Question Pool Import

Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
Número de respuestas: 15
First of all, I apologize for reposting what looks to be a common problem... unfortunately, many of the posts (at this point) do not apply to my environment. So that said, here's the scoop:

I have a Fedora Core 5 system running the latest updates to Apache 2.0.x including a PHP 5.1.6 install, and I'm using MySQL 5.0.27 running as the database engine.

I downloaded Moodle 1.7+ as of an hour ago (11:30am Eastern Time, US)... I installed it from scratch with no extra modules or modifications.

I am not having success with importing question pools from any of the available formats with the exception of importing .dat files directly from a Blackboard 5 format. In the case of BB5, I am having mixed results (it seems to mix up a lot of the formatting of text and punctuation characters).

If I attempt to upload a zip file, for any format, I receive the error "There are no questions in the import file" accompanied by "An error occurred during import processing."

If I attempt BB5 format by importing a .dat file directly, things seem to work aside from a considerable amount of text formatting quirks (minor).

If I attempt BB6 format by importing a .dat file directly, I get the error message, "PCLZIP_ERR_BAD_FORMAT (-10) : Unable to find End of Central Dir Record signature". I assume this is by design, since the documentation indicates that a ZIP should be used, which is great if the zip was working.

My priority is to get BB5, BB6, and Examview (a sample Examview file is attached) formats working and the rest can wait until later, so the ultimate question I have is... what must I do to resolve this issue? I am OK with installing any necessary modules, editing files, etc... as long as I have a guideline on what to modify/update/install.

Thanks for your time, it is most appreciated! smile
Regards,
Aaron M. Hall
Web Coordinator
Muskingum College
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En respuesta a Muskingum Web Manager

Re: Question Pool Import

por Howard Miller -
Imagen de Core developers Imagen de Documentation writers Imagen de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagen de Peer reviewers Imagen de Plugin developers
There's not much I can do without actual examples of files that you are having problems importing. I am guessing that the attached file is in native Examview format which Moodle does not support (it needs to be Examview's XML export).

If you could post some of the offending examples I will be happy to have a look.
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En respuesta a Howard Miller

Re: Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
I would love to post a sample of BB6, but the max upload size is 100KB, and the files I have to work with are larger than that.

I am posting a BB5 .dat file. Note that, for example, question 101 imports as:

101.

In the battles between Parliament and the Stuart kings, “English freedom”

This is the relatively minor one since they're just text files I can work with easily, but it would be nice if it were accepted automatically.

Thanks for the information on ExamView, I will notify the instructor that he will need to get ExamView XML formats for his files. As a follow-up question, will native files be accepted at some point?

Thanks for your time!
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En respuesta a Muskingum Web Manager

Re: Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
Nevermind the comment about uploading, I just manually updated the xml manifest to recognize one .dat file and removed the others from the archive.

This file is a BB6 file.
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Re: Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
One more quick update...

If I extract the BB6 .dat files and import them using Blackboard format instead of BB6, the import is completely successful.
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Re: Question Pool Import

por Paul Kores -
I am having the same problem importing in Blackboard format.

Could you please explain how you went about extracting the BB6.dat file, and what settings you used to import the resulting file into Moodle this would be very helpful to me.

Thanks.

PK
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En respuesta a Paul Kores

Re: Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
Paul,

The BB6 files are just a bunch of .dat files plus an .xml manifest file compressed into a .zip file.

That said, I take the .zip file and extract it (I use WinZip, so I just right click on it and Extract to Here or to a folder), and then on the Questions > Import page, I browse to any of the .dat files that were extracted. I select BLACKBOARD as the format, and I choose the Upload and Import option.

Using BB6 files seems to work very well with this method. BB5 produces some formatting errors, at least, it does using the file posted in the initial post.

If I try to use the Blackboard V6+ format and upload the ZIP directly, that's when I run into problems, so I don't recommend using that one until Howard has had a chance to investigate further.

I will try the Examview format again once I get access to one of their XML files.

Regards,
Aaron
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En respuesta a Muskingum Web Manager

Re: Question Pool Import

por Howard Miller -
Imagen de Core developers Imagen de Documentation writers Imagen de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagen de Peer reviewers Imagen de Plugin developers
You are more then welcome to email them to me privately if you are still having difficulties.
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En respuesta a Howard Miller

Re: Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
Thanks Howard,

I think I have suitable examples posted on here now until I get a sample Examview XML file to work with. As you predicted, the problem with my original example was that it was native format rather than XML.

Aaron
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En respuesta a Muskingum Web Manager

Re: Question Pool Import

por Dianne S -
There seems to be something wrong with that .bnk file you posted... I get an error that it is an invalid bank file and cannot open it. What version of ExamView is this generated from?
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En respuesta a Dianne S

Re: Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
I believe Howard is probably correct in saying that it is a native Examview file rather than Examview XML. Thanks for your time, however.

Aaron
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En respuesta a Muskingum Web Manager

Re: Question Pool Import

por Dianne S -
I know that it is a native ExamView file (the .bnk extension is an ExamView question bank)... I was wondering what version of ExamView is was made with because I cannot open it in any of my versions of ExamView (error message as described previously). Moodle doesn't support ExamView banks, but some of the strange behavior you are observing with the Bb format may have something to do with a problem with this specific bank.
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En respuesta a Dianne S

Re: Question Pool Import

por Muskingum Web Manager -
Thanks for the response... I'm trying to find out from the instructor that sent it to me what version the vendor says it is and, more importantly to me, if XML format is available... I'll keep everyone posted.

Thanks again!
Aaron
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En respuesta a Muskingum Web Manager

Re: Question Pool Import

por Jerry Ostrove -

I just wanted to let you all know my experience and research on this.  I installed Moodle 1.7 in December.  I can not import from any format in Examview to Moodle, other than the examview xml format.  As others have said that they are able to use the Blackboard unzip method it does NOT work for us.  We have tried every variation possible.  So to re-emphasize, the examview xml export is the only thing that will import into Moodle 1.7 for us.  It does not work with modified true/false, but does work with M/C.  I'm not sure about the other question formats.

After reading many posts, and experiencing it for myself, Examview Pro (either 4 or 5) has the .xml import ability.  The free versions that we get from the textbook publishers do not allow for the .xml import.

I hope that this helps someone else.  And I hope that someone, with abilities greater than mine, will create a better, more reliable, more inclusive import tool for going from Examview to Moodle.

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En respuesta a Jerry Ostrove

Re: Question Pool Import

por Howard Miller -
Imagen de Core developers Imagen de Documentation writers Imagen de Particularly helpful Moodlers Imagen de Peer reviewers Imagen de Plugin developers
If the Examview people feel like giving me a freebie version of their software, I'll be more than happy to try and get this working better sonrisa

I don't know what the modified true/false question is - if you want to post an example of the xml export file I will investigate. I know that many people have had success using the blackboard export, perhaps you could post one of your exports and I'll see what I can make of it.
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En respuesta a Howard Miller

Re: Question Pool Import

por Kim Sihota -

Modified true/false asks the student to indicate true or false. If the answer is false they must also change the question by entering a replacement for the underlined words.

I have attached an ExamView bank exported as XML.  The version I am using is a publisher's distribution. Examview Pro v. 4.0.8

edit: File was too big.  I have removed most questions and zipped it.

I have successfully imported mutiple choice, matching and T and F and completion.  I had to remove all questions with attached images or tables as these produced errors.  ExamView's completion questions import into moodle as Short Answer. I have not been able to import the ExamView Short Answer questions. 

I had to change all the modified T/F manually to standard T/F within Examview in order to import them so I know that the T/F import works.  Since Moodle does not support the modified T/F I had hoped that these questions would have imported as standard T/F but that was not the case.

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