Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on Psetter, a Chrome extension designed to solve one small but annoying problem with MITx: math syntax.
The idea started over the summer at MIT Interphase EDGE. After taking the MIT math assessment and using MITx regularly, I kept running into the same problem: I knew the math I wanted to enter, but I still had to translate it into exactly the syntax MITx expected.
I thought, “why couldn’t entering math in MITx be like Desmos?”
So I built just that.
Introducing Psetter
Psetter adds a visual math editor directly to MITx answer fields. Instead of worrying about syntax, you can enter an expression visually and let Psetter convert it into the format MITx expects. What you see is what you get. And it all happens entirely inside your browser.
This small syntax tool has since grown into a full Chrome extension, with its own interface, parser, testing and release system, feedback tools, and website.
Another important part of Psetter is that it’s open source. The complete source code for the extension is public, so anyone can inspect how it works and contribute to the project. The original Psetter code is released under the MIT License.
For now, Psetter is only available for MIT students on MITx, but I plan to expand its compatibility and capabilities very soon. Stay tuned.
Download Psetter on the Chrome Web Store:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/psetter/ilmaaohbefffhcgijdhdmhpfingekhlm
View the source code on GitHub:
https://github.com/pedrovillafranco/Psetter
Visit the official Psetter website:
https://psetter.villafran.co/