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pySELL is a Python based Simple E-Learning Language for quickly creating interactive STEM quizzes, emphasizing randomized math questions and formative assessment. pySELL is openly released under the GPLv3 license.
Unlike other solutions (e.g. STACK), pySELL has no runtime dependencies except for KaTeX for math rendering. Each quiz is a single self-contained HTML file, easily hosted on a web server or integrated into LMS platforms like Moodle via file upload or Ilias as an HTML course. Quizzes work seamlessly on mobile devices.
Student responses are never stored on servers, ensuring complete anonymity, which is especially valuable for students exploring new topics. Teachers benefit from an intuitive easy to learn syntax, enabling them to create sophisticated quizzes with minimal effort.
If you are using pySELL in one of your (university) classes, I would love to hear about it! Please send feedback, bug reports, or feature requests to contact@compiler-construction.com.
pySELL is currently used in five courses at TH Köln (University of Applied Sciences) in Germany.
The following examples provide a brief overview. Explore the question pool for a wide selection of quizzes.
Python-based Simple E-Learning Language.
Visit my personal website https://arts-and-sciences.com.
To install the pySELL package from https://pypi.org/project/pysell/, simply run the following command:
If you've already installed pySELL, you can update it to the latest version with the following command:
Run the following command to generate a self-contained quiz website FILENAME.html from the sources in FILENAME.txt. An example is provided below, with more examples available in the examples/ directory.
Additionally, a file FILENAME_debug.html is created for debugging purposes. The debug output differs from the release files in the following aspects:
The sample solution is rendered in the input fields
All questions are evaluated directly for testing purposes
Single and multiple-choice answers are displayed in a static order
Python and text sources are displayed with syntax highlighting
Line numbers from the source file are shown for each exercise
If you would like to use SageMath in your code, run the following commands for installation and usage:
Alternatively, if you'd prefer not to use a package manager, you can directly download the stand-alone file sell.py from the repository. This is the only file required; all other files are used for the development of pySELL.
Usage example:
Users: Only vanilla Python 3 is required to create basic questions. If you want to use symbolic calculations in your questions, you should also install sympy (pip install sympy). For linear algebra, you can use numpy (pip install numpy). To enable plotting, matplotlib is supported (pip install matplotlib). You can also use SageMath for advanced mathematical computations.
Developers: Node.js and a local web server are recommended for debugging the web code. Alternatively, you can install the recommended VS Code extension available in this repository.
This site offers a comprehensive pool of pySELL questions. You can filter the database by topics and play quizzes live. Each question also includes Python code, providing a foundation for creating your own custom questions.
You can add exercises to a worksheet and download it as a single HTML file. This file can be opened in a browser on a local computer, hosted on a web server, or uploaded to e-learning management systems like Moodle or ILIAS.
To add exercises to the worksheet, click the plus icon (+) at the top right of a question. To remove a question, click the minus icon (-) on any selected item. Use the "Worksheet" button below to view or download your current worksheet. Selected questions appear with a colored background to indicate inclusion in the worksheet.
 | Show pySELL source code |
https://pysell.org — March 17, 2025
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