[Tutor] Conceptual Question About Use of Python for Employee Training Program

[Adam Carr]

Good Morning:

I am very new to Python but I am enjoying the learning process. I have a 
question about the application of Python to a problem at the industrial business 
where I work. My two main questions are:

1. Can Python be used to achieve the goals of the possible project?
2. Where are the best places to look (books, blogs, websites, etc.) for 
programming examples or modules that would help me begin to assemble and test 
some code?

We currently have a Windows-PC based safety training program that was put 
together in MS Access around 2001. Access has evolved through several versions 
since then, as has the Windows OS, and the original author of the database has 
left the company. Originally designed to be deployed on an employee's desktop, 
the database is now restricted to two older PCs in the facility that run a 
version of Access compatible with the original. In short, the program is quickly 
becoming obsolete.

The safety training program is a monthly exercise for all thirty nine employees 
at our location. The training is mandated by OSHA, and the subject matter is 
chosen based on the relevance to our processes. The program consists of the 
following general steps.

1. The employee is prompted to enter his or her employee identity number.

2. A confirmation is generated showing the employee name and other minor 
details, accessed from a simple list, to be sure the identity number and the 
person are correctly matched. This requires employee acknowledgment.

3. The employee freely selects a training subject from a list.

4. Once a subject is selected, a PowerPoint (or could be the OpenOffice 
Presentation) is launched. The training information is in the presentation. The 
employee can navigate forward or backward through the presentation, or they can 
exit.

5. Once the presentation is complete, or the employee has started and used ESC 
to exit from the presentation, they are prompted to take a quiz or exit the 
training program.

6. The quiz is a simple true-false ten question process based on the material in 
the training presentation.

7. The employee clicks on their answers to questions, the quiz is completed and 
scored. The employee must get at least eight of the ten questions correct to 
pass the topic. 


8. Right now the Access version of the program prints the quiz, the employee's 
answers and the correct answers to the quiz, and the hard copy is signed and 
left with their supervisor. The printer is the default location set for the 
machine on which the training and quiz are completed. I think that the only 
reason the quizzes are printed is because no topic and quiz verification process 
was written into the program. In other words, an employee can take the time to 
review a topic, take and pass the associated quiz but if the printed copy is 
lost there is no way to verify that the employee completed anything. 


I would like to see a program that can be deployed as originally intended, 
on individual PCs, that can be more easily maintained and modified than the 
behemoth Access program we now have. We are running a Windows network with most 
production floor PCs using the latest version of XP and most individual desktops 
and laptops using Windows 7. I have the blessing of our network gods to pursue 
an open source solution because the options for this kind of program, which is 
tailored to individual locations, are few. The best approach the network folks 
suggested was a Lotus Notes database, which would work great I'm sure but the 
development cost is very, very high and each of the company's many manufacturing 
locations would require a slightly different version of the database.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my long note. I appreciate any 
help or direction that can be offered.

Adam
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