Dear Lars, Thanks for your help!
Obtaining all the data to punch into the computer does take a while, but overall, that part of the process is a cinch. If I can only find a way to bring what the school's CritiWriter does over to OpenOffice somehow, it would make our assessment process a million times easier since we would no longer have to toy around with converting files from Windows to DOS. Unfortunately, I am fairly illiterate when it comes to understanding the world of programming. Last year, I experimented with finding a way to create a class worksheet in MS Word that students would be able to type directly into *without* being able to change the worksheet itself using forms. It was an intriguing success, but the only problem is that for some reason after I would protect the document, MS Word's spellcheck got knocked out, so I had to apply a macro someone developed to work around this issue. The macro worked, but unfortunately since the school's Frankenstein set-up is composed of computers running all different types of Windows (some '98, some 2000, some XP), the macro would not work consistently on *all* machines in the building. Still, I dig the idea of applying a macro somehow for the writing assessment utility, and if I was successful in converting the school over to OpenOffice, I'm confident the macro would work all over...but first, I'd have to prove to the powers that be that the macro works to begin with. So...I'd really appreciate your help on this. I have to admit that I don't know anything about creating macros from scratch. As for the alternatives you posed, I honestly have no idea what most of what you said means. To "parse the document" only brings to mind parsing a sentence for me, as in breaking a sentence down and labeling its parts, so if you are suggesting to use a similar technique to have Writer break apart a whole paper for all the data points I need, then I'm all ears for that solution too. Aside from that, I unfortunately am at a loss when it comes to talking about java, python, XML, distros, etc. I'd love to learn all about it all, but I would guess that by the time I could wrap my head around everything, the summer will be over, and the opportunity to launch a massive upgrade like this on the school's technology will fall through the cracks since it's not something that I can implement midway into the school year. Still, I'm not here to cry for help and then sit back and let someone do all the magic for me. I want to collaborate, and I want to help make this happen in whatever way I can. I could videotape myself using the school's ancient CritiWriter utility if you think that might help. Or, I can do my best to persuade the former headmaster to provide me with the code that CritiWriter runs on so that you or whoever else can help can use that as a reference, although I don't know if that would *really *be of any help since it* is *in DOS, which much be dinosaur coding by now. Let's do this! Jeremy On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 5:38 AM, Lars Nooden <[email protected]>wrote: > On 06/28/2010 07:48 AM, Jeremy Yanofsky @ Ben Bronz Academy wrote: > > Creating a Writing Assessment utility: > > http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=31880 > > It sounds like a three stage process: > > 1. carefully read through a student's paper... > > 2. determine the paper's holistic scoring > > 3. take all of those scores and punch 'em into > > OOo can probably adjusted to work with #2 and #3 a bit. > > > how I can design or find a utility like this "CritiWriter" to > > function as part of OpenOffice's Writer? > > OOo Calc or a macro in Writer can definitely crunch the numbers and > provide a score. As you point out the hard part is getting the initial > numbers. > > Two ways to go about solving the task you describe might be to write a > macro or set of macros for Writer or to parse the document separately. > > Macros for OOo can be written in javascript or python, so it is fairly > easy to find skilled people who can program or help program. > > Parsing the document separately can be done with regular XML parsers > provided by the ubiquitous languages Perl or Java because OOo uses the > OpenDocument Format which is based on XML and thoroughly documented. > There are also a growing number of parsers which work with the > OpenDocument Format specifically. > > 3f (words per error) might be a challenge, but one way to solve that is > if the errors get marked in the text of the document by the teacher, it > would be possible for a program or macro to parse the document and make > the calculation. > > Regards > /Lars > > PS. A linux distro like fedora can allow you to choose and customize > different levels of simplicity in the operating system's graphical user > interface. Most often you will not need a full "desktop environment" > like GNOME or XFCE, but can do just as well with only the "window > manager" sub-component like FVWM2, Sawfish, or Compiz. They can be > tweaked to have menus, icons or both in a very clean, simple interface. > They will be far faster, more responsive, and far less maintenance than > any of the Windows offerings. > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > >
