Question engine: correct response or correct answer

Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Pierre Pichet -
Number of replies: 8
Tim,

There is always an ambiguity about using response or answer like here

public function correct_response(question_attempt $qa) {
$question = $qa->get_question();

$answer = reset($question->get_answers());
if (!$answer) {
return '';
}

return get_string('correctansweris', 'qtype_shortanswer', s($answer->answer));
}
$string['correctansweris'] = 'The correct answer is \'{$a}\'.';

You seem to have settled in new engine by always using answer.

Pierre
P.S. In french the only world is réponse. At least one case where french (language) is simpler than english wink .



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In reply to Pierre Pichet

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
In the code, I am trying to follow this logic:

An answer is part of the question definition. For example one of the choices in a multiple choice question, or one of the possible answers to a shortanswer question.

A response is something that came from (or could have come from) the student. Since Moodle is a web application, the response will have come from (part of) a HTTP POST request, and so it will be a set of name => value pairs.


In the user interface, I don't know how consistent we are. That is probably a problem.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Pierre Pichet -
As the feedback is related to the student response, I think that we should use Correct response is :

Pierre
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Joseph Rézeau -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Hi Pierre and Tim,

I seem to remember that we already had a discussion about that answer/response/solution/feedback moodle terminology quite some time ago. In French there is the extra problem that we have the same word "réponse" for both answer and response...

Although I'm not totally satisfied with the term "response" being used for the "student's answer", I do accept it, as defined by Tim. It would be clearer (but more cumbersome because involving 2 words) to have : Expected answer (or Correct answer) and Student's answer.

It's unfortunate that the Lesson activity does not have the same terminology as the Quiz. What is (rightly) called Feedback in Quiz is called Response in Lesson. This is confusing.

Joseph

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Pierre Pichet -
A simple research in the main lang files of 1.9 Tim question engine code (without the new lang files in the questiont/type/directories) give 255 occurences for answer and 110 for response. See attach files.
I think that the answer response convention in code is a good thing.
For the user interface we should have only one word.
A linguist should give us which is best in english.

Pierre


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In reply to Pierre Pichet

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
I think you are right Pierre, but I would really like to leave this issue until later.

There is a new translation system coming in Moodle 2.0 beta, which makes things like search-and-replace throughout a language pack easier, and I would rather finish my question engine rewrite before making some other extensive change.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Pierre Pichet -
So we will wait for the translation system and I will continue to clean and comment the new engine multianswer question code.


Pierre
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In reply to Pierre Pichet

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Velson Horie -
Sorry to input into this discussion, I am very new to VLE and Moodle.

But if you look in an English dictionary you will find that "answer" is what someone replies in response to another person's question etc. So the essence of an answer is that it comes from the responder, not, primarily, from the questioner. The difference between response and answer is small, but answer (narrower term) tends to imply a response (broader term) to a question.

So the answer is not part of the question, terminologically speaking. What the questioner provides in a multiple choice or shortanswer question is a number of choices, alternatives. In an essay question, no choice is predetermined. The responder then provides his answer in the specified format.

Schematically (simplified):
Question
question choices
Key
distractor

Response
correct answer
incorrect answer
feedback

Hope this is a useful reply.

Velson Horie
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In reply to Velson Horie

Re: Question engine: correct response or correct answer

by Pierre Pichet -
"answer" is what someone replies in response to another person's question

If the other person is a quiz on Moodle, then the student's response to a question in a quiz is an answer.

When Moodle gives feedback to a student, should Moodle use Answer's feedback or Response's feedback ?



Pierre


P.S. The internal code convention about response and answer is convenient and well established.
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