To use the Edit questions procedure, there are several steps to follow.
First, change Language of work to the language in which you will be writing if it is not the one shown.
Second, click on course for the course you will be working on. This will open the first question of the first chapter of the course selected.
Third, click on Chapter for the chapter wanted.
Fourth, write, edit or translate the text in the TEXTAREA keeping in mind the recommendations indicated above; verify that the answer shown in the answer box is correct and that the anchor and concept match.
Fifth, save the question,
Sixth, after all questions have are done, click on "Notify work completed".
Layout of the screen
The full screen of the Edit questions procedure is divided in several parts:
- the upper yellow shaded part identifies the material selected and allows to move to another selection; buttons are present in this part to show the corresponding question in English (if the text is a translation of an English question) or to show the entire questions file instead of the text of the chapter; to see what resources can be used in questions, checkmarks are provide for List audio, case, images, tables, pdf or othe documents; this part also offers the possibility to change the question type, graph, answer, anchor and concept, which in most cases you should NOT change;
- right below it, is the TEXTAREA where appears the plain text of the question selected, and that is where all the writing, editing or translating work is to be performed; just below the TEXTAREA several buttons are presented to perform different steps;
- below the yellow shaded area, a "Preview question" presents the text of the questions, the resources (graph, table, audio or document) used in the question, the correct answer and a button linking a widow with the concept where the questions is explained; the possible answers of multiple choice questions are reshuffled exactly as they will be in grade tests in which the question is used;
- further below the yellow shaded area, a "Preview box" shows the entire contents of a given chapter test questions if the "Show questions" button was clicked;
- even further below the yellow shaded area, a "Preview box" presents the text of the chapter to which the questions pertain, with the anchors appearing in red and a highlight on the anchor for the question shown; note that the text appears as it will for students in their browsers, except that the images are missing and the links do not function;
- a "Work status" schedule shows the ID numbers of those who worked on the different questions files for that course;
a colour scheme in the schedule (see below) indicates the status of all the sections in the course:
- at the very bottom of the screen, these explanations are provided;
- in between these parts, various small messages may appear to indicate the actual name of the file saved or retrieved, the name of the person to whom the corresponding task is assigned or who last worked on the material selected, and a list of anchors not matching in the text (if any), as well as the resources that were selected to be listed.
Colour code in "Work status schedule"
The background of a section is
Selection of task
If a task exists for the currently opened section page, this is indicated in a line just above the yellow shaded box at the top of the screen. If the task has not been selected, a button will appear, that allows to select that task. For then on, the button will no longer appear, and the colour in the "Work schedule" will be pink rather than light green. The deadline is initially set to two weeks from the date selected. The deadline can be changed in "My tasts selection" or "My work".
Recommendations on how to write questions
As previously indicated, all the work to be performed is in the TEXTAREA. It is advisable not to erase or damage the structure of the question. It is possible to copy and paste any portion of the question in the TEXTAREA. But the material pasted must be in text format with line breaks. Pasting material copied directly from a word processor in another format than plain text is likely to result in a corrupted file and an error message.
These questions are test questions which are retrieved randomly when a student takes a test. They differ significantly from the practice questions in their format (although, naturally, they cover the same material and may even contain identical wording). Whereas practice question are plain HTML pages, test questions files are text files with very rigid parameters. The reason for the rigid structure is that each multiple choice question is restructured each time it is used. Also, for fill-in type questions and for calculation questions, this permits more than one possible answer whenever that is necessary. Finally, there are graphic questions that are also rearranged so that no test looks the same as another, and no student will almost never take an identical test twice. Because of the rigid structure of the questions file, care must be used to keep lines in the multiple choice questions in the order and format they first appear. Especially, it is of utmost importance to have a line break at the end of each line.
What to do
Test questions are usually initially created in the "Create questions" procedure. The questions are seeded with the concept, anchor and question present in the review questions which are also created by the "Create questions" procedure.
Clicking on the "Notify work completed" button sends out an automated message that alerts the webmaster and the coordinator who will decide if the page needs proofreading and editing or be moved to permanent folder. This also changes the color code for the page in the schedule of work done from grey to blue.
What file is saved and retrieved
When a page is retrieved, it is initially the latest temporary file. If a different version of the page is desired, it can be selected in the "temporary file" pull-down menu and the "Get" button should be clicked. If there is no temporary file, the only available file for the page is the permanent file. When the "Save" button is clicked, the page in the TEXTAREA is always saved in a temporary file which bears the numeral of the latest temporary file plus one.
Warning: Please note that the procedure is believed to contain at least one bug. Some users have reported that a portion or the entire file can be deleted occasionally. This has occurred when a totally empty question appears on the screen, and the user clicks on "Save". Normally, no empty question should ever appear. If it does appear, please, report that to the webmaster immediately indicating with as much detail as possible what steps you took that led to the appearance of an empty question. It is believed that the problem was caused by a missing parameter, such as "Answer", and the problem seems to have been fixed. In any case, report any problem you come across right away.
Test question structure
When writing new test questions, the following few guidelines should be followed.
Fill-in questions can be written with a missing word marked by underlined spaces "_" (with a suggestion of using as many spaces as there are letters in the missing correct word or words), or it can be written in the form of a question without any actual space to fill. In both cases the student will have to type in his/her answer in a separate box. For fill-in questions, the author should enter 2 in the type box and the correct answer or answers which, as mentioned above, should be separated by commas with no space after the commas (the answer itself can nevertheless contain spaces). (Note that the test procedure will count answers as correct whether written in singular or plural, in capital letters of not, with or without currency sign, but not with articles preceding them.)
Calculation questions are processed as either multiple choice (with A-, B-, C- or D- answers) or fill-in depending on how they are written. If they are written as multiple choice, the answer box must contain the capital letter corresponding to the correct answer. If they are written as fill-in, the answer must be a numerical value of the correct answer. Note that if the answer is a number that exceeds 1,000 it should be written without commas (e.g. $2,432,611 should be written as 2432611). Currency signs (such as $) are acceptable, but generally not necessary. The type box must contain 3.
Graph questions can give the choice of up to four graphs or images to be offered as possible answers. Following the text of the question, the possible answers contain nothing but the capital letters followed by a dash "-" (i.e. A-, B-, C- or D-). As for multiple choice and true or false questions, the answer box must have the capital letter of the correct answer. The graph box must contain the name of the graph or image files separated by a commas with no space after the commas. The type box must have the digit 4. (Note that multiple choice, true or false and fill-in questions may be based on a graph, image, audio, video or portion of text which appears in a window in the upper left corner of the screen when a question is asked, but in this case these questions are not graph questions.)
Essay questions contain text only and nothing in the answer box. The type is 5. These questions are not answered by students in a quiz. They can be present for review purpose.
In the text area of any of the questions, in addition to the text of the questions itself, short explanations can be entered by an author below the question itself and the possible answers, if any. If the explanations are to appear only after student's answer, the first character on the first line of the explanation (i.e. below the text and answers) should be a close square bracket "]". Then, the explanation will appear in a special window at the bottom of a student's screen just below the title of the concept only after the student answers the question. Such explanation can be most appropriate for giving the solution to a calculation question. If, on the contrary, the explanation are necessary to understand the question itself (such as in the case of definitions of variables in an equation, for instance), then the explanation need not have the bracket. Note that in that second case, the explanation will appear to the student in the box together with the question and its lay out is not HTML but exactly as written.
To assist in writing test questions and especially in entering the correct anchor, a list of anchors is shown and the entire text of the chapter, section or subsection appears below the question editing box. The anchor is highlighted in the text with bold and underlined fonts.