Hosted By:Download
Donate
SLAPS | Sharif, LaRosa |
What is SLAPS?
SLAPS in an audience polling system designed to give anonymous feedback to a lecturer. It uses standard game controllers to collect answers to multiple-choice style questions from a small audience. It then gives a tally to a teacher, so they can judge the audiences grasp of a question without singling out an individual.Why was SLAPS created?
SLAPS provides a low cost entry into audience polling. Specialized hardware and software for this purpose generally costs a prohibitable amount of money. For that reason, we developed our own version. SLAPS uses entirely comodity hardware and free software as its base. For that reason, we are also releasing the code under the GPL. This will allow others to make improvements and share them with the community.How does SLAPS work
SLAPS uses the USB HID driver for joysticks in Ubuntu Linux as its base. It can accomodate dozens of controllers so long as you have the USB ports and controllers on the same box.The user-interface for SLAPS is a web-browser - which means it can be operated from any machine on the network connected to the machine with the controllers. Currently, there is no login process or authentication, so connecting the device to an untrusted network opens it up to hacking or cheating.
Usage of SLAPS: Each controller has buttons that can be used for input. Being a game controller, it also has a directional pad. Each user registers an ID by pressing left and while holding the left arrow down, enters a numberic sequence using the numbered buttons. when done entering a unique id, the user lets go. ID 101 is reserved for the answer key.
Once all controllers are registered, login to the control page at http://server:port and enroll the testers. Once that is done, use the refresh link or refresh browser button to record user answers. Once answers are registered on screen, save the answers. Do this until all questions are asked. At the end, a grade for each tester can be generated. Only the person who knows the tester ID will be able to know what the resultant grade is.
To ensure that noone takes key 101 except the teacher, IDs are shown at the bottom of the page. If 101 occurs more than once, than testers should not be enrolled..
Who is SLAPS for
Teachers with a low but reasonable budget, computer-know-how and a sense of adventureWhere can I get SLAPS?
From a friend... or hereWhen was SLAPS made?
- 4/2009: First public release of the source code
- 3/2009: Development of SLAPS begun
- 2/2008: Need for low cost audience participation system arose
Developed by: Irtza Sharif, MD
Testers and contributors: Jennifer LaRosa, MD; Pratik Patel, MD