I'm using the latest moodle version (2.7.2+) and I use regularly many synchronized calculated questions. The ability to synchronize is a great feature and it would be great to see it extended to other question types as well.
But unfortunately at present this is not possible, or at least I don't know how to do it. What I'm asking here is if anyone has thought about that and found out a solution/workaround to this problem,
What I need, basically, is to ask my students to do some lab measurements and enter them into some question. All entered values should be correct if they lie within a specific range.
Then, in subsequent questions, I'd like to ask students to do some more measures or calculations, whose results should depend on the previously entered values. That's what I call "syncronization", although it's not exactly the same behaviour as synchronization on calculated questions.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Orestes.
Any creative solution to syncronize questions other than calculated?
by Orestes Mas -
Number of replies: 2
In reply to Orestes Mas
Re: Any creative solution to syncronize questions other than calculated?
by Tim Hunt -
One of the simplifiying assumtions made in the question system is that, from the point of view of the quiz, each question is an independent black box that the student interacts with. There is no way to get data from one question to another.
You may then ask, OK, so how does synchronisation work? Then answer is we cheat Each question works independently, but we control the random number seed that is passed to each question when it is started. (If you really want to understand this, search for 'variant' in the question code.
This lets the randomisation be sychronised, but does not let you pass student input from one question to another. This is a limitation, but without it, it would have been impossible to build the question engine.
So, if you want have student input flowing from one part of a question to another, you need to build it as a single big question from Moodle's point of view. (And/or, get the student to re-input the key numbers at the top of each question.)
The two question types that might be good enough are qtype_stack and qtype_formulas, but they are not entirely designed for what you are doing.
I heard that one UK university had a nice question type for Moodle 1.9 for helping students analyse lab data, and they may be going to update that for moodle 2.x. However, I should not say more unless that actually happens.
In reply to Tim Hunt
Re: Any creative solution to syncronize questions other than calculated?
by Pierre Pichet -
Tim
"I heard that one UK university had a nice question type for Moodle 1.9 for helping students analyse lab data, and they may be going to update that for moodle 2.x."
Having done this kind of questions outside Moodle or WebCt ( 1998+-), could you give a more precise reference ?
Pierre