GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

by Steve Murray -
Number of replies: 6

In Moodle 1.8, an instructor is reporting that no error is detected when uploading a GIFT question in which no correct answer is specified. (Using the previous version - 1.6 - during the summer, the question-upload routine detected this and gave him a useful error message about it.)

Instructor spotted one of these "answerless" questions while doing a preview of a currently running quiz. Instead of radio buttons, the question displayed check boxes, and it prompts the student to make at least one choice. But of course no choice or combination of choices can result in getting the correct answer.

Anyone else experienced this?

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In reply to Steve Murray

Re: GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
If it doesn't throw an error, what is the question that you end up with?

You might want to attach the offending file here and I'll take a look at it.
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

by Steve Murray -

I tried this file in a quiz and got the same results as before: 1. no error upon uploading the GIFT, even though "stop on error" is attached 2. at runtime, the quiz shows the answer-less question with checkboxes instead of radio (option) buttons.


Attached is the file showing the problem question. See Question 2 why did the chicken cross the road. Obviously, no correct answer is specified (no = sign specified). However, I did not get prompted with an error message that no correct answer was specified.

I will attach a screen grab of the quiz showing the problem in a reply to this email.  Thanks.

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In reply to Steve Murray

Re: GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

by Steve Murray -
And here is the screen grab of the quiz showing the problem...
Attachment Picture1.gif
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In reply to Steve Murray

Re: GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

by Steve Murray -

More information from the instructor:

When importing a GIFT, you can specify "stop on error", which stops the import when an error is detected in the GIFT file, like when you do not specify an answer, or when your file contains a GIFT syntax error like non-matching curly braces. When you do NOT check "stop on error", the GIFT import function skips broken questions and just loads the good ones. I've uploaded both ways and they used to work as advertised.

When importing a GIFT, you can specify "stop on error", which stops the import when an error is detected in the GIFT file, like when you do not specify an answer, or when your file contains a GIFT syntax error like non-matching curly braces. When you do NOT check "stop on error", the GIFT import function skips broken questions and just loads the good ones. I've uploaded both ways and they used to work as advertised.

Thanks for any tips I can pass along to this instructor.

Steve

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In reply to Steve Murray

Re: GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Well, it's perfectly ok to have no "correct" answer (ie, an = sign in front of one of the answers). What you then get is the mutiple answer version of the multiple choice question.

However, what you *should* do is to assign answer weights to the questions. If you do a similar thing in the editor window you are going to get told that your answers don't add up to 100%.

What we have discussed at some length, is to have a consistent approach/API for verifying questions coming from different sources, but it hasn't happened yet.

http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-11644
http://moodle.org/help.php?file=formatgift.html&module=quiz
(see multiple answers bit)
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: GIFT question not showing error when no correct answer specified

by John Antolak -
When this is fixed, you really need to check that the sum of positive weights is 100%. I routinely add negative weights to the distractors for multiple answer questions. Otherwise, students will eventually figure out that they can check every answer and get full credit for each question. Ideally, the sum of the negative weights should be -100%, but I usually give the students the benefit of the doubt by having the negative weights sum to less than 100%. So far, I haven't found this to be a problem, i.e., I don't see students checking off all of the answers to get at least a partial mark.
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