Inspiration
After being here 4 weeks we considered what we disliked about CMU. We all agreed that the format for the computer science office hours wasted quite a bit of time. Students often wait on a queue for over half an hour to get a brief amount of time with a TA, since there are so many people to help. We wanted to make a website similar to the one that already exists, but that connects TAs and students online so that students can get help while waiting on the queue for a TA in person.
What it does
Dynamically displays login button that directs you to a screen to input Andrew ID and then takes you to a list of all the office hour queues
How we built it
We used WebStorm to produce html and js files to develop a website
Challenges we ran into
None of us know html so it was hard to learn. We also had a lot of trouble figuring out how to link html to css style files and how to integrate a live chat between two people on a website. Our chat didn't actually end up working but we still gained a lot of insight.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We figured how to link webpages buttons, how to extract images from existing websites and how to add text input boxes, which was pretty significant.
What we learned
We gained a better understanding of basic html and how the formatting works, as well as an insight into the variety of things you can incorporate into html, even though we didn't quite figure them out.
What's next for NOffice Hours
There is a lot in the future for NOffice Hours. The online connections established between students and TAs will start with a chat room, expand to screen sharing, and then possibly include a face to face video call component. Obviously, this was all tough to integrate in one night.
