[LON-CAPA-users] New Content/Problem Editor - Input needed NOW

[Sally S Hunnicutt]

Good morning,

The combination of the two ways of editing is one of the features of
loncapa that I love, and it is one of the reasons (among many) that I use
loncapa exclusively for course management software. I do tend to use the
xml editor first unless I need to figure out a new type of problem or need
a refresher on specific coding items (such as graphing). Inserting anything
in a problem using the colorful (graphical?) interface is annoying,
especially in a long problem. It sounds like this is a feature that will be
improved.

Funny thing - I just went into the colorful editor to see why I tend not to
use it, and I have already learned something new about coding. I will
probably start using it more often!

I agree that blinking is not a good addition (coding already strains my
eyes!).

Sally Hunnicutt

[image: Inline image 1]





On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 9:41 AM, Stefan Dröschler <st.droeschler at ostfalia.de
> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> as you know we’re looking into improving the authoring space in LON-CAPA
> and have already identified issues with both editors. I’ve demonstrated
> solutions to some of them during the conference this year.
> However, our goal is not to work on a replacement for the colourful editor
> but instead focus on your item 4, namely streamlining the workflow in both
> editors. That’s the best we can do given the available resources.
>
> Regarding your questions:
>
>
> 1) We notice that the colorful editor is not used very often. Apart from
> the psychedelic colors, why is that? What’s the problem with it?
>
> 2) Is there anything good about the colorful editor?
>
> 4) Think about the whole workflow of authoring problems: What is
> important? What do you need? How can the whole process of authoring be
> streamlined?
>
>
> We’ve found, as others in this thread already pointed out, that the
> colourful editor *is* used by almost all author types (ranging from novice
> to expert authors). Users typically don’t stick to just one editor, but
> might use both while working on authoring a problem.
> Question 4 is interesting and highly relevant, but requires careful study
> of how users interact with the system, what their goals and tasks are, how
> they approach solutions etc. and, perhaps more importantly, what
> discourages users from authoring problems. There’s a body of research in
> HCI and UX that covers those topics, also some standards and guidelines
> exist in this area (e.g. ISO 9241).
> Furthermore, I believe it is necessary to be more specific about the
> audience you’re trying to address. Experienced users (like those on this
> list) have usually found ways to deal with their authoring problems and -
> as some comments already pointed out - don’t really require a new editor
> but instead would benefit from improvements to the existing ones. I wish
> there was a one size fits all solution to this, but don’t believe so. A
> cleaned up and well documented language for LON-CAPA resources, something
> Damien is working on, accompanied by some tools could be a cornerstone for
> community-developed solutions to this problem.
>
> 3) We always hear “WYSIWYG,” but when you really think about it, that’s
> quite impossible: LON-CAPA problems have deep structure, and there is a lot
> that “you do not see,” but that’s important: parameters, scripts, … how
> would “WYSIWYG" look in this scenario?
>
> 5) Do you know of any editor on the web that is approximately doing what
> we need? Some good design examples for us to look at?
>
>
> I don’t think a pure WYSIWYG solution would be sufficient, but I can
> imagine something along the lines of modern IDEs, e.g. Apple’s Xcode, in
> which the User Interface is created in a WYSIWYG-like editor and the code
> is created in a source code editor (with many assisting features). However,
> such an environment is getting complex easily and wouldn’t solve the issues
> for novice users. For this group I could envision something like WYSIWYG
> editable templates, which would work similar to the current template
> mechanism when you create a new problem, but would allow for editing in a
> WYSIWYG mode. This second approach should be straightforward and easy to
> implement.
>
> BTW have you considered replacing or extending the colourful editor with
> Damien’s editor Daxe or some of its ideas?
>
> Stefan
>
> --
> Stefan Dröschler
>
> Ostfalia Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften
> Hochschule Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel
> ZeLL - Zentrum für erfolgreiches Lehren und Lernen
> Salzdahlumer Str. 46/48
> Büro: Am Exer 10d
> 38302 Wolfenbüttel
>
> Fon: ++49 5331 939 17250
> http://www.ostfalia.de/zell
>
> On 09 Oct 2014, at 19:09, Gerd Kortemeyer <korte at lite.msu.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> We are trying to figure out how the next generation content/problem editor
> should work, and we really need input.
>
> 1) We notice that the colorful editor is not used very often. Apart from
> the psychedelic colors, why is that? What’s the problem with it?
>
> 2) Is there anything good about the colorful editor?
>
> 3) We always hear “WYSIWYG,” but when you really think about it, that’s
> quite impossible: LON-CAPA problems have deep structure, and there is a lot
> that “you do not see,” but that’s important: parameters, scripts, … how
> would “WYSIWYG" look in this scenario?
>
> 4) Think about the whole workflow of authoring problems: What is
> important? What do you need? How can the whole process of authoring be
> streamlined?
>
> 5) Do you know of any editor on the web that is approximately doing what
> we need? Some good design examples for us to look at?
>
> Anyway, please discuss on the list now. We do not have the developer
> capacity to allow us the luxury of going down the wrong track.
>
> - Gerd.
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>
>
>
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