Melange
During the Contest
Viewing a Task
You can view all the tasks for all the organizations for which you are a mentor on the My Dashboard -> All tasks for my organizations page.
You can then view a task by clicking on the name of the task in the list.
Accept the Task
You can also create a new task for your organization by visiting My Dashboard -> Create Task.
Your task must be approved and then published by your Organization Administrator before it will become publicly viewable and available for Students to claim. Once it is published and publicly viewable, the Student can click on its name in the task list, view the task, and then request to claim it. If the Student requests to claim the task you will find the task status change to "ClaimRequested." You can press the Assign button on the task to assign the task to the Student and approve the request.
The Student can then work on the task for the amount of time allowed as per the task's "Time to Complete." The task will remain in the "Claimed" status and the clock on the task will mark the amount of time left to finish the work on the task.
If the Student does not complete the task in the allotted amount of time you can choose to extend the deadline for the Student by using the Extend Deadline button on the task.
Once the Student has uploaded work to the task you will receive an email notification that the work is ready for review. The email will include a direct link to the task so you can view the uploaded work. The Student has one of two options when uploading work: they can upload a file (which you can then download by clicking on the file's name on the task) or they can provide a URL for the work. If they provide a URL it will appear as a clickable link on the task. In either case the work will appear in the "Uploaded Work" section and the task's status will appear as "NeedsReview."
If you approve of the work the Student has done on the task you can Mark Task as Closed to complete it. If the task needs more work you can click the Needs More Work button on the task to send it back to the Student for improvement. If you ask the Student to improve their work you will want to give them some guidance as to what you want added/changed, etc. either by posting a new comment or chatting with the student directly on your IRC channel.
In addition to viewing the full text of the task and using the options mentioned above you can also:
- Unassign Task: If you believe the Student won't complete the task or has claimed it in error, you can unassign the task from the Student. Please don't use this option lightly.
- Leave a Comment: You can leave public comments for the Student directly on the task. Melange also leaves automatic comments when a task changes status. You must give the comment a Title (it is a required field) so maybe ' Need to be more specific on documentation' or such. If you do not enter a title for the comment and you then enter the text for your comment and press submit, all of the text will be gone and you will have to start writing your comment and title again.
You will receive email notifications of comments on the tasks you are a Mentor for and/or those that you have subscribed to receive mailing list notifications for. You can unsubscribe from these email notifications by pressing the Unsubscribe From Updates button on the task.
Please note that if you choose to edit a task after the task has been published, you can edit most of the properties.
