E-learning platform : Page for printing

One the contents have been created with WebJaxe and the website generated with PAELLOS administration interface, the website can be used.

Student and tutor registration on the training website

Registration is done on the page/SITENAME/Inscription for the students, /SITENAME/Inscription?fonction=tuteur for the tutors. If there are several trainings, it is possible to specify the training by adding the addresses /SITENAME/Inscription?formation=TRAININGNAME and /SITENAME/Inscription?formation=TRAININGNAME&fonction=tuteur

Each time a student passes by a site page, the information is recorded on the server. This makes it easy later for tutors to follow their sudents, although the only reliable way remains the exercises.

Tutors can obtain a list of their student readings by identifying at the page /SITENAME/Lectures .

Students can look again at the replies they sent for the exercises, from the page /SITENAME/Exercices. The list gives for each exercise a number, the title, the path and the date. The reply can be read by clicking on the title, and the exercise page can be read by clicking on the path. The number is used to order replies when several replies are sent for the same exercise.

At the same address, tutors can access all their student replies. They select a student in the list of associated students to get the list of the student replies. The administrator and the supertutor can see all the students. On an exercise reply page, a tutor can send a reply with the correction. As the students, tutors can use the reply editor to write a reply.

Tutors can just sent their corrections by email if they wish, but for each new student reply for a given exercise, the associated tutor can also see the corresponding page and reply with the platform.

The training website generation includes an indexation of the contents, which is then used for efficient searches on the website. The indexation is based on the XML files to optimize the indexation, which provides better results than if the indexation was done on the HTML files (for instance, the navigation menu on the left is not taken into account in the indexation). Searching the website is done with the page : /SITENAME/Recherche

It is possible to change a password from the page /SITENAME/site/changementmdp

Students can directly go to the latest page they visited with the following link : /SITENAME/site/derniere-page

Logout : /SITENAME/site/logout

The reply editor

Screenshot of the reply editor

The exercise in the web page

On the training website, an evaluation exercise appears with :

a text area for the reply
the button to launch the calculator on the top right
a "Choose the file" button, to select an image to attach to the reply
a "Send" button to send the reply

Using the editor buttons is not necessary (it is possible to use simple text with an attached image), but it makes writing complex equations easier. These buttons require Javascript to be activated.

Adding a reply in the editor

To write a clear reply, it is preferable to separate it into questions. This is for instance possible with line breaks and numbers 1) 2) 3) for the reply to each question in the exercise.

Editing

The different editor buttons correspond to the following features (keyboard shortcuts use the ctrl or the cmd key depending on the operating system):

Cancel (ctrl-Z)
Redo (ctrl-Y)
Cut. Javascript operations on the clipboard can be forbidden by the web browser. In this case one can simply use the keyboard shortcuts: ctrl-X to cut text.
Copy (ctrl-C)
Paste (ctrl-V)
Bold style (ctrl-B)
Italic style (ctrl-I)
Subscript style
Superscript style
Remove the styles (in the selection)
Link (to create or modify a web link on the selected text) (ctrl-L)
Remove the link (at the cursor position)
List
Table
Symbol. Displays a table of special characters which can be inserted at the cursor position. It is also possible to insert greek letters with an equation, but it is often faster with symbols.
Equation (ctrl-E).
Source code. Useful for instance to do a copy-paste from the Jaxe editor. Click on it again to get back to the WYSIWYG view (it will not work if the XML syntax is not correct).

Equations

Most of the editor usefulness lies in its ability to facilitate the insertion of equations, because it is difficult to write and read complex equations with simple text. The equation editor uses a particular syntax, detailed in the next page.

To use the editor, enter the text for the equation in the text area at the bottom of the dialog, and click on the "Preview" button to see the equation image appears below. For instance, after entering "x^2", and clicking on "Preview", x² appears below. To insert the equation in the text, click on the "Ok" button. To edit an existing equation, just double-click on it.

The syntax is relatively intuitive, but it is necessary to follow it in order for the equation to be correctly displayed for the tutor. For instance, operators must always be specified (as if the equation was going to be evaluated with values for the variables), so "2*x" must be used instead of "2x".

Spell checker

It is possible to use the web browser spell checker for the web browsers that have one, but it cannot be done with a simple right click because it triggers the editor's contextual menu. The Ctrl key (or cmd on MacOS) has to be used at the same time as a right click to display the browser's contextual menu and use its spell checker.

The equation editor

Screenshot of the equation editor

The equation editor works with a text area to enter an equation with a specific syntax, and the image for the equation is displayed below when the "Preview" button is clicked.

Here are some rules to follow in order to make the best use of the editor :

Do not use spaces (they are ignored in the best case).
Write the equation as if it would be interpreted mathematically and a numerical result would be calculated. As a consequence, always specify the operators, even when they should not be displayed.
Use parenthesis to specify the order of the operations if it does not match the mathematical evaluation order.

As opposed to many equation editors, this editor analyses the mathematical meaning of the equation. It then builds the image from there. This makes it possible to get uniform graphical results for all equations. On the other hand, it is not possible to specify display constraints, for instance to obtain a little more space between two characters : the user gives the meaning for the equation, and the editor is in charge of finding the best display for it.

Addition and subtraction
Operators '+' and '-'.
Multiplication
Operator '*', displayed only when two numbers are multiplied.

Example : 2*3*sin(1.5*pi) is displayed :
Division
Operator '/' (displayed as a fraction) and functions 'slash' and 'fraction'

Example : slash(a;b)/c is displayed :
Function
The parameter separator is the semicolon, to distinguish it from the coma, sometimes used in numbers : functionname(arg1;arg2;...)

Example : f(x;y) is displayed :
Power
Operator '^'.

Example : x^y is displayed :
Subscript
Operator '_'.

Example : x_(ab) is displayed :
Subscript superscript
Function 'subsup' with the first term, and the elements to display as subscript and superscript.

Example : subsup(A;1;2) is displayed :
Units
Function 'unit', with the unit as the second parameter.

Example : bigg=unit(6.67259*10^(-11);m^3*kg^(-1)*s^(-2)) is displayed :

Note that units are displayed with a plain font, while a variable like is displayed with an italic font.

There is also an operator to specify units in a more concise way: #.

Examples: 2#m is displayed : ; (2/3)#(m*s^(-1)) is displayed : (note that parenthesis are required in this formula)
Square root
Function 'sqrt'.

Example : sqrt(x/2) is displayed :
Root
Function 'root' with the degree of the root as the second parameter.

Example : root(x;3) is displayed :
Absolute values
Function 'abs'.

Example : abs(x^3) is displayed :
Power of e
Function 'exp'.

Example : exp(x^2) is displayed :
Integral
Function 'int', with 4 parameters: the function to integrate, the integration variable, and the minimum and maximum bounds.

Example : int(f(x);x;0;infty) is displayed :
Sum and product
Functions 'sum' and 'prod', with 3 parameters: the function to sum up, and the minimum and maximum bounds.

Example : sum(ln(k)/k;k=1;10) is displayed :
Matrix
Function 'matrix', with the lines as parameter as a function 'line'.

Example : matrix(line(1;2;3);line(4;5;6)) is displayed :
Greek letters
Variables with the letter name, with an uppercase to the first character of the name to get an uppercase Greek letter.

Example : alpha*Delta*thetasym*upsih*piv is displayed :
Special characters
Variable with the name of the special character.

sun|star|earth|planck|infin|angstrom|ell|hat|bar|asterisk|bigg|...

Example : M_sun/M_earth=3.329*10^5 is displayed :
Special operators
Special code with no space.

!=|~=|<=|>=|<<|>>|->|forall|exists|part|nabla|prop|cross|plusminus|cap|cup

Example : forall a exists b<<c~=d>=e!=f is displayed :
Accents
Function 'accent' with the letter and the accent to add above.

Example : accent(AB;->)+accent(ABC;hat)+accent(x;bar) is displayed :
Time derivatives
Function 'timed' with the variable and the number of dots to display above.

Example : timed(theta;2) is displayed :
Vectors
Function 'vector' with the name of the vector.

Example : vector(u_theta) is displayed :
Scalar product
Function 'scalarp' with the two vectors as parameters.

Example : scalarp(vector(AB);vector(CD)) is displayed :
Norm
Function 'norm' with the vector as a parameter.

Example : norm(vector(AB)) is displayed :
Functions with no parenthesis
Some functions are displayed without parenthesis when they have a single parameter with a variable.

Example : sin(a)*sin(b) is displayed :
Equation system
Function 'system', with the lines as parameters.

Example : system(x+y=2;x-2*y=3) is displayed :
Factorials
Function 'fact'.

Example : fact(x) is displayed :
Mean
Function 'mean'.

Example : mean(M_B) is displayed :