Lurch is designed to be easy for instructors to use and customize for teaching. You can use existing content, customize it to fit your needs, or create new content from scratch. The choice is yours! Let’s walk through how to distribute, collect, grade, and create assignments using Lurch. This guide assumes you have read the materials in the Start Lurching section.

Overview and Background

Content, Static Contexts, and Dynamic Contexts

We begin with a brief overview of a few somewhat technical aspects of Lurch that clarify the detailed instructions for teaching with Lurch below. If you are eager to get to the good stuff, feel free to skip ahead.

Every Lurch document has two parts: content (always visible in the editor) and context (visible only via the Show/Hide context menu). You can create both directly in Lurch as Lurch documents. To add context to a document, use Instructor > Add or remove context. Contexts can be added either statically or dynamically.

• Static contexts are stored in the document when first added and do not refresh when reopening the document after that.
• Dynamic contexts reload every time the file is opened, ensuring the latest version is used.

One Site for All, All from One Site

A security restriction imposed on web browsers and sites affects how Lurch handles context files:

This means you can use any Lurch app to open any .lurch file on your computer, but:

• Any dynamic context file it requires must reside on the same site as the Lurch app you are using.
• If you want to add any context file (static or dynamic) to your document, the context file must also reside on the same site as the Lurch app you are using when you add it.

Common Scenarios for Teaching

• Use existing assignments – Just share a link (like these) with students.
• Create assignments using existing contexts – Use static contexts or include context material directly in the document content. Students can open your file with any copy of Lurch. You do not need your own site.
• Create assignment contexts – Host your own Lurch site, upload your context and assignment files there, and use dynamic contexts. Students can open the assignment file using the Lurch app from your site.

Now let’s look at how to distribute, create, and grade assignments in detail.

Distribute an Assignment

Lurch is a web app, so distributing assignments is as easy as sharing a link. Post the link wherever you prefer – your website, LMS, or by email. When students click it, the assignment opens in Lurch, ready to go. Try clicking one of the sample assignment links to see how it works.

Create an Assignment

To create or modify assignments using existing contexts, you don't need your own site.

1. Open Lurch in instructor mode from the site where the contexts are located.
2. Use File > New to start a new document.
3. Select the context(s) you need from the list of contexts on that site.
4. Go to Instructor > Add or remove context and add the desired contexts statically.
5. Type your assignment and save the file to your computer or site.
6. Share the file or a link to it with students.
7. Students can open it using File > Open in the student version of any copy of Lurch.

Create a Context

To use your own contexts, you need a Lurch site (get one here).

1. Open a new document in Lurch and type your context.
2. Save the context to a file and upload it to your Lurch site. For example, you can put it in the /math folder like this site does.
3. Open a new document using the instructor version of Lurch from your site.
4. Type your assignment content, and add the file you uploaded in step #2 as a dynamic context as math/your-context-filename.
5. Save your assignment document and upload your file to your site. For example, you can put it in the /assignments folder like this site does.
6. Share the link https://your_account.github.io/your_sitename/assignments/your_filename with your students.
7. Students click the link, complete the assignment, and send their work back to you.

Grade an Assignment

To grade an assignment:

1. Open the instructor version of Lurch from whatever site you used to create the assignment.
2. Open the student’s file.
3. Grade the assignment. You might find Instructor > Grading pen to be useful for giving feedback.
4. Save the graded file to your computer.
5. Return the graded file to the student.
6. Instruct students to open the graded file using the student version of Lurch from the site used to create the original file.

Instructor Utilities

For bulk grading, consider installing Lurch locally and using toc.js. It generates a table of contents for student files, streamlining access. It might require some modification for your particular setup. If you need help with this utility, contact me or check the source code.