[sage-edu] class grade book in Sage?
Hi: Just an idea for an education-related Sage project that I hoped others would weigh in on. I use gnumeric to read and write an xls file for my class "grade sheet". This is a roster with columns for quizzes and their average, tests, etc, and the averages are computed using formulas just as one does for excel. Of course, because I like Sage I'd like to be able to do this entirely in Sage. One problem with gnumeric is that there is no mac version I know of. (Of course, one could buy excel for a mac but I don't want to do that.) More importantly though, Sage is more customizable and there are some things that gnumeric lacks. For example, it cannot (AFAIK) print individual records. This is something access does and would be useful for privacy reasons. I looked for a python module which does reading and writing of xls files. I found http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-excelerator http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlrd/0.5.2 # only reads? http://pyxlreader.sourceforge.net/ # only reads? None of this projects is a high priority but I was wondering if others have used any open source software for grading and if so thoughts on if it might be ported to Sage somehow. For example, I know nothing about moodle. Does anyone know if moodle can be used for this? - David Joyner --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
Just a few more links: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlwt and a python-excel googlegroups list: http://groups.google.com/group/python-excel On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:06 AM, David Joyner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi: > > Just an idea for an education-related Sage project that I hoped > others would weigh in on. > > I use gnumeric to read and write an xls file for my class > "grade sheet". This is a roster with columns for > quizzes and their average, tests, etc, and the averages > are computed using formulas just as one does for excel. > > Of course, because I like Sage I'd like to be able to do this > entirely in Sage. One problem with gnumeric is that > there is no mac version I know of. (Of course, > one could buy excel for a mac but I don't want to do that.) > More importantly though, Sage is more customizable and there > are some things that gnumeric lacks. For example, it cannot > (AFAIK) print individual records. This is something access does > and would be useful for privacy reasons. > > I looked for a python module which does reading and > writing of xls files. I found > http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-excelerator > http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlrd/0.5.2 # only reads? > http://pyxlreader.sourceforge.net/ # only reads? > > None of this projects is a high priority but I was wondering if others > have used any open source software for grading and if so > thoughts on if it might be ported to Sage somehow. > > For example, I know nothing about moodle. Does anyone know > if moodle can be used for this? > > - David Joyner > --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
> > > Of course, because I like Sage I'd like to be able to do this > > entirely in Sage. One problem with gnumeric is that > > there is no mac version I know of. (Of course, > > one could buy excel for a mac but I don't want to do that.) You can use it (and I do, rarely) on Mac with X11 installed. I routinely use Xfig this way to create diagrams for class on my Mac. > > > For example, I know nothing about moodle. Does anyone know > > if moodle can be used for this? I believe so, since it aims to do the same things as e.g. Blackboard and quite major universities which have to comply with FERPA use it. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Moodle adopters at the JMM who come to one of the Sage-related sessions; you might want to ask on one of their forums about this sort of thing. Sakai is another open- source Course Management Software package with a wide user base. At least one of them should support some sort of scripting, or perhaps have code which could be integrated, but I can't say more than that. - kcrisman --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
On Oct 22, 2008, at 5:58 AM, kcrisman wrote: >>> Of course, because I like Sage I'd like to be able to do this >>> entirely in Sage. One problem with gnumeric is that >>> there is no mac version I know of. (Of course, >>> one could buy excel for a mac but I don't want to do that.) > > You can use it (and I do, rarely) on Mac with X11 installed. I > routinely use Xfig this way to create diagrams for class on my Mac. One can use OpenOffice on the Mac as well (or a more native port, like NeoOffice). > >> >>> For example, I know nothing about moodle. Does anyone know >>> if moodle can be used for this? > > I believe so, since it aims to do the same things as e.g. Blackboard > and quite major universities which have to comply with FERPA use it. > I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Moodle adopters at the JMM > who come to one of the Sage-related sessions; you might want to ask on > one of their forums about this sort of thing. Sakai is another open- > source Course Management Software package with a wide user base. At > least one of them should support some sort of scripting, or perhaps > have code which could be integrated, but I can't say more than that. I think something like this would be better accomplished by some sort of integration with Sage and, e.g. Moodle or Blackboard that are made for this kind of things, rather than trying to include/roll our own system. - Robert --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
> > I think something like this would be better accomplished by some sort > of integration with Sage and, e.g. Moodle or Blackboard that are made > for this kind of things, rather than trying to include/roll our own > system. > > - Robert Yes, absolutely. - kcrisman --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:05 PM, mhampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Somebody on the IRC sage-devel channel was asking about moodle/sage > integration a couple of days ago. > > On one hand, it certainly makes sense not to try to create our own > course management software when there are good existing alternatives > out there. I don't use moodle, but its hosted by my university and > I've only heard positive things about it. I hope to try it out soon > and using might motivate me to help with coordination. > > On the other hand, part of what David was talking about was an > integrated spreadsheet, and I think that would be something that might > be worth putting into sage. I don't think its an exaggeration to say > that for tens of millions of people, doing math means working with a > spreadsheet. Are there any python-based, open-source spreadsheet > programs out there? I wonder if instead perl is a possibility: http://www.softwaregarden.com/products/wikicalc/ This also has a publish to *.js, so its output can be embedded as javascript. This suggests to me that it can be used in the notebook. It is GPL2 licensed. The tarball is about 0.2M. > > -Marshall > > On Oct 22, 9:35 am, kcrisman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > I think something like this would be better accomplished by some sort >> > of integration with Sage and, e.g. Moodle or Blackboard that are made >> > for this kind of things, rather than trying to include/roll our own >> > system. >> >> > - Robert >> >> Yes, absolutely. >> >> - kcrisman > > > --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
Somebody on the IRC sage-devel channel was asking about moodle/sage integration a couple of days ago. On one hand, it certainly makes sense not to try to create our own course management software when there are good existing alternatives out there. I don't use moodle, but its hosted by my university and I've only heard positive things about it. I hope to try it out soon and using might motivate me to help with coordination. On the other hand, part of what David was talking about was an integrated spreadsheet, and I think that would be something that might be worth putting into sage. I don't think its an exaggeration to say that for tens of millions of people, doing math means working with a spreadsheet. Are there any python-based, open-source spreadsheet programs out there? -Marshall On Oct 22, 9:35 am, kcrisman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I think something like this would be better accomplished by some sort > > of integration with Sage and, e.g. Moodle or Blackboard that are made > > for this kind of things, rather than trying to include/roll our own > > system. > > > - Robert > > Yes, absolutely. > > - kcrisman --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
That looks promising, although it might take a lot of work to integrate it into sage in a useful way. I dislike perl enough that that task doesn't appeal much to me. I wonder how hard it would be to start adding some spreadsheet capability with jQuery or other javascript toolkits - perhaps as an extension of @interact? -M. Hampton On Oct 22, 7:23 pm, "David Joyner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:05 PM, mhampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Somebody on the IRC sage-devel channel was asking about moodle/sage > > integration a couple of days ago. > > > On one hand, it certainly makes sense not to try to create our own > > course management software when there are good existing alternatives > > out there. I don't use moodle, but its hosted by my university and > > I've only heard positive things about it. I hope to try it out soon > > and using might motivate me to help with coordination. > > > On the other hand, part of what David was talking about was an > > integrated spreadsheet, and I think that would be something that might > > be worth putting into sage. I don't think its an exaggeration to say > > that for tens of millions of people, doing math means working with a > > spreadsheet. Are there any python-based, open-source spreadsheet > > programs out there? > > I wonder if instead perl is a > possibility:http://www.softwaregarden.com/products/wikicalc/ > This also has a publish to *.js, so its output can be embedded as > javascript. This suggests to me that it can be used in > the notebook. It is GPL2 licensed. The tarball is about > 0.2M. > > > > > -Marshall > > > On Oct 22, 9:35 am, kcrisman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > I think something like this would be better accomplished by some sort > >> > of integration with Sage and, e.g. Moodle or Blackboard that are made > >> > for this kind of things, rather than trying to include/roll our own > >> > system. > > >> > - Robert > > >> Yes, absolutely. > > >> - kcrisman --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 7:59 PM, mhampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> That looks promising, although it might take a lot of work to
> integrate it into sage in a useful way. I dislike perl enough that
> that task doesn't appeal much to me.
>
> I wonder how hard it would be to start adding some spreadsheet
> capability with jQuery or other javascript toolkits - perhaps as an
> extension of @interact?
Having such functionality has always been planned (at least in my mind).
Actually, there is already a simple matrix type supported by @interact,
which sort of looks like a spreadsheet:
@interact
def f(n=random_matrix(QQ,3,3)):
print n.charpoly('x')
I think the "spreadsheet view of data" is in fact very relevant for
I would say the vast majority of users of numerical software,
especially in areas like biological sciences. I've seen often
people who don't know how to write any code in any programming
language be reasonably productive in Microsoft Excel for certain
types of data analysis and visualization, and I think it would be
really interesting to make Sage more functional in this direction.
For what it is worth, I always manage the grades and grading in the
classes I teach using Sage, and before Sage I wrote Python scripts.
It's very nice to determine final letter grades, reports, etc., by writing
Python scripts instead of having to program OpenOffice.
-- William
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[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 11:15 PM, William Stein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 7:59 PM, mhampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> That looks promising, although it might take a lot of work to
>> integrate it into sage in a useful way. I dislike perl enough that
>> that task doesn't appeal much to me.
>>
>> I wonder how hard it would be to start adding some spreadsheet
>> capability with jQuery or other javascript toolkits - perhaps as an
>> extension of @interact?
>
> Having such functionality has always been planned (at least in my mind).
> Actually, there is already a simple matrix type supported by @interact,
> which sort of looks like a spreadsheet:
>
> @interact
> def f(n=random_matrix(QQ,3,3)):
>print n.charpoly('x')
>
> I think the "spreadsheet view of data" is in fact very relevant for
> I would say the vast majority of users of numerical software,
> especially in areas like biological sciences. I've seen often
> people who don't know how to write any code in any programming
> language be reasonably productive in Microsoft Excel for certain
> types of data analysis and visualization, and I think it would be
> really interesting to make Sage more functional in this direction.
>
> For what it is worth, I always manage the grades and grading in the
> classes I teach using Sage, and before Sage I wrote Python scripts.
> It's very nice to determine final letter grades, reports, etc., by writing
> Python scripts instead of having to program OpenOffice.
Would it be easy for you to create a suitably generic version of your
scripts/code/worksheet and please post it/them somewhere?
>
> -- William
>
> >
>
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[sage-edu] Re: class grade book in Sage?
On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:21 PM, David Joyner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 11:15 PM, William Stein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 7:59 PM, mhampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>
>>> That looks promising, although it might take a lot of work to
>>> integrate it into sage in a useful way. I dislike perl enough that
>>> that task doesn't appeal much to me.
>>>
>>> I wonder how hard it would be to start adding some spreadsheet
>>> capability with jQuery or other javascript toolkits - perhaps as an
>>> extension of @interact?
>>
>> Having such functionality has always been planned (at least in my mind).
>> Actually, there is already a simple matrix type supported by @interact,
>> which sort of looks like a spreadsheet:
>>
>> @interact
>> def f(n=random_matrix(QQ,3,3)):
>>print n.charpoly('x')
>>
>> I think the "spreadsheet view of data" is in fact very relevant for
>> I would say the vast majority of users of numerical software,
>> especially in areas like biological sciences. I've seen often
>> people who don't know how to write any code in any programming
>> language be reasonably productive in Microsoft Excel for certain
>> types of data analysis and visualization, and I think it would be
>> really interesting to make Sage more functional in this direction.
>>
>> For what it is worth, I always manage the grades and grading in the
>> classes I teach using Sage, and before Sage I wrote Python scripts.
>> It's very nice to determine final letter grades, reports, etc., by writing
>> Python scripts instead of having to program OpenOffice.
>
>
> Would it be easy for you to create a suitably generic version of your
> scripts/code/worksheet and please post it/them somewhere?
They're completely trivial and one-off scripts each time I teach.
Basically I just make some simple Python data structure for the grades,
fill it in in a single text file, then write a little program to compute
grades based on it. It's really been written as throw-away code.
I have sometimes wondered about doing something more systematic
with other people that would be more re-usable. This is a good
thread to discuss what properties such more general code would
have, e.g., things like: easy report generation, easy reading and
writing data to a standard csv's spreadsheet friendly format, etc.
-- william
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