How do teachers use org-mode

How do teachers use org-mode

[Venkatesh Choppella]

Dear Org-mode users:

I am using  org-mode this semester  to host my course notes.   For me
org-mode was a god-send, since I had been struggling to organize
course notes in plain html  before that.

The course pages done in org-mode are at

 -  http://pascal.iiit.ac.in/~itws2

 - http://pascal.iiit.ac.in/~tipl


In the Information Technology  workshop course I am teaching this
semester,  we have introduced emacs and org-mode as part of the
course's curriculum to 1st year (freshman) students.   As part of the
course, they  are required to do  their lab reports in Org-mode.
Emacs continues to be  a difficult climb for many students, but
org-mode is an important motivator.  I expect that most of the 180
students in class will become comfortable with emacs by the end of the
semester.


I am interested to  hear from others who have used org-mode as part of
their teaching activities.

Sincerely,

Venkatesh Choppella
IIIT Hyderabad
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500 032
India

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Alan Schmitt]

On 1 Feb 2012, at 5:10, Venkatesh Choppella wrote:

> I am interested to  hear from others who have used org-mode as part of
> their teaching activities.

I've only very recently started using org-mode, including for teaching 
an OCaml class (OCaml is a programming language). I'm re-using some old 
beamer slides but for the new ones I'm exporting an org-mode file to 
beamer, and I found it works great. I want to use org-mode for the other 
tasks, including porting the old slides, but first I need to figure out 
how to make minted work (the worg tutorial does not work with current 
org-mode version). My goal is to have code examples generate their 
output, and for labs to tangle solutions to exercises from the same file 
as the assignment.

Alan

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Brian van den Broek]

On 1 February 2012 06:10, Venkatesh Choppella
<venkatesh.choppella@iiit.ac.in> wrote:
> Dear Org-mode users:
>
> I am using  org-mode this semester  to host my course notes.   For me
> org-mode was a god-send, since I had been struggling to organize
> course notes in plain html  before that.

<snip>

> I am interested to  hear from others who have used org-mode as part of
> their teaching activities.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Venkatesh Choppella
> IIIT Hyderabad
> Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500 032
> India


Hi Venkatesh,

I'm a philosopher, so, unlike in your case, there's little chance of
my making orgmode itself part of the course material :-)

Depending on the course, I make a lot of use of beamer presentations.
(Lots in Introduction to Logic course, little or none in seminars.)
However, I developed my work-flow before orgmode grew the rich tools
it now has for supporting beamer; so orgmode plays no role, here. Were
I starting again, I'd likely make my workflow more orgmode focused.

The most significant use I make of orgmode that seems peculiar to
teaching is to use org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift to create a
headline for each class session.

Each has a subheading where I jot whatever reminders I need of what to
say in class that won't be triggered for me by the beamer presentation
(if I am employing one for that class). I keep this visible on a
netbook beside the podium with the computer driving the digital
projector.

Each class's heading also has a subheading where, in the minutes
immediately after class, I record a "post-mortem" of the class. This
includes things such as what actually did get covered (as distinct
from what I had planned to cover), any things about the manner of
presenting that class's material that didn't work so well, any student
questions that were especially interesting or surprising, and any
follow-up tasks. The "what got covered" has been invaluable for
planning the next time I offer the same class and has also proved very
helpful when I've had more than one section of a single class.
(Despite the use of beamer, I try to let the class develop as the
students want as much as I do, so there is always some substantial
differences between two sections of the same class to keep track of.)

Hope that  helps,

Brian vdB

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Jambunathan K]

Have students turn in their assignments in Org mode format. 

From
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~rwl/lib/attachments/teaching/100/paper-guidelines.pdf

See sec-2.3

,----
| I’m going to try an experiment in this course. I would like you to
| submit your papers to me as plain text, not in a document format like MS
| Word (.doc, .docx), OpenDocument Text (.odt), RTF, or HTML. You are
| welcome to useWord, OpenOffice, or another document editor to write your
| papers, but please export your paper from these programs as plain text,
| formatted according to the guidelines below.1
|
| There are several reasons for this. One, I don’t want to require you to
| use any particular software to write your papers; you can edit plain
| text using a wide variety of programs on any platform. Two, I actually
| find the papers in the usual 12 point Times New Roman double-spaced
| format pretty difficult to read and work with. By submitting your papers
| in plain text, you’re making it easier for me to compile them into a
| format that prefer to work with, which means I’ll have more time to
| dedicate to giving you helpful feedback.
|
| In case you’re wondering: these guidelines are a subset of the
| formatting rules of Org mode for GNU Emacs (http://orgmode.org). I’m
| going to use Org mode to compile your papers using the LATEX
| typesetting system. If you want, you can use any formatting compatible
| with Org mode, but you’re not required to learn it.
`----

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[BernardH]

Venkatesh Choppella <venkatesh.choppella <at> iiit.ac.in> writes:

> 
> Dear Org-mode users:
> 
> I am using  org-mode this semester  to host my course notes.   For me
> org-mode was a god-send, since I had been struggling to organize
> course notes in plain html  before that.
>…
> 
> I am interested to  hear from others who have used org-mode as part of
> their teaching activities.
> 
> Sincerely,

Thanks for sharing your experience.
I recently discovered orgmode, and I'm currently using it :
 - for presentations with export-as-s5 from https://github.com/eschulte/org-S5
 - to check various points for students works (cloning trees of checkboxes)

I put some files on github:
 https://github.com/scientific-coder/Teaching-Materials

I'd like to use it for project planning with taskjuggler, but I'm currently
unable to do it (with taskjuggler v 3.1.0) (tried
https://github.com/alander/org-taskjuggler3.git to no avail,
http://orgmode.org/tmp/worg/org-issues.html has DONE for "TaskJuggler 3,
revisited" but I could not figure why).

Best Regards,

Bernard

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Richard Riley]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

> Have students turn in their assignments in Org mode format. 
>
> From
> http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~rwl/lib/attachments/teaching/100/paper-guidelines.pdf
>
> See sec-2.3
>
> ,----
> | I’m going to try an experiment in this course. I would like you to
> | submit your papers to me as plain text, not in a document format like MS
> | Word (.doc, .docx), OpenDocument Text (.odt), RTF, or HTML. You are
> | welcome to useWord, OpenOffice, or another document editor to write your
> | papers, but please export your paper from these programs as plain text,
> | formatted according to the guidelines below.1
> |
> | There are several reasons for this. One, I don’t want to require you to
> | use any particular software to write your papers; you can edit plain
> | text using a wide variety of programs on any platform. Two, I actually
> | find the papers in the usual 12 point Times New Roman double-spaced
> | format pretty difficult to read and work with. By submitting your papers
> | in plain text, you’re making it easier for me to compile them into a
> | format that prefer to work with, which means I’ll have more time to
> | dedicate to giving you helpful feedback.
> |
> | In case you’re wondering: these guidelines are a subset of the
> | formatting rules of Org mode for GNU Emacs (http://orgmode.org). I’m
> | going to use Org mode to compile your papers using the LATEX
> | typesetting system. If you want, you can use any formatting compatible
> | with Org mode, but you’re not required to learn it.
> `----
>


Wow. That's a pretty cool "stamp of approval" !

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Carsten Dominik]

On Feb 1, 2012, at 12:33 PM, Richard Riley wrote:

> Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Have students turn in their assignments in Org mode format. 
>> 
>> From
>> http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~rwl/lib/attachments/teaching/100/paper-guidelines.pdf
>> 
>> See sec-2.3
>> 
>> ,----
>> | I’m going to try an experiment in this course. I would like you to
>> | submit your papers to me as plain text, not in a document format like MS
>> | Word (.doc, .docx), OpenDocument Text (.odt), RTF, or HTML. You are
>> | welcome to useWord, OpenOffice, or another document editor to write your
>> | papers, but please export your paper from these programs as plain text,
>> | formatted according to the guidelines below.1
>> |
>> | There are several reasons for this. One, I don’t want to require you to
>> | use any particular software to write your papers; you can edit plain
>> | text using a wide variety of programs on any platform. Two, I actually
>> | find the papers in the usual 12 point Times New Roman double-spaced
>> | format pretty difficult to read and work with. By submitting your papers
>> | in plain text, you’re making it easier for me to compile them into a
>> | format that prefer to work with, which means I’ll have more time to
>> | dedicate to giving you helpful feedback.
>> |
>> | In case you’re wondering: these guidelines are a subset of the
>> | formatting rules of Org mode for GNU Emacs (http://orgmode.org). I’m
>> | going to use Org mode to compile your papers using the LATEX
>> | typesetting system. If you want, you can use any formatting compatible
>> | with Org mode, but you’re not required to learn it.
>> `----
>> 
> 
> 
> Wow. That's a pretty cool "stamp of approval" !
> 

I am sitting here with a rather huge grin on my face.  I wonder how the students reacted....


- Carsten

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[John Hendy]

On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 4:35 AM, BernardH <uncompte.pour.tester@gmail.com> wrote:
> Venkatesh Choppella <venkatesh.choppella <at> iiit.ac.in> writes:
>
>>
>> Dear Org-mode users:

[...]

>
> I'd like to use it for project planning with taskjuggler, but I'm currently
> unable to do it (with taskjuggler v 3.1.0) (tried
> https://github.com/alander/org-taskjuggler3.git to no avail,
> http://orgmode.org/tmp/worg/org-issues.html has DONE for "TaskJuggler 3,
> revisited" but I could not figure why).
>

See the recent threads on this:
---http://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg51502.html
--- http://www.mail-archive.com/emacs-orgmode@gnu.org/msg51522.html

 It does work with a change to the variable
=org-export-taskjuggler-target-version= and
=org-export-taskjuggler-default-reports= set to ="include
\"reports.tji\""= along with a report definition in that file (and in
the same directory). Then just export, run "tj3 file.tjp" from the
terminal and open in a browser.

John


> Best Regards,
>
> Bernard
>
>

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Alan E. Davis]

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I recently retired from teaching (perhaps temporarily).  I was a high
school science teacher, for the most part.   I was the odd man out in my
school district, perhaps the only one who used GNU/Linux, and on the island
where I was working/living the only computer course in the public schools
was "comptuer literacy"---a term which meant "able to use M$ Office."   [I
did present an install fest workshop, where about 15 teachers were able to
install Ubuntu GNU/Linux on their laptops, and a few may still use it, four
years or so later, for personal issues.

Given this environment, I used Free Software tools to do everything,
bucking the trend, and eventually org mode became a central tool, though
mainly in the support of teaching.   Here are a few things I have done:

  - used org-mode to collect notes and readings to output using latex
export, for handouts.
  - kept daily notes as the days went on, on student progress or issues.  I
had developed capture templates to enable the rapid capture of notes on the
fly.  Tagging made it possible for those notes to be recovered by period or
subject.   I could print a report for a meeting with a parent in about two
minutes.
  -  to capture outlines of the day to day work.   This function could have
benefited by better organization.  I could clone a date tree to write
"lesson plans" or outlines.
  - twice I used org-mode spread sheets to keep grade records and calculate
grades.  It worked fine.   Graphs could be generated.
  - Carsten's relative timer has been useful in developing notes about
videos to facilitate instruction / discussion.  It was possible to sit in
class as the videos were playing, and make notes indexed to the elapsed
time of the video.   Then, since I had often had copies of DVDs on my
computer, or showed them using a computer, I could rapidly / randomly
access any sequence by referring to my outline and time marks.  I also used
these to edit chopped up versions of a video for class review at a later
time, for which I found the tool avidemux2 a perfect one.   (I took a
course in Fellini many years ago.   The professor had a whole print, and a
chopped up one.  This is an extremely useful tool, and one for which the
relative timer is uniquely helpful.)
   - Write tests and output using latex export.  This wasn't as useful to
me as examdesign.sty formated tests in straight LaTeX.  I was not able to
put together a work flow for doing this using org-mode latex export, though
I imagine it is possible.   I could, however, make up short quizzes,
sometimes projected as beamer presentation, and the various org-mode tools
allow one to keep notes on student progress.  Again, capture templates are
the key, and tags help to search and find.  Probably the most useful here
was the ability to write questions (capture again), but I had to tweak them
by hand during export.
  - use latex export to make up rapid handouts with illustrations.
Org-mode makes this extremely easy and fast.   Too bad others in the school
district didn't seem to have time for the learning curve.
  - Rapidly prepare decently presented readings from Project Gutenberg text
of chapters of books for student reading, and, when desireable, make them
available for students as a PDF.
   - In fact, rapidly format anything textual for LaTeX output, including
outline notes for lecture.
    - Rapidly produce tables of student generated data for immediate output
and feedback.  For example, we counted as a class the chirp rate of a
cricket that happened to be in the room and correclated the temperatures,
on the board.  In three minutes I could produce output for students on a
laser printer, for further discussion, and for a response assignment.
   - todo lists with capture templates to make notes on student questions
or needs for addressing later.
   - One thing that was not directly related to instruction was the ability
to take notes on student conduct and progress using a capture template.
Although this was not my favorite activity, I was required to do so, and
using org-mode I could print out a report for the school administration in
three minutes.  This was not my favorite activity.
    - I developed a template to generate a memo in one minute, or less,
that wrapped selected text in a memo header, and generated a PDF.


  This doesn't seem much related to pedagogy, I'm afraid.   Mostly it
reflects my teaching style, and is pretty much focused on efficiency,  not
including the more sophisticated usages of org-mode that you will want to
incorporate into your IT courses.  I came to org-mode through my need for
an outliner.   This is by far the greatest outliner I have ever seen.


Alan Davis

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Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Scott Randby]

I use org-mode to keep track of grades and all other information I
collect on students. I make great use of tables, table formulas, tags,
headlines, and lists. I can compute a grade in milliseconds. Entering
data is a snap. Since everything is plain text, I can add comments with
ease and use git to keep track of everything.

Scott Randby

On 01/31/2012 11:10 PM, Venkatesh Choppella wrote:
> Dear Org-mode users:
> 
> I am using  org-mode this semester  to host my course notes.   For me
> org-mode was a god-send, since I had been struggling to organize
> course notes in plain html  before that.
> 
> The course pages done in org-mode are at
> 
>  -  http://pascal.iiit.ac.in/~itws2
> 
>  - http://pascal.iiit.ac.in/~tipl
> 
> 
> In the Information Technology  workshop course I am teaching this
> semester,  we have introduced emacs and org-mode as part of the
> course's curriculum to 1st year (freshman) students.   As part of the
> course, they  are required to do  their lab reports in Org-mode.
> Emacs continues to be  a difficult climb for many students, but
> org-mode is an important motivator.  I expect that most of the 180
> students in class will become comfortable with emacs by the end of the
> semester.
> 
> 
> I am interested to  hear from others who have used org-mode as part of
> their teaching activities.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Venkatesh Choppella
> IIIT Hyderabad
> Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500 032
> India
> 
> 

Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[brian powell]

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* Dear Venkatesh Choppella: Thanks for the notes on teaching OrgMode etc.:
While reviewing your class notes and emails to your class about OrgMode and
TeX/LaTeX I came across your suggestion to students to play with:

http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html

** Detexify can be useful; but, this may give your students more
traction/uses:

http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/equation.html

---which not only suggests an equivalent TeX/LaTeX; it provides a MathML
suggestion as well.

*** Disclaimer: I have no relations to visionobjects.com that I know of
(but the example site looks free to play with at least).

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 12:17 PM, Scott Randby <srandby@gmail.com> wrote:

> I use org-mode to keep track of grades and all other information I
> collect on students. I make great use of tables, table formulas, tags,
> headlines, and lists. I can compute a grade in milliseconds. Entering
> data is a snap. Since everything is plain text, I can add comments with
> ease and use git to keep track of everything.
>
> Scott Randby
>
> On 01/31/2012 11:10 PM, Venkatesh Choppella wrote:
> > Dear Org-mode users:
> >
> > I am using  org-mode this semester  to host my course notes.   For me
>

...

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Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Sankalp]

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Dear Brian,

On 2 February 2012 23:24, brian powell <briangpowellms@gmail.com> wrote:

> * Dear Venkatesh Choppella: Thanks for the notes on teaching OrgMode etc.:
> While reviewing your class notes and emails to your class about OrgMode and
> TeX/LaTeX I came across your suggestion to students to play with:
>
> http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html
>
> ** Detexify can be useful; but, this may give your students more
> traction/uses:
>
> http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/equation.html
>

^^ This is awesome! :D


>
> ---which not only suggests an equivalent TeX/LaTeX; it provides a MathML
> suggestion as well.
>
> *** Disclaimer: I have no relations to visionobjects.com that I know of
> (but the example site looks free to play with at least).
>
>  On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 12:17 PM, Scott Randby <srandby@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I use org-mode to keep track of grades and all other information I
>> collect on students. I make great use of tables, table formulas, tags,
>> headlines, and lists. I can compute a grade in milliseconds. Entering
>> data is a snap. Since everything is plain text, I can add comments with
>> ease and use git to keep track of everything.
>>
>> Scott Randby
>>
>> On 01/31/2012 11:10 PM, Venkatesh Choppella wrote:
>> > Dear Org-mode users:
>> >
>> > I am using  org-mode this semester  to host my course notes.   For me
>>
>
> ...
>

We'll relay this to the class, and to the instructors too, while we're at
it.

Thanks a lot,

--
Sankalp
(Teaching Assistant for Dr.Choppella's IT Workshop course)

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Re: How do teachers use org-mode

[Jambunathan K]

Sankalp <sankalpkhare@gmail.com> writes:

> Dear Brian,
>
> On 2 February 2012 23:24, brian powell <briangpowellms@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>     * Dear Venkatesh Choppella: Thanks for the notes on teaching
>     OrgMode etc.: While reviewing your class notes and emails to your
>     class about OrgMode and TeX/LaTeX I came across your suggestion
>     to students to play with:
>    
>     http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html
>    
>     ** Detexify can be useful; but, this may give your students more
>     traction/uses:
>    
>     http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/equation.html
>
>
> ^^ This is awesome! :D

I have not followed the above 2 links so my comments here could be out
of context ...

>     ---which not only suggests an equivalent TeX/LaTeX; it provides a
>     MathML suggestion as well.

Org/OpenDocument exporter can convert from LaTex to MathML using
MathToWeb. One can also use MathJax to see the MathML equivalents of a
LaTex snippet. In my experience, MathJax seems to be more mature
compared to MathToWeb. 

See (info "(org) Working with LaTeX math snippets")

>     *** Disclaimer: I have no relations to visionobjects.com that I
>     know of (but the example site looks free to play with at least).

Well, nothing is free. Everything that you type in there is a test case
for their software. Also they win over an enthusiast or a detractor
depending upon how well you have crafted your input.
--