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A quick way to collect student info in computer labs Apps
At the beginning of each semester, I like to gather everyone's name, ID, email address, and (always optional) phone. We have some very useful campus sites for getting some of this information (including pictures of class rolls), but there is no handy location with all of these items formatted the way I like.

I've tried passing around a paper (takes forever to type, is error prone). I've tried passing around my laptop (takes time, they don't know how to use the track pad, I don't like passing around my laptop), but there are fewer errors. I've tried having them come up to the instructor's station (logistically difficult). I've tried having them hand in, as their first assignment, a text document with all the info (takes forever to copy and paste the info). Here's the latest method I've used, which works quite well -- this is after they have learned about servers, or have connected to my machine and have access to my drop box.

I have each student create a folder (we've just talked about creating and naming folders) and rename it with his or her info separated by underscores or spaces. They drop the folder into my drop box.

I select all the folders in the drop box, copy them, move to a text editor such as Text Edit, and paste them. From there, it's a pretty simple operation to replace the spaces with tabs, then make it a table (or copy and paste the data into Excel). Students learn a little about managing files and handing items in, and I have an error-free quick and easy space-delimited (therefore tab-delimited) list of their contact information.
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a time saving modification
Authored by: sr105 on Jan 19, '07 08:07:51AM

I was going to suggest a python script to help you, but then it occurred to me that you should have your students, using TextEdit or Notepad, create a CSV/TXT file in your class folder (one file per student).

Name,ID,E-mail,Optional Phone

Then, you just load the text files into excel. You could save time by using the command line.

cat *.txt > whole_class.csv



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a time saving modification
Authored by: nikle on Jan 19, '07 06:59:19PM

Folder names also have various character restrictions which may or may not cause problems, as such I like sr105's suggestion.



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What about a Web form?
Authored by: googoo on Jan 19, '07 08:31:37AM

I think a Web form would probably be easier. You could send all the students to a Web page where they could enter their information.

-Mark



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A quick way to collect student info in computer labs
Authored by: azafred on Jan 19, '07 09:41:44AM
I would recommend taking a look at ruby on rails (pretty good support on Mac) and create a web interface where all the students could go and register an account.
The way ruby works, you could make a basic and working interface with a database backend (so you could keep track of everything for every semester...) in about an hour.
I am just discovering rails, and this is the exact type of application rails caters for.
Have a look at www.rubyonrails.com, watch the screencast in the "get excited" section to get an idea of how easy it is, and then proceed to http://developer.apple.com/tools/rubyonrails.html for information on getting rails to work on the mac. Another way is to use locomotive (which I will let you google for).
Web application, whether php-based or ruby-based seem like the perfect solution for your problem.

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A quick way to collect student info in computer labs
Authored by: azafred on Jan 19, '07 09:47:35AM
I gave you the wrong URL for install instruction on mac. The correct url is http://hivelogic.com/narrative/articles/ruby_rails_lighttpd_mysql_tiger but don't forget to check locomotive since it is a lot easier to work with :) (this link is for people who are planning to mimic a Unix environment to develop rails applications).

The link I mentioned in the previous comment is a very good basic tutorial for getting an application running, so it is still worth checking out!

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A quick way to collect student info in computer labs
Authored by: foilpan on Jan 21, '07 02:09:27PM

What kind of school is this?

If you have a need for this type of functionality, it may be possible to develop a solution that everyone can use. For that matter, it may already exist.

As with your previous post, this one's your particular band-aid to a larger institutional problem. The process still involves manual work — both on your and your students' parts. A more elegant approach might be to discuss your needs with campus IT to develop a web app to do the work for you. It seems very likely it already exists.



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A quick way to collect student info in computer labs
Authored by: ssus on Jan 21, '07 04:42:19PM

If they're all using Mac OS X just have them start up Address Book, have them enter their information with a new entry and export it as a vCard. Then have them put it in your drop box. They can even do this on a non Mac OS box as long as their program can handle .vcf/vCards. When they're done they can delete their entry in Address Book. You can then drop the .vcf files into your copy of Address book, organize each class as a group and print it off with a custom print set-up to get what you want. You could even go further and "print" the class list as a .pdf and use a pdf-to-txt, pdf-to-html, or pdf-to-doc converter if you want to edit or enter it into another program.



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