Blablator - Story time

Motivation

Story time. Get your cup of tea or coco and enjoy a story about how IT projects were financed back in the older, simpler days. Back then I wanted to build solutions for projects financed from public money. And I still do. Back then, there were quite good opportunities to obtain funding and I wanted to be part of it. Times changed, and nowadays things look differently, but read on...

E-learning was an innovative idea back in 2009. Back then, it wasn't as obvious as it is now that e-learning existed. While Covid somewhat challenged this idea and showed us that online learning was indeed possible, and people began to admit it, I had already tried it long before, with very good results.

E-learning solutions did exist, but they were usually "clicker" solutions that involved a test to complete, or people preferred in-person training, which cost several thousands. But, you could obtain founding from European Council. There were also hybrid solutions that included a computer with a test, but everything was conducted on-site.

At the time, I had some experience with e-learning (as student). Some solutions existed where there was a website where you could solve problems in various programming languages. I then decided to create my own solution because I was very curious about how such solutions worked and really wanted to implement this innovative solution at my school when I was still in high school.

So I thought that I would be an expert in building tools for different institutions. At the time, it actually made sense, as I had recently learned that there were European Union funds for innovative forms of student education, and I had participated in two such programs. Today, these funds are completely different; they are allocated for different purposes, and they are much more difficult to obtain.

This software was created to teach young and clever students STEM subjects like for example Mathematics. The software allows you to grade the submissions from students.

Example workflow

This software allows you to define tasks and categorize them in different topics. Each task is either fill gaps, or open essay. You can create themes, sets of tasks, write tasks itself. When students log in to the system, they can solve the assignments. Administrator or teacher can provide feedback (that is grade) the solutions.

Educator writes an assignment for students:

When the assignment is written, student logs in on their computer, opens the task and solves it.

When student fills the gaps, they can submit the solution for grading.

The solution is graded by the educator.

The student can see their grade.

PHP lab, a very simple CMS-like project and online judge-like solution.