PrepLab: Web

Abstract

PrepLab is a proposed online repository to aid instructors in the remixing and reuse of instructional materials (e.g., syllabi, assignments, learning activities, facilitated discussions, etc.). To facilitate easy adoption it was designed to be as simple as possible for content creators to upload existing material. This project set the constraints of what content may and may not be easily included. When uploading content, users shall select what creative commons license they wish to apply (the system may impose a minimum license) and confirm that they are the original content creator and/or own the rights to any material they are submitting. Instructions to content creators for structuring new material also are included. Upon initial upload of an item the results of the parser/indexer shall be displayed to the user who is given the opportunity to confirm/edit the results. This project is dedicated to working specifically on the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the PrepLab. React.js, a front end JavaScript framework, was chosen as the design method upon which the front end of PrepLab is built. Other design elements added to the website include Bootstrap as well as traditional CSS libraries. Amazon Web Service (AWS) is used to host the website until a more suitable replacement can be determined when the other sections of this project are completed. As the backend pertains to a different part of the project, the database holding the instructional materials that will populate the site will be covered in future projects related to PrepLab. The other section that is not covered in this part of PrepLab will include parsing and indexing of documents as well as including an API in order to increase functionality and search capabilities. Other files that are uploaded are the code base in a Zip file, a poster shown at VTURCS, and a presentation we gave about the final result of this project.