I pushed out a new update earlier today and hopefully all performs as well as it should. If there are any problems just let me know.
Update Notes
- Parsons problems have been updated with a fresh UI.
You will notice this now looks a little different.
Rather than dragging up and down, the available blocks are now on the left and the solution is built on the right. This makes it lot easier to build the solution and work with larger pieces of code.
The colours will now reset if the solution is created but then pieces are dragged out of place.
There is some syntax highlighting to make the code easier to read and the first incorrect line in the solution will be highlighted red when checked.
2. Parsons lines can now be grouped in blocks.
This is not clear now as there needs to be an update to the solutions in order to take advantage of the blocking. However once in place this will make these solutions a little easier for the students to follow if they need to.
The dice face problem has had the blocks implemented (see below) so if you set the problem for a student with the parsons implemented you will be able to see how this will work. When I have a moment I’ll start to work through the problem to update them.
3. Fixed issue (hopefully) with Parsons and Framework not loading correctly.
On occasion, the Parsons problems and the framework would not load correctly. Hopefully that has now been resolved with no significant impact on page load speeds.
4. Fixed issue with infinite loops crashing the page and multiple programs loading and running at the same time.
Frustrating wasn’t it. The student runs a program and inadvertently includes an infinite loop, crashing the page and losing the students work.
When the student clicks the run button now, the button will change to say Stop. When clicked this will stop program execution. This also works if the student tests a program that includes an infinite loop. No more page crashes due to infinite loops….fingers crossed.
A side benefit is that the program can now only be run once at a time.
5. Improved session management
Sessions were being logged out without warning. This could, and did lead to users attempting to save data but the save data failing as the user was no longer logged in but was not aware this has happened. Combined with a bit too short session log in time and this had potential to cause a lot of frustration.
This update should fix most of the issues with this while still keeping sessions secure.
Thanks as always…on to the next update 🙂
Pete
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