יום שני, דצמבר 08, 2008

Computer based testing

About 6 months ago I encountered an interesting web based system for managing and running exams via the computer. It was TCExam and it got me in an excellent timing.

I was running an introductory Linux and free-software course for a group of teachers (which was organized by the tireless Yael Talmor) and we were looking for a final project we can give them. However, most were non-technical users.

So we decided to let them translate TCExam to Hebrew:
  • They only need short explanation and can use gedit for that.
  • They are bound to use Linux for that (it's UTF-8 encoded and doing conversion to windows would be more difficult for them than simply use the desktops we installed during the course).
  • They may have direct benefit for their school (TCExam server).
  • Either way, it would help other school projects in Israel.

It took them longer than I was hoping for, but they collectively did some 3/4 of the job. In the last days I finished the rest (most of it, ~10 big strings + cleanups are needed), sent it upstream and packaged the latest and greatest version.

Status:
  • It's still waiting for review (hint, hint...)
  • There are some minor problems (e.g: the front page of the admin interface have some formating problems I didn't have time to debug yet).
  • However, it's usable.
  • Grab the RPMs for F10: tcexam, tcexam-selinux, tcexam-mysql, tcexam-postgresql
  • Packagers for other distros (Debian?) you may want to look at the spec file.
Comments/flames etc. are most welcome (especially if they refer to the specific problems reported by rpmlint or the package design issues I mention in the review request.

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