Pattern match

The Pattern match question type can be used to test if a short free-text learner response matches a specified response pattern.

It is a more sophisticated alternative to the Short answer question type and offers the ability to:

• cater for misspellings, with and without an English dictionary

• specify synonyms and alternative phrases

• be flexible with the word order of answers

• check on the proximity of words in relation to other words within the answer.

Pattern match works on the basis that you have a learner response which you wish to match against response matching patterns, of which there can be any number. Each pattern is compared against the answer in turn until a match is found and feedback and marks are assigned according to the question settings.

The key to using Pattern match is in asking questions that you have a reasonable hope of marking accurately using matching patterns. Hence, writing the question stem is the most important part of writing these type of questions.