Grading problem for short answer items in Cloze quizzes using wildcard

Grading problem for short answer items in Cloze quizzes using wildcard

by Mira Vogel -
Number of replies: 3
Hello all,

We've encountered a problem (in 1.6) with using wildcard (*) to provide feedback for any unspecified wrong responses in short answer items within Cloze quizzes.

Here's an example.

The passage and code:


René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher {1:SHORTANSWER:*# Wrong answer. A possessive relative pronoun is needed. ~=whose#Correct.} work had a fundamental impact {1:SHORTANSWER:*#Wrong answer. A preposition collocating with ‘impact’ is needed.~=on#Correct.} the Enlightenment and far-reaching repercussions for western thought.

The grade settings:

Grade: 2
Total: 2
Maximum grade: 2

The problem is that the presence of a wildcard seems to interfere with the scoring for that particular shortanswer item, and the outcome is an incorrect grade. So if we test the above little Quiz and submit the correct answers, a page loads with our responses appropriately highlighted in green, along with the appropriate feedback on mouseover - but the grade is 0/2 when it should be 2/2.

Removing the wildcard fixes the grading but compromises the Quiz, because it's very important that we give feedback (in this case, a hint) for unspecified incorrect answers.

Does anybody out there have any suggestions?

Best wishes,

Mira

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mira Vogel

Re: Grading problem for short answer items in Cloze quizzes using wildcard

by Alison Schubert -
It's been a few weeks since I've played with cloze questions in quizzes but if I recall the wildcard must be the last possible answer specified; otherwise any answer will match it and that's the grade which will be assigned.  So I would try {1:SHORTANSWER:~=whose#Correct. ~*# Wrong answer. A possessive relative pronoun is needed.} for your first question.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Mira Vogel

Re: Grading problem for short answer items in Cloze quizzes using wildcard

by Joseph Rézeau -
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Hi Mira,

Alison is right, the catch-all  asterisk must be in the last position in your list of expected answers. See documentation here.

Since you seem interested in providing feedback suited to your students' responses to short answer questions, you might find it useful to use my regular expression short answer plugin for authoring your cloze questions.

Joseph

In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Grading problem for short answer items in Cloze quizzes using wildcard

by Mira Vogel -
Alison and Joseph,

Thank you very much for your responses - wildcard at the end seems to work perfectly. I'm relieved tongueout.

Joseph, thanks for adding this solution to the documentation. We will certainly investigate your plugin.

Mira