Qromiteach

Qromiteach.com is the home of Qromiteach: a tool used for teaching various subjects, including such STEM subjects as math and coding, and is implemented in Java. The student's laptop displays the Qromatype, a specialized whiteboard, and the tutor's smartphone displays a window: a partial copy of the student's screen. For some subjects, the student displays the Qromadesq, which is not limited to monospaced text. An always-on-top chat window (or a simultaneous phone conversation) takes care of the student's questions and the tutor's instructions, in case the tutor is non-local, otherwise Bluetooth provides connectivity. Tutors and students pay $20 and $10/year respectively to access the Qromadesq. The basic math Qromatype is free for all users.

Qromatype

The Qromatype supports math being taught, using text in monospaced mode. Most of its functionality is written in Java, but extensions used to teach STEM subjects are written in Uniqrome. The most commonly used commands are as follows:

• Use the arrow keys to move the cursor.
• Type underscore(s) to underline the numerator of a fraction.
• Use the special character command (Ctrl+K) to insert special characters such as pi, square root, sum, and integral.
• Use Tab/Shift+Tab to display/undo the next step in the math problem being solved.
• Type question mark (?) to explain the current step or to break the current step down into lower-level steps.
• Click on Help after typing question mark to access the help system.

Miscellaneous commands:

• Use asterisk and slash for multiply and divide.
• Fractions or matrices enclosed in brackets use tall brackets.
• Smart down/up arrow: press it after inserting a character moves the cursor beneath/above that character.
• Functions such as lines and parabolas can be plotted interactively on a graph.
• The default-to-upper-case setting assumes that all letters entered are upper case (use the shift key to enter a lower case letter), so Caps Lock is unnecessary.

Qromadesq:

• Display screen based on Qromaform, a text markup language
• May include panels, some containing a Qromatype

Expression Language

Mathematical expressions are encoded (internally) using the Uniqrome programming language. Each step in the math problem being solved manipulates this Uniqrome expression. Even if the user enters steps in a different order than the default ordering, the simplification logic can handle that. The user can type Tab/Shift+Tab to redo/undo her previous step, as well as to redo/undo the computer's previous step.

Computer Demos

Qromiteach can be used to teach computer skills. The student's laptop runs the practise demos featuring screenshots, cursor animation, and always-on-top yellow windows with black text. The yellow windows contain instructions to the student, and the tutor's smartphone is in sync with the student. The student can also run live demos including yellow windows, with MS Office, Chrome, or other applications running beneath the yellow windows. During the live demos, the tutor's smartphone is also in sync with the student.

Advanced Qromatype Commands

These next 2 paragraphs may be ignored, they are written in computerese. Use Shift+Arrow Key to highlight a rectangular block. Press Insert to insert a row or column of spaces before a highlighted block (insert blank line if no highlight). Press Shift+Insert/Delete to insert/delete an entire row/column when a block is highlighted. Press Enter at end of a line of text: insert blank line, back up on that line to line up with beginning of text on previous line. Press Enter on blank line to back up to line up with beginning of text on a previous line, or insert blank line if already at beginning of line. Press Ctrl+Tab to move forward to line up with beginning of first or next word on a previous line. Press Home to move to beginning of text on current line, press it again to toggle between beginning of line and beginning of text. This usage of Enter, Tab and Home is useful for editing program code with multiple indentation levels. The user doesn't have to memorize these commands: type question mark at any time to access the help system.

Superscripts

Superscripts and subscripts in monospaced mode are handled by employing a vertical offset of half a line per level of superscripting or subscripting. The caret symbol (^) is used as a superscript prefix, double-caret (^^) is used as a subscript prefix, and backslash (\) is used as an escape character (terminate super/subscript with a semicolon). Carets and double-carets cannot be mixed (exception: one level of superscript can be combined with one level of subscript).