freder/teacher.js

teacher.js

about

https://teacher.solar/

additional links

• https://www.digital-future.berlin/en/news/news-in-detail/news/innovation-in-der-hochschullehre-prof-hromada-ausgezeichnet/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=007fe214d60ba674b25ad731c14aa4c4
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6810842214646722560/

description

the teacher.js web application has the following features:

• matrix chat (via an embedded hydrogen client)
• collaborative text editing (via an embedded etherpad lite instance)
• webrtc audio conferencing (using janus + audiobridge plugin)
• synchronization between the client with the instructor role and all other clients via websockets, so that students will always see what the teacher sees:
  • reveal.js presentations
    • connected clients are notified about slide changes, etc.
  • wikipedia pages
    • connected clients are notified about changes (page transitions, jumping to specific sections within the page, etc.)
• recording of teaching sessions (to be replayed at a later time)
  • the links to any opened presentation or wikipedia page are automatically be posted to a matrix room
  • the audio conference is saved to a file
  • relevant events (caused by the presentation / wikipedia module, etc.) are time-stamped and logged to a file on the server

architecture overview

conventions

• this repo uses git-flow
  • stable / production branch: master
  • development / testing branch: develop

setup

install dependencies:

git clone --recursive <this-repo> teacher.js
cd teacher.js
npm install

cd src/hydrogen
npm install

config

rename src/.env-example to src/.env and edit according to your needs.

run

• run server: DEBUG='T.S:*' npm run server
  • uses https://github.com/visionmedia/debug for logging
• run webpack dev server (client): npm run dev
• run hydrogen dev server: cd src/hydrogen ; npm run start
  • runs on port 3001 by default

then open http://localhost:8080.

build

production build:

npm run build:prod

building hydrogen:

cd src/hydrogen
npm run build # output will be in src/hydrogen/target

deploy

TODO

teacher.js's Issues

matrix room change does not propagate to student viewport

Admin is able to change the matrix chat room by modifying the value in the top input box but this information is not propagated to student viewports.

env var for all config parameters

Many things are now still defined in src/shared/constants.ts etc.
Ideally, all configuration parameters and constants should be defined in .env and nowhere else.