Hi Gordon,
In the course I'm converting to QuizPort, the WebRhubarb exercise which is still in the Hot Potatoes module is causing problems. As you know, this kind of exercise means a lot of clicks and therefore a lot of "requêtes sur le serveur" (sorry I don't know how to say this in English). In my first university (2 and 3 years ago) this didn't seem a problem, they had enough RAM to handle it. In another university and now on shared hosting (the "Premium package" offered so not bottom of the range), as few as 6 students working at the same time leads to them being ejected and losing all their work. Extremely frustrating for them.
For the moment, I've hidden these exercises but the course is built in such a way that the WebRhubarb (in fact a dictation) is the culminating exercise for each unit so removing it would be like cutting out the last act in Hamlet because the play is too long.
Do you have any ideas? Will it make any difference when WebRhubarb is available through QuizPort?
I don't know if it's a related problem, but I'm also unable to backup the course. This is a problem I've frequently had with my Hot Pot rich courses. I have no problems backing up and restoring until the students start working and then, not immediately, but at some point the backup starts to just "hang". I've mangaged to get round it by backing up "bits" of the course and restoring them bit by bit. It's very laborious because I don't have criteria for choosing the bits and often the bits I choose lead to corrupted files. I've spent a lot of time asking on other forums and even my host at moodle.com couldn't find an answer this spring. I'm not sure it's related to the Hot Pots - it could be something else.
Cheers,
Glenys
WebRhubarb ejects students from Moodle
Number of replies: 3Re: WebRhubarb ejects students from Moodle
Hi Glenys,
thanks for your posting. You raise several interesting points.
I was not aware of the fact that WebRhubarb exercises run via the HotPot module can quickly overload the server. I will have a look at that and see if we can sort it.
Related to this point is the fact that the HotPot and QuizPort modules behave quite differently when sending results. HotPot sends results whenever it can, i.e. every click, whereas QuizPort sends them whenever it needs to, i.e. when the student leaves the page. The end result of both approaches is that all the results get saved even if the students stop before completing the quiz, but the HotPot module generates a lot more network traffic, and from what you say it seems that WebRhubarb generates the most of all the types of HP quiz.
Another difference between the two modules is that HotPot always stores the raw data returned from the browser. It all goes into a table called "hotpot_details". This table can get *very* big, so I recommend you empty it, using your favorite DB administration tool, e.g. phpMyAdmin, before you take a backup.
Another way to reduce the server load during backups, especially if you are making backups in order to copy the activities elsewhere, is to omit the files from the backup. You can always copy the files later via ssh, FTP or even Moodle's own interface to the Site and Course files folders.
You will pleased to know that I intend to get WebRhubarb and Sequitur quizzes (HTML files) going with QuizPort in the near future. It is the next thing I want to do with QuizPort, but there are several pressing things I have to do first as part of my job at university.
kind regards
Gordon
thanks for your posting. You raise several interesting points.
I was not aware of the fact that WebRhubarb exercises run via the HotPot module can quickly overload the server. I will have a look at that and see if we can sort it.
Related to this point is the fact that the HotPot and QuizPort modules behave quite differently when sending results. HotPot sends results whenever it can, i.e. every click, whereas QuizPort sends them whenever it needs to, i.e. when the student leaves the page. The end result of both approaches is that all the results get saved even if the students stop before completing the quiz, but the HotPot module generates a lot more network traffic, and from what you say it seems that WebRhubarb generates the most of all the types of HP quiz.
Another difference between the two modules is that HotPot always stores the raw data returned from the browser. It all goes into a table called "hotpot_details". This table can get *very* big, so I recommend you empty it, using your favorite DB administration tool, e.g. phpMyAdmin, before you take a backup.
Another way to reduce the server load during backups, especially if you are making backups in order to copy the activities elsewhere, is to omit the files from the backup. You can always copy the files later via ssh, FTP or even Moodle's own interface to the Site and Course files folders.
You will pleased to know that I intend to get WebRhubarb and Sequitur quizzes (HTML files) going with QuizPort in the near future. It is the next thing I want to do with QuizPort, but there are several pressing things I have to do first as part of my job at university.
kind regards
Gordon
Re: WebRhubarb ejects students from Moodle
Hi Gordon,
Oh, yes I'm very glad to hear WebRhubarb and Sequitur are next on your agenda but I perfectly understand your job has to come first. I'm going to retire at the end of this academic year so I have more time for the things I really like to do.
And I'm happy too to get confirmation of what I'd suspected from remembering what you'd written to other people that QuizPort is generates much less network traffic.
I've managed to back up and restore the course locally by changing the php.ini setting max_execution_time = 400 (instead of 60) thanks to a tip from Simon Dupuich who administers Moodle at the University of Franche-Comté. However I don't have access to the php.ini file on the distance server where the course is hosted at the moment.
Thanks a lot,
Glenys
Oh, yes I'm very glad to hear WebRhubarb and Sequitur are next on your agenda but I perfectly understand your job has to come first. I'm going to retire at the end of this academic year so I have more time for the things I really like to do.
And I'm happy too to get confirmation of what I'd suspected from remembering what you'd written to other people that QuizPort is generates much less network traffic.
I've managed to back up and restore the course locally by changing the php.ini setting max_execution_time = 400 (instead of 60) thanks to a tip from Simon Dupuich who administers Moodle at the University of Franche-Comté. However I don't have access to the php.ini file on the distance server where the course is hosted at the moment.
Thanks a lot,
Glenys
Re: WebRhubarb ejects students from Moodle
Dear Glenys,
thanks for your patience. I have finished the preliminary versions of Rhubarb and Sequitur for QuizPort.
At the moment, you can only run the html files of these types of quiz QuizPort , and there are probably still some slight adjustments to be made, so treat with caution.
I would be grateful if you have a chance to "test drive" this new functionality at some point with some of your "real" quizzes, as I have only been working with simple test files so far.
best regards
Gordon
thanks for your patience. I have finished the preliminary versions of Rhubarb and Sequitur for QuizPort.
At the moment, you can only run the html files of these types of quiz QuizPort , and there are probably still some slight adjustments to be made, so treat with caution.
I would be grateful if you have a chance to "test drive" this new functionality at some point with some of your "real" quizzes, as I have only been working with simple test files so far.
best regards
Gordon