsed correctly.

3) Run set up again 
  ./setup -f spring2001  
This will copy the file 'template' and put it into the
directory 'pdays'.

(optional step)
4) Run setup with the -c flag to add an appropriate
link into a web-event calendar.  You will need to modify
the info that gets put into the calendar.

The Course Preparation system is now ready to use.  
You use the system by modifying the appropriate files
in pdays, checking to see how they look with pindex.phtml,
and then moving (or copying) the file from pdays into days
(which it becomes visible to the students).

The prep system assumes you will be using Duck for an
on-line quizzing engine, but it should be easy to hack
it to use any system.  You can find Duck here:
  http://bcrc.bio.umass.edu/projects/duck/

If you have any questions about the course preparation
system (or Duck), send email to:
  duck@bio.umass.edu

or contact me directly:
  Steven D. Brewer <sbrewer@bio.umass.edu>
  Biology Department
  University of Massachusetts
  Amherst, MA 01003


prep was written by Steven D. Brewer.  I would like to 
acknowledge Steve Goodwin, who came up with the idea
for the system and used it during the first semester of
trials.  prep was written with the support of a grant from
The Center for Academic Tranformation and the Pew Charitable
Trust.

prep is Copyright (C)2001  Steven D. Brewer

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

prep is distributed under the GNU General Public License.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.