urails/ta_queue — Issue #48: Add way of getting message to students
Author: gifford
Created: 2012-01-18 19:55:09+00:00
State: open

Sometimes a student will add themselves to the queue from a lab other than the one the TA is in, or list a location that is unclear. Tracking them down is a pain, especially if it means walking down the hall to a different computer lab to tell them they need to move. With the old queue, I would just open the student side of the queue and add myself as a student whose name was "Come to the CADE lab if you want help" or "Fred, I can't find you" or something similar. With the new queue, that is very hard to do, because students and TAs share the same interface, and opening a new browser tab remembers my login from the previous tab. I suggest one of two things - either add a field to the TA interface that lets TAs add a message to the queue which is seen by all users, or else somehow make it possible to open a separate second instance of the queue in which I can log in as a student with a message-as-a-name like before, without having to first log out as a TA. (I realize I can use another browser to do this, but a more elegant solution would be nice, if it's not too complicated to accomplish). Or maybe you guys can come up with a third fix that's even better!