QTI Tools Worksheet July 2009

Open the FETLAR  Moodle site at http://stack.bham.ac.uk, in the Firefox browser, and choose the course FETLAR Management.

Login as a guest and click the MathAssess QTITools link in the main topic.

1         Finding Questions

  1. Open Minibix Item Bank

  1. Go to Search and search for "differentiate" in title or use the taxonomy list to find topic 6.1.4 Differentiation.

  1. Note the Ticket number of the first result of the search

2     Authoring Questions

Open MathQurate from the desk-top icon

2.1    Import Question

Click the Import from Minibix icon at the top, download the ticket number found in Minibix – the question is now loaded into MathQurate

2.2    Modify Metadata

Click on the metadata icon  and modify the metadata:

  1. Insert your own name as author,
  2. Remove the ticket number, i.e. leave the field blank, so that your question will be added to the repository, rather than overwriting the original question.
Click OK to save the metadata

2.3    Edit MathML

Edit the mathematical expression to be differentiated to include  iC:

  1. Open the Question Body editor , which enables us to modify the visible part of the question,
  2. In the lower left pane, click on the  button

  1. In the upper part of the Maths dialog,add +\qv{iC} immediately before the final\] in the LaTeX – the change is reflected below in the MathML
  2. Click OK to save the change and close the Maths window.
  3. Click OK to close the Question Body editor

2.4    Make a New Variable

Declare template variable iC as a single cardinality integer, and set its mathVariable attribute to true:

  1. Open the Question Processing dialog ,
  2. Choose the Templates button to edit the template variables,

  1. Click on iB and then the  icon at the top of the dialog to create a new variable after iB,
  2. Change the name of the new variable to iC ,
  3. Set the parameters baseType to integer, cardinality to single and MathML to true
  4. Click OK to close the Template declarations dialog

2.5    Edit Randomisation

Edit the randomisation so that the unknown mX will not be t, and the value of iC is selected randomly between 2 and 6 (iC:ev(random(5)+2,simp);):

  1. Back in the Question Processing dialog, choose Processing,  
  2. Click the  beside templateProcessing,
  3. Open setTemplateValue: tDummy, customOperator and baseValue  in the same way 

  1. In the lower right pane scroll across, using the slider, to view and modify the Maxima code
    1. Copy the command beginning “iB:” and paste it in after the iB command, change the B to C and the 3 inside the random(3) to a 5 – this sets up the value for iC
    2. Change array(aarr,18); to  array(aarr,17);  remove “t,” from the list in fillarray() and change mX:aarr[random(18)]; to mX:aarr[random(17)]; - this prevents the variable mX being set to t
    3. Change mQues:iA*mX^iB; to mQues:iA*mX^iB+iC;
    4. Press CTRL+ENTER or click the  button to save the Maxima code
    5. Click OK to close the Response and Template Processing window
  2. Click Close to close the “Edit variables and processing elements” dialog

2.6    Run the Question

Click the icon on the main page  - this uses QTIEngine via the web to run the question, so it will only work if you are online.

  1. Try entering a mathematical expression in the input box
  2. Click Hint or Solution (this ends the interaction with the question so you need to close and open again)
  3. Click Close to close the renderer.

2.7    Save the question

  1. Save as a QTI V2.1 XML file on the hard drive (or your pendrive)
    1. Click the  icon on the main page
    2. Browse to the location for the content package and save the file.
  2. Save as a QTI V2.1 content package on the hard drive (or your pendrive)
    1. Click the  icon on the main page
    2. Browse to the location for the content package and save the file.
  3. Save to Minibix
    1. Click the  icon on the main page
    2. In the dialog, make sure that the ticket number is blank and the metadata fields are compete
    3. Click Upload
    4. Click Close to close the dialog .

3     Constructing Tests

  1. Open Constructr  from the FETLAR QTI Tools page
  2. Start a new test:
    1. Click the Add Test icon  above the list of tests
    2. Give it the title “Test nn” where nn is the worksheet number
    3. Click Create Test
  3. Click the Info icon  beside your test to view the test contents (nothing there yet!)
  4. Create two sections, in each case:
    1. Click the  icon beside your test
    2. Give it a title
    3. Add some instructions in the Section Rubric
    4. Click Create Section
    5. Click Show Test at the top of the screen, then click the Info button beside your test to display the section(s)
  5. In the first section add a multiple choice question and a text entry question:
    1. Click , then  type choiceInteraction in the Minibix search dialog and check the box beside Interaction type
    2. Click the beside the first test in the list and select Ticket #15 from the search results displayed there (this is a quirk!)
    3. Click , then  type textEntryInteraction in the Minibix search dialog and check the box beside Interaction type
    4. Click the beside the first test in the list and select Ticket #17 from the search results
  6. In the second section put three questions on Differentiation
    1. Click , then  use the Classification drop-down to select the topic from the taxonomy
    2. Click the beside the first test in the list and select Ticket #14,  your own question and any other question from the search results
  7. Use the Edit icon  beside the first section to open the section settings dialog; set it to select one question, then click Update
  8. Using the Edit icon beside the second section, change its settings to select two questions and shuffle the order, but not reselect the same question, then click Update
  9. Save the test as a content package by
    1. Clicking the Save icon beside the test,
    2. Waiting for about 15 seconds to let it create the content package,
    3. Then clicking the info icon ; the link for downloading is at the end of the sentence "To save your test..."

4     Assigning a Test as an Assessment

In Moodle (http://gauss.ecs.soton.ac.uk/moodle19 ) go to MathAssess Test Course

  1. Log in as instructornnn where nnn is the number at the top of this sheet; the password is the same as the login id
  2. Switch editing on using the link in the left-hand column
  3. In the main course page in Topic 2, choose Add an activity and select qtiplayr from the dropdown list

  1. On the dialog page give the assessment a name that contains your number

  1. Set the dates so that the test can be used today
  2. Set either unlimited or a number greater than or equal to 10 as the number of attempts
  3. Upload your test from the local machine or pendrive:

a. Click “Choose or upload a file” on the dialog page, then:

b. Click “Upload a file”, browse for your file and upload it:

          c. Click the “Choose” link to the right of your file in the list

  1. Back on the dialog page, select gradebook options and common module settings as you wish
  2. Click Save and display
  3. On the next page choose “Preview assessment “ and the assessment is ready for use: