Peter Ruthven-Stuart

Jamie,

You wrote: "Would question creation as a student activity be a good place to start on this project Peter?"

Yes, but if possible other components of this project could be worked on in parallel. Ideally, I'd like to be able to develop a stand-alone module that allows students to do all the things I mentioned in my original posting, including the ability to create 'on-the-fly' quizzes' generated from Smart Question lists. However, as you say, this project is "wide ranging and ambitious". So, being realistic it will be best to break it up into a number of sub-projects or 'development stages', some of which will be to enhance existing features and others to develop new features.

Having read through the postings so far, it appears that this project can be broken down into the following components or stages:

Stage 1: SelfStudy Module; activity that requires / allows students to make their own questions which can be graded and imported into the Question Bank by the teacher.

Stage 2: Allow for group creation of questions (as with the Project module being developed by Don Hinkelman)

Stage 3: Via the SelfStudy module, allow students to do quizzes made up of questions made by themselves (and their peers once sharing becomes possible)

Stages 4 to 6 = Question Bank enhancements:

Stage 4: Make it possible for students to save their questions directly into the Question bank.

Stage 5: Allow for the sharing of questions between students

Stage 6: Smart Question lists: tagged questions (i.e. sub-categories, metadata on questions)

Stage 7: On-the-fly quizzes: make it possible for teachers via the Quiz module, and students via the SelfStudy module, to generate quizzes that are populated by questions that fall within certain parameters. For teachers, this will allow them to tailor quizzes to individual students, and for students this will allow them to tailor quizzes to their own needs.

Stage 8: Database (or Glossary) integration: make it possible for data stored in a database to be (automatically) used in a quiz. This would be an import feature that could also be used within the Quiz module.

So "question creation as a student activity" seems to be a good place to begin, since it is not disruptive of Moodle's core code, and will serve as a 'proof of concept'.

"Any requirements to add to what would be required in this activity Peter?"

I think it is imperative that from the outset this activity includes features that distinguish it from tasks that can already be done with Moodle; i.e. take into account Martin D's admonition above that it could be "duplicating things in Moodle to large degree". In other words, it has to be much more than a function that allows students to make questions, which is something they can already do if given editing rights to a course.

So, the requirements of Stage 1 of this project are:

• create an activity module that allows teachers to make an activity in which they specify:
  • how many questions have to be made
  • what type of questions should be made (multiple choice, short answer, etc.)
  • what subject area questions have to cover
  • the grade for the activity
  • specify Groups mode (No groups, Separate groups, Visible groups)
  • other standard activity parameters such as start and finish date
• teachers need to be able to grade and comment on individual questions made by students
• students need to be able to revise questions having read feedback from teachers
• teachers need to be able to indicate whether or not the questions is good enough to be used in a quiz
• teachers need to be able to export all questions that have been marked as 'good enough': this could be achieved by making it possible to directly export students created questions to the Question Bank, or by exporting the students created questions as a GIFT formatted file, which can be subsequently imported into the Question Bank.
• students need to be able to make questions in much the same way as teachers can via the Quiz module. However, it will be important to create a simplified interface for creating questions (using your new forms library code). This will have a positive spin-off since the same simplified interface will be appreciated by teachers new to Moodle and technology enhanced teaching.

So, I think that question creation as a student activity is a good place to start on this project, as long as we can include the above requirements that will make it a constructivist learning activity, and therefore more than simply giving students the ability to create their own questions.

Don,

Thanks for your helpful comments. In particular the heads-up re the 'Constructivist Quizzer', and your comments re the problems of ceating and maintaining a separate course for self study are much appreciated.

I will keep my eye out, but please let me know if you hear any more developments re the COVCELL project. I don't want to duplicate something that already exists, but from what I have read about it, it appears to be something I can learn from as development begins on a SelfStudy module.

Clodomir, (not your real name I think )

Thank you for your encouraging feedback.

You wrote: "I was wondering if something like SelfStudy could be built up in pieces". Yes, I think it will have to be built in pieces, since some of the requirements necessitate enhancements of present features, and others completely new features.

Also, you mentioned the Glossary module. Yes, making it possible for entries in the Gloassries (or Databses) to be imported into questions is a good idea, and a feature that I'd like to see incorporated into a SelfStudy module.

Yes, the 'Group Lex' project, is a good example of a self study tool, and is indeed the kind of role that I envisage a SelfStudy module fulfilling.

Joseph,

Thank you very much for your encouraging comments.

As a language teacher, I very much appreciate the scenario that you describe, and it is one that I have very much in mind as I think through the implications and possibilities of a SelfStudy module.

Your idea of tagging questions as 'unknown' or 'known' would definitiely be part of a Smart Questions feature. Also, I would like to be able to make it possible for students to indicate what 'known' means. For example, when setting up their own 'on the fly' quizzes, they should be able to indicate that when they get a certain question correct x number of times, that questions then becomes 'known'.

All being well, there will be something for you to test sometime next year (2007). When there is, I'll let you know.

Tim and Jamie,

Thank you for your comments.

From what you have both written, I understand that for technical reasons it would be better to turn the Question Bank into an activity module. However, my understanding of the Question Bank is that it is supposed to be a depository of questions that can be accessed by any activity module that has the capacity to create and save questions (e.g. the Lesson and Quiz modules). In other words, it is a resource for activity modules.

So, in the case of a SelfStudy module, students would need to be able to have access to the Question Bank in order to save their own questions. Of course, there would need to be a category within the Question Bank that would be devoted to the SelfStudy module to prevent students gaining access to teacher created questions. On the other hand, teachers should be able to access this 'SelfStudy' question category via the Quiz Module so that they could edit and add student questions to standard Quiz activities.

So although I don't fully understand the need to turn the Question Bank into an activity module, I would support such a development if it makes my 'SelfStudy' goal easier to achieve.