Subtle change in the short-answer question type

Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Tim Hunt -
Number of replies: 12
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Looking at MDL-35370 prompted me to review all the places where the 'get_matching_answer' function was used in various question types, which found several issues with blank answers, not just in the Cloze qtype.

The specific thing I want to ask about here is for the shortanswer question type.

Suppose you have a short-answer question in deferred feedback behaviours, and you leave the input box blank and click Submit all and finish.

At the moment, as part of the feedback, the input box gets a red background and the red cross appears (assuming the 'Correctness' display option is on). This happens, despite the fact that the question state is 'Not answered'. The state is not 'Incorrect'.

I think it would be better to leave the input box with a while background in this case.

Does anyone have a different opinion?

Current display of an unanswered question:

Current display

Proposed display:

Proposed

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Emma Richardson -
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I think the red is better.  Leaving it white might confuse the student and let them think that they can redo the question.

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Tim Hunt -
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The text input box is disabled after Submit all and finish. You cannot type into it. Are we sure students will be confused?

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Joshua Bragg -

What about making it grayed out instead?

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Emma Richardson -
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Yes, I am pretty sure I will get emails that Moodle is broken!!!!

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Tim Hunt -
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Carrying things to their logical conclusion, here is how it looks for a big Cloze quetsion:

Current:

Current

Proposed:

Proposed

Numerical question type is also affected.

I am not off on holiday for a week. Please try to reach a consensus in my absence!

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Emma Richardson -
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Still like the red better but so excited that you are working on this!!! Thank you!!!

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Joshua Bragg -

I initally started writing this response as an I don't care either way but through writing this I managed to convince myself otherwise.

I think it should remain as is.  To me, an unanswered question in a defferred feedback quiz should be marked as "red".  You either get full credit, partial credit, or no credit.  I see the colors showing the credit recieved more than showing the correctness of the answer.  To me the combination of saying "Not Answered" at various places with the red X and box color give a clear indication of why it is wrong.  Removing the red color makes it a little less clear.

I don't think this is a big issue either way, but I do think that the current way is prefferable.

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In reply to Joshua Bragg

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Joseph Rézeau -
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@Joshua, I beg to disagree. An unsanswered question is neither right nor wrong, it is just ... unanswered. The meanings of the green, yellow and red colors in the Moodle quiz are clearly as follows:

green = correctly answered

yellow = answer is partially correct

red = wrong answer.

I vote for removing the red background color (and the red cross) for unanswered questions. In order to make it clear that, once the quiz has been submitted, those unanswered question fields are no longer answerable, I suggest to "paint" them grey.

Joseph

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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Thomas Robb -

My vote would be to add yet another color, perhaps blue or orange for unanswered items.  There will surely be cases where a student has simply overlooked a blank and it would kind to flag these so that they can go back, if indeed, another chance to respond has been allowed.

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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Joshua Bragg -

For me the key thing here is that we're talking about defferred feedback.  With every other type I'd agree with you.  But a defferred feedback quiz in Moodle is really not very different from a paper quiz that is taken in class.  You have to wait for any feedback until after you're done.   In that scenario, an unanswered question is *worse* than a wrong answer.  An unanswered question in a defferred feedback quiz says "I don't have any idea how to get an answer for this problem."

In everything other than a defferred feedback quiz, there should be a difference between unanswered and wrong.  In a defferred feedback quiz, an unanswered question deserves to be marked as wrong.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Pierre Pichet -

If you set the unanswered as white when the attempt is finished but not graded, the normal reflex will be to put a response in the field.

But are you allowed to answer at this stage?

If not, a grey color could be used.

The red color should be used  when the grading is zero either because of a false or empty response.

One thing that is not correct is that the grade should be shown  Marked 0.00 out of 1.00 in a quiz review as in the following example

quiz

Pierre

P.S. from 9/08/2012 master

 

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Subtle change in the short-answer question type

by Tim Hunt -
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Thank you to everyone who expressed an opinion. The feedback was somewhat mixed, but I read this as a majority in favour of keeping the status quo. At least, the opionions are sufficiently divided that there is not  astrong case for changing how things currently work, so I will leave well enough along. I will just fix the small but that was originally reported in MDL-35370.

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