[ale] [OT] Software and file formats for on-line/correspondence chemical education

[Tom Freeman]

I have accepted the job of teaching an on-line chemistry course for majors 
next fall, with the requirement that the course be written this spring. 
I for see an issue which I could use a whole heaping bunch of help with, 
specifically ensuring that the students engage in using/generating the 
visual aspects of chemical "language" and formally engage in showing 
(documenting and defending) numeric problem solving. I am not being paid 
enough to accept just showing a picture to the student, and accepting a 
multiple guess regurgitation. I expect details given without hints from 
me.

The education technology types at the school have ideas which partially 
get the problem solved, if we only accept Windows on all sides. Since I 
use Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora mostly), with a little Mac work to help my 
own children, setting a requirement to use Microsoft products only 
_really_ has my back up, and heels dug in. Plus, I need to avoid more cost 
to the student, as it looks like budgeting for this course is potentially 
headed north of $600. Achieving sufficient interactivity to accommodate
online office hours in Moodle using Eluminate is a real positive here.

What then am I looking for? Software which reads/writes a useful, 
well defined file format which will support a work flow pattern which I 
will attempt to describe below. Obviously cross platform availability; at 
least including Linux/Unix, Mac, and Windows having software available, 
with IOS and Android availability a plus. I'm open to commercial software, 
but in the interest of holding costs down and personal values, I really 
want open-source, with zero-cost ("free beer?") running a close second. 
Plus I want it robust as a get out, since the students I've had so far in 
class can break just about anything just by walking past it.

With respect to the work flow, the current idea is that the student will 
perform some task any way that they can. Unless it is already in an 
appropriate form, the student will then scan their work, and upload the 
resulting file to me. Using a tablet & stylus, I then annotate the 
student's work with circles, arrows, and indications of doom and dispare, 
followed by returning the file to the student. At which time the cycle 
will repeat until exhaustion or learning occurs, or a grade is assigned. 
If possible, and it may not be, within the file being transferred, I would 
like to keep the individual entries separate, such that the teacher's 
notes can be easily obscured in order to view just the student's work. (In 
my seated classes, any work performed in red gets a zero, since _all_ my 
comments/notes/grading gets done in red. As a result, both the student and 
myself have a chance of determining got what right/wrong and where. I want 
to retain this ability.)

So far, I _think_ the Adobe pdf format has the capability to handle my 
needs, but I haven't proven it by discovering which software used how will 
cause this to happen, especially happen reliably.

If anybody on this list can make sense of the above word salad and suggest 
a possible solution approach, I'd love to hear it.

I thank everybody here for the use of their bandwidth and their patience