This presentation was prepared for the inaugural WPCampus in Sarasota Florida on July 16, 2016. It was designed to show not only out of the box solutions, such as WordPress and BuddyPress/bbPress, but also what we have designed ourselves

1. CCIT @ SHERIDAN
A Case Study
By Kiera Howe & Shanta R. Nathwani
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa 1

2. Agenda
• About Us
• About our students
• What we teach them
• The tools we give them (aka. What they know)
• The tools we use (aka. What they don’t know…yet)
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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3. Find Us
Kiera
Tweet Me:
@XXowe
My Web Site:
http://kierahowe.com
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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Shanta
Tweet Me:
@ShantaDotCa
My Web Site:
http://shanta.ca

4. #HiRoy
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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5. About Shanta
• Instructor, Sheridan College &
Mohawk College
• Web Design and Capstone Project
• WordPress 1 & 2
• Bachelor of Commerce in Info Tech
Mgmt., Ryerson University
• Serial WordCamper. Went to 7 in 2014
& 2015, 5 in 2016, including Mumbai.
Including Co-organizer, WordCamp
Hamilton, 2015-6
• Lead Dudette – Thanks @modmatt
owe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa 5

6. About Kiera
• Instructor, developer, business owner,
serial tinkerer, and Chief Geek
• Instructor, Sheridan College teaching
Web Design
• Custom software development for a
variety of clients
owe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa 6

7. 7
Our Students
• Joint program with University of
Toronto at Mississauga:
Institute of Culture,
Communication, Information
and Technology and Sheridan
College
• Training them to be translators,
not necessarily the developers
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa

8. What we teach them
At Sheridan:
• Principles of Design
• Web Design
• Graphic Design
• Game Design
• Photography and Video
At UTM:
• Business
• Technical
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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9. The Web Stream
Intro Course (CCT260) :
• HTML & CSS. Assumes no prior knowledge of coding
Intermediate (CCT360):
• Intro to WordPress and PHP
• Content Architecture
• Web Design (Child Themes, Responsive Web Design, Standards)
Advanced (CCT460):
• Creating Widgets, themes and plugins in WordPress
• Custom Post Types
• Building a theme from scratch using _s (aka Underscores)
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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Now for
the really
cool stuff!
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa

11. Our Students’Tools
• The forum using BBPress and BuddyPress
• The allocation of accounts
• The tester
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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12. BBPress and Buddy Press
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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13. Our student process
We have a web server, administered by our IT department at Sheridan. Standard setup with
CPanel/Apache/MySQL/PHP
1. We get a list of web users created by our IT department. These are created, either, with
or without WordPress on them. They are added to the Interface via a custom plugin.
2. A student signs up for a forum user using BuddyPress specifying what class they are in.
Once confirmed, they are assigned a user from the pool
3. The student retrieves the temporary password from the “forums” WordPress site and
uses it to sign onto Cpanel.
4. Student updates their password and contact email on CPanel and proceeds to do
standard web functionality via CPanel.
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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14. Account Allocation
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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15. Lab Tester
Problem:
• Students needed an easier way to get feedback about their
HTML/CSS without always having to ask the instructor
The Solution:
• Build an interface onto WordPress to allow the student to test
their code as well as requirements for the assignment/lab
• Everything should be tested for HTML/CSS as well as the
requirements
The Process:
• Take in a url from the web interface.
• Test the HTML and CSS to confirm the rules of the languages
were followed.
• Test the that the requirements for the assignment were
completed
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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16. Our (The Instructors) Tools
• Administration of classes and user accounts
• Lab tester and marking
• Wayback machine
All of this is done from a student account. No admin privileges are
required/used
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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17. Account Allocation
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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We are given a accounts by
our IT Department. They look
like:
ccit2100
Corresponds to a web space
which looks like this:
http://phoenix.sheridanc.on.ca/~ccit2100

18. Grading/Testing
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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Problem:
• The instructors need a way to mass test our students
assignments/labs to speed up the process of marking
The Solution:
• Give the instructors an easy interface that integrates with the
LMS (D2L – Slate)
• Use the export and import functions on the LMS to bring
submissions over to the custom interface and return the
feedback to the LMS
The Process:
• Submissions are exported from the LMS into a zip file
• All submissions are tested using custom testing code, reusing
much of the tester code
• All the submissions are listed with an interface that the
instructor can view the tester feedback and enter feeback,
including grades of their own.
• All information is then zipped up and reimported into the LMS

19. The Wayback Machine
Problem:
• Students cheat on their assignments and we need
a history of changes for more evedence
The Solution:
• Changes to files on student directories should be
recorded so that there is a way to trace most of
the versions of the student files
The Process:
• A scheduled task runs twice a day using the
WordPress cron system.
• When It runs, it iterates through a list of users
registered and checks their file system for files
that are newer then the last time it ran.
• Stores the files elsewhere on the file system with
an interface for accessing them.
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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20. Future Expansion
We are building a SAAS model for schools who want a similar solution. Preparing to test in
August. With this new server comes a full administrator access, which means we can add:
• We don’t need to get a list of user accounts from the IT Department. We will allocate new
users as required.
• Integrate our own LMS
• Allow students to submit straight from the tester.
• Automated testing on the due date, without instructor interaction
• Automated updates to student WordPress installs
• Make it available to THE WORLD!
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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21. Questions?
Kiera Howe - @Xxowe Shanta R. Nathwani - @ShantaDotCa
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Kiera
Tweet Me:
@XXowe
My Web Site:
http://kierahowe.com
Shanta
Tweet Me:
@ShantaDotCa
My Web Site:
http://shanta.ca