Re: Quiz robot

[Bruno Vernier <vernier@vc.bc.ca>]

On Sat, Jan 30, 1999 at 02:25:41PM -0500, Pete St. Onge wrote:

> Some work would have to be done so that the quiz generator could choose
> from a bank of questions, so that students would have different
> questions to deal with each time. This would allow the teacher to
> rapidly evaluate which questions / concepts the learner has not yet
> fully grasped and thus need elaboration.

I plead that we should start by defining a standard test bank format and to
build up a great collection of open-source items for ANY quizzer using any
medium... from palm-pilots to CGI to shell scripts to javascript... you name
it.  But all of them should read from XML (eduml compliant?) formatted test banks.

I believe that participating in the collection of good truly open source
test bank items is something anybody and everybody can do (by sending in
their GPLed collections, or recycling/reformatting existing GPLed
collections, or making up new items in various K-12 fields).  As the data
bank grows (and I expect it to include MathML and ChemML fragments), the
programs to make use of the data will naturally come out of the woodwork.

Bruno

p.s. here is a sample I have been working with:  (I'll be updating EDUML soon)
NOTE: each test item is associated to a PLO (Prescribed Learning Outcome)
this sample contains 5 multiple choice items.  

<plos> <!-- Email Test -->

<!-- level 1 Study Netiquette -->
  
 <outcome id="email.etiquette">
  <plo>email.clients</plo>
  <data>
   <items sep="#" level="1">
    <mc>Which of the following best describes internet "netiquette"
        #minimal (succinct)#crack (not hack)#big (CAPITALS)#solicit (propagate) 
     </mc>
    <mc>What is a good maximum size for a signature in $email.program
        #4 lines#<rnd max="8"/> </mc>
    <mc>Which of the following is BAD "netiquette"
        #no subject line#signatures with amusing one-liners
	#asking for permission to read someone else's screen
	#strictly adhering to copyright laws </mc>
     </items>
    </data>
   </outcome>
   
 <outcome id="email.smiley">      <!--level 2 Study the Smiley Code -->
  <data name="smiley" sep="W" cols="english,smiley">
   <d> smiling W :-) </d>
   <d> winking W ;-) </d>
   <d> sadness     W :-( </d>
   <d> sleepiness  W |-O </d>
   <d> "not sure" W :-I </d>
   <items level="2">
    <mc> Which of the following expresses $smiley.english:$smiley.smiley </mc>
    <mc> What is the meaning of this smilie \n $smiley.smiley:$smiley.english </mc>
    </items>
   </data>
  </outcome> 
 </plos>