Why are there three multiple choices by default

Why are there three multiple choices by default

by John Isner -
Number of replies: 6
I enjoyed the last discussion (Why is GIFT the default import/export fomat?) so much that I thought I'd start a new one. I hope it will get us to focus more critically on how defaults are chosen.

At one time, there were five multiple choices in an MCQ. If you wanted more, you had to modify the code. Now you can have as many choices as you like, but the default is three. If you want more, you must add them in increments of three.

Why is the default initial number of choices three? How was this number chosen? Where did the old default five come from? Which is better: five or three? What criteria do we use to settle that question? Or doesn't it matter?

A wrong answer could has serious consequences. If five was a better default, then the average user is now hitting the server twice for every MCQ entered manually. Are we confident this is not happening?

I can see three schools of thought similar to the ones in the last discussion:
  • Three (or five, or some other specific number) is the best default, based on the average use case (i.e., how the average user uses this feature)
  • We don't know, so add an item to the Module Settings page, giving the admin the ability to set a site-wide default (there is no such setting now)
  • Force the user to choose the number of choices for each question.





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In reply to John Isner

Re: Why are there three multiple choices by default

by Tim Hunt -
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Normally things stay the same until someone cares enough to change them.

In fact, the old default used to be 10, because adding more was laborious. Now adding more is easier, the default was made smaller.

If you care, you can change this locally. There is a constand defined near the top of lib/questionlib.php that controls it.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Why are there three multiple choices by default

by Jeff Forssell -
Isn't it easy to have a dynamic page that shows 3 choices and can expand 3 (or how many?) more by clicking on a javascript button/link without needing to hit (and wait for) the server again?
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In reply to Jeff Forssell

Re: Why are there three multiple choices by default

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
No, sadly, it is not easy, or it would have been done that way from the start. However, it is not completely impossible. And the good news is that if someone did make it work by changing formslib, it would work on all similar forms in Moodle.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Why are there three multiple choices by default

by Ray Lawrence -
Tim,

Clients comment on this repeatedly i.e. why 3. As in the earlier discussion about defaults, it's not possible to please all of the people all of the time. Btw, 4 is the number normally voiced as the expected default. Could you add an option to define a default in admin somewhere, so that the preference of the organisation can be set?

Edit: I've just noticed that John has suggested this above. It would need a new "Module" as this a question bank rather than quiz issue.
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In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: Why are there three multiple choices by default

by John Isner -
4 is the number normally voiced as the expected default.

If Ray's data is correct, the current default imposes an extra step on the average user.

I don't want to be accused of sadonecrobestiality (beating a dead horse), but if the majority of users importing categories into Moodle are importing GIFT files, shouldn't the default format be GIFT for exactly the same reason? Imposing an extra step on everyone by giving them an initially blank choice is an even worse solution.

I was the the lead systems engineer on a software project many years ago. My company placed great importance on gathering and documenting use cases in order to understand how real users interacted with our system. The seeming lack of interest in use cases in OSS came as a big surprise to me.

Please do not take my comments as a criticism of the quiz module, the question bank, or the excellent work of Tim Hunt and his colleagues. It's just that this discussion offered an opportunity to bring up a subject that has been on my mind for a long time.
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In reply to John Isner

Re: Why are there three multiple choices by default

by Ray Lawrence -
Indeed. However given that the average is just that, an option to set the default for the site would seem to me to be a useful (the only) way to address this issue.

Horses aside smile, I'm not sure one can be so categoric about the importing of questions and I'm similarly unconvinced that combining this issue with imports is useful.

I was the the lead systems engineer on a software project many years ago. My company placed great importance on gathering and documenting use cases in order to understand how real users interacted with our system. The seeming lack of interest in use cases in OSS came as a big surprise to me.

Lack of funding/resources for such undertakings may be more of an issue than lack of interest. The sheer diversity of Moodle use would make such an analysis a daunting process (IMO).

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