Importing, Exporting quizzes

Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Richard Treves -
Number of replies: 14

I'm pretty new to all this stuff so hopefully someone can help me.

I understand QTI is a standard and that as with SCORM it should allow quizzes to be moved between platforms.  I also understand that XML is a markup language but I'm not really sure how this helps exporting quizzes from one format to another.

I don't know what platform I'll be using for delivering our content (cross fingers Moodle wink ) so I decided to generate stand alone quizzes that can be put on any VLE or web page.  I lose tracking of students taking the quiz but as the quizzes are all formative I didn't think this was a huge teaching loss.  The obvious chocie was hot potatoes but I rejected this because we'd have to get a licence. My solution was to develope a flash file that handles multiple choice questions, I recognise that I will probably ditch this development sometime in the future.

Questions:

- If I have the origonal data what do I need to think about to enable the data to be transferred to another format at some later date?

- How does XML fit in with all of this?

All the best

Richard

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Richard Treves

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
*should* allow quizzes to be transferred is about the size of it.

The IMS QTI specification is incredibly complicated and is unlikely (at the moment anyway) to be supported in full by any VLE (or whatever they are called this week). I think that makes it (and other standards) difficult to recommend at the moment although other may disagree. I would suggest to you that right now, today it may be quickest and less error prone to re-enter the quiz in a new platform.

To get to your questions...

- If I have the origonal data what do I need to think about to enable the data to be transferred to another format at some later date?

...there simply isn't an easy answer to this. Most of these standards are about exporting from one platform to enable import on another. You wouldn't write your quiz using the QTI format and it probably wouldn't do you much good if you did.

- How does XML fit in with all of this?

The IMS QTI uses XML as the 'medium' for its data. That is a quiz exported in QTI will be in XML. There really is nothing magic about XML (and that's whats good about it) - it is simply a platform-independent method for storing data. Its power is in the ease which it can be parsed, verified and (probably more importantly) the ease by which it can be manipulated into different formats.

There are actually some products that take an arbitrary XML document and (using an XML stylesheet) convert it to flash - but this is getting a bit esoteric (http://www.saxess.com/en/index.page if you are interested)
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Richard Treves -

Hi Howard,

Thanks for your answer.

This was a nice link for what XML is all about - seems to be one of those simple, great, how-come-I-didn't-think-of-that ideas.

At the moment I have created an XL sheet that will export a text file.  This text file can be read by a flash file that then creates it into a quiz.  Having read your answer I realise that with the XL file I could customise it at a later date so it produces XML files that can then be used to translate the questions to other VLEs.

That paragraph sounds so technical, isn't is wierd, its actually very simple...

Richard

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Richard Treves

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by colin melville -
Hi Richard and Howard,

We've been struggling with the same problem, having trapped ourselves in Questionmark. The latest version of this, 3.0, exports in IMS-QTI format.

We've created two XLST which translate best of fives (one best answer) and multiple true-false questions from IMS_QTI to GIFT. I've just uploaded about 1000 questions using this method. We'll try to tidy these up, and also finish the XLST for extended matching questions.

Currently it is a bit of a palaver, but if there is anyone who wishes to take on the integration of this in the quiz module they are more than welcome! smile

Colin Melville
Average of ratings: -
In reply to colin melville

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Didier RAMBEAU -

I'm using Perception and I wish to import my question into Moodle, so I'm interested in all the application that can do that.

Didier RAMBEAU

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Timothy Takemoto -

Any ideas when Moodle quizes may be exportable in SCORM or QTI format?

SCORM has just reared its ugly head again and threatens to blow away all this work.

SCORM SCORM SCORM SCORM....

Tim

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
This remains on my to-do list and I will be getting back to it this week. However I expect there to be plenty of problems and it certainly won't be in 1.4. There should be, however, a moodle-specific XML export format that you may be able to do something with - eg, use XSLT to convert in accordance with your needs. This is in CVS now, and I would actually appreciate somebody having a look and giving me some feedback.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Timothy Takemoto -

Thanks very much Howard,

Any idea when a "standard" export form will be supported by Moodle?

Is the XML output form seperate to the backup form? 

Can the XML be output. I.e. is there a button somewhere now saying
"Download XML"?

If there is then as you say, changing from one XML layout to another
does not sound so difficult.

Tim

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Timothy Takemoto -

Howard,
Sorry, and when you say it is in CVS now, does that mean it is the 1.4 development CVS?

Tim

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Its available and working right now in the 1.4dev CVS. You will see that import quiz has been joined by an export quiz button. This exports the complete category to the chosen format - only GIFT and Moodle XML work at the moment. The xml schema is just something I made up, but the idea is that it should be quite simple and support all question types.

Anyway, have a look if you can smile
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Howard Miller

Pledge $100 for QTI or SCORM!!

by Timothy Takemoto -

Dear Howard,

Wow, buttons for download of Moodle XML and GIFT! Thank you!

I wonder if it is in the 1.4 deve latest nightly. I will install that and then pull the quiz module one by one from CVS if that does not do the trick. I do not have a CVS linked system. I just download zips.

Anyway, I know that this is a lot of work, and that it is worth something like $5000 but perhaps there are 49 other people that want QTI as much as me, so

I pledge $100 (from my pocket money) to you if you do the IMS QTI or SCORM conversion of the Moodle XML, if that is possible.

Please remind me if or when this happens, whenever it happens (until I stop using Moodle).

I hope others join in.

Tim
Timothy Takemoto

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Pledge $100 for QTI or SCORM!!

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Steady!

It's early days and hasn't had much in the way of testing, but all feedback would be appreciated.

Next is to get the Moodle XML to import, so that I can close the circle on that. I will then look at QTI, probably import first as I now have a number of example files that I have been sent, but the more the better. QTI export after that I guess.

I must be honest and say that I know very little about SCORM. I believe it's mainly used for training materials and I work in HE, so there isn't much call for that kind of thing. However, if you can point me to some examples and/or further info I can take a look.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Pledge $100 for QTI or SCORM!!

by Chris Jeffries -

SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model) gathers together a number of specifications

IMS content specification

AICC communication model

The IMS spec defines an imsmanifest.xml file format that describes a way of listing all the resources (files of various types) in the package and one or more menu trees (called organisations) for accessing the resources. The imsmanifest file and all the resources are zipped up to make a SCO

The AICC spec states that an LMS (Learning Management System - eg Moodle) should provide into the browser, a set of predefines javascript function that can be called from resources in the SCO. These allow the SCO to get or set a variety of values the name of the studetnt; a bookmark for there current place in the module; maximum possible and achieved scores in quizzes and so on. The LMS is required to persist this information between sessions.

An interesting aspect of the SCORM 'spec' is that it requires that you say which parts you support, and that you support the bits you say you do. Therefore, if Moodle were to publish a document stating that they supported none of the components of the SCORM, then it would then be able to claim to be SCORM compliant!

The SCORM documentation is strange. It is the most readable "spec" I have ever read. But it does feel a bit loose as a result, and I wonder whether it will lead to interoperability issues later.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Richard Treves

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Sam Mudle -

The obvious chocie was hot potatoes but I rejected this because we'd have to get a licence.

I thought hot potatoes is free unless you are running a business with it.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sam Mudle

Re: Importing, Exporting quizzes

by Thomas Haynes -

The Hot Potatoes license requires that you work for a nonprofit that is state funded. The material you create has to be made availiable via the WWW.

I teach in a private school, so we would have to buy a license.

I happened to notice that the terms of the license had changed when I upgraded. I exchanged a few emails with the folks who wrote the software, and they do in fact intend for private schools to pay.

I think this is short sighted, however I want to respect their intellectual property. We have quit using Hot Potatoes. 

Average of ratings: -