Nbgrader notes/Weekly setup

Weekly Process

• The weekly process for get the labs tested and released varies depending on what day of the week that labs are released. The following is a process for labs that are released on Monday:

Monday - The Week Before Release

• A group of people (2-4, although more is fine) volunteer to playtest the following week's lab. They agree on a meeting time to work on the lab. (It is not strictly necessary for everybody to meet together, but it is helpful.)

Monday to Thursday

• The playtesters complete the lab, attending to the following things:
  • Are all of the instructions clear?
  • Are the instructions consistent?
  • Are units consistent?
  • Are the instructions clear about the order parameters should be in?
  • Are the validations all present?
  • Are the validations all correct?
  • Do the validations agree with the assignment about the order of the parameters?
  • Do the validations use round() where appropriate to deal with floating point noise?

Most types of changes can be made directly to the file while playtesting. If a playtester is uncertain about whether a change should be made, they should contact the entire hop list as soon as possible. Particularly for labs that are new, playtesters should *not* assume that anything about the lab is correct; virtually all new labs will contain some errors or things that aren't clear. For labs that have been used before, it is less likely that errors are present (especially errors that would be caught easily), but not impossible. Playtesters should feel empowered to make changes to the labs, although if you're ever uncertain about something, do not hesitate to ask.

Any substantive changes (that is, changes that aren't just tweaking the wording or formatting of the instructions, spelling fixes, etc.) should be reported to the hop@cs.earlham.edu list.

Friday to Sunday

• Playtesting should be done by Friday, ideally, and all playtesters will have reported in. This gives the instructors time to verify the labs.

Sunday

• The instructors will verify that the labs can be released. Whoever is responsible for releasing the labs will release them.