3.2 Create, Preview, Edit

Create your first Numerical question

Now it's your turn. Start with something that does not include TeX so you can be clear how the response matching works.

Exercise 3.1 Create your first Numerical question

  1. From the Question bank menu choose Questions.
  2. Change the 'Select a category' dropdown to 'Interactive'.
  3. From the 'Create a new question' chooser select 'Numerical'.
  4. Complete the authoring form with your own question.
  5. When you have completed the form scroll to the bottom and click on Save changes. Your question is now saved and you are returned to the Question Bank.

Preview your first question

Having written your first Numerical question the next step is to 'preview' it. That is to look at it as your students will look at it.

Exercise 3.2 Preview your Numerical question

  1. Preview your question by clicking on the magnifying glass icon alongside the question name in the question bank. Remember to set the Preview options as follows:
    1. Set How questions behave to 'Interactive with multiple tries'.
    2. Set Whether correct to 'Shown'
    3. Set Marks to 'Show mark and max'.
    4. Set Specific feedback to 'Shown'.
    5. Set General feedback to 'Shown'
    6. Set Right answer to 'Not shown'. In the example shown 'Right answer' would only give the first answer worth 100%. That is 'Right answer is:-7'. The other right answer of 4 would never be mentioned. As indicated earlier, do not rely on the automatically generated Right answer but write your own solution.
    7. Set Response history to 'Not shown'.
  2. Try two responses, one right and one wrong. And try giving the right answer at the first, second and third try, noting your mark each time. Again pay particular attention to how the specific feedback, hints and general feedback read when put together and note how the Status panel is updated.

Edit your first Numerical question

Again use the Edit feature to massage your words, but this time include some TeX too.

Exercise 3.3 Edit your Numerical question and include some TeX

  1. Edit your question by clicking on the Edit icon alongside the question name in the question bank..
  2. In the question text enter -b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac} \over 2a. If I tell you that pm means the plus-minus symbol you can probably work out what the rest will do. Users of OU Moodle can use the 'insert equation' icon which will let you preview how the TeX renders.
  3. When you have completed your editing scroll to the bottom and click on Save changes. Your question is now updated and you are returned to the Question Bank.

Now Preview your question. Did the TeX display as properly formatted mathematics? If you are using a new, local version installed on your computer it probably didn't. Here's how to turn the TeX 'filter' on.

  1. In your browser go to http://localhost/admin
  2. Expand the Plugins menu
  3. Open the Filters menu.
  4. Click on Manage filters
  5. Change the setting for TeX notation to 'On'.

Now return to your course by clicking on Home and then your course name. Return to the Question bank and the Interactive category. And preview your question again. And this time you should see a plus-minus sign, a square root and a fraction all nicely displayed.

3.1 The question form

3.3 Pros and Cons of Numerical questions