Subject:? Re: Evaluating Student Work Via RSS?

> Is there a way to return it via RSS and still maintain privacy?

I’m unfamiliar with Manila, but if you controlled access to the feed via criteria given in the query string to the RSS file, like a
username and password, such as:

http://www.foo.com/rsspickup.aspx?username=foo&password=blah

The script could then validate the student, and output the appropriate
feed.

> What would it take to create a browser/editor envisioned above?

This may not be feasible for you, but Office 2003 allows Word and Excel files to be saved as XML, which could easily be edited by
yourself, and returned back to the student. Otherwise treat the
document as you would any other, use some encoding (MIME etc.) to
allow students to attach it inside an RSS feed. When you pick up the
feed, you can make your edits to the original document regardless of
its file type, and then return the file encoded once more.

Controlling access to an RSS feed somewhat defeats the purpose, although could be done. Using RSS as a means of passing through attachments certainly defeats the point!

Presumably what is wanted is a system whereby the student is an authorised author/owner of his own Blog, complete with various RSS feeds (one per subject). Teachers need to be able to edit text on a subject by subject basis.

Interesting project. I’ll think about it… Solution will probably lie with running something we can configure, so either CourseForum or Moveable Type.

But it might be possible to manage the issue through a desktop package such as NetNewsWire or similar.