Help: Using Broadening Participation in Computing Portal

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why did you start the BPC Portal?
The portal was designed to serve three communities: current NSF grantees of the BPC program and prospective grantees. The digital library serves this community as well as all teachers, students, faculty, and outreach leaders interested in increasing he number of underrepresented graduates in the computing disciplines, with an emphasis on women, persons with disabilities, and minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders).

What kinds of materials can I find in the BPC Digital Library?
You can find promising practices, key research, courseware, videos, classroom and laboratory activities, lesson plans, assessment tools, case studies, educational games, personally or socially meaningful assignments,inclusive teaching methods, relevant curriculum, bridge courses, best practices for peer and tier mentoring and other resources for both K-12 and Higher Education teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders.

Is there a cost for using the BPC Digital Library?
No. Some resources may require a fee in order to access them, but all of BPC Digital Library's services are free of charge.

How big is the BPC Digital Library?
There are over 1,500 resources associated with Broadening Participation in Computing. There are several difference collections that are accessible in the BPC Digital Library. The ACM Women in Computing has close to 1,000 resources. The BPC targeted collection of reviewed resources has approximately 400 resources. Users can also draw upon over 10,000 educational resources catalogued in the Engineering Pathway digital library.

Where do the entries in the BPC Digital Library come from?
All cataloged entries have been submitted to the BPC Digital Library's collection by registered users from the computing and engineering education community.

How do I contribute resources that I have developed into the BPC Digital Library?
First, become a registered user by clicking on "Register", located at the top right of every page. Your email address will be your User Name/Id. If you are already registered, click "Sign In" located at the top right of every page. From the main menu, select BPC Digital Library >> Catalog. BPC Alliance and BPC Demonstration Project resource records should be completed using the links to the corresponding NSF-funded project forms. Other resources associated with Broadening Participation and Computing Diversity - Promising Practices, papers, software, case studies, exercises, outreach activities, etc. - should be completed using the general BPC Collection form. Select the appropriate link and follow the prompts to complete and submit the form.

How do I take ownership of my project resource?
Many of the BPC projects have been submitted to the portal by a cataloger. Before you can edit and manage a project, you must register (see above) and take ownership of the project resource by registering as its author. We'll need your registered User Name/Id (your email address), and the BPC Digital Library resource title and URL associated with the project. To find the project resource page, browse the Projects page or search the BPC Digital Library. Email Paul Mackinney with the relevant information.

How do I edit my project resource page?
To make changes to the title, description, or any portion of your project resource page, you must be a registered user with ownership of the project resource page. (see above). Sign in and then locate your project resource page. You will see the "Edit" link in the upper right of the body of the page. Select "Edit" and follow the steps to make, preview and save your changes. You will also see links to "Create New Project Profile" and "Link Project Profile" for the Match-Maker Service (see more below).

What is the BPC "Match-Maker" Service?
Our Match-Maker Service links potential BPC (Broadening Participation in Computing) proposers and new users to more experienced members of the BPC community. It also links currently funded NSF BPC grantees with potential grantees to fill a gap in the existing programs through new collaborative proposals, and enables resource sharing, recruitment, and dissemination opportunities. Each individual activity, workshop or service associated with a project should be listed as a separate Match-Maker Project Profile; a project may have many profiles, but each profile will be linked with a single project. All users may browse or search project profiles. Registered users may create project profiles for a project resource of which they have ownership (see above).

How do I create and link a project profile with my project resource?
There are two ways to create and link a project profile to your project resource: The most direct way to create and link a single profile is to go to the project resource page of which you have ownership (see above), and click on "Create New Project Profile" in the upper right of the page. Follow the steps to complete and submit the project profile form. The submitted profile will be linked to your project resource. The second way allows you to create one or more profiles and subequently link them to a project. From the Match-Maker Page, select "Create a New Project Profile". Follow the steps to complete and submit the project profile form. Remember, all profiles must be associated with a project, so after creating the profile, go to your main project resource page and click on "Link Project Profile". From this page, you will be able to select one or more profiles you have created to link to your main project resource.

How do I contribute news and events relevant to the BPC community?
The news items appearing in Latest News and the events listed in BPC Events have been reviewed by the editors of the BPC Portal. We encourage registered users to go to those pages to submit news or submit events related to Broadening Participation in Computing. We ask that you search the existing news and events before submitting to avoid duplication. Simply complete the form(s) and submit. Upon approval, items will be published to the Latest News or BPC Events.

How is the BPC Digital Library different from doing a Google Search?
We provide high-quality educational materials in engineering, computer science, and technology fields. Unlike a Google Search, searching the the BPC Digital Library will increase the search relevancy to high quality resources that have been reviewed. You can also focus your search over specific fields, like learning resource type (e.g., lectures, images, courses, curricula, lesson plans), age level, and ABET disciplinary subject.

What are the copyright policies governing the reuse of images, graphics, animations, and other resources available through the BPC Digital Library?
Because the BPC Digital Library aggregates materials developed by a wide range of content providers, each resource carries its own policy for reproduction and/or reuse of content. In many cases, the content authors anticipate "fair use" for educational purposes with proper attribution. As with any web resource, it is always best to contact the author before going beyond "fair use" in publicly displaying any text, animation, image, or other content owned by others. In some cases rights information is displayed on the resource description page.

What does it mean to "Register"?
Registered Users are able to submit resources to the BPC Digital Library, contribute BPC relevant news and event items, access a "My Workspace" to track favorite resources, and use our Match-Maker Services. As the BPC Digital Library undergoes future development, we are looking forward to adding increased personalization in "My Workspace".

What is "My Workspace"?
"My Workspace" is a place for registered users to keep track of favorite resources. While viewing a resource, you can click "Save To Workspace" and have the resource added to your Workspace. "My Workspace" also keeps track of all resources you have submitted.

Will my registration information or author email be kept private?
Yes. We do NOT display or release registration information or emails of authors outside of the community of the BPC Digital Library developers. We do not spam authors or registered users. We may send out occasional messages about new services or let authors know the usage statistics of their resources. This email is kept to a minimum. In fact, it has been less than one a year. We only use the email address of authors to contact them on occasion about usage information. We do, however, aggregate usage information using commercial software. We will not release explicit usage information to any private or government agency as a matter of principle.

What is courseware?
Courseware consists of digital instructional materials or tools used to support the teaching and learning processes. These digital learning resources (courseware) can encompass any knowledge area and may include, but not be limited to, one or more of the following: material for instructor-led classes, material for self- directed computer-based education, interactive tutorials, educational games, encyclopedic works, videos to support specific courses, enhanced case-studies with supplementary information, distance and asynchronous learning materials, and collections of raw image, sound, or other multimedia materials that can be integrated into learning modules. Well-designed courseware will also include facilities for assessing individual student progress in obtaining knowledge from the materials as well as assessment of the effectiveness of the use of the materials by other educators/ learners and the ability of the educational community of users to adopt and adapt the materials to their learning environments.

Troubleshooting:

The site stalls when I try to submit a resource; has the resource been cataloged or not?
There are two ways to verify that your resource has been cataloged: visit your workspace or check your email; if the resource has been cataloged, it will be available in your workspace, and an email verifying your status as author of the submission will be sent to you. The source of the submission stall is being investigated, and we apologize for any inconvenience. We would greatly appreciate an email report of any occurance of this problem.

Why do I get an empty search results error when I try to view results beyond the first page?
To correctly view search results beyond the first page, you need to allow the Broadending Participation in Computing portal to set cookies in your browser. Please see the instructions below for your browser:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer
    See Microsoft website for details.
    1. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
    2. Click the Privacy tab, and then click Edit.
    3. In Address of Web site, type "needs.org".
    4. Click Allow to accept cookies from the Broadending Participation in Computing portal.
  • Mozilla Firefox
    1. Click Options on the Tools menu.
    2. Click the Privacy icon, and then click on the Cookies tab.
    3. Check "Allow sites to set cookies" to allow use of cookies for all sites.
    4. If you just want to allow the Broadending Participation in Computing to set cookies, uncheck "Allow sites to set cookies" and then click "Exceptions".
    5. In Address of Web site, type "needs.org" and then click "Allow" to accept cookies from the Broadending Participation in Computing portal.
  • Macintosh Safari
    1. Click on the Safari menu.
    2. Click on the "Preferences..." item in the menu - a new window opens.
    3. Click on the Security icon near the top of the window.
    4. Under Accept Cookies check "Always" or "Only from sites you navigate to".
    5. Close window.

I'm having trouble logging in. What should I do?
Internet Explorer privacy settings can interfere with the login process on the Broadending Participation in Computing portal. Try the following:

  1. Launch Internet Explorer
  2. From the Tools menu, click Internet Options
  3. Click the Privacy tab
  4. Select an internet zone setting no higher than Medium High by adjusting the slider
  5. Click Apply
  6. Click Okay

...and sometimes Google Web Accelerator can interfere with the login process on the Broadending Participation in Computing portal. If you are running Google Web Accelerator and after entering your login details it doesn't get past the next screen try the following:

  1. Right-click on the Google Web Accelerator icon in your system tray. Choose 'Preferences...'
  2. In the textfield for 'Don't Accelerate These Sites' type: .bpcportal.org (including the dot at the beginning)
  3. Click 'Save Preferences'

If your issue isn't resolved you can also try stopping Google Web Accelerator while you use the Broadending Participation in Computing portal.