Hello Martin,
Wonderful that you like this 'question creation activity'.
I can see that my initial idea for a SelfStudy module has taken on a life of its own, and has perhaps opened up a can of worms re the question bank. Although, it seems that changes to the way different modules interact with the question bank were already in the pipeline.
As a teacher, my main concern it to create something in Moodle that allows students to take more responsibility for ther learning, while at the same time allowing teachers to guide this learning. So to that extent, I'm not too bothered about the underlying mechanics of the actvity - as long as it works. That said, I realise that this kind of development could be disruptive to the core Moodle code, which is something I definitely want to avoid. Also, at some point in the future, I'd very much like the various features of the SelfStudy project to become standard Moodle features. Yet another reason that it not only conforms to the moodle code, but also enhances it.
So any advice you have for the people working on this (Jamie Pratt et al) will be much appreciated.
Peter Ruthven-Stuart
Posts made by Peter Ruthven-Stuart
Moodle in English -> Quiz and question banks -> Question Creation as A Student Activity -> Re: Question Creation as A Student Activity
by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
Hello Jamie,
This all looks good to me.
Just a few comments and ideas:
Teacher interface - activity setup
Student Interface
If it's possible for teachers to 'seed' the students question bank, then in their interface they would see that some questions were already available to them to edit.
Teacher Interface - Grading
In the Workshop module it is possible for teachers to save frequently used comments - very useful since students often make similar errors. Could such a feature be possible here?
It would be good if there was an option to automate the copying of approved questions to another question bank. i.e. once a question goes above a certain 'approval threshold' (i.e. a certain score) it will automatically be moved to a list of good questions. Also, it would be good if the teacher could also export the questions as a GIFT file - for question editing and sharing with other teachers.
I hope these requests are not too unrealistic
.
This all looks good to me.
Just a few comments and ideas:
Teacher interface - activity setup
- Group mode: No groups / Separate groups / Visible Groups
Student Interface
If it's possible for teachers to 'seed' the students question bank, then in their interface they would see that some questions were already available to them to edit.
Teacher Interface - Grading
In the Workshop module it is possible for teachers to save frequently used comments - very useful since students often make similar errors. Could such a feature be possible here?
It would be good if there was an option to automate the copying of approved questions to another question bank. i.e. once a question goes above a certain 'approval threshold' (i.e. a certain score) it will automatically be moved to a list of good questions. Also, it would be good if the teacher could also export the questions as a GIFT file - for question editing and sharing with other teachers.
I hope these requests are not too unrealistic
.Moodle in English -> General developer forum -> Plan for the conversion of the question bank into an activity module -> Re: want to have a way for students to be able to create and edit their own questions but not be able to access questions in the same course
by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
Ralf,
Thanks for your comments re these developments. Note that the plan to allow students to create their own questions will be a separate activity to the Quiz module. However, your point about usability is well made.
As a moodling teacher who shows other teachers how to use the system, it is apparent to me that many people have a hard time interacting with UIs (not just in Moodle). So, once we get to the stage of testing both the teacher and student UI your help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your comments re these developments. Note that the plan to allow students to create their own questions will be a separate activity to the Quiz module. However, your point about usability is well made.
As a moodling teacher who shows other teachers how to use the system, it is apparent to me that many people have a hard time interacting with UIs (not just in Moodle). So, once we get to the stage of testing both the teacher and student UI your help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Moodle in English -> General developer forum -> Plan for the conversion of the question bank into an activity module -> Re: Plan for the conversion of the question bank into an activity module
by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
Anthony,
Thank you for your thoughts, questions and suggestions. The details of my ideas re student Question making (The SelfStudy Project), which in part initiated this conversion of the question bank, are described here and here. Essentially, I envisage three phases of the development:
So, to answer your questions:
Thanks again for your questions.
Thank you for your thoughts, questions and suggestions. The details of my ideas re student Question making (The SelfStudy Project), which in part initiated this conversion of the question bank, are described here and here. Essentially, I envisage three phases of the development:
- Phase 1: allow students to make questions, allow teachers to grade and import these questions into quizzes
- Phase 2: allow students to create their own quizzes sing their own, peer created and teacher created questions
- Phase 3: allow both teachers and students to generate on-the-fly quizzes
So, to answer your questions:
1. Should students be able to see the questions written by other students? (I would think so).
Yes, For Phase 1, it would be good if students could be allowed to share their own questions with their peers. Also, for Phase 2 it would be essential for students to be able to use, and therefore see, other students' questions when they make their own quizzes.
2. Should students be able to edit or delete the questions written by other students? (Possibly) If so, then perhaps we would need another field in mdl_question for modifierid and probably a last modified timestamp.
Students should be able to edit questions written by other students, and when saving the edited question, the default should be 'saving as a new question'. Deletion of questions should only be possible if there is a feature in the question making activity that allows students to work in groups - e.g. a group of 4 students work collaboratively on question creation and they all get the same grade for their efforts - as in the new Project Module.
3. Would the goal be to allow some type of rating system similar to the forums that a well written question could get a higher rating from either the teacher or other students than a poorly written one?
Yes. My hope is that question creation can be graded in two ways:
Hopefully, the grading system described above would make an approval system possible. For example, the teacher could indicate that only those questions that get more than a certain score ('an approval threshold') would be automatically available to other students to be edited and or used in quizzes. Furthermore, this approval system will assist in Phase 3: only those questions that had broken the 'approval threshold' could be used in on the fly quizzes.
Yes, For Phase 1, it would be good if students could be allowed to share their own questions with their peers. Also, for Phase 2 it would be essential for students to be able to use, and therefore see, other students' questions when they make their own quizzes.
2. Should students be able to edit or delete the questions written by other students? (Possibly) If so, then perhaps we would need another field in mdl_question for modifierid and probably a last modified timestamp.
Students should be able to edit questions written by other students, and when saving the edited question, the default should be 'saving as a new question'. Deletion of questions should only be possible if there is a feature in the question making activity that allows students to work in groups - e.g. a group of 4 students work collaboratively on question creation and they all get the same grade for their efforts - as in the new Project Module.
3. Would the goal be to allow some type of rating system similar to the forums that a well written question could get a higher rating from either the teacher or other students than a poorly written one?
Yes. My hope is that question creation can be graded in two ways:
- automatically: i.e. if a student is required to make 5 multi-choice questions and they make 5 (regardless of quality) then this fact should be automatically recorded to the gradebook.
- manually: teachers can assign grades for quality - again this score is recorded to the gradebook. Also, it should be possible for teachers to write feedback and require students to re-write questions. Ideally, I'd also like to see the possibility for peer evaluation of questions.
Hopefully, the grading system described above would make an approval system possible. For example, the teacher could indicate that only those questions that get more than a certain score ('an approval threshold') would be automatically available to other students to be edited and or used in quizzes. Furthermore, this approval system will assist in Phase 3: only those questions that had broken the 'approval threshold' could be used in on the fly quizzes.
Thanks again for your questions.
Moodle in English -> Installing and upgrading help -> moodle 1.8beta: unicode is required to be installed/enabled. Check
by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
I have just upgraded from 1.6.2+ to 1.8beta. The upgrade seemed to be fine, except I got an error message saying that unicode needs to be installed/enabled.
I completed the installation process, and when clicking on 'Environment' in the admin block I get this this warning:
and at the bottom of the screen:
You must solve all the environmental problems (errors) found above before proceeding to install this Moodle version!
this seems strange to me since my mysql database was upgraded when I made the move from 1.5.3 to 1.6.
Any ideas will be most welcome.
server details:
MacPro, MacOS 10.4.9, Moodle 1.8beta, Apache 1.3.33, php 5.2.1, MySQL 5.0.24a
I completed the installation process, and when clicking on 'Environment' in the admin block I get this this warning:
| unicode | is required to be installed/enabled. | Check |
and at the bottom of the screen:
You must solve all the environmental problems (errors) found above before proceeding to install this Moodle version!
this seems strange to me since my mysql database was upgraded when I made the move from 1.5.3 to 1.6.
Any ideas will be most welcome.
server details:
MacPro, MacOS 10.4.9, Moodle 1.8beta, Apache 1.3.33, php 5.2.1, MySQL 5.0.24a