[job list] Open Source Software for Classroom Polling System

[Tim Stelzer <tstelzer@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi

Over that past several years I have tried numerous classroom polling
systems, and been frustrated by the results. So, we have created our own
system which I believe has many advantages over the existing systems. It
turns out a lot of people agree, and there is a large demand for this
system.  I have written some simple visual basic code to collect and store
the votes, but it is not of publishable quality. You can see some screen
shots at http://www.iclicker.com/software.html

I would like someone to create some clean well documented open source
software that could be freely distributed with the hardware. There are two
components

Polling Software
-----------------
Program driven by small resizable window with two buttons and one text
field. First button tells base to start/stop accepting votes from remotes.
Software communicates with base via USB HID interface. Issuing commands to
start and stop polling, as well as reading in results from base as they
come in. Second button tells software to display/hide histogram of results.

This software also has a "Welcome" screen that allows the user to change
defaults for input question files, and output log files.

Essential skills.  Windows and Macintosh programming experience, including
USB HID interface.


Grading Software
-----------------
Program that reads cvs delimited output file from polling software, and
allows instructor to assign points based on number of questions attempted,
and answer selected.

Essential skills.  Windows and Macintosh programming experience.
Familiarity with classroom management software such as Blackboard and
Webct.

I have about $4,000 available to support this work, which I estimate would
require about 200 hours of programming time (depending on programmers
experience). In addition to the financial compensation, the software will be
widely distributed across the country giving the programmer good exposure. 

The project needs to proceed fairly quickly as we will begin class testing
the system in January. If you are interested. Please send an email to the
address below. Include your computing experience and relevant skills.


Thanks

Tim
---------
Tim Stelzer                         Voice: (217) 265-0758
307 Loomis Lab                   Fax:   (217) 333-9819
Physics Department   
1110 W. Green Street         tstelzer@xxxxxxxx
Urbana IL 61801                 http://madgraph.hep.uiuc.edu/