CSC 216 F09/ProblemTalk

ProblemTalk

by Sean Bartell and Andrew Felsher

The problem

Rather than teaching a specific subject, we created a tool that a teacher can use to create answerable questions in order to teach whichever subject (s)he wishes. We created a web application and put it at the following URL:

http://problemtalk.wtachi.us/

Participants and props

An unlimited number of students can participate simultaneously. One teacher or someone who makes the questions must also participate. Only a computer per teacher and per participant are required.

The script

The teacher creates a number of multiple-choice questions with answers by going to the above URL and using the "New Question" and "New Answer" tools. The teacher should then share the URL of the question with the students.

When the participants answer the question, they are grouped into chat rooms where they can discuss their answers. The teacher will see all messages, and can send messages that will be seen by everyone who answers the question.

There is currently no method for creating an account on the web site, so each user is simply identified by a number.

Example

You can see an example question by going to http://problemtalk.mine.nu/questions/slug/binary-search/. If you answer the question on different computers or in different browsers, you may end up in a chat room with yourself, so you can test it. Also try going to http://problemtalk.mine.nu/ and creating your own questions.

Our website would be most useful in cases where there is no physical classroom (i.e. an online class), but everyone is taking the class at the same time. However, it could be extended to assign students to chatrooms based on whether they got the right answer, or to allow students to move between chatrooms until they found someone who could explain the answer to them. With additions like these, this website could be useful even in a normal classroom.