Re: QZB Re: search for quiz software [Fwd: helping with seul-edu]

["Daniel P. Kionka" <dkionka@blueneptune.com>]

rnd@sampo.karelia.ru wrote:
> ...
> However, I know there are a lot of ready things  (thousands  of
> such things!). So I don't worry to look at them:  sometimes  it
> is easier to concentrate on a project when  you  reinvents  the
> wheel. (And do it better, because I am not going to  a  feature
> hunt. I just want  to  have  a  model  which  will  incorporate
> features in a way understandable by teachers who has no  degree
> in Computer Science ;-)

I will admit that you can easily be sucked into a never ending search
for other systems.  You can also end up in analysis paralysis.  But you
can always learn something from seeing how other systems work.  And you
may find out that other system already does things it would take you
months to develop.

> ...
> First priority now is to MAKE A SPECIFICATION of the input data
> format which will be
> * easy for the people (NO programming for non-power users!)
> * flexible enough to embrace all kinds of quizes with all
>   kinds of question ordering and so on.

I don't know if the format is that important.  It is the features, and
the format is just a way to access them.

If you want it flexible, you should have a single engine that generates
several quiz types from different input formats.  In my original mail I
mentioned using an HTML page as one kind of input.  I wrote up this
sample of what it might look like:
http://www.blueneptune.com/~dkionka/quiz/sample1.html

> 
> *** MY NEW IDEAS on QZB ***

These ideas sound good...

> After fiddling with different kinds of scenarios I came to  the
> conclusion that there is a need to have two layers  of  control
> files:
> 
> 1) question/task database ("content")
> 2) scenario file which will specify a certain quiz
>    scenario, using questions from the database
> 
> This way quiz questions  could  be  accumulated  and  exchanged
> freely  between  educators  while  quiz   procedure   will   be
> independent of problem content.
> 
> Any ideas for the format of the taskbase file?
> What about scenario file?
> 
> Example of _task file_ (task000):
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Subject: math
> Difficulty: 3
> Comment: just an example of something simple
> 
> 1.) How much is 2x2
> ( ) 1
> ( ) 2
> ( ) 3
> (x) 4
> ( ) 5
> ( ) 22
> 
> ...
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Example of _scenario file_ (mathquiz):
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Use: task000
> Questions: 5
> Order: shuffled
> Scoring: "+=1"
> Criteria: 0-2 : "2" : "bad!",
>             3 : "3" : "satisfactory." ,
>             4 : "4" : "good!",
>             5 : "5" : "excelent!!!"
> Comment: this is an example (grades are 2-5, as in Russia or Sweden)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> It will be some markup language, as I see it now. And  it  need
> to be something like sdf (simple document format) or even  more
> easy for enduser...
> 
> And yes, QuiZBrowser will sometimes need QuiZGenerator (QZG)...
> So, Dan, you are welcome!
> 
> Sincerely yours,
> Roman A. Suzi
> 
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