Adding random questions

Adding random questions

Tim Hunt發表於
Number of replies: 15
Core developers的相片 Documentation writers的相片 Particularly helpful Moodlers的相片 Peer reviewers的相片 Plugin developers的相片

I am looking for some feedback on the layout of the question bank in Moodle 2.0. This relates to MDL-24575.

The first screenshot is how things look at the moment.

That bug report is pointing out that because the 'Add random question from category' controls are right next to the 'Move to >>' dropdown that lets you select a different category, this is confusing, because it is actually the dropdown at the top that controls which category you are adding random questions from.

The other thing to consider is that there have been several threads recently where people have been asking how to add random questions to a quiz, because they could not work it out on their own.

 

Fiddling around, I came up with the second layout. Is that better, or worse, than what we have now, and why?

The question bank as it is nowProposed new layout

P.S. for anyone interested, the proposed code change is https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/commit/9f54bf4c26ec13553d9fa71c51fca69f676e558a

評比平均分數:Useful (1)
In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Adding random questions

Itamar Tzadok發表於

I think we could all agree that the basic layout is not very friendly to begin with. But to work with what there is I think that the guiding desing principle should be a clear distinction between bank questions managment and quiz questions management. So here is a sketch of an alternative:

The first set of control buttons applies to the question bank. I omitted the category dropdown because ideally advanced question bank actions should be done in the question bank and not in a particular quiz just like import export is not done in the quiz. If we still want to keep the current 'move to' dropdown, the dropdown + a 'Go' button may be hidden and revealed by clicking the 'Move to' button. Not very elegant but again this functionality shouldn't be here in the first place.

The second set of control button applies to the quiz with a clear indication.

微笑

In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Adding random questions

Tim Hunt發表於
Core developers的相片 Documentation writers的相片 Particularly helpful Moodlers的相片 Peer reviewers的相片 Plugin developers的相片

If you don't have a category drop-down, what exactly does the move button in your screen-shot do?

Also, you removed that drop-down because on the quiz editing page, editing the quiz is more important than reorganising the question bank, but they you have made the manage questions controls more prominent that the add to quiz controls. Are you sure that is a good idea?

In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Adding random questions

Itamar Tzadok發表於

In that screen-shot the move button is supposed to behave like the 'Show advance' button in settings forms and upon clicking reveal the category dropdown + a 'Go' or 'Update' button. Then selecting a category in the dropdown and clicking the Go/Update button will move the items but also hide these two elements until next time some questions need to be moved.

But I prefer to remove this moving functionality from this section altogether. In too many cases it is not very effective anyway since one may need to go to the categories tab and create a new category to move the questions to.

In fact I think (but wanted to get to that gradually) that question bank management (including adding and deleting questions but also adding/deleting/moving categories) should be done only in the question bank and not in quiz editing. While I can appreciate that some users may want to "simply" create a quiz and its questions on the fly and on one page, I think that this is a bad practice which only results in a mess, which in turn gives these users occasion to complain that they are confused and blame the whole world but their own practices. And to think that some such users deduct points from their students' works for lack of organization ...

So, one option is to remove from quiz editing all question bank functionality except for editing of individual questions. In quiz editing the list of questions would be fixed (per category) and the control buttons allow for only adding or removing questions from the quiz. (Btw, I haven't investigated that part of the code yet, but perhaps it wouldn't be too difficult to add checkboxes to the list of questions in the quiz and a button to remove all/selected from the quiz) Then for adding/deleting/moving questions you need to open the question bank either in a different tab or on the same page but in a clearly separated section (although I can see how some users may still be confused in the latter approach).

If we want to preserve the current question bank management functionlity in quiz editing, and make sure the quiz control remain more prominent, the whole section of the question bank controls may be hidden under a button of the 'Show advance' sort. Of course, unique styling of that section may also contribute to making the question bank functionality less prominent (I haven't gone into that in my sketch but it was on my mind).

微笑

In reply to Itamar Tzadok

這一討論區的貼文已經被移除

這一討論區的貼文已經被移除且無法再被存取
In reply to Deleted user

Re: Adding random questions

Itamar Tzadok發表於

It is rather far more basic than the question whether Olli's new quiz editing interface be included in Moodle 2.0.

I think that the interface may be significantly improved even without the serious facelift it definitely needs.

To begin with, in the questions bank joining the questions management and categories management to one page could be a major improvement. I work with thousands of questions distributed between hundreds of categories and I assure you my work could have been much more efficient by merely having these two sections on one page.

As for quiz editing, I think we can safely remove the questions moving functionality from there and any one who wishes to move questions should switch to the questions tab (one click) and do it there. This functionality doesn't make much sense without category editing functionality anyway (which takes us back to my previous point). This alone will eliminate much of the current confusion with very little effort.

微笑

In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Adding random questions

Tim Hunt發表於
Core developers的相片 Documentation writers的相片 Particularly helpful Moodlers的相片 Peer reviewers的相片 Plugin developers的相片

Itamar, if you have thoughts about the question/category editing pages in the question bank, can I encourage you to try to sketch out what you mean. Create a new 'Improvement' in the tracker, and then use More actions -> Add edit UI/mockup. It is a bit of an abuse to create a new tracker issue for somethign speculative like this, so don't make a habit of it, but in this case it is probably OK.

In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Adding random questions

Itamar Tzadok發表於

By all means, but I want to take a look at the code so that the sketch will be more informed and should have the time for that next week. Will keep you posted. 微笑

In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Adding random questions

Tim Hunt發表於
Core developers的相片 Documentation writers的相片 Particularly helpful Moodlers的相片 Peer reviewers的相片 Plugin developers的相片

Sure. I am unlikely to make any changes until we have reached some sort of consensus, so I am happy for us to take our time and consider all options before we get to changing the code.

I'm not sure you really want to look at this bit of code 眨眼 However, we certainly need to start from a complete list of all the functionality that is in the current interface, so we make sure that nothing is missed out of the new iterface.

In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Adding random questions

Itamar Tzadok發表於
In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Adding random questions

Tim Hunt發表於
Core developers的相片 Documentation writers的相片 Particularly helpful Moodlers的相片 Peer reviewers的相片 Plugin developers的相片

I quite like where you are going with that:

UI mockup

At least, I like the first two columns. It is somewhat like the Windows Explorer view (or the linux equivalent) so it is somewhat familiar to people. Perhaps we should aim to make it even more like that?

I don't see any benefit in having the controls in the right column visible. It makes more sense to me if those thing pop-up in Ajax dialogues when you click on button somewhere in the first two columns.

In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Adding random questions

Itamar Tzadok發表於

Absolutely. The only reason I made it this way and didn't go all the way with something like the explorer experience is that this design is fairly close to the current and may be implemented fairly quickly and boost up efficiency and effectiveness with relatively little effort.

Ajax dialogues are accessibility friendly right? If they are then they go in without saying, already in the first improvement phase.

The main challenge with the explorer experience is the select&drag&drop behavior which should replace the check&click_with_selected_button. I'm not sure how accessibility friendly this behavior is and even if it is it may be a bit more difficult to implement and if so should be done in phase two.

If all the above holds, there remains the question where to put the control buttons (which would open Ajax dialogues). The reason I prefer a third column is that these controls shouldn't require scrolling to. We could lay them out horisentally above the items list in the main display area but I don't think that would look to people as a familiar experience. Now, the third column doesn't have to be an actual column. it could be the settings block positioned by default on the right hand side and dockable. This may also make more sense with respect to the Moodle standard of administration controls interface in any other component.

微笑

In reply to Itamar Tzadok

這一討論區的貼文已經被移除

這一討論區的貼文已經被移除且無法再被存取
In reply to Deleted user

Re: Adding random questions

Joseph Rézeau發表於
Core developers的相片 Particularly helpful Moodlers的相片 Plugin developers的相片 Testers的相片 Translators的相片

Pierre "Ideally we should have two interfaces to manage quiz and questions."

I disagree; that would make things even more complicated. I agree with Itamar that what is needed is a clear separation between the questions bank on the one hand (creating new questions, moving them, putting them in categories, etc. importing/exporting) and the quiz creating process on the other hand.

Plus it should be made very clear to users - especially new-comers to Moodle - that the "logical" order to create a Quiz is first and foremost to create questions in the questions bank and only then to create the quiz, using those questions.

Joseph

In reply to Joseph Rézeau

這一討論區的貼文已經被移除

這一討論區的貼文已經被移除且無法再被存取