Jquiz settings question - please help!

Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -
Number of replies: 16

Hello - I am new to hotpot (moodle 1.911) and would like to set up a 10 question MC quiz in hotpot to import into quizport. I am trying to achieve the following:

1) I want to allow students to attempt quiz as many times as necessary to "pass", but I only want to give them 1 attempt per question to get the answer right (my settings currently allow multiple attempts to get the question right before moving on to the next question). (FYI-They will be required to begin the preceeding lesson again for review before reattempting the quiz)I'm not sure how to manipulate my settings to allow more than 1 attempt on quiz, but not on giving answers to questions?

2) I would also like the student to be "kicked out" of the quiz AS SOON AS 80% correct has not been achieved (or in other words, as soon as they get more than 2 wrong out of 10) rather than taking the entire quiz before getting scored and re-directed.  Would anyone be able to tell me if this is possible? 

I have been trying to figure out all night how to achieve certain these settings and to no avail. I'm sure it's something obvious - I'm hoping someone can help me out! Thank you in advance!

Katie

 

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In reply to Katie Fraser

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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HI Katie,
your post reminds me of a similar request from not so long ago. You are not the first to wonder if JQuiz could be made to finish early, if the required score cannot be reached.

By design, Hot Potatoes exercises do not "kick people out", because they are not intended to be tests. Rather they are designed to be an interactive lessons in themselves. However, it is possible to get something like what you want.

The standard way to make JQuiz behave like a test, i.e. allow only one try to each question, is to make all answers "correct", but to give the really correct answers a weighting of 100%, and the wrong answers a weighting of 0%. This is described more fully in the following tutorial:

If you are using QuizPort, you can achieve the same result by choosing the following output format for your JQuiz once it has been added to a Quizport activity:

  • JQuiz (v6) from xml (Exam)

I have an idea to modify this output format slightly, so that one can specify a "minimum required score", or a "minimum required number of correct answers". Please give me a few days to add that functionality.

regards
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -

Gordon,

Thank you for the reply. The tutorial was quite helpful -- "accepting answers as correct" with a 0% for incorrect answers is just the fix I needed.

Just one other question - you mention output format... I'm not sure what that means?  I saw a youtube that said you should save the file as WebCT, but when I try to upload that into my files, it doesn't work. Currently, I've just been using the file that I save directly from hotpotatoes. Could you tell me if this is suitable?

Thanks again!

Katie

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In reply to Katie Fraser

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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Hi Katie,

sorry about confusing you with "output format". I was not talking about WebCT. I was talking about QuizPort for Moodle 1.9 and HotPot for Moodle 2.0. When you add a Hot Potatoes quiz to Moodle using either of those modules, you have the option to select an output format. The list of output formats available depends on the type of quiz you are adding or editing. For JQuiz, you will see the a list that includes "JQuiz (v6) from xml (Auto-advance)"

I have just modified the JQuiz auto-advance output format, so that it can respond to three new settings:

  • minimumScore
  • maximumWrong
  • maximumTriesPerQuestion

I will explain how to set those later, but now I must dash to class ...
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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Katie,
I reread your original post just now and realized you are "new to hotpot (moodle 1.911)". To get the effect that you want with that module, you should set up the questions as per the "JQuiz as a test" tutorial I indicated earlier, then generate an html file for the quiz, and use that as source file when you add a HotPot activity to your Moodle 1.9 site.

Try that for starters smile

If feel more ambitious, I suggest you install the QuizPort module for Moodle 1.x. The QuizPort module is the successor to the HotPot module. It can do everything that the HotPot module can do, and a lot more besides.

For the purposes of this discussion, the important point is that QuizPort module has several output formats that the HotPot module for Moodle 1.9 does not have. After you have added your JQuiz (use the jqz file this time, not the html file), you can select the "JQuiz (v6) from xml (Auto-advance)" output format. The standard behavior of this output foramt is to advance automatically to the next question when a question is answered correctly.

The behavior of the JQuiz auto-advance format can be adjusted by adding the following settings from with JQuiz (JQuiz -> Options -> Configure output -> Custom -> Code for insertion into <head> tag)

minimumScore = 80;
maximumWrong = 2;
maximumTriesPerQuestion = 1;

Probably you can see for yourself what these settings do, but here is my explanation:

  • if it becomes apparent that the quiz score can never be more than the minimumScore value, then the quiz will finish at that point
  • when a question is answered wrongly that brings the number of wrongly answered questions to more than the maximumWrong value, then the quiz will finish at that point
  • students will be only be allowed to attempt each question by the number of times specified in the maximumTriesPerQuestion value

If you would like to experiemnt with the QuizPort module, you are welcome to do so on my development server:

I realize this might be a lot to absorb and understand for someone such as yourself who is new to HotPot for Moodle, but I have included the information here for more experienced Moodlers too. One day this information will go into the Moodle docs.

In case you wish to add this behavior to several JQuiz quizzes delivered via QuizPort, I have attached a configuration file which you can upload to your Moodle course files, and specify as the "Configuration file" for all the JQuiz files you wish to apply it to. The configuration file can be edited with a text editor.

regards
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -

Gordon,

Wow - this is great.  THANK YOU for looking into this (and so promptly!) and for your instructions. I can't wait to try it out -

I have already loaded the quizport module -- just need to know where exactly to go to find the "JQuiz (v6) from xml (Auto-advance)" output format? Couldn't seem to find it in the settings when I'm setting up a quizport activity and I didn't see it in the options menu in hotpotatoes...  Could you help steer me in the right direction?

Kind regards,
Katie

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -

Gordon,

One other note- I tried to add the code you suggested in the (JQuiz -> Options -> Configure output -> Custom -> Code for insertion into <head> tag); however, it's appearing in the header of my quiz and does not appear to be doing any of what the code suggests it would (no auto-advance, no ability to only choose 1 answer, etc).

Of course, I was not able to select "JQuiz (v6) from xml (Auto-advance)" output format as I stated in my previous post, so perhaps this is a result of that...? I wanted to mention it though, incase they are unrelated and perhaps there is a different problem?

I've attached a screenshot (sorry it's slightly cut off on the left) of the quiz with attempted the abovementioned code addition.

Thanks again-

Katie

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In reply to Katie Fraser

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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> I was not able to select "JQuiz (v6) from xml (Auto-advance)" output format
> as I stated in my previous post, so perhaps this is a result of that...?

Yes, this is a result of that. Having added the JQuiz to your QuizPort, you need to go back to the QuizPort quiz edit page (you can get there by going to the QuizPort "Edit quizzes" page, and then click on the edit icon for your JQuiz") and then you will see the setting for output format (see attached screenshot).

regards
Gordon

P.S. You maybe new to HotPot, but you're moving right along cool

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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Katie (and anyone else who might have downloaded the cfg file I posted earlier),

I realized that there were a couple of things that could be improved in the cfg file that I posted earlier, so I have modfied it and add it here for your reference.

cheers
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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I was experimenting a little more with this output format (JQuiz auto-advance) and I realized that if you are giving a "test" you may not want the correctness of the answers to be given away by the color of the dots on the progress bar, so I have added another setting which if set will make all the dots the same color (black) for this output format.

The settings (JQuiz -> Options -> Configure output -> Custom -> Code for insertion into <head> tag) are now as follows:

minimumScore = 80;
maximumWrong = 2;
maximumTriesPerQuestion = 1;
neutralProgressBar = 1;

You will need to download the latest version of Quizport to get this functionality:

regards
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -

Gordon,

This was a very exciting evening for mesmile Your instructions were perfect -- everything seems to be working great! 

Just a few minor questions came up as I was navigating through the quizzes:

1) is there any way to replace the progress bar for the questions in the auto-advance output format with the numeric ones in the standard exam output setting (eg: 1/10, 2/10...)?

2) Do I need to set any pre or post- conditions for min. grade required to pass the quiz if this is already configured in the code you provided? I haven't set any and it seems to be working okay...

3) Is there a way to keep students from being able to use the "back" button after taking a quiz. I'm concerned some might just click on the "back" button to re-attempt the quiz the 'quick and dirty' way instead of clicking the link I provide on the exit page to be re-directed to the beginning of the lesson (which preceeds the quiz).

Finally, I can't thank you enough for all your input  -- I expected to be hitting my head against a wall for a while on this and you really made it easy. Many thanks to you!

Katie

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In reply to Katie Fraser

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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Hi Katie,

thank you very much for the feedback. I am glad to hear that the JQuiz auto-advance format  is working well for you.

  1. We can disable the progress bar. For example we could replace the "neutralProgressBar" with a different setting, called say "progressBarType", which could have the following values:
    • 0 : no progress bar
    • 1 : neutral progress bar
    • 2 : color coded progress bar (higher scores have brighter colors)
  2. I suggest you add post-conditions to the quiz so that a low score goes back and a high score goes forward, e.g.
    • > 80%: next quiz
    • previous quiz
  3. the problem with the back button cannot be solved easily at the moment. Even if students do try to re-attempt the quiz by clicking the back button, they will not be able to submit results and get a score, because when they try to do that QuizPort will show them a message saying something like "that quiz attempt has already finished" and will refuse to process the quiz results

If you really want to "test" students, then probably Hot Potatoes quizzes are not the ultimate answer to your problems, because they were designed from the start to be engaging but non-secure activities. The back button issue, and the issue of looking in the web page's source code for the answers are a result of the assumptions which underlay the software's design.

For me, the answer to this situation is to allow students to play and experiment with Hot Potatoes quizzes in QuizPorts as much as they like, however they like. Then when it comes time for them to demonstrate their new found knowledge, I either give them a test using Moodle's Quiz module with questions imported form the Hot Potatoes quizzes, or I have them do some kind of performace, such as write report or perform a skit with a friend. (I am a language teacher by the way)

Please let me think about the progress bar a little longer ...

regards
Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for the feedback.  I should clarify that regarding the progress bar change-- I would like to keep the popup box that indicates when an answer is "correct" or "incorrect" - the only change would be  to replace the progress bar with the numeric value that shows what question is being asked (1/10, 2/10, etc).

That being said, it's really just a cosmetic issue that it by no means critical to the function of the quiz itself, so I certainly don't want to take your time with it if it's not a quick change to make! smile

On your second comment -- Each of my 6 quizzes follows a lesson activity (lesson 1, quizport 1, lesson 2, quizport 2, etc...)  I looked into setting pre/post conditions but it seems as though my options all require me to choose another sort of quiz, and in my case I want to lead into a new lesson activity, so I'm not sure if this can be achieved with setting conditions?

Katie

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In reply to Katie Fraser

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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Hi Katie,

yes, I understood that you would like to keep the feedback popup, and you would like to replace the Progress Bar dots with standard JQuiz numeric progress display. We are on the same page there smile

It is not a trivial change to replace the Progress Bar, so I will put that on my action list for a time a weeks hence, when my mind is less cluttered with the several projects and school work that occupy my grey matter at the moment.

I am interested to know what is in your "lesson" activities. If you are just showing html pages, you could do that in QuizPort. Apart from the fact that you have already invested time and effort into creating the Lesson activities, is there some other reason for introducing the material via the Lesson module?

Gordon

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -

Hi Gordon,

I have separated my quizports from my lesson activities mainly because I need two separate grading systems.

In each of my lessons, I want to present about 20 pages of information, with each page containing a "comprehension check" question to check for understanding and to prevent students from scrolling clicking through the course without reading material. These questions are "graded" for the sake of allowing the system to recognize the lesson as completed only-- students have as many attempts as they need to get them correct without incurring penalty.

Each lesson activity must be followed with a quiz (state government regulation for the driver improvement course I'm developing). And on the quiz, students are required to answer 10 questions with at least 80% correct, or they must review the lesson again.

Unfortunately, I didn't see a way to combine both the quiz questions in the lesson activity (or in quizport, I don't think) because of the different grading requirements. But as I have just overcome with your assistance a huge hurdle (the quiz kick-out feature with less than 80% correct), I am determined to make it work somehow!smile Will have to keep tinkering with the dependency settings and maybe brainstorm some more options -

Katie

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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Katie Fraser -

Hi Gordon,

I have separated my quizports from my lesson activities mainly because I need two separate grading systems.

In each of my lessons, I want to present about 20 pages of information, with each page containing a "comprehension check" question to check for understanding and to prevent students from scrolling clicking through the course without reading material. These questions are "graded" for the sake of allowing the system to recognize the lesson as completed only-- students have as many attempts as they need to get them correct without incurring penalty.

Each lesson activity must be followed with a quiz (state government regulation for the driver improvement course I'm developing). And on the quiz, students are required to answer 10 questions with at least 80% correct, or they must review the lesson again.

Unfortunately, I didn't see a way to combine both the quiz questions in the lesson activity (or in quizport, I don't think) because of the different grading requirements. But as I have just overcome with your assistance a huge hurdle (the quiz kick-out feature with less than 80% correct), I am determined to make it work somehow!smile Will have to keep tinkering with the dependency settings and maybe brainstorm some more options -

Katie

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In reply to Katie Fraser

Re: Jquiz settings question - please help!

by Gordon Bateson -
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Katie,
thank you for the extra information.

Since we are talking about "state government regulations" here, at the risk of repeating myself, I must warn you that Hot Potatoes quizzes are not suitable for tests, because the answers to all the questions are right there in the source code for the page that is sent to the browser. To the untrained eye, it may not be "obvious" where the answers are, but they are there if you know where to look and how to decode them.

For this reason, much as I love QuizPort, I must advise that I do not think it is the right tool for the job for the testing part of your course. I recommend you do the "test" with the Moodle's Quiz module.

I heartily recommend QuizPort for the learning activities in which you introduce the 20 pages of material and check comprehension as you go along. This is just what Hot Potatoes quizzes were made for. When combined with QuizPort they allow students to progress through the learning phase at a suitable pace. They can skip through stuff but they must pass the quizzes to move on. People who already know their stuff can skip on through the materials while people who haven't mastered it yet can be guided through a remedial track.

regards
Gordon

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