Bolt Tutorial, Part I: Courses and Lessons

Creating a course

Install the BOINC software on a Linux system, or run the BOINC server virtual machine in a VMWare player on any computer.

Use make_project to create a BOINC project named "test":

> cd boinc/tools
> make_project --web_only test

Read ~/projects/test/test.readme and do what it says.

Let's say your server's domain name is "a.b.c".

• Visit ​http://a.b.c/test/create_account.php and create an account for yourself.
• Visit ​http://a.b.c/test_ops/bolt_admin.php. Follow the instructions to create the Bolt database, then create a course named "Identifying California conifers" with short name "conifer1".
• Copy the files from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/bolt_example to ~/projects/test/html/.

Lessons and sequences

Let's start with a simple course consisting of 13 lessons. Each lesson consists of a PHP or HTML file. The first lesson is conifer_intro.php:

<?php

echo "
<h2>California conifers</h2>

Throughout California's Sierra Nevada mountains,
and especially at high altitudes,
the dominant plants are tall, straight trees called <b>conifers</b>.
Conifers are remarkable in many ways:
<ul>
<li> They have existed in approximately their current form
for 240 million years.
<li>
They display remarkable tenacity and adaptibility,
managing to grow in the most unlikely places:
<img src=jeffrey_pine.jpg>
<p class=caption>A Jeffrey pine growing on granite in the High Sierra</p>
<li> The largest living thing is a conifer:
the General Sherman, a Giant Sequoia in Sequoia National Park.
Its trunk volume is 52,500 cubic feet.
<img src=general_sherman.jpg>
<li>
The oldest known living thing is a conifer:
a 4,500-year-old bristlecone pine in the White Mountains
(a mountain range that neighbors the Sierra Nevada).
<img src=bristlecone-pine.jpg>
<p class=caption>A bristlecone pine.</p>
</ul>

This course will teach you how to identify
the most common types of California conifers.
";
?>

The course structure is defined by conifer1.php:

<?php

require_once("../inc/conifer.inc");

function intro_lessons() {
    return sequence(
        name('intro lessons'),
        lesson(
            title('Introduction'),
            filename('conifer_intro.php')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Conifers and deciduous trees'),
            filename('conifer_decid.php')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Conifers taxonomy'),
            filename('taxonomy.html')
        )
    );
}

function cypress_lessons() {
    return sequence(
        name('Cypress genera'),
        lesson(
            title('Incense-Cedar'),
            filename('incense-cedar.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Juniper'),
            filename('juniper.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Coast Redwood'),
            filename('coast-redwood.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Giant Sequoia'),
            filename('giant-sequoia.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Red Cedar'),
            filename('red-cedar.html')
        )
    );
}

function pine_lessons() {
    return random(
        name('Pine genera'),
        lesson(
            title('Pines'),
            filename('pine.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Spruces'),
            filename('spruce.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Douglas Fir'),
            filename('douglas-fir.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Hemlock'),
            filename('hemlock.html')
        ),
        lesson(
            title('Firs'),
            filename('fir.html')
        )
    );
}

return sequence(
    name('course'),
    intro_lessons(),
    pine_lessons(),
    cypress_lessons()
);

?>

Diagramatically, the course structure is:

Now visit ​http://a.b.c/test/bolt.php. You'll be asked to log in; do so. Click on the button to start the course. Fill in the form asking for your demographic info. Then you'll see:

Note that below your lesson Bolt has added some navigation links and a form to ask questions. Click on the "Next" button. You'll see:

Now suppose that instead of reading the lesson, you go away (for an hour or a month) and return. Simulate this by visiting ​http://a.b.c.test/bolt.php; click Resume. Notice that Bolt "remembers" where you are in the course (this is stored in the database; it will work even if you go to a different computer).

Now visit ​http://a.b.c.test/bolt.php again, and click on "History". You'll see something like:

Bolt has recorded your course interactions and their timing, in its database; this is used for course analytics (see part III of this tutorial).

Continue to Part II