The VISTAS E-SAM is the electronic version of the printed VISTAS Student Activities Manual. It delivers the entire Workbook, Laboratory Manual, and Video Manual online with automatic scoring, plus it includes the complete Laboratory Audio Program. Projected availability of the instructor's part of the E-SAM where instructors can view their students' scores by individual or by classes is December 31, 2001.

Technical Requirements and Other Basic Operating Information

1. You must have Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher for Windows or Macintosh installed on your computer. If you don't, you should access Microsoft's Web site at www.microsoft.com/downloads/ to download it for free. The E-SAM will not work on any versions of Netscape or any versions of Internet Explorer lower than 5.0.

2. Your computer must have a standard audio card in order to use the E-SAM. If it doesn't have one, you should contact your school's tech support staff or customer service of the company whose computer you use (Dell, Compaq, Gateway, IBM, etc.).

3. Macintosh users must have QuickTime 4.0 or higher in order to play the Laboratory Activities' audio files. PC users must have Windows Media Player 6.4 or higher, and Windows Media Player must be set to include MP3 as a format.

PC users only: If you have problems playing the audio files, open Windows Media Player on your computer's hard drive and use the following electronic path to go to Windows Media Player (this path may vary from computer to computer): Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment> Windows Media Player. Once you open Windows Media Player, use the following electronic path to make sure you can play audio files in MP3: Tools (in the top menu) > Options > Formats tab. In the list under the Formats tab, make sure there is a check mark in front of MP3.

4. The VISTAS video modules are not part of the E-SAM and cannot be accessed in the E-SAM by PCs or Macs. This is due to bandwidth limitations currently inherent in the delivery of content online over the Internet.

The easiest way to watch the video footage while doing video activities in the E-SAM is to put the VISTAS Video CD-ROM in your computer's CD-ROM drive and switch back and forth between the Video CD-ROM and the E-SAM.

It is not recommended that you go to Vistas Interactive on the vistasonline.com web site to view the video modules in each lesson's Fotonovela section. The complete video modules (dramatic segment + Resumen for each lesson) are not available on the web site. In addition, the speed with which you can access and view the parts of the video modules that are on the web site will vary widely by connection times, memory capabilities, download times, etc.

5. If you experience difficulty opening an exercise or downloading a page, instead of assuming that the server is down or is having problems, first try refreshing the page by pressing F5 or Control R.

6. Important basic operating information: Each time you finish an item in an exercise in the E-SAM, you must press "Enter" on your computer's keyboard to confirm it. If you don't press "Enter," your answer will not be recorded in the E-SAM, and you will not be able to take advantage of the E-SAM's features (feedback about you answers; submitting your answers to your instructor; reviewing what you submitted, etc.)

Registering for the VISTAS E-SAM

Students and instructors register for the E-SAM exactly the same way. For first-time registration, each person will need a unique 16-character registration code provided by Vista Higher Learning. For security purposes, the E-SAM can detect the difference between student and instructor codes, so it is important that instructors use instructor codes only and students use student codes only.

Instructions for First-time Registration

1. Go to Vistasonline.com and access the Electronic Student Activities Manual page through the Index, the Student homepage, or the Instructor homepage.

2. Click on the link to the complete VISTAS E-SAM.

3. When the E-SAM's sign-in page appears, click on "First time product registration. Sign up here."

4. Complete the Profile Information and Account Information. It is strongly recommended that you keep a record of all information you fill in, but especially the sign-in name and password you enter into Account Information. You will need them every time you sign into the E-SAM in the future.

5. Finish registering by entering your unique 16-character registration code. Type the first four characters in the first box, and use the Tab key to move to the next box, where you type in the second set of four characters, etc. (The code is case-sensitive, so be sure the Caps Lock key on your keyboard is not depressed. Also, you must enter your registration code exactly as you received it, without typographical errors. In addition, if a letter is uppercase, you must enter it as uppercase; if a letter is lowercase, you must enter it lowercase.) When you have finished and have double-checked to make sure that you have accurately entered your code, click on the "sign in" button. You are now a registered user. You should discard your unique registration code because it will not work again.

Instructions for Signing in as a Registered User

1. Go to Vistasonline.com and access the Electronic Student Activities Manual page through the Index, the Student homepage, or the Instructor homepage.

2. Click on the link to the complete VISTAS E-SAM.

3. When the E-SAM's sign-in page appears, enter the sign-in name and password you provided in Account Information during first-time registration.

4. For students only: Click on the "sign-in" button and the homepage for the VISTAS E-SAM will appear.

5. For instructors only: You will see a screen with separate "instructor" and "learner" (student) buttons.

• Click on the "learner" button to go to the homepage of the VISTAS E-SAM. You can then access the entire E-SAM exactly as a student would. You can do the exercises and get familiar with all of the functions that your students will use.
• UNDER CONSTRUCTION. PROJECTED AVAILABILITY 12/31/01. Alternatively, click on the "instructor" button to go to instructor-exclusive part of the E-SAM where you can view your students' scores.

How Instructors View and Monitor Students' Scores in the E-SAM

The Instructor's part of the VISTAS E-SAM is currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION with a projected availability of December 31, 2001. At that time, your students' names will be linked to you as an instructor so you can quickly and conveniently call up your students' scores by class and/or by individual students.

IN THE MEANTIME, this is how Vista Higher Learning recommends that you monitor your students' work in the VISTAS E-SAM:

1. Have your students continue to complete exercises in the E-SAM so they are taking advantage of the technology and benefiting from computer feedback on their work.
2. When students finish an exercise, they should hit the Finish button.
3. They should then hit the Print button and print the exercise.
4. They should then hit the Report button to see the error analysis and other information about their results on the exercise.
5. They should then hit the Print button and print the Report screen.
6. They should then staple the printed Report and exercise together with the Report screen on top and pass it in to you. If you prefer, they could also write your name and the course's section number on the Report.

In addition, on PCs, your students can also take a print screen of an exercise or report, open a graphics program such as Paint, paste the print screen into Paint, and save it as a file. They can then e-mail that file to you. It is strongly recommended that students zip these files before they e-mail them because of their large size.

Where Help Screens Are Located in the E-SAM

Once you have successfully registered for the E-SAM and begin using it, you can access help information in three places if you are a student and in four places if you are an instructor:

• on the home page of the student section of the E-SAM in the screen called "General information about the VISTAS Electronic Student Activities Manual and a·c·e"
• in the student section of the E-SAM under Contents > Vistas > How to do an exercise
• under the Help button that appears in the top right area of the E-SAM whenever you are not in an exercise screen.
• UNDER CONSTRUCTION. PROJECTED AVAILABILITY 12/31/01. For instructors only: on the home page of the instructor section of the E-SAM in the screen called "General Information about the VISTAS E-SAM Instructor site"

Contacting Vista Higher Learning with E-SAM Questions

If you have any questions or need help with the VISTAS E-SAM, please contact your local sales representative or e-mail us at e-samsupport@vistahigherlearning.com.