Instructions for Using Electronic Bluebook (EBB)

Information for Students Using Electronic Bluebook™ (EBB) at Duke University School of Law.
Summer 2008 Exams
Updated July 22, 2008

Contents:

Technical Requirements
Downloading and Installing EBB
Starting EBB
Finishing Your Exam and Exiting EBB
Submitting Your Exam If You See the YELLOW screen
Features of EBB
If You Have a Problem During the Exam
Tips for Successfully Using EBB
Additional Information

1. Technical Requirements:

Electronic Bluebook requires your computer be a PC which uses Microsoft^® Windows XP^®, Microsoft Windows Vista^®or Windows 2000^® as its original and primary operating system. Windows regional settings and keyboard input settings must be set to English - U.S. For assistance with those settings, see our instructions. EBB may not be used on any other Windows version. Except as otherwise noted below, you may not use Electronic Bluebook on a Macintosh computer.

Limited use of Apple MacBook computers conditionally permitted for summer term. Apple released the Leopard version of OS X in October, 2007. Leopard includes the release version of BootCamp, which allows users to boot Windows XP or Vista on a MacBook computer. Earlier beta versions of BootCamp have expired. Students who wish to use their Macintosh to take exams within the law school must install Windows XP or Vista on top of Leopard/BootCamp, and must boot the computer into Windows in order to use Electronic Bluebook. EBB may only be used in conjunction with a computer that is using BootCamp to directly boot Windows. It may not be used with any emulation software running on top of Mac OS X. Students must bear the cost of purchasing a copy of Windows to run over BootCamp.

Your computer must be able to connect to the Internet during the exam, with either a wired Ethernet connection or a wireless network connection. For optimal performance we strongly recommend you use a wired Ethernet connection. EBB will upload the final version of the exam to a law school server and you will not need to furnish a diskette.

2. Downloading and Installing EBB:

(a) You must install the spring semester release of EBB. The spring semester version is being used for summer exams. Do not use any prior version of EBB. If you have an earlier version installed on your computer, please remove it using Add/Remove Programs on the control panel. You should download and install the new version not later than one hour before you enter the exam room. In order to download, first complete the registration page and then you will redirected to the download page. If you are a student from another law school who does not have a Duke NetID, please contact Computing Services to obtain the software.

(b) Before allowing you to install EBB, this web site will require you to verify that you have read and understand both this document and the Law School’s Procedures for Taking Exams on Computer, available on the web at http://www.law.duke.edu/curriculum/examonComputer

(c) If you are using the Windows Firewall or any third party desktop firewall program such as ZoneAlarm or Kerio Personal Firewall you must either turn off the firewall program before starting EBB or instruct the program to allow EBB to transmit its file. We strongly recommend the latter so your computer is not unprotected. You will find instructions for each of these programs here: Windows Firewall, Zonelabs Zonealarm, McAfee Virusscan, and Kerio Personal Firewall. The program you wish to enable is "ElectronicBluebook.exe." After you enable the program test EBB to be sure it can save exams to our server. Otherwise your exam may not be saved to the network. Macintosh users should check their firewall settings to be sure it does not block the exam upload. In any case do not run more than one firewall program.

(d) Check your computer's power settings on the control panel. Be sure that it is not set to go into "suspend" or "hibernation" during a period of inactivity. If it does go into either mode the EBB program will freeze your computer and you will not be able to use it to complete the exam.

(e) In the exam room, before starting EBB, connect your computer's power cord to the power outlet and verify the power indicator shows the outlet is live and your computer is receiving power.

3. Starting EBB:

After installing EBB on your computer, open the program to acquaint yourself with it and to make sure that it is working properly. You will be asked to enter your student exam number, and to choose your course and section number from a drop-down list. When you make the choice the class name and instructor name fields will automatically populate.You will also be prompted to enter the number of questions you will be answering. You will not be allowed to proceed to the typing screen in EBB until you have entered all of this information. When the proctor give you the instruction to begin, select the Start Exam button and confirm the number of questions. The exam word processing screen will then open. Windows Vista users will first see an additional screen requesting permission to make a registry change. Select the "Continue" button or you will not be able to use EBB. Likewise, Vista users will go through the same process when they close EBB.

Before starting EBB during an actual exam, close all open programs. Disable the "on access" scanning feature of your anti-virus software. Be sure to re-enable it when you have completed the exam. Connect your computer's power cord to the power outlet and verify the power indicator shows the outlet is live and your computer is receiving power

We recommend that before you take a real exam, you take a practice exam using the scripts we have provided. Please note that EBB saves your exam answers in an encrypted format, and so you will not be able to open and review any sample exams that you type.

When you take the actual exam, the professor will determine if it will be “blocked” or “unblocked” on the EBB system. During blocked exams, EBB will prevent students from accessing any files other than the EBB program, including word processing files and the Internet. During unblocked exams, no such restrictions will be in place. Your professor should inform the class in advance whether the exam will be blocked or unblocked and if there are any restrictions on non-electronic sources such as textbooks, notes, outlines, etc. Selecting “unblocked” for a “blocked” exam will be considered a violation of the rules regarding Student Professional Misconduct.

4. Finishing Your Exam and Exiting EBB:

When you are done with your exam, click the Finish Exam button at the bottom of the typing screen. (Don't worry if you accidentally click the Finish button during your exam because you will be given a chance to return to your exam on the next screen.) You will notice either a green or yellow screen after you exit. The green screen means that the exam was saved to your computer and to the school network. The yellow screen means either it did not save on the network, but it will inform you that the exam has been saved to your computer's hard drive.DO NOT WORRY IF YOU RECEIVE THE YELLOW SCREEN, BECAUSE YOUR EXAM HAS BEEN SAVED TO YOUR COMPUTER. Please let the proctor know if you received the YELLOW screen. You then will submit the exam as instructed below. EBB will automatically record the start and end time for your exam.

5. Submitting Your Exam if You See the YELLOW Screen:

In some cases Electronic Bluebook will not be able to upload the exam to the network:

(a) In the unlikely event of a network or server problem, students will find that EBB cannot upload the exam to the network.

(b) If firewall software, including the McAfee VirusScan Access Protection Module, is not configured to allow the program to transmit the file it may block EBB from connecting to the network.

(c) The wireless network may be congested during exams. For this reason we recommend using a wired Ethernet connection while using EBB.

In any of these cases students should follow the following procedure:

1. Save the exam answer and exit EBB when the proctor calls time at the end of the exam period; and,
2. Within 1 hour following their completion of the exam, e-mail the copy of their exam answer automatically saved on their computer hard drive by EBB to ExamDeposit@law.duke.edu pursuant to the instructions below.

Students will find the exam file on their local hard drive that holds Windows, usually drive C:. Open the folder named "Program Files" and inside that open the folder named "Electronic Bluebook." E-mail the exam file for that exam. You can determine which file is the correct one by examining the name of the file and comparing it with the date and time you completed the exam. The first part of the file name is your student ID number, the second part is the course and section number as you entered it, and the third part of the name includes the date and time the file was saved. For example, if your student ID number is "123456" and you completed the exam for section 000_00 on December 3rd at 11:15 AM, the file you would e-mail will be named "123456--000_00--Dec-3 11-15-00.enc".

6. Features of EBB:

Automatic Backups. EBB automatically saves a backup copy of your exam answer to a file on your computer’s hard drive every 30 seconds. This backup file can be recovered from your computer later if necessary (e.g., if the disk with your exam on it becomes lost or corrupted).

Cut and Paste. EBB will allow you to cut and paste text within the program, but not to copy it to multiple locations. To cut and paste, select the relevant text by holding down the left mouse button and dragging across the text. Press CTRL X to cut. Move the cursor to where you wish to paste the text and press CTRL V. These are the standard Windows keystroke combinations for cutting and pasting. Alternatively you may use the cut and clipboard buttons on the toolbar.

Undo and Redo Buttons. EBB provides Undo and Redo functions, located at the top of your typing screen. Use these functions to restore any part of your work that you accidentally delete. The Undo and Redo functions will work to restore up 10 prior actions or keystrokes.

Tabbed Windows for Questions including Word Count. The program will give you a separate tabbed window for each question. That window will display line count, page count and word count for that question. You can easily move among questions by selecting the appropriate tab.

Exam Identifier. EBB automatically places your exam identifier and course information on each page of your exam. There is no need for you to type this information on each page of your answer.

Automatic Timer. EBB provides a timer, page counter, line counter, and word counter so that you can keep track of your time and place in the exam.

Function Buttons. EBB allows you to underline, bold, and italicize text using the buttons at the top of the typing screen. In addition, the standard keys on your keyboard for punctuation will work as normal. EBB will not, however, allow you to use function keys or macros, and when running in "Blocked" mode EBB will not allow you to access the Internet or other applications. .

Exam Questions Not Contained in EBB. The exam questions are not contained in EBB. You will be given a paper copy of the exam to work from just like the non-typing students. Unless instructed otherwise, you should return the exam questions to the proctor when you finish your exam.

7. If You Have a Problem During the Exam:

If you experience a computer problem that prevents you from continuing to type in EBB you may choose one of these three procedures:

(a) You may immediately obtain a bluebook from the proctor and complete your exam by hand. In this case, you would notify the Registrar's Office or the Office of Student Affairs of the equipment malfunction immediately following the exam.

(b) You may restart the computer and restart Electronic Bluebook. If your computer crashed without properly shutting it down, when you restart EBB it will offer you the option to recover your work. If you do so your work completed prior to the failure will then be available in the file.
(c) If your computer fails and you wish to seek immediate technical assistance, you should notify the proctor. If the proctor is not in the room, you should notify the Registrar's Office. Either the proctor or the Registrar's Office will contact Computing Services staff for assistance. Continue writing the exam in a bluebook until and unless instructed otherwise by the proctor or Registrar's Office. Computing Services staff will report to the room as soon as they are available. A staff member will remove the computer to another area and examine the computer. The staff member may request you to accompany him or her to assist with diagnosis. Staff will spend up to fifteen minutes diagnosing the problem. The staff member will then return the computer to the student in the exam room, and will inform the proctor whether the student may resume using the computer or should complete the exam using a bluebook. The student shall receive up to fifteen additional minutes to complete the exam to account for time spent assisting in diagnosing the computer problem.

8. Tips for Successfully Using EBB:

Be certain your computer is functioning well. If you are aware of any problems, have them fixed before the start of exams.

Close Other Applications. Although it is not likely that leaving other applications open while working in EBB would cause any problem, we recommend that you close other applications before working in EBB just to be safe. We also recommend that you turn off any screen savers from third-party providers (i.e., a screen saver that did not come loaded on your machine).

Consult Law School Policies on Taking Exams with a Computer. Please review the general policies for taking exams available at http://www.law.duke.edu/curriculum/examonComputer.html.

9. Additional Information:

No Editing After You Exit Your Exam. Each time you open EBB, a new exam file is created. EBB does not allow you to go back and edit prior exam files because the files are encrypted for security purposes. However, if your computer crashes it will allow you to recover your work and continue working when you restart the program.

EBB works only with Windows XP^®, Windows Vista^®, or Windows 2000^® operating systems set to the English-United States language and region. If you have a foreign version of Windows installed on your computer, contact Computing Services to make sure your computer is set up properly.