[ale] Linux Help Desk Call Apps?

Dow Hurst dhurst at kennesaw.edu
Thu Nov 6 13:12:54 EST 2003


How does this application differ from WebCT?  Is WebCT not opensourced?  
I don't use it and am not familiar with it, but it is heavily used in 
the University System here in GA.  We have lab quizzes, online tests, 
and teacher/student forums that are all done thru WebCT.  I'll pass on 
more info if interested,
Dow


James P. Kinney III wrote:

>That is where my app was headed. It supported a series of quizes
>selected randomly from a test bank that was used for pre-lab "force the
>student to read the lab book" testing. During the lab, the students
>logged into the online lab notebook to record their observations and
>data. If they had not taken the pre-lab quiz, they were locked out. The
>final lab report page was sent by email as a PDF to each student in the
>lab group.
>
>The admin pages were still in development and are not ready for use by
>anyone but a perl wizard :) Basically, the admin pages will allow a
>teacher to design a lab notebook using modules (text entry, data forms,
>data processing, graph box) and build multiple lab types from the basic
>framework. The second admin page build test bank questions based on
>topic headings. The 3rd page select topic heading for each quiz so that
>quiz content can be modified quickly. The student data is tracked so
>that the teacher can get the exact quiz and question/answer layout that
>the student got.
>
>It desperately needs to be rehacked to use a database instead of the
>flat files that were getting unwieldy to maintain. There is also the
>need for some javascript to add for some specialized error trapping and
>to make the spreadsheet a bit easier to use.
>
>A second app-in-progress was a hideous test bank program. Each question
>had 15-30 answers to choose from. Each wrong answer could be arrived at
>by a mistake. This allowed for partial credit on a multiple-choice test.
>It also allowed for every student to get different numbers but basically
>the same test with problems in different orders. It was only the real
>hard-nosed instructors that liked that one. :)
>
>On Thu, 2003-11-06 at 12:01, Jonathan Glass wrote:
>  
>
>>To go off on a small tangent...
>>
>>Something I think would be useful to develop is a web-based testing 
>>system for teachers.  The teachers input the questions and appropriate 
>>answers (or select from a DB), then presents the test to the students.  
>>Once the student finishes the exam, the correct answers appear on the 
>>screen, along with his grade.  The teacher gets a real-time admin screen 
>>showing who has taken the text, average time taken, and pretty graphs of 
>>the grades.
>>
>>A professor at Macon State designed such a system using ASP.Net and 
>>tight Office integration (and he doesn't want to OSS/GPL it).  I think 
>>something comparable from the OSS world would be a help for 
>>teachers..although I'll admit to not having done market research to see 
>>what commercial packages are available.  I've only had professors ask 
>>for this.
>>
>>My $0.02
>>
>>Jonathan Glass
>>
>>James P. Kinney III wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Great point, Dow. I guess I've sat on the web application I wrote at
>>>Emory for providing a web-forms based spreadsheet with graphing and
>>>curve fits long enough. 
>>>
>>>The more stuff that is "out there" the more weight the opensource
>>>process gets.
>>>
>>>On Thu, 2003-11-06 at 11:16, Dow Hurst wrote:
>>> 
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>You may not expect the interest of other people in the code since your 
>>>>being humble.  However, since I've been thinking about open source 
>>>>lately and it's impact on people's lives, I think you may find that your 
>>>>code could be a nice project on sourceforge.  It can grow, if watered, 
>>>>into something businesses would want and would pay support for.  The 
>>>>code can be GPL'd but still companies will pay for support.  I think it 
>>>>is amazing to see the projects that start out like this one and grow 
>>>>into world influencing pieces of software.  Think about the influence of 
>>>>Apache, GCC, and Gimp.  I am in the midst of my first install of Gentoo 
>>>>1.4 and have been thinking philosophically as I watch compilation 
>>>>happen.  I think my Celeron 333MHz laptop will become useful again due 
>>>>to this project.  Gentoo's install isn't that bad either for the benefit 
>>>>down the road.  Just amazed once again at the power of people like you 
>>>>being involved in open source,
>>>>Dow
>>>>
>>>>PS.  There is never enough variety of software.
>>>>
>>>>Jonathan Glass wrote:
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>Oh yeah!  I have a verbal ok to publish the s/w w/a GPL license. 
>>>>>Wesleyan's only request is they get the updates, too.  :)
>>>>>
>>>>>I'm preparing for the GRE over the next 4-6 weeks, but after that I'll
>>>>>have time to publish that code on my web site.  I'm not sure how many
>>>>>people would care to see it, but it will be available.
>>>>>
>>>>>I think I'm going to post my notes on some of my other projects as well
>>>>>(SMB auth via PHP, PDF printer for Samba that acts as a Windows printer
>>>>>and emails the resulting PDFs to the user, etc).
>>>>>
>>>>>Life is good, and information wants to be free!
>>>>>
>>>>>Jonathan
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>     
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>>>A comment you made is why I see Open Source software as inherently
>>>>>>better than closed.  You said you'd post it (given permission, of
>>>>>>course) "after cleaning it up".  If you know no one outside the coding
>>>>>>group will see the source, why make it pretty?  Granted, I'm not a coder
>>>>>>, but I can see that being the case.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Brian
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Jonathan Glass wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  
>>>>>>
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I use Perldesk to catch incoming email to "helpdesk at ibb" and
>>>>>>>"help at ibb"...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I wrote WesHelpDesk for Wesleyan College that does all the required.  It
>>>>>>>interfaced with Exchange 5.5 via LDAP for user info, NT 4 for
>>>>>>>authentication, and a local smart-relay for outbound email and paging.
>>>>>>>ALl ticket updates automatically get sent to the end-users, and
>>>>>>>escalations get sent to the Director.  Because everything is MYSQL
>>>>>>>driven,
>>>>>>>the Director is able to use ODBC to generate usage/tracking reports.
>>>>>>>Pretty cool 6 month project...earned me As for 2 different classes (DBA
>>>>>>>and Web Design).  :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>If anyone wants to look at it, I'll ask the Director for permission to
>>>>>>>GPL
>>>>>>>it, and post the code somewhere (after cleaning it up a bit..of
>>>>>>>course!).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Thanks
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Jonathan
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>    
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>              
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>All,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>It would be nice to put a computer to catch help desk calls, log them,
>>>>>>>>email them to techs, or have the system page them etc. etc.  I seem to
>>>>>>>>rember reading a review in Linux Journal. Anyone remember which one?
>>>>>>>>Any
>>>>>>>>one successfully putting a computer box to catch the initial calls?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Regards,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>John
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>Ale mailing list
>>>>>>>>Ale at ale.org
>>>>>>>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>                
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>    
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>              
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>>>Ale mailing list
>>>>>>Ale at ale.org
>>>>>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  
>>>>>>
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>>>>>     
>>>>>
>>>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>>Ale mailing list
>>>>>Ale at ale.org
>>>>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>>>     
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Ale mailing list
>>Ale at ale.org
>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>    
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Ale mailing list
>>Ale at ale.org
>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>    
>>

-- 
__________________________________________________________
Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428            *
Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744            *
1000 Chastain Rd. Bldg. 12                                 *
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:   dhurst at kennesaw.edu   *
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com *
Kennesaw, GA 30144                                         *
************************************************************
This message (including any attachments) contains          *
confidential information intended for a specific individual*
and purpose, and is protected by law.  If you are not the  *
intended recipient, you should delete this message and are *
hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution *
of this message, or the taking of any action based on it,  *
is strictly prohibited.                                    *
************************************************************




More information about the Ale mailing list