Presentation Tool

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This "presentation tool" is similar in concept to the signup tool, but, while the signup tool allows the students to "take" unnamed fixed-length time slots, this tool allows them to take named resources that aren't explicitly tied to any particular time. The expectation is that it will be used to allow the students to volunteer to present papers in class, but other uses can be envisioned.

This tool makes these assumptions:

• Presentations are collected in named groups. For example, a group of presentations might be named "week one" or "process migration." There can be up to five presentations in a group, and up to twenty-five groups.
• Or- there are presentations, and there are named groups, but the presenter makes the association- for example, offering to present a particular paper of her choosing at a particular class meeting of her choosing.
• There is only one set of presentations active for each course.

• Each presentation is "taken" by one student.

• A list of students enrolled in the class is provided by the instructor in a flat file in the course web. This file has the same name and format as that used by the signup tool. (This isn't required; students can also type their names into a text field if they aren't in the list, or if the list doesn't exist).

There can be up to twenty-five named groups, and there can be up to twenty-five named presentations. There is no magical reason for these limits other than the desire to keep the configuration screens reasonably sized.

Preparing to Use the Tool

To use the tool, you must create a configuration file and copy it to your web. The configuration file is created using the tool itself by following this link. The key configuration information you will provide is the names of the presentations and groups. The tool will guide you through the details of creating and copying the file. You can also edit an existing configuration file from that screen.

N.B.: The configuration file is a binary file, and you cannot edit it by hand, no matter how careful you are. Trust me on this one.

In order to create a pick list of student names, the tool will need a list of them. That's a text file in the course web called .htstudents with each student name on a separate line. For example, for CSE666 you would create a file called /cse/www/education/courses/cse666/CurrentQtr/.htstudents. (The web server must be able to read that file, but is configured not to serve it directly to web users.) If this file doesn't exist, students can just type their names into a text box.

Using the Tool

To use the tool after the configuration and (optionally) student list files are created, create a link in your course web to /htbin-post/unrestricted/education/presentation. For example, the instructor of CSE666 would edit /cse/www/education/courses/cse666/CurrentQtr/index.html to contain a link that might look like this: <a href="/htbin-post/unrestricted/education/presentation">sign up to present a paper in class</a>. It's important that the link be from some file in the course web, because that's how the tool knows what course is being served. For example, it won't work to provide the link from your home page, because your home page URL doesn't hint at what course you are teaching.

Students who click on that link will be able to see what presentations are available and select from those. Or, if you've configured it this way, both what presentation to present and when to present it.

Renouncing a Reservation

Renouncing an existing reservation is slightly complicated. You have two choices:

• If you link to the tool as /htbin-post/unrestricted/education/signup/admin, students themselves will be able to both make and break reservations. This approach is highly recommended.

• If you prefer to control the renouncing of rservations youself, contact me and I'll explain how to do it. (It involves creating a link like the one above, but putting authentication on it.)

Security

In the Fullness of Time, the tool may be modified to work with the CSENetID auth scheme so that students can use their own passwords to authenticate. If there is a demand.

Play with It

A course web for the fictional course CSE666 has been created as a place to hang examples of the educational technology tools like this. Click here to go there. You can volunteer to present papers there in order to see what the tool looks like from the viewpoint of the users. There are links to both the "renouncable" and unrenouncable screens. This particular version is configured to require presenters to select both the paper and the session they plan to present.

Go to Educational Technology.

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