Hi again!
I've read a couple of places about lack of stability in cloze questions.
Anyone here had problems with cloze questions and if so in which sense? And most importantly what can be done to make them run safely?
Trine
Yes, we have had problems with cloze type questions (i.e. embedded answers questions). In particular, there is a critical bug with non-breaking spaces ( ).
If a non-breaking space is inserted in a embedded answer type question, that question and all questions that follow it will be truncated. As well, that question can become corrupted such that some of the sub-questions (i.e. blanks) may get deleted from the table while references to these questions elsewhere remain. For more details, see:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6068#action_25664
The fix described in the tracker does fix the non-breaking space bug and this bug may also be the cause of improperly deleted sub-questions, but we are not certain.
If there are more bugs related to this question type I hope others will bring them to light...
If a non-breaking space is inserted in a embedded answer type question, that question and all questions that follow it will be truncated. As well, that question can become corrupted such that some of the sub-questions (i.e. blanks) may get deleted from the table while references to these questions elsewhere remain. For more details, see:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-6068#action_25664
The fix described in the tracker does fix the non-breaking space bug and this bug may also be the cause of improperly deleted sub-questions, but we are not certain.
If there are more bugs related to this question type I hope others will bring them to light...
Hi Alex
If I understood it right - if I have no non-breaking spaces in my code then there should be no problem? I edit the quiz questions myself directly in moodle and save the txt's in EditPad - have had some nasty experiences where the html editor hasn´t liked my coding and it has eaten previously programmed questions! I act as admin, teacher, etc.
This surely is a stupid question but is there any way a student when responding can introduce a   which can give problems when extracting that particular students answer to the quiz??? I've tried testing the quiz myself, login in as different students and all the different answers are well recorded...
And the last question - reading through the tracker I can see you mention 1.6.2+ - if I'm using 1.6.3 all this has been corrected and I dont need to worry about this bug? I'll keep my fingers crossed for that!
Thanks for your help!
If I understood it right - if I have no non-breaking spaces in my code then there should be no problem? I edit the quiz questions myself directly in moodle and save the txt's in EditPad - have had some nasty experiences where the html editor hasn´t liked my coding and it has eaten previously programmed questions! I act as admin, teacher, etc.
This surely is a stupid question but is there any way a student when responding can introduce a   which can give problems when extracting that particular students answer to the quiz??? I've tried testing the quiz myself, login in as different students and all the different answers are well recorded...
And the last question - reading through the tracker I can see you mention 1.6.2+ - if I'm using 1.6.3 all this has been corrected and I dont need to worry about this bug? I'll keep my fingers crossed for that!
Thanks for your help!
Trine > is there any way a student when responding can introduce a   which can give problems...
If the student types his answer directly in the cloze question, short answer sub-question provided field, then it is impossible for him to type a non-breaking space.
Even if - for some strange reason - the student were to type his answer first in a word processor such as MS Word, to press Ctrl-Shift-Space in order to insert a non-breaking space, then copy that text and paste it into the Moodle Cloze question answer field, the non-breaking space would be automatically replaced with a normal space.
Joseph
PS.- On the subject of the non-breaking space, I am sorry to see that it is considered by many as a "fancy", un-necessary character. Strict observance of French typography standards requires that double punctuation marks ( ; : ! ? ) be separated from previous text by a non-breaking space. The non-breaking space is really needed when typing French...
Hi Joseph
Thanks for your reply - since the code is working, we've only introduce regular spaces in the questions and students can't introduce a non-breaking space then it appears we will have no problem - I'll keep my fingers crossed! Nonetheless, from what I gather if we had a problem we would already have seen it when previewing the quiz- the problem does not appear once it's running does it?
Regarding your problem in France with the need for non breaking spaces I dont think its fancy unnecessary character at all - all of us have different needs and problems related to our languages and customs. It's just a question of finding your way to work around it.... I'm sure tons of people have suggested this before me, please apologize if it's to silly a suggestion!!! But if I understood the problem right you need a nonbreaking space related to puntuation marks so that for instance the ? mark does not end up by itself in a separate line after the text - couldn't you just introduce a letter between the text and the mark in the same color of the background so that it goes by unnoticed?
Like this: ¿_question_? and in this case make both _'s white like this ¿_question_?
If you have an image as the background it wont though...
Thanks for everything!
Trine
Thanks for your reply - since the code is working, we've only introduce regular spaces in the questions and students can't introduce a non-breaking space then it appears we will have no problem - I'll keep my fingers crossed! Nonetheless, from what I gather if we had a problem we would already have seen it when previewing the quiz- the problem does not appear once it's running does it?
Regarding your problem in France with the need for non breaking spaces I dont think its fancy unnecessary character at all - all of us have different needs and problems related to our languages and customs. It's just a question of finding your way to work around it.... I'm sure tons of people have suggested this before me, please apologize if it's to silly a suggestion!!! But if I understood the problem right you need a nonbreaking space related to puntuation marks so that for instance the ? mark does not end up by itself in a separate line after the text - couldn't you just introduce a letter between the text and the mark in the same color of the background so that it goes by unnoticed?
Like this: ¿_question_? and in this case make both _'s white like this ¿_question_?
If you have an image as the background it wont though...
Thanks for everything!
Trine
Hi Trine,
Thanks for sympathizing with the French non-breaking space problem and thanks for the tip which is quite ingenious.
Joseph
Thanks for sympathizing with the French non-breaking space problem and thanks for the tip which is quite ingenious.
Joseph
Hi Joseph
You're welcome!
Trine
You're welcome!
Trine
Trine,
Apologies for late reply. Actually we are using 1.6.3. The bug I reported and that both Joseph Rézeau and myself proposed fixes for (MDL-6068) I believe has not yet be closed, not even in 1.7.1...
Alex
Apologies for late reply. Actually we are using 1.6.3. The bug I reported and that both Joseph Rézeau and myself proposed fixes for (MDL-6068) I believe has not yet be closed, not even in 1.7.1...
Alex