eduComponents is a suite of educational extension modules for the Plone open source content management system (CMS). The main goal of these components is to reduce the workload of teachers and to improve the effectiveness of face-to-face courses. The modules provide Web-based tools which support the creation, management, submission, and assessment of assignments and tests.

eduComponents currently consists of the following components:

• ECLecture is a Plone product for managing lectures, seminars and other courses.
• ECQuiz is a Plone extension module for the creation and delivery of multiple-choice tests.
• ECAssignmentBox is a Plone product which allows the creation, submission and grading of online assignments (exercises, homework), both for traditional on-site courses and for e-learning.
• ECAutoAssessmentBox is derived from ECAssignmentBox and provides special support for programming assignments and automatic evaluation of student submissions. The automatic assessment of programs is handled by ECSpooler.
• ECSpooler is a Python XML-RPC server which provides the automatic assessment of submissions for ECAutoAssessmentBox. It manages a submission queue and several backends. A backend implements testing for a specific type of submissions; in our case, these are programs in various programming language, but other applications are also possible .
• ECReviewBox is an add-on for ECAssignmentBox. It allows teachers to create peer review assignments for submissions to a previous assignment box.

About This Site

This site allows you to test the eduComponents. The Examples folder contains a number of examples we've prepared. In the Test Area folder, you can create eduComponents objects yourself.

To add eduComponents objects (assignment box, auto assessment box, ecfolder, mc test) go the Test Area folder and use the add to folder menu.

Further Information

For more information on Plone and eduComponents:

• The Plone website
• The eduComponents project page
• The eduComponents download page