3.3 Pros and Cons of Numerical questions

Pros

  1. The Numerical question type is a constructed response question. That is the student has to construct their own answer and have sufficient confidence to submit it. This is good.
  2. There is little chance of guessing the right answer.
  3. With the TeX filter Moodle is able to display mathematics in the correct format.

Cons

  1. If no units are used then the question is straightforward to use.
  2. Students learn mathematics by practise so really you would like multiple versions of this question. With the Numerical question type this means making lots of copies and then altering the numerical values in each. How much better it would be if the question could use variables such that the computer could generate lots of different versions. We will come to questions that allow the use of variables later in this course.

3.2 Create, Preview, Edit

4 Writing your first Short answer question