Stats generation refactoring

Most of the stats generation methods had unnecessary db calls and overall were very messy. Last week I began rewriting these methods.

Last week I was also able to compile a small group of questions with all their categorization models so this week i'm beginning to do the recommendation engine.

I saw this project and I think I might be able to use it if I modify the rating system to fit questions.
https://github.com/davidcelis/recommendable


Next week I will work on this, continue to make small refactoring, and clean up the UI.

Refactoring

This week I am doing heavy refactoring on the stats generation and after that I will work on making the UI look better.

I will post the changes I made to the code and explain why.

Weekly Update

The Assignment taking part of the system is done and it is working with backbone so it looks cool.

Beta testing wont be able to start with classrooms because we don't have enough content digitized yet. However the system works and should be able to accept properly formatted content.

The next step from here is polishing aspects on the tutoring side so that tutors have a better view of how a class/student is doing.
I'm thinking about doing a separate user model for tutors since that way I could separate the controllers and views while still retaining a RESTful functionality.

El Beta

Today I finished most of the views that are going to be used in the beta.
The beta is going to be the following:

1. A user signs_up / signs_in
2. Assignment list is displayed
3. User can take assignment or see stats from a previous one
4. User can see stats after he takes an assignment

Backbone.js

I finished the UI for taking an exam. The Backbone code looks like this

  questions = new Altair.Collections.QuestionsCollection
  assignments = new Altair.Collections.AssignmentsCollection
  questions.reset(#{@assignment.questions.to_json})
  assignments.reset(#{@assignment.to_json})
  assignment = assignments.get(1)
  answer = new Altair.Collections.AnswersCollection

  $(function() {
  render_question()

  function bind_click(){
  $('.anslink').click( function() {
    ans = $(this).text()
    question = $(this).parent().find(".question_id").val()
    answer.create({'question_id' : question, 'answer' : ans})
   })
   }

  function bind_submit(){
  $('.nextquestion').click( function() {
    assignment.fetch()
    assignment.set({'current_id' : current + 1 })
    assignment.save()
    render_question()
   })
   }

   function render_question(){
    assignment.fetch()
    current = assignment.get('current_id')
    q = questions.get(current)
    r = new Altair.Views.Questions.ShowView({'model': q})
    r.render()
    $('#question').html(r.$el.html())
    rightWrong()
    bind_click()
    bind_submit()
   }
}

Backbone.js

This week I'm working with Backbone.js to make a new UI experience when the user "takes" an assignment.

Changes to Exam Model

Yesterday we decided to change how the exams work on the system. It used to be that every exam has a user_id and references a user. Now Exams are only lists of questions and can be referenced to any user. A new joint model called assignment will reference a user and an exam.