2014-12-06 Announcement – Org-edu-HTML

This is more or less a copy of a message on the Org-mode mailing list I posted there some time ago.

I started working on a custom exporter from Org to HTML for educational materials. My vision is that there will be (some kind) of syntax in Org (most probably, I’m going to (ab)use the existing syntax) for specifying various kinds of exercises.

The project page is on GitHub. It is currently (still) in a very early stage, when it should be considered more of a proof-of-concept rather than anything useful (though I am going to actually use it in a few days for a real project). What currently (sort of) works are: single and multiple choice tests and cloze tests.

The design goals are:

• simplicity: users should be able to leverage Org’s syntax and editing to quickly create educational materials (most of what is needed is provided by Org itself – the only thing that is lacking is activities like choice tests, cloze tests and other types).
• configurability: the result should be clearly separated into HTML (with all the content), JS/jQuery script responsible for executing tests (if possible, completely generic – all the content and markup, like which answer is correct, will be in the HTML), and CSS responsible for visual presentation. Currently, there is no CSS whatsoever, so it looks rather plain; I plan to create a default, non-appalling theme. (The problem is that I’m rather new to the CSS and JS/jQuery parts, so I’m learning while coding – this means that it’s neither a fast nor effective process. But I’m patient.)
  A side effect of putting everything in HTML is that C-u in the browser will reveal all the correct answers. I consider this a feature, not a bug, since the aim of the tests is not to grade, but teach. AFAIU the web (though I may well be mistaken), there is no way to overcome this problem with HTML and JS alone anyway.
• two backends: I plan to create also a LaTeX variant, so that it would be easy for users to create printed copies for e.g. exams, with the choice tests, cloze tests etc. typeset nicely, with an option to include all of the answers (for the teacher’s copy). Again, the LaTeX exporter would do the bulk of the job.
• hopefully, a SCORM exporter, so that the users will be able to put everything in an LMS of their choice. (This is the main reason I started hacking the org-one-to-many project, which is currently dormant – but I will come back to it one day.)

As of now, the project just has everything in one directory, together with the example Org file (jQuery v2.1.1 minified also needs to be present there, or the variable org-edu-html-jquery-address should be set accordingly). If anyone is interested in such a project, any feedback (like bug reports/feature suggestions) is welcome. I would especially like to hear about what syntax might be a good idea on the Org side. (My limited experience from this and one other project, where I use Org to prepare e-learning materials shows that Org-mode might, alas, be not the best choice for that, though it definitely has its advantages, too.) Currently, for the choice tests I abused lists with checkboxes (which mark the correct answers). Also, any comments on the quality of the code (both on the Elisp and jQuery sides) are more than welcome – while I feel quite confident writing (at least simple) Elisp functions (though have yet much to learn from more experienced hackers), my jQuery experience is next to none. And last but not least, I’m curious whether there is any demand for such a thing (I assume it’s possible, since many Org users come from academia).

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