Deploying Stack-questions problem

Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Mikko Västi -
Number of replies: 7

Greetings,

I have exam with several stack-questions and would like to deploy variants for the questions. My problem is that the automatic deploying tool does not generate same seeds for multiple questions. For example if I have 100 variants and 10 questions to my current knowledge it would mean that I have to generate 900 variants by hand.

So the question is:

- How to deploy variants to multiple stack questions so that each question has same seed numbers for the variants?

Yours truly,

Mikko Västi

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In reply to Mikko Västi

Re: Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Christopher Sangwin -
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Mikko,
Very sorry but this situation is not currently supported. I've not been asked to do this before.

Are you trying to share information about which random version has been created between questions? (!) If so, this might work but it it not something we have designed in and if it works (I don't know) it is probably very fragile. Perhaps you could explain why and I'll see if we can help solve the underlying problem.
Chris
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In reply to Christopher Sangwin

Re: Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Mikko Västi -
Greetings Christopher,

I am trying to share the random seed numbers between multiple questions in deploying variants. So the workflow that I would like is something of following:

1. Deploy variants for single question
2. Deploy variants for other questions using the variant seed numbers of question 1, which we had deployed in step 1.

The current work flow is presumably following:

1. Deploy variants for single question
2. Collect seed numbers to some file
3. Manually deploy other questions using variant seed numbers of step 1 stored in file of step 2.

The purpose of this is to generate variants for all questions so that moodle/stack can efficiently use caching.

Yours truly,

Mikko
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In reply to Mikko Västi

Re: Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Christopher Sangwin -
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I don't understand why you are collecting seeds? Why not just deploy seeds separately for each question? They are random seeds...
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In reply to Christopher Sangwin

Re: Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Mikko Västi -

Sure I can deploy seeds randomly for each and every question... 

But then either one of these 2 options will happen:

  1. Different questions will not have the same values for variables and the exams are built on assumptions that one will have multiple questions using same values for variables.
  2. The system will pick one pre-randomized seed number for the first question in the exam and will calculate each other question with the picked pre-randomized seed number. Thus eliminating all benefits of caching.

The main goal here is that I can have multiple questions using same values for variables and to cache the pre-calculated solutions.

Yours truly,

Mikko

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In reply to Mikko Västi

Re: Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Thorsten Bartel -
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Hey Mikko,

I'm a little bit confused about the propositions you are making. Maybe you can be so kind and help me understand...

- If there are multiple variants deployed per question, how would you ensure that different questions within the same quiz actually draft the same variant (seed)?
- Using the same random seed for consistent variable generation is most likely not reliable. If, at all, wouldn't this only work as long as variable generation in both questions is exactly identical? (That's a guess on my part, not verified.)
- As far as caching is concerned, aren't you good to go as soon as variants are deployed? We always suggest adding at least basic test cases to cover answer testing, too.

Seeds can be chosen manually, too... for a large number of variants / questions this will surely be impractical, but it might serve well for a proof of concept.

Cheers
Thorsten
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In reply to Thorsten Bartel

Re: Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Martin Kraska -
Does that mean that the use of entries in the field "Random group" is useless if deployed questions are used in a test?
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In reply to Martin Kraska

Re: Deploying Stack-questions problem

by Tim Hunt -
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Not entirely useless, but the requirement to deploy the same seeds for each question is a major pain. We ought to make a solution to that, once we can work out what a good solution looks like.
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