Importing test questions from EZ Test

Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Shannon Bliss -
Number of replies: 11

I am trying to import a quiz from McGraw-Hill's EZ Test.  They say to use the WebCT format to save the quiz and then go to Moodle to import. 

Unfortunately, when I do that it can't import it and it says:

Parsing questions from import file.
There are no questions in the import file
An error occurred during import processing

I don't own WebCT since I teach in Moodle, so I can't check to see if the problem is with the file or the import. 

I don't know what version we use, but we were told it was the "new" version.

Thanks for any help.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Shannon Bliss

Re: Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Can you attach the offending file (or email it to me if it's too big) and I'll take a look.
In reply to Shannon Bliss

Re: Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Shannon Bliss -

I have been in contact with the EZ Test people.  They say if you have the very most recent version of Ez Test that it will work with Moodle. 

Every time I called last week they had new information, so it sounds like they are trying to make their product work with Moodle. 

Shannon 

In reply to Shannon Bliss

Re: Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Marc Grober -
I posted about trying to do this in the past without any response, but I can tell you that I have been able to do the import and I would not hold your breath about M-H providing a Moodle Export option....

That being said, are you still unable to import to Moodle?

The "secret" I discovered is that up need to upload and unzip.... this "secret" applies to quite a few import processes, and somewhere I came across a note somewhere that was a bit of an apology that at least with respect to BB6 uploads the code to allow uploading from zip files is broken..... who knows what else may be broken....... and this is one of the joys of using open software.....

There is quite a bit of discussion here and there in this forum, and much of it unfortunately will lead you in circles, especially because there are apparently errors in the code.....

But, running 1.9.2+ (20080723) I can
  • export as WebCT (not WebCT 6 Vista!!)
  • upload to moodle files
  • unzip (this will create a folder with a txt file)
  • now from your quiz module import from WebCT
  • go into the folder created above and choose the txt file for my question bank
  • And all the questions are there
Caveats!
  • I have experimented with the media directory link option that EZTest Web CT export provides, and have been abvle to filled this about a bit, but, the pain in trying to make this work in the current quiz module is such that I have
  • recommend that if you have figures you simply use eztest and then enter the scores..... I have been trying to resolve this question for months and I still don't have this working effectively....
  • I have been able to get the questions to reference a location in the Moodle.... problem here is that only the alt text appears so far....
  • Additionally, it seems that refs are abosulte and so if you have a bank for a course and you want to add an additional course which chages the course ID everything is kaput.... so you really need to put this in the system files directory but that makes them viewable by everyone.... and at that point you again may wonder, why am I bothering??? You anyone have a guide to implementing moodle wide question bank that is secure from students but universally available to all courses in the site, that would probably be a wonderful doc to work from.....


In reply to Marc Grober

Re: Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Leon de Oliveira -
I am working with Pearson's TestGen software that exports webCT3.x and 4.x (separate option) as well as Blackboard 5.x and 6.x (one option) and I can't get any of them to upload into Moodle 1.9.2 When I try to import a set of questions, it simply states

Parsing questions in file

and then stops working. When I try it on my 1.9 system, I can get it to upload the entire file but it seems to have been broken in the update to 1.9.2

We are currently running on Moodle 1.9.2 (Build: 20080711)

Something to look into to fix?
In reply to Leon de Oliveira

Re: Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Marc Grober -
LOL - join the masses.......

First off, my guess is that you are using the first of the two options available to upload a file that you see on your Moodle, and this can be a problem (although it seems to me I just saw a post that says that someone just offered a patch to address this with respect to some files.....

But, you will likely have more success if you upload the file, unzip it, and then use the second option, pointing it to the dat or txt file that the unzipping reveals.....

"Really?", you gasp. Really.....
In reply to Marc Grober

Re: Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Leon de Oliveira -
Trust me, this question is not asked before everything has been tried!! I initially tried the apparent "upload and import in one easy step" method and quickly got nowhere. I then quickly moved to the upload and import separately. had better success there. I then tried uploading the zip and unzipping. No improvement. Went back to a previous installation had marginal results. Compared my file to the aforementioned bio file in post number 3(?) and found one small difference. Changed my file to match and had success on 1.9 with much rejoicing. Pictures still not working. That is ok as long as I have the text questions. So upload the newly formatted file to the 1.9.2 version and import. The same thing that happened earlier. NADA.

So my thoughts were that since it worked with the one file on 1.9 and nothing for 1.9.2, that something in the update to 1.9.2 broke that feature. Should I log in to tracker and report this, or is there some other setting that I am not looking at that should or could be set in 1.9.2?

I have had some better results uploading from a blackboard file, but I can't get any of the other formats out of my testgen. Very frustrating.
In reply to Leon de Oliveira

Re: Importing test questions from EZ Test

by Marc Grober -
There is a patch for using the image linker in the window, but this probably won;t help you with imported images, which I can't get to work at all.... it will help you with adding images, but my experience has been that I have been unable to add image links to imported questions - LOL

are you saying that from 1.9.2 you were unable to import from the webct txt file?
In reply to Shannon Bliss

How to Import test questions with images from EZ Test

by Marc Grober -

a
Attachment WebCT_Options.png
In reply to Marc Grober

Re: How to Import Missing text!

by Marc Grober -
Well, M-H is of no help (referred me to Moodle, believe it or not) but having spent a good deal of time thrashing about I do have a solution, albeit one I am not altogether pleased with. At some point I suppose I should put this in the docs, but am starting this here (partly in the hope someone else might help out ;=} )

The problems are that while you can use a media URL to adequately embed the images, unless you are going to place the images in Site FIles there seem to be some issues in exactly where the images are located (i.e. it looks like the images have to be located be reference in the folder in which they were unzipped.... I am still trying to figure out why that seems to matter) AND, no matter what you do, the image browsers will ONLY located images in Site FIles.) Additionally, since the URLs are absolute if you use the media URL as described below and point it to course files, then if you try to use the course again by doing a backup and restore to a new course, this would change the course ID of the course, but I don't know if that wold change the course ID in the image references (somehow I doubt this) which would render your images unavailable!

The arguable solution to this mess is to put the images in site files, which requires a good deal of juggling AND makes the images available to your students at all times, probably NOT what you wanted in a test bank solution.

If one of the folks who deal with quiz internals can address whether a backup and restore would in fact render the image URL useless and perhaps some other way to do the URL reference that would be grand, as that way you could essentially build the sae kind of structure in the course, remembering that it seems to be that the images have to be inside the folder with the txt file!

  • From EZTestonline (and I am guessing this will work as well with the desk top version) first from the drop down menu on the upper left select "Export to Print/CMS formats.
  • In the lower left hand corner of the screen you will now see a button that says WebCT; click there.
  • This will bring up a dialog window, a copy of which you should see below.
  • IN the dialog window where it asks for the Media Directory URL provide the URL for your images, as noted above, as in http://www.yourmoodle.net/file.php/1/your_text_images/Chapter1/ Of course, if you relabel all the images so you can put them ALL in one directory you would change your URL (i.e. you could name your images 1-001.png to indicate it was image 1 in chapter 1 and put them all in the same directory instead of building a complex directory structure by chapter.)
  • Click on the button that says, " Generate WebCT", NOT ON THE BUTTON THAT SAYS Generate WebCT CE6, and download the zip file.
  • Now open the target course, Add whatever category you may need and import questions.
  • Select WebCT as the import and go down to the very bottom where it says: Import from file already in course files... click choose or upload a file, upload your file, then unzip while still in the file manager and then go into the folder created by unzipping the file and Choose the txt file for the question bank and then click "import from this file"
  • This should parse the file and you questions are now installed.
  • Now, if you have been unzipping on your local machine and creating a directory structure with all your image files as I am sure you had already decided to do, you will have to zip that up and upload it to "site Files"
  • If you have been a good boy or girl then when you now go to preview one of the questions you will see the image file for each question.


Yes, you will likely need to have separate directories for each Chapter (depending on the bank) as in at least some texts the images are all labeled starting from image001.png for each Chapter, and, bless their heart, you will have to manually identify the relationship between the images and the figure or table reference in the question. For this I would recommend using EZTest as you can use the media options to rename the

Some notes:
If you get this to work with course files before I do, please note what you did.
Remember that penalties for adptive questions are assigned by question.... so change your default or you will have to change default by going through each question one at a time....

Attachment WebCT_Options.png
In reply to Marc Grober

Docs reference on quiz image links on copy

by Marc Grober -
The following link suggests that if you follow the prior directions to create images directories in the course files instead of in site files that with 1.9 and since
  • from the course or activity context to a course category or the core system context, you will be asked if you would like to move any linked files in the course files area to the site files area.
  • from a course category or the core system context to the course or activity context, you will be asked if you would like to move / copy any linked files in the site files area to the course files area.
That did not seem to work for me, and the info here is a bit confusing... i.e. as admin if I want to copy a course and thereby create a new course and the linked files are in the files for the initial course a) will I be prompted, b) what exactly will I be prompted to do, and c) will the system ALSO change the URLs besides copying or moving (doesn't say that.....) ? And will I then end up with referenced files in both the original course files and site files, but not the new course files?

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Questions_linking_to_files