dotLRN Homework Package Design Document

Introduction

The dotLRN Homework package provides a dropbox for students to upload homework files and for professors, teaching assistants and other graders to upload their comments and corrections to such files. The user interface is very similar to that provided by the standard file storage package, with the result that users already familiar with that package will find the Homework package very easy to learn. The Homework package is designed to be mounted under each dotLRN class instance, and creates a separate root folder for each class.

Administrators can make subfolders in class homework dropbox folders. Typically this will be used to create a separate subfolder for each homework assignment.

Administrators can ask to be notified by e-mail when a student uploads a new homework file. Likewise, students are notified when a comment or correction file is uploaded by a grader.

Students can only access homework files they've uploaded themselves along with each file's associated comments and corrections files.

Two applets and their associated portlets are provided:

User applet

When added to a class home portal page students will see a list of folders and links to homework files they've uploaded for the class. In addition a link is provided that allows students to upload a new homework file.

Administrators (professors, etc) see a collapsed view which displays a single link to the homework folder display page for the class. We choose to do this because administrators are able to see homework files uploaded by every student in the class. The resulting list of folders and files in a large class with a number of homework assignments will be too long to display on a crowded portal page.

Admin applet

The admin applet allows administrators to enable or disable e-mail alerts sent when a student uploads a new homework file.

In addition several display pages are provided to view or download file revisions, to view or download comment files associated with a particular homework file, to delete files, move them from one subfolder to another, and so forth. The actions that are available depend on whether the user is a student or administrator.

Implementation

The implementation is based on the standard OpenACS 4 File Storage package. The requirements and design documents for the File Storage package apply directly to the dotLRN Homework package.

The dotLRN Homework package differs from File Storage mostly in the actions that are made available to various classes of users and by the fact that the content repository's item-to-object mapping functionality is used to map a set of zero or more comment/correction files to each homework file. Actions are restricted by use of the acs permissions system. The user interface has been modified slightly to simplify the uploading of comment/correction files by graders.

ad_form is used to build forms in the dotLRN Homework package. This means that the look and feel of all the forms generated by the package can be changed by creating a single new form template file.