Textbook Evaluation Tool
Project Summary
This is a hypothetical application that was created to exercise new functionality in FlashMx, specifically XML parsing, MX components, and object-oriented data classes. The Textbook Evaluation Tool is a self-contained desktop application. One of the goals of this project was to take advantage of Flash's rapid application development aspects and create a useable tool in a single person-week. The focus was on functionality and usability, not visual design, thus the rather spartan interface. The Textbook Evaluation Tool can be used by teachers to evaluate candidate textbooks for use in upcoming school year curricula. This tool is geared for a textbook-based program and could be expanded to aid in planning project-based programs.
TET loads a local xml file that is comprised of a range of math, science and social studies textbook publishers, books and chapters. Once loaded, user interface elements are dynamically generated based on the XML content. The user can select the desired subject and drill down to select one or more books for evaluation. The evaluation screen shows a list of selected books and chapters (chapter display can be toggled on/off) and a grid of evaluation values is displayed. Each participating teacher (up to 5) can input their evaluations for each book which are totalled and averaged.
development time: 1 week