CompSci 316 (Fall 2013):
Introduction to Database Systems

Index

• Introduction
• Signing up
• Logging in
• Additional information

Introduction

Gradiance is a system pioneered by Prof. Jeffrey Ullman. It offers many advantages over traditional written assignments. Given one "root question," Gradiance can generate different instances of this question. Therefore, you are permitted to test yourself on the same root question as many times as you like, and receive immediate feedback for each attempt. Gradiance also has a lab component that automatically tests your solutions on different inputs. Hence, it avoids the shortcoming of the traditional submit-and-then-wait-for-grades assignments where one error in understanding can permeate solutions to multiple problems and does not get rectified until much later. We encourage you to continue testing on each topic until you complete the assignment with a 100% score. For each Gradiance problem set or lab, your score is the highest score achieved as of 11:59PM on the due date.

Signing up

Follow the instructions on creating your account in the Gradiance Student Guide.

Logging in

Point your browser to http://www.newgradiance.com/services, and log in. If this is the first time that log in, enter the class token FDA6F544 to sign up for this class. From this point on, the class will be listed automatically as one your classes (at the top of the Web page) as you log in. Click on it to continue.

Additional information

You might want to read the rest of the Gradiance Student Guide before starting your first Gradiance assignemnt. This document is very short and provides very useful hints on how to approach Gradiance-style multiple-choice questions.