No, it isn't.ShortMath is not designed for autograding, but rather for in-class discussion where the answer is debated rather than cast in the digital stone.

We are working on an adaptation of STACK, using the same front-end as ShortMath with the advanced auto-grading backend of STACK. If you could send me a complete sample question with desired grading behaviour, we can have a look to see if it can be implemented easily in STACK. If you want to try for yourself, the current alpha version is here: https://github.com/KQMATH/moodle-qtype_stack It will take time before we see it incorporated in the official STACK because it depends on multiple refactoring exercises.

If the student answers with only a single floating point number, you do not need the maths editor. I would suggest to use calculated instead, or possibly, STACK. They allow you to set tolerance freely.

Hi,
How can I customize the symbol menu to my needs?

Sorry, we have not really thought about that yet.
Exactly how configurable do you want it to be?

We are working on a similar front-end interface on top of STACK where we have implemented a couple of alternative toolbars, and I think we can copy that feature across fairly easily. It would be rather limited configuration possibilities though.

Some symbols are unnecessary, others are missing. This is essential for students who do not know TeX. E.g. empty set symbol. In addition, the system interprets the notation "\ emptyset" as "\ varnothing", which causes problems in evaluating the correct answers.
I would like to define which symbols will be visible in the symbol menu, according to the needs of the question.
I will try the STACK plugin, maybe it will be a solution ...
Thank you.

STACK will not solve your problem, yet.
We have made a fork of STACK, here: https://github.com/KQMATH/moodle-qtype_stack
The fork has a similar GUI frontend to ShortMath. We are (have been) in dialog with the STACK team about integration, but they are in the middle of a massive refactoring exercise. It will make more sense, and be easier, to add GUI formula editing after the refactoring. Unfortunately, it takes longer than we originally hoped.

Our fork is still very limited with respect to the desired customisation, but since we are hoping to integrate with the official STACK, we are not motivated to improve it until we know and risk double work in the integration later.

When it comes to ShortMath, it was created for a particular use case, namely JazzQuiz. My experience from class was that ASCII coding of formulæ worked very well in practice, and the GUI was not really necessary. Admittedly, I did not auto-grade, so the ASCII coding did not have to be consistent. Nevertheless, I can see what we can do over the summer.

Hi,

There is a problem with ShortMath questions. I don't know if it is a problem that my administrator can solve or not (I already contacted) but I post the problem here too.

I can't duplicate quizzes with a ShortMath question (dmlreadexception error). The problem is that I also can't make a course backup with the question bank (same error).

Does anyone know how to solve it? I want to help my administrator with some information about it.

It sounds like a possible problem with the backup functions. We are looking into it.

I was wondering if a solution to the problem brought up by Javi on 6/3/2020 is in the process of being resolved. I had the same issue in 3.9.2. I had to uninstall ShortMath to resolve the issue, but I'd love to be able to use it again.

New release today, solving the backup problem.

I am now able to duplicate a test with a ShortMath question on it and I was able to back up my course! Thank you so much! As an algebra teacher, this question type is invaluable!!!

Hello! First of all, thank you so much for the plugin.

But unfortunately I have a problem. I added a button to the default template and I want to delete it, 'cause it doesn't work properly. Is there a way?

Thank you for a great plugin for working with math questions!

2 quick questions: 1. How do you modify the templates? I tried to add in new buttons, but only blank ones show up. 2. Will this plugin be updated for 4.1? Thanks for sharing your great work with the Moodle community!

Follow up: got the templates to work--figured out you need to put in the LaTex code into the button, and then depending on the label you want to show up--maybe share a few examples in the documentation when you get a chance to help people get started...

Was able to get the question to recognize simple formulas, like the period of a pendulum: T=2\pi\sqrt{\frac{L}{g}}

However, once I try to do something more complex, I can't quite get the ShortMath question type to do the pattern match correctly.

For example, for the initial velocity of a bullet shot into a block of wood for a ballistic pendulum, I was trying to code in the following:

v_{o}=\sqrt{\frac{2g(L-Lcos\theta)(M+m^{2})}{m}}

When I preview the question and have Moodle fill in the correct answer, and then hit "check", it gets marked wrong--I copied and pasted what Moodle puts in the preview window and this is what comes up:

v_o=\sqrt{\frac{2g(L-L\cos \theta )(M+m^2)}{m}}

When I put that in as a second answer choice, Moodle still doesn't recognize it as an answer and marks it wrong.

I then tried to use the ShortMath toolbar to enter the equation, and this is the code that comes up:

v_o=\sqrt{\frac{2g\left(L-L\cos \theta \right)\left(M+m^2\right)}{m}}

....also gets marked incorrectly, and then when I put it in as a 3rd answer choice Moodle still can not recognize it.

Any tips? Overall, a brilliant tool for inputting math into Moodle--THANK YOU for sharing your great work with the Moodle community!

Will there be a 4.x version for this?

That is highly unlikely.

If some colleague in my own department expresses a need, I will look into it, but the use case for which we created ShortMath no longer exists, so it is highly unlikely.

If somebody wants to make the effort, I shall be happy to help, and accept pull requests in github and/or transfer ownership in the plugin directory.