GCI Melange

During the Contest

During the contest the Organization Administrator is responsible for the following:

  • Adding Tasks to the Task List as needed (minimum of 25 tasks at all times)
  • Monitoring the list of Tasks to make sure Mentors are reviewing submitted tasks promptly (under 36 hours)
  • Answering questions 
  • Covering any Mentor absences  

Workflow 

 A brief overview of how the task process works (in Melange):

  1. Organizations Administrators create tasks for Students to perform and assign at least one Mentor to each task.
  2. Tasks must contain a descriptive title, tags (C++, UI, documentation) and descriptions of the tasks so that Students can understand what is entailed in completing the task.
  3. Students sign up for a contest profile using a Google Account - See the Section on profiles within this manual.
  4. Students search for tasks by clicking on Search for Tasks on the homepage, and reviewing the list on the "Tasks" page.
  5. Students requests a task from a Mentoring Organization.
  6. Mentors assign claimed tasks to Students.
  7. Students work on their tasks under the guidance of the Mentors assigned to each task.
  8. Students then submit the work through Melange. The Mentor assigned to the task will then receive an email that the task is ready for review. 
  9. Mentors then review the task, marking the task as "closed" or "needs more work". If the task needs more work, the Mentor should submit a comment to the Student on what needs to be fixed/added. 

Organizations have the ability to use a group notification email where all Mentors and Organization Administrators receive notifications when a new task is claimed or ready to be reviewed. 

Assigning Mentors

Organization Administrators can assign Mentors to a task by selecting the Mentor from the Assigned Mentor drop down on and clicking on the Submit button. The Organization Administrator can change the assigned Mentor at any time by going to the desired Task, clicking on the Edit Task button in the top right corner and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose a different Mentor from the Assigned Mentor select list.

Mentors appear in the Mentor drop-down list on a proposal only after they have toggled the "Wish to mentor" switch on the proposal to "yes." The Organization Administrator can also add multiple Mentors to the proposal by clicking on the Add Mentors link below the Mentors drop-down menu.

Reviewing student tasks

Go to My Dashboard -> All tasks for my organizations. From this list, Organization Administrators can sort the list by opened tasks so that they can see all of the tasks that are available. The states of a task that are visible are: open, closed, re-opened, unapproved, unpublished,needs review. The Organization Administrator can click on a task from the list and see the work product or post a comment using the Post new comment button.

Organization Administrators can review a Student's work if a Mentor is unavailable. Melange allows any Mentor from the Mentoring Organization to review Student work and mark it as "Complete" or "Needs review."

Can I send a bulk email / "form letter" from Melange?

In general "No", except for the email sent by Melange to people requesting to be a Mentor or Organization Administrator for your organization.  

How do I delete a Mentor?

Contact a Contest Administrator. 

Can we customize Melange for our organization's workflow? 

There are several ways to customize the Melange workflow for your organization, all of which can be found on your organization profile, readable from the Edit link on your organization homepage. Customizations include:

  • The message to display when someone requests to be a Mentor/Organization Administrator of your organization
  • Extra fields that you can use to store additional data on Student tasks 

Do I have to work in Melange? 

Yes. Everyone participating is required to work within Melange. You are welcome to file bugs and feature requests, but please do not expect immediate change. Any Organization Administrator, Mentor and/or Student who refuses to use Melange should be removed from the contest.