Real-time Jupyter Code Feedback (beta software)

This project provides a magic command to users of Jupyter Notebook.

The contents of a cell are sent to a remote server at the time of cell execution. This allows teachers in a class to mark certain cells with %postcell magic command and view how their students are performing those exercises in real-time. Instructors can sign up for this service at https://postcell.io

Pre-requisites

This utility is designed to work within Jupyter notebooks.

Installation

pip install postcell

Usage

Since contents of a cell are sent to a remote server, do the following to set up the server:

1. Go to https://postcell.io to create an account
2. Create a new class and click Sample config to get configuration information
3. Create a file called postcell.conf in your project directory and paste the contents of the sample config dialog box. Here is an example:

{
"url" : "https://postcell.io/post_cell",
"student_id" : "TEST_USER",
"instructor_id": "INSTRUCTOR_ID_GENERATED_BY_THE_PROCESS_ABOVE",
"class_id": "PythonForPoets",
"should_send_to_server" : true
}

Load and register the newly created class

%reload_ext postcell
%postcell register

The register command will automatically look for postcell.conf in the directory containing your notebook, or any of the parent directories.

You can also give an explicit config file name as:

%postcell register -config C:\Users\...\custom_postcell.conf

If you prefer not to use a physical config file, you can pass in the following properties:

%postcell register -student_id STUDENT_USER_NAME -instructor_id INSTRUCTOR_ID -class_id python_intro

Submit code

Create a cell and give it an exercise name:

%%postcell TEST_EXERCISE1

1+1

Executing this cell will send the code to a server, where an instructor will be able to view submission in real-time. An instructor can monitor their students' progress, provide real-time feedback and even share the submission screen to show sudents how their classmates solve the same exercise.