Moodle in English: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a Google Summer of Code project to add new question types and to add some new options to existing questions. A quick summary of the proposed changes:

New question types:

an ordering question separate from the matching question type
an image click question
a Likert scale/survey question (unless this is better kept just as part of the Questionnaire module)

Extensions to existing questions:

drag-and-drop student interface for ordering and matching questions
more grading options for multiple select questions
improved teacher interface for cloze questions

A more detailed summary is available on the student projects page.

Any suggestions about other questions types you'd like to see, particular desires for the student or teacher interfaces, or any other feedback would be very welcome!

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Oksana Delgado - Wednesday, 30 May 2007, 4:27 AM

"File Response" type would be useful for us since we already got such request from our profs. They would like to use quiz module as a random assignment generator, but because student's can not upload files in quiz it's not possible at the moment.

Another feature request we got is to make "Essay" type work with random questions. It's not working at our Moodle 1.7.1 (maybe it has been fixed later, I didn't do research yet)

Which Moodle version will include these modifications?

Thank you,
Oksana

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Adriane Boyd - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 1:47 AM

Thanks for your response! The new questions will be developed for 1.9 and I think they'll initially be in contrib. It looks like using essays as random questions is an open bug with no easy solution because of problems with manual grading. I don't know much more about the details yet, but I'll try to look into it if I have time.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Jean-Michel Védrine - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 4:45 AM

Hello,
I have updated the drag&drop questiontype originally develloped by Brian King to work with Moodle 1.7x and 1.8x and I will upgrade it to work with Moodle 1.9
I am currently looking at the changes Tim has made to allow questiontype to include javascript libraries but unfortunately this seems not currently enought to install the drag&drop questiontype without modifying core Moodle files (but maybe this is because I am not doing it right incertain

).
Also I think it would be best if we avoid using a lot of different drag and drop javascript libraries in questiontypes but I am using Walter Zorn one and can't easily switch because all the other ones I have seen miss the resizing function wich is critical for the drag&drop questiontype because it uses pictures.
can we talk about this ?

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Tim Hunt - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 11:09 PM

Moodle has standardised on YUI as the first-choice JavaScript library, so you should try to use that if at all possible. It does have drag and drop support.

Can you explain (perhaps in a new thread) exactly what the problem is that makes you say "unfortunately this seems not currently enought to install the drag&drop questiontype without modifying core Moodle files". I would really like to fix it if I can.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Adriane Boyd - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 11:21 PM

Hi,

I've read the dragdrop documentation, but I had some trouble getting it to work in 1.8 and I haven't had a chance to figure out what was going wrong yet. Is the resizing needed to make the draggable images small enough in a small window?

I think that the drag and drop matching question will only allow drag and drop text, since the current version uses text in the drop-down menu and I'd like to be able to keep the drop-down menu as an accessible fallback.

I think the ordering question should allow images and/or text since the current matching question could allow images to be ordered. I'm not sure whether image resizing would be necessary for this.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Anthony Borrow - Saturday, 2 June 2007, 2:48 AM

Speaking of the essay question type, I recently gave my semester exam with Moodle and I had an essay as the final question. For online assignments we are able to get a word count; however, I am not aware of such a feature with the essay question type. It would be helpful to the students to be able to periodically save their work and then be able to see how many words they had written. Especially when you have teachers writing questions like "Write a 600 word essay ..."

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Joseph Rézeau - Saturday, 2 June 2007, 5:04 AM

Hi Anthony,
I'm sure you are aware of a similar request in this thread.
Joseph

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Anthony Borrow - Saturday, 2 June 2007, 11:05 AM

Joseph - Thanks for pointing me to that function. From what I gathered from a cursory glance it appears as though a function does exist; however, it may need to be called differently to include the word count. When I get back I will check it out further on our test server and see if I can get it working for essay type questions in quizzes. Peace - Anthony

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Julian Ridden - Wednesday, 30 May 2007, 6:37 AM

I think the Likert scale option is best kept for the questionnaire module. It is difficult to asses a 'correct' answer on a scale.

Image click would be great. I also agree that a focus needs to be made on interface design. I look forward to seeing the results of your work

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Joseph Rézeau - Wednesday, 30 May 2007, 10:15 PM

I agree with Julian.
By the way, have you seen my enhancements to the Likert scale question type in the Questionnaire module? - named degrees, -forced vertical choice... This discussion.
Joseph

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Adriane Boyd - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 1:52 AM

Okay, I'll not worry about the Likert scale question type. I saw that many other CMSes had Likert scale questions as a quiz question type, but I think that's because they didn't have anywhere other than quiz to put it.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Stefan Eberhard - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 12:11 AM

In Cloze questions I miss the possibility to give negative scores. If you have tables to fill with :NUMERICAL: or :MULTICHOICE: or :SHORTANSWER: the correct answer will give a positive score, but any nonsense will give a zero score. But a WRONG input should have consequenzes (negative score). In these tables there are often fields in which the students should give now answer at all.

Example

You can ask for the amounts with {:NUMERICAL:}
This answer is the correct one

Account	amount (debit side )	amount (credit side)
A
B	1190
C		1000
D
E		190
F
G

If a students decides to fill all fields, he gets a positive score allthough he gambled.

Account	amount (debit)	amount (credit side)
A	1190	1000
B	1190	1000
C	1190	1000
D	1190	1000
E	1190	190
F	1190	190
G	1190	190

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Adriane Boyd - Friday, 1 June 2007, 5:08 AM

I don't think that negative scores are currently allowed in numerical or short answer questions on their own, either. It looks like this is an open issue: MDL-5324. I'll make a note of this as something to look into if I have time, since it seems to be a feature that many people are interested in.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Anthony Borrow - Saturday, 2 June 2007, 2:51 AM

Adriane - Just a little plug for allowing negative marks - this would really be helpful for teachers writing questions to prepare students for standardized tests (especially in the U.S.) since those tests are usually scored with negative marking.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Joseph Rézeau - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 12:49 AM

Hi Adriane,
Extensions to existing questions:
* improved teacher interface for cloze questions
Have you seen my small hack in the Modules and plugins: clozejr ?
Joseph

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Adriane Boyd - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 11:45 PM

That's a really clever approach. I think if it could be streamlined a little to make the ordering and numbering easier to do, it would be a sensible way to go about it.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Joseph Rézeau - Friday, 1 June 2007, 12:04 AM

Thanks. It does work fine, but I agree that the ordering and numbering part is not too user-friendly. If you can do something about it, that would be fine.
Joseph

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Maria B. - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 3:30 AM

I heard that you had been talking about Likert scale and I would like to say this: since I am teaching psychometrics my professor asked me once if there was any chance to put in each question (type is not importanta) for example 5 - Likert scale (or 0-100% etc) and ask our students to evaluate their answer with it. Probably:

Strongly not sure
Not sure
Neither
Sure
Strongly sure

or something like that. In order to get honest answers we may tell them for example:

If your answer is correct and you said 5, you will get 1 pt.
If your answer is correct and you said 4, you will get 0.9 pt.
If your answer is correct and you said 3, you will get 0.8 pt.
If your answer is correct and you said 2, you will get 0.7 pt.
If your answer is correct and you said 1, you will get 0.6 pt.

or

If your answer is incorrect and you said 5, you will get 0 pt.
If your answer is incorrect and you said 4, you will get 0.1 pt.
If your answer is incorrect and you said 3, you will get 0.2 pt.
If your answer is incorrect and you said 2, you will get 0.3 pt.
If your answer is incorrect and you said 1, you will get 0.4 pt.

This would be some kind of experimental testing in order to detect various strategies in answering or which sort of question is beeing answered mostly by intuition or strong miscomprehensions etc.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Joseph Rézeau - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 4:58 AM

Hi Marija,
This idea has already been discussed in the Quiz forum:
Certainty-Based Marking (CBM) of Moodle questions
and
Confidence based marking / Certainty based marking (CBM)
Joseph

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Maria B. - Thursday, 31 May 2007, 8:37 AM

Thanx

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Stefan Eberhard - Sunday, 3 June 2007, 1:32 AM

wishes:

a possibility to implement a checkbox in a cloze question.Something like that: {:CHECKBOX:~false~=true} so that the checked (or the not checked) box gives a score. It would be great for some subjects, where students have to check informations in tables
as it is: {:SHORTANSWER:~= ~wronga~wrongb} doing nothing is correct

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Adriane Boyd - Wednesday, 6 June 2007, 5:19 AM

Would MULTICHOICE questions work for you for this purpose? A drop-down menu won't look quite as nice as a checkbox, but I think it might work fairly well. Doing nothing would be incorrect, so the student would need to provide an answer for each "checkbox".

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Stefan Eberhard - Thursday, 7 June 2007, 3:06 AM

There are often officila tests in accounting looking like that:

(imagine a [ ] to be a checkbox

Account	debit side	credit side
A	[ ]	[ ]
B	[ ]	[ ]
C	[ ]	[ ]
D	[X]	[ ]
E	[ ]	[X]
F	[ ]	[ ]
G	[ ]	[X]

Students have to decide which account(s) and which side(s) are correct.
I can use {:MULTICHOICE:=X~-} or something similar, but the main problem will be the gambling student. A wrong answer (wether checkbox or not) must get a negative score otherwise the gambler wins to often.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Jeff Forssell - Thursday, 7 June 2007, 4:24 PM

The present MOODLE does allow negative scores IN THE ALTERNATIVES IN A QUESTION. (I also think that Moodle should allow them for those that want it for questions and whole tests, for CBM etc).

That makes it possible for you to do this question as a Cloze type and give the wrong answers Strong Negative weights to make it unprofitable to check both or to guess. (If a negative score for the question is the result it is saved as zero)

I haven't actually tried negative in Cloze, but often use the possibility of partially right points, so, I think you could write:
{1:MULTICHOICE:=X#YES! it is debet!~%-200%_#No way! You shouldn't guess on this kind of thing!} (As you may notice my big interest is the possibility to give feedback! big grin

You can always turn feedback off in a strict test mixed

, so the same question can be used a a tutorial exercise or an evaluative test.)

I haven't had time to go through the whole thread here so maybe somebody has mentioned this: I miss the possibility sometimes of having the possibility to logically connect a question to a preceeding one, esp. in an listing: has this answer already been given, in which case it wouldn't get points again. Sometimes a common mistake in a chain of thought can make the following answers wrong in spite of the following processes being right. This may be unintelligible, and definitely not clear enough to put in the hands of a develeoper, bu my employer has other things I'm supposed to do right now! blush

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Jeff Forssell - Thursday, 7 June 2007, 5:54 PM

I was rewriting this after trying my suggestion, but the editing time ran out! It didn't work. Moodle seems to treat the different parts of a CLOZE question as separate questions point-wise so the negative wrong becomes zero and doesn't detract from the positive right if someone checks both in one row. But I have another suggestion:

Account	debit \| credit
A	{1:MULTICHOICE:=[X] \| [_]#YES! it is debet!~%-100%[_] \| [X]#No way! You shouldn't guess on this kind of thing!~%-400%[X] \| [X]#Both! If you really think it can be both, you've got a lot of reviewing to do! If you think you can fool our test: Bad news this time! }

At this time the negative points won't be any different than zero, but hopefully Moodle will someday allow that possibility. You can check it out "live" here: http://www.tupo.biz/moodle1.6/mod/quiz/view.php?id=162
The layout could, of course, be adjusted.

It works as stands (to at least stop double checking) and you can do a kind of CBM variant with a:

~%50%[?] | [?]#That's better then the wrong choice! It's better to admit that you're not sure then to make a random choice!}

and adjust your grading scale appropriately. I've made a variant for that there too.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Stefan Eberhard - Sunday, 10 June 2007, 12:45 AM

Thanks for the idea. I tested it with some modifications. But there is a handling problem for the students. As the multichoice questions need to have a correct answer in each field, students need to answer (for example [ ]|[ ]) even in those fields where I want them nothing to do, so that they get this point. If you have 12 fields and there is only an need for an answer in three fields, students have to click a lot.
Giving more points for the "real" answer fields helps a little, but not really.
Perhaps I find a solution.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Michael Steigerwald - Sunday, 3 June 2007, 2:26 AM

Quiz question types that I've been meaning to customize but have yet to find time for:

Questions comprised of a series of clues; students get higher scores if they require fewer clues. For example, if they answer correctly with only one clue, they score 6 points. If they need two, they score 4, etc.
Questions that can be answered boldly or cautiously; if a student answers correctly and boldly, they get a higher score. If they answer boldly but incorrectly, a higher penalty is applied.
Timed questions; rather than apply a single time limit to the entire quiz, each question would be timed.

I'm happy to contribute, but I don't know when I'll get around to it.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Adriane Boyd - Wednesday, 6 June 2007, 4:39 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. I think that #2 might be addressed in the threads about certainty/confidence based marking mentioned a few posts up by Joseph Rézeau.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Josep M. Fontana - Sunday, 3 June 2007, 5:09 PM

Adriane,

I'm really happy to see you are working on this.
I suggest you have a look at Hot Potatoes for inspiration for a better interface in the creation of cloze questions.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your work on creating more flexible grading system for multiple choice questions. Being able to give negative points to certain answers and being able to establish a gradation between different wrong answers so that some give more negative points than others adds some interesting possibilities.

You might want to have a look at this (kind of confusing, that's true) thread (http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=40128#184650) to see what some people (including myself) have been asking for for quite some time in this domain.

Josep M.

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Re: Google Summer of Code project: new quiz question types

by Ricardo Rodríguez García - Friday, 8 June 2007, 1:26 AM

Hi!

well i'll like to see support for datasets in the miltichiose question type

maybe i could help whit that

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