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\label{Author_LON-CAPA_Introduction}

LON-CAPA is a web-based interface that helps to organize and present your
course website, deliver and manage problems, and manage student enrollment, assessment, and grading.
All author functions are done through a web browser (Firefox, Safari, IE or similar).

LON-CAPA has three work spaces: the ROLES menu, the course/community space where courses are developed from resources, and the authoring space where resources are composed and published. There are two user manuals for LON-CAPA, a course coordinator manual and author manual. Also, quick reference guides are available for both manuals at \texttt{http://help.loncapa.org}. This is the author manual used to create resources such as problems that can later be added to your course.

Before creating problems, you should have:

\begin{itemize}
\item developed learning objectives that you want to evaluate for your course/community
\item determined the appropriate question formats and developed your problems for input into LON-CAPA. Examples for question formats are provided in this manual and also when authoring a problem.
\item developed the directory structure that you plan to use to organize your resources
\end{itemize}

\textbf{Overview of the Authoring Process}

Graphics, problems, and html pages are all considered \textbf{resources.} Additional resourses include reusable snippets of perl, xml, cascade style sheets, etc. This manual documents the process to create and organize the more advanced types of resources.

The authoring process involves these steps:
\begin{itemize}
\item create or upload a resource. The resource can combine other uploaded resources such as graphics, code snippets, or problem sequences
\item test and revise your resource
\item publish the resource to make it available for integration into a course/community and/or sharing
\item revise your resources after publishing to improve clarity or eliminate bugs
\end{itemize}

\textbf{Importance of Planning your Directory Structure}

Once a resource is published, it can never be moved or deleted. Thus, it is important to plan your folder structure. Old resources
can be marked obsolete, but they will remain in your folders in the originally published location.

\textbf{Understanding xml and the Colorful Editor}

Problems are written in xml markup, which can appear complex when you first start to work with LON-CAPA if you have not done html or other coding. However, each xml element has a starting and closing argument, just like html. This manual includes a reference on xml markup used to write problems.

The authoring environment includes a 'colorful' web-based editor that can be used for authoring your first problems. Even experts will
often start with the colorful editor to build a template for a problem. It is possible to switch back and forth between the colorful editor and xml when composing and testing your problems. Often simple issues are easier to clean up directly in xml. Also, it is easier to copy/paste xml to 
build additional problem sections compared to using the colorful editor.

\textbf{Scripts}

The power of LON-CAPA for problem randomization and computing randomized answers is realized through writing perl script at the top of a problem. Example scripts are included in many example problems, and most resource authors publish scripts with the problems, so many examples are available. Many special functions have been created to use in scripts. This manual includes a section on writing scripts.

\textbf{Maxima and R}

Two computer algebra systems are interfaced to LON-CAPA, Maxima and R. This provides for algebra and calculus problems and responses. The R system has strong capabilities for statistics. Special script functions are provided to call Maxima and R to generate correct responses for a randomized problem, and also to check student responses.