A web app that aims to widen and deepen the scope of participation in facilitated discussions by minimizing participant self-consciousness, social intimidation, and time pressure.

Project in Action

ThoughtSwap is actively being tested and used at Virginia Tech in classroom discussions by over 200 students. You can view the project's home at thoughtswap.cs.vt.edu

For discussion facilitators, ThoughtSwap provides a platform for the creation of groups, group sessions with prompts, and a platform to moderate and discuss responses. For participants it provides a platform for viewing the prompt, and sharing their thoughts. A system of "silly name" generation for usernames and random thought distribution helps to anonymize them from their peers.

A glimpse of this can be seen below:

Participant View

Facilitator View

Contributing

For general contribution guidelines see CONTRIBUTING. To get started:

Step 1: Fork

Fork the core repository and check out your copy locally.

$ git clone git@github.com:VT-CHCI/Thought-Swap.git
$ cd Thought-Swap
$ git remote add upstream git://github.com/VT-CHCI/Thought-Swap.git

Step 2: Install Node and MySQL Server

Ensure that you have the necessary tools for development. If you are a Mac user then use Homebrew to install Node and MySQL Server.

• Node
• MySQL Server
• (Optional) MySQLWorkbench

Step 3: Install Dependencies

Ensure that you are in the same directory as package.json. Set up the application by installing the dependencies.

$ npm install

Step 4: Create a Database

Create a database for ThoughtSwap in your local MySQL Server or with MySQL Workbench.

Step 5: Create a Non-Root Database User

Create a non-root database user in your local MySQL Server or in MySQL Workbench that can access the ThoughtSwap database schema that you just created.

Step 6: Create Environment Variables

Create three environment variables with names that are expected in app.models.js. The three names should be TS_DB, TS_USER, and TS_PASS. Their values are the names for the database schema and non-root user that you created in your local MySQL Server or MySQL Workbench.

Step 7: Launch the Server

Ensure that you are in the same directory as package.json. Start up the app with $ npm start and navigate to localhost on the given port in your browser of choice.

(Optional) Step 8: Registering Users

Click on “Facilitator Login” to register yourself as a facilitator. Create a username and password in the facilitator login page and click “Register”. Enter in an email and click “Register”.

(Optional) Step 9: Create Groups

You can create groups in the Discussion Groups page. Go ahead and click “New Group”. You will enter a “Group Name” that can be, for example, CS101. Enter a participant number. Click “Create”. Your group should show up under Discussion Groups. Click on the plus sign to the right of your new group and the names of your participants will appear.

Recognitions

Thought-Swap © 2014+, Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech (VTCHCI). Released under the MIT License. Special thanks to our contributors.