I will teach a traditional college course that will require students to submit t
ID: 660644 • Letter: I
Question
I will teach a traditional college course that will require students to submit their homework online. The question is: What is a practical way to handle the incoming homework files. I have used regular email, but that turns out to very clunky. I need a simple system that does some secretarial duties of file management for me. I want it to be a repository for homework for that course.
In particular I like to have the following features:
It allows me to create a directory for each course/class.
Each student in my course has a private directory in the class directory.
Students submit (upload) files for say HomeWork1, HomeWork2 etc.
I have the right to read each file.
There is a mechanism for locking files. For example past a deadline HW1 will be locked.
Multiple submissions/corrections for same homework will be allowed as Version 1,2, etc.
I have a way of recording a grade/comment for each homework.
As many as 50 students each submitting 50 homework of a text file of 1k should be accommodated.
Ad supported software is ok.
Hosted solution is preferred.
My particular application is for a computational course in mathematics where students use Matlab software. It would be desirable if I could run the code directly from the homework repository. That requires me to be able to declare the Homework Repository as the working directory of Matlab.
This question was also asked in SE.math where BlackBoard capabilities are discussed.
Edit:
Doctopus and GClassFolders are based on GoogleDocs and are made just for above type of activities.
Explanation / Answer
It sounds like Team Mates plus a git/hg hosting service, there are many free ones but BitBucket has specific free academic plans, is exactly what you need - Team Mates will handle the feedback, including individual private feedback as mentioned here and getting your students used to revision control is a very good idea.
Note that you can determine who has access to the individual repository directories under both git and hg and you can inform your students that they will be assessed on the repository as pushed to by a specific date/time unless there is a reason given, (and accepted), for late submission.