In-class questions — setup & run guide

In-class questions — setup & run guide

Live polling for CSCI 4845/5845. Students answer on their phones; the answer distribution (multiple choice) or a wall of anonymous responses (free text) appears on the projector in real time.

• Students: https://jinzhao3611.github.io/csci4845/q/
• Presenter (you): https://jinzhao3611.github.io/csci4845/q/present.html

Hosting is GitHub Pages (already yours); the live data layer is Firebase Firestore, whose free Spark tier is far above what 31 students generate.

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One-time setup (~10 minutes)

1. Create the project. https://console.firebase.google.com → Add project → name it e.g. csci4845-poll. Google Analytics: disable (not needed).

2. Create the database. Build → Firestore Database → Create database → Production mode → pick the nam5 (US) location.

3. Publish the security rules. Firestore → Rules tab → replace the contents with firestore.rules from this folder → Publish. These rules let any signed-in student read results and write only their own answer, and let only your email create questions or change which question is live.

4. Enable sign-in. Build → Authentication → Get started → Sign-in method → enable Anonymous (students) and Google (you).

5. Paste the config. Project settings (gear icon) → Your apps → click the </> (Web) icon → register an app (nickname anything, no Hosting needed) → copy the firebaseConfig object → paste the values into firebase-config.js in this folder, replacing every PASTE_ME.

6. Authorize the domain. Authentication → Settings → Authorized domains → Add domain → jinzhao3611.github.io.

7. Commit and push the edited firebase-config.js. (These keys are meant to be public — Firebase web config is an identifier, not a secret. Access is controlled by the rules in step 3, which is why step 3 matters.)

8. Seed the questions. Open present.html, sign in with your SLU Google account, click Seed Lecture 1 set. The five Lecture 1 questions appear in the sidebar.

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Running it in class

1. Open present.html on the projector and sign in. The QR code and join URL are in the left sidebar — leave them up while students join.
2. Click a question in the sidebar to put it live. Students’ phones switch to it automatically; no refresh needed.
3. Watch the counter (N answered) climb. Results update live for you and for any student who has already answered.
4. Click Hide question (blank screen) to clear the screen while you lecture, or click the next question when you’re ready.
5. After class (or at end of term), click Export responses CSV for grading — one row per response with timestamp, question, name, email, and answer.

Notes

• Students identify themselves once with name + SLU email, stored in their browser, so later classes are one tap. Answers are recorded per student for participation credit; free-text answers are shown on screen without names.
• Changing an answer is allowed while a question is live — a student’s document is overwritten, never duplicated.
• Late joiners see whatever question is currently live, so a student who arrives mid-question can still answer.
• Results are only shown to a student after they answer, so the distribution doesn’t anchor their choice.

Adding questions for later lectures

Either write them from the presenter console, or copy questions-lec01.js to questions-lec02.js, edit, and import it in present.html next to the LEC01 import. Each question is:

{ id: "lec07-q1", order: 1, type: "mc",     // unique id; order = sidebar position
  prompt: "…", choices: ["…", "…"] }        // choices only for type "mc"
{ id: "lec07-q2", order: 2, type: "text",   // free response
  prompt: "…" }

quizzes/quiz-bank.md in the course repo holds 50 written MCQs with rationales — a ready supply of in-class questions for the rest of the semester.