Weclare is an acronym for "web based classroom response system".
It is the prototype(!) of a classroom response system specifically designed for the use in computer science education at the university level.
To try it out, you can find a live version under weclare.de.
Weclare was designed to fulfill these high-level requirements:
- Web based: No downloads necessary for both, students and instructor (using Create React App and Redux)
- No server required: Direct connection between participating browsers. Minimal (only for signalling) server interaction required (based on WebRTC using PeerJS)
- Code Execution: Java code snippets within questions can be compiled and executed right in the browser (using Doppio)
- Code Formatting: Formatting options (indentation, syntax highlighting) for Java code snippets (using react-quill and react-codemirror2)
A classroom response system (CRS) is a special case of an "Audience Response System" directed towards classroom use in universities or schools. It allows an instructor to direct questions at the audience (students), which they can then interactively answer. CRS can exist as dedicated hardware systems (think of little remote boxes with buttons on them). But nowadays CRS are mostly software systems that can be used with many devices like computers, tablets or smartphones.
Weclare is the result of a bachelor thesis by Moritz Stückler at HAW Hamburg. It is heavily inspired by an existing system called "StuReSy" made by another student at the University of Hamburg.
However today, StuReSy seems unnecessarily complicated. It needs a dedicated server component and a Java Client to be configured when creating questions. Also it lacks a lot of computer science specific features (formatting source code fragments, syntax highlighting, etc).
- Download and install
npmon your machine - Clone/copy the content of this repository to an empty folder
- Navigate to the new folder and run
npm install - Run
npm start - Open your browser at
localhost:3000to see the app