CSILM+New+Features


 * Features we would like added**

CURRENT 1 [low priority] (10/8/09) Video clips in instruction part of CSILM. How hard is this? You can embed video in web pages like you can in other web pages. Use the code view of the wysiwig editor or the HTML Editor option.

3. [low prioirty] (10/8/09) We would like USU students to be able to login with their A# and USU password. This authentication API can be acquired from Scott McAllist in SER 322.

4. [high prioiroty] (10/8/09) Ability to parameterize the applets at the time we create them - via a GUI interface. (now it is possible, but takes manual intervention). We need documentation on how to do this.

Joel says; The system supports this and about 1/3 or the NLVM applets support it, via applet parameters and XML files. If you want applets you upload to support it you will need to write them to support it and I will need to add the ability to specify that they support it when uploading the applets. I'm guessing that it would take me 4 hours to implement my part and 4 hours to document the details needed to interact with it. The current system uses xml files to specify applet parameters, so developers would need to create and upload those. If we wanted a GUI interface for specifying the parameters I think that would take me another 4 hours to implement. Another option would be to write the applets to use JavaBeans ([]) and make the system introspect. I'm guessing that would take me 4-10 hrs to implement my part. Let me know what you would like to do.

Right now parameters are specified via an XML file having a specific format. So the two issues are: (1) knowing the right format, (2) uploading the file to the right place. At a minimum we could document the format and provide a web interface for uploading the file to the right place.

The system also has the ability to allow applets to save and load arbitrary data (right now our applets use xml). I could give applet creators the ability to do this just by documenting it. Let's get documentation on that. I'm guessing we really need an easy way of specifying the parameters - as I can see almost every applet wanting parameterization.

5. [high priority] (10/8/09) Allow the applet to submit a list of answers (possible repeated) which will be given to the system. These answers are to be saved to (a) the spreadsheet of answers for the class (b) the system (gathering information on applet usage and assessment) Joel: so you would like the applet to be able to send the server arbitrary data, including multiple sends per activity, and for that data to show up in the spreadsheet?

(10/8/09) Our current idea for feedback (on ILM likes/dislikes) is to create a java applet that (a) is parameterized to accept both the student ID and the applet ID from CSILM (b) Asks questions and sends back answers to CSILM to be included on a spreadsheet of feedback. (c) The answers would need to be saved for ALL classes. We need system access to the answers given by the users - rather than teachers getting the survey answers for each class. (d) If a user has logged in, the ID should be saved with the answers. If the student has not logged in, we would STILL like to save their answers to the survey.

6. [low prioirity] (10/8/09) Allow instructions to say, "Would you like to visit this other lesson that would help you?" This can evidently be done by editing the html for the instructions (NOT by inserting an html link), but it would be nice if we had something like a button in the editor which said “go to lesson” and brought up a browse window? An added feature may be to automatically return to the lesson causing the branch.

Known problems: if a lesson moves, the link will break.

OLD 3. Ability to add embedded code to instruction part. (someone else will need to clarify) Russ says: We got the Java applet (Boolean Logic ILM) to load a configuration file so that a starting circuit is loaded as the applet begins. We have not been able to do that within the CSILM framework yet—an applet gets wrapped in some html and we do not know how to work with that yet. At this point, the applet is running from a web page on the csilm machine but not from within the CSILM server itself. Joel says: You will need to either upload the configuration file to the server and specify in applet parameters to load it or create a signed applet that can talk to the local machine. Please email or call me to try to work this out.

6. Chad thought there was some way he could get exe files to run safely from CSILM. We have a few programs (Audacity, Scratch) that work as stand alone applications. If we could incorporate them into CSILM, it would present them in a uniform framework, allow us to include instructions/activites, and avoid the hassle of downloading the code. I have talked to Scratch creators (MIT) who act like they do want to allow an online access, but it isn't there now. You can have a web link to RUN a created scratch program, but not create a new one. Joel says: To execute a local program from a web browser is considered a security risk. I believe you can do it using ActiveX, but then people would have to be running IE I think and would still need to answer yes to a scary warning message. I think a better option is to give instructions for opening a file after it is downloaded. Bob says: USU won't allow it on their servers, but private servers are our control. Vicki says: ? I found instructions for doing so – but it cautions that not all web services will allow it. Chad says: You can run into problems if there is a vulnerability in the server or in the application. We have complete control over the server, so I would just need to make sure it is configured properly. The application, however, is another story. If Audacity or Scratch ever has a vulnerability discovered, then the system could be compromised that way. There are some other ways it might be possible to isolate those, so I think we could probably get it done safely. Let me see if I can find a good solution.