1 ``pygrader`` is a directory-based grade database for grading course
2 assignments. Besides tracking grades locally, you can also use it to
3 automatically mail grades to students and professors associated with
4 the course. For secure communication, PGP_ can be used to sign and/or
5 encrypt any of these emails.
16 I've packaged ``pygrader`` for Gentoo_. You need layman_ and
17 my `wtk overlay`_. Install with::
19 # emerge -av app-portage/layman
21 # emerge -av dev-python/pygrader
26 ``pygrader`` is a simple package. The only external dependency
27 outside the Python 3 standard library is my `pgp-mime`_ package.
29 If you are developing ``pygrader``, you can use `update-copyright`_ to
30 keep the copyright blurbs up to date.
35 ``pygrader`` is available as a Git_ repository::
37 $ git clone git://tremily.us/pygrader.git
39 See the homepage_ for details. To install the checkout, run the
42 $ python setup.py install
47 Pygrader will help keep you organized in a course where the students
48 submit homework via email, or the homework submissions are otherwise
49 digital (i.e. scanned in after submission). There is currently no
50 support for multiple graders, although I will likely add this in the
51 future. In the following sections, I'll walk you through
52 administering the homework for the ``test`` course.
54 All of the processing involves using the ``pg.py`` command. Run::
63 Pygrader receives submissions and assigns grades via email. In order
64 to send email, it needs to connect to an SMTP_ server. See the
65 pgp-mime documentation for details on configuring you SMTP connection.
66 You can test your SMTP configuration by sending yourself a test
69 $ pg.py -VVV smtp -a rincewind@uu.edu -t rincewind@uu.edu
74 Once you've got email submission working, you need to configure the
75 course you'll be grading. Each course lives in its own directory, and
76 the basic setup looks like the ``test`` example distributed with
77 pygrader. The file that you need to get started is the config file in
78 the course directory::
80 $ cat test/course.conf
82 assignments: Attendance 1, Attendance 2, Attendance 3, Attendance 4,
83 Attendance 5, Attendance 6, Attendance 7, Attendance 8, Attendance 9,
84 Assignment 1, Assignment 2, Exam 1, Exam 2
87 students: Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, Aragorn
112 emails: eye@tower.edu
116 emails: bb@shire.org, bb@greyhavens.net
120 The format is a bit wordy, but it is also explicit and easily
121 extensible. The time it takes to construct this configuration file
122 should be a small portion of the time you will spend grading
125 If a person has the ``pgp-key`` option set, that key will be used to
126 encrypt messages to that person and sign messages from that person
127 with PGP_. It will also be used to authenticate ownership of incoming
128 emails. You'll need to have GnuPG_ on your local host for this to
129 work, and the user running pygrader should have the associated keys in
130 their keychain. The ``pgp-fingerprint`` option is used when verifying
131 that signed emails are signed by the appropriate person. You can
132 extract the fingerprint for the PGP key using GnuPG::
134 $ gpg --fingerprint 4332B6E3
135 pub 2048R/4332B6E3 2012-03-21
136 Key fingerprint = B2ED BE0E 771A 4B87 08DD 16A7 511A EDA6 4332 B6E3
137 uid pgp-mime-test (http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pgp-mime/) <pgp-mime@invalid.com>
139 Processing submissions
140 ----------------------
142 As the due date approaches, student submissions will start arriving in
143 your inbox. Use ``pg.py``'s ``mailpipe`` command to sort them into
144 directories. This will also extract any files that were attached to
145 the emails and place them in that persons assignment directory::
147 $ pg.py -d test mailpipe -m maildir -i ~/.maildir -o ./mail-old
149 Use ``pg.py``'s ``todo`` command to check for ungraded submissions::
151 $ pg.py -d test todo mail grade
153 To see how everyone's doing, you can print a table of grades with
154 ``pg.py``'s ``tabulate`` command::
156 $ pg.py -d test tabulate -s
158 When you want to notify students of their grades, you can send them
159 all out with ``pg.py``'s ``email`` command::
161 $ pg.py -d test email assignment 'Exam 1'
166 Run the internal unit tests using nose_::
168 $ nosetests --with-doctest --doctest-tests pygrader
170 If a Python-3-version of ``nosetests`` is not the default on your
171 system, you may need to try something like::
173 $ nosetests-3.2 --with-doctest --doctest-tests pygrader
178 This project is distributed under the `GNU General Public License
179 Version 3`_ or greater.
190 For a similar project, see `Alex Heitzmann's pygrade`_, which keeps
191 the grade history in a single log file and provides more support for
192 using graphical interfaces.
195 .. _PGP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
196 .. _Gentoo: http://www.gentoo.org/
197 .. _layman: http://layman.sourceforge.net/
198 .. _wtk overlay: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/Gentoo_overlay/
199 .. _pgp-mime: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pgp-mime/
200 .. _update-copyright: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/update-copyright/
201 .. _Git: http://git-scm.com/
202 .. _homepage: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pygrader/
203 .. _SMTP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol
204 .. _GnuPG: http://www.gnupg.org/
205 .. _nose: http://readthedocs.org/docs/nose/en/latest/
206 .. _GNU General Public License Version 3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
207 .. _Alex Heitzmann's pygrade: http://code.google.com/p/pygrade/