LehrPuls

Live polling in the lecture hall — local, no cloud.

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The baton: passing questions on in a team

Questions the whole team maintains: with the baton, teachers pass a topic or a playlist back and forth as a package. Whoever holds the baton edits; the other side sees everything, plays it in sessions and receives the next version in the same place — no copies, no server, no account.

What the baton is

A question pool rarely grows alone. The assistant revises at short notice and the lecturer presents an hour later; a colleague covers a class; a degree program maintains a shared question bank. So far that meant: export, send by mail, import — and every round produced a copy next to the old version.

Since version 1.21, every topic, question, scenario and playlist node in LehrPuls carries a fixed identifier that stays the same on every computer. A package is therefore not created a second time but taken over in place: playlists, sessions and results on both sides stay intact. The image for this is a baton: exactly one side holds it and edits. The other sees the full content, can play it in sessions and gets it updated with the next package. Because the two never edit at the same time, nothing has to be merged.

The package is an ordinary .lpx file — the same exchange format as the export, extended by the baton block. It travels as a file, by email or through a shared exchange folder; there is no server and no account, and the content stays in the participants' data folders.

How it works

Flow: Teacher A hands the baton over as an .lpx package, the package travels as a file, by email or through the exchange folder to Teacher B, who takes it over; it returns the same way. Baton Teacher A edits, holds the baton Hand over… .lpx package topics, questions, images, playlists, round number File (USB, Teams, …) By email Exchange folder Take over Baton Teacher B takes over, then holds the baton Way back: B hands over, A takes over — as often as you like, without copies
The baton travels with the package. A read-only copy takes the same route but leaves the baton with the sender — so one version reaches any number of colleagues.
  1. Hand over In the topic tree (or on the Playlists page) open the submenu Baton and choose Hand over…: the recipient's name, your own notes if you wish, the destination. The topic then shows the badge Baton with … since ….
  2. Transport The package travels as a file, by email (LehrPuls puts it into the Downloads folder and opens your mail app) or lands in the exchange folder, a shared folder in OneDrive, Nextcloud or Teams. There, the other side's start page announces it as a card New version of ….
  3. Take over A double-click on the file or Take over on the card opens the dialog: sender, time sent, round and the count of what is new, changed, moved or removed. Without conflicts one click is enough; the baton is then here.
  4. History For each topic and playlist LehrPuls records when the baton went to whom and from whom it came back. The badge shows the latest events, History… the whole list; the history remains after ending the collaboration and never travels along.

Two checks protect your results. If a package changes what the results interpret for a question already played (question type, answer choices, solution, gaps), LehrPuls asks per question: take over, keep as a new question next to it, or skip. If you changed something yourself while the baton was elsewhere, the dialog lists it separately: incoming wins or keep mine. Pure text corrections pass silently.

Three use cases

Question bank of a degree program

One topic per module, maintained by changing teachers. Whoever is revising holds the baton; everyone else receives a read-only copy and plays the current version in their sessions. The question bank becomes common property without anyone having to clean up copies.

Covering a class

A colleague takes over the course for two weeks. She receives the playlist with its topics as a package, holds the baton, adjusts questions and hands everything back at the end — including the corrections, in the same place, with results intact.

Shared module

Two teachers alternate in a module, or the assistant revises at short notice before the lecturer presents. Through the exchange folder this is one click: drop the package, the other side sees the card on the start page and takes it over.

What travels — and what does not

In the package

  • Topics with subtopics and scenarios
  • Questions of all nineteen types, with images, formulas and translations
  • Playlists with sections and question blocks
  • The name from the sender's license, time sent and round number
  • Personal notes only if you explicitly include them (default: no)

Stays at home

  • Courses and participant lists
  • Sessions, answers and results
  • A playlist's course assignment — the local one stays when taking over
  • The baton history

The Baton submenu is available in expert mode; taking over by double-click, through Import (.lpx, .json) and through the card on the start page works in both modes. While the baton is with the other side, editing remains possible (a soft lock with a note in the question editor); Take the baton back brings it back without a package, for example when the other side is unavailable. During a running session a package waits until the session has ended.

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