I am teaching an online course using "Blackboard" as a course
management platform. I would like to create a spreadsheet in excel (or
similar) and have multiple students be able to add data and manipulate
the spreadsheet. Please give me specific instructions on how to do
this. It can be within Blackboard or just on the web. Thanks.

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Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 23 Jun 2004 13:57 PDT

Hi, brodie54-ga:

Are you asking perhaps about:

[Whiteboard]
http://whiteboard.sourceforge.net/

which is described as open-source course management software?

regards, mathtalk-ga

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Clarification of Question by brodie54-ga on 24 Jun 2004 05:07 PDT

Thanks to Jeremy and others for your helpful suggestions. It sounds
like what I originally hoped to do isn't going to be feasible. I'll
try the dowload and upload suggestion made. Thanks to all for your
help.

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Clarification of Question by brodie54-ga on 24 Jun 2004 05:10 PDT

I am using blackboard described below
http://coursesites.blackboard.com/

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 27 Jun 2004 05:23 PDT

Hi brodie54,

Would this product work for you?

ExcelEverywhere
http://www.xleverywhere.com/excel.htm

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Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 19 Jul 2004 11:11 PDT

Here's another link to the product Cynthia-GA has mentioned:

http://www.exceleverywhere.com/home/

It appears to support a broad cross-section of the operations and
functions that can be used in Excel spreadsheets, but not user-written
(VBA) functions.

My feeling is that this is about all that should be expected of a
Web-based (HTML and Javascript) port of a spreadsheet.

regards, mathtalk-ga

last of the big spenders :-)

I don't know anything about Blackboard but to put an editable
spreadsheet on the web is not particularly easy or cheap. The best way
to do it would be to make a database-backed we page. This typically
requires a web programmer (i.e., more than just an MS FrontPage user)
to build it and a decent web hosting company to hold it (i.e., those
$2.95/mo hosts usually do not offer database support.) Students could
then visit this page and add/edit data. If you would like me or
someone like me to build a web-enabled database like this for you,
post a reply.

I'm at a major university with very good server capabilities for web
hosting. But I don't have technical support to get things to work. If
you can make a web-enabled database and give me directions to give to
a computer programmer at work to put it on a server that would be
great. If it is not easy to take and get to work I wouldn't be able to
use it.  What do you think is it feasible? thanks.

The easiest way to do it might be through the discussion tool. This is
not exactly what you are looking for-- have students download,
manipulate and upload the spreadsheet- saving it as html so people can
view it through the post. It is not interactive but it lets students
take a spreadsheet, change it and display it for others.

I am in high school and i have taken many classes using black board.
Based off of what you would like to do i would sugest the following
things:
Make it so that your students can download the files (Put it into
classroom documents) then check daily to see if they have uploaded it
again with modified information. For instance i could download the
file, then send it back to you just like i would with a normal
assignment. There are other options, for instance if your school
district has a network simular to mine. You can put files on "Virtual
Disk" that both students and teachers have access to, and they could
edit it that way.
Just an idea
Jeremy