[LON-CAPA-users] export of capa to WebCT
Stuart Raeburn
lon-capa-users@mail.lon-capa.org
Thu, 05 May 2005 11:44:27 -0400
Hi Richard,
If your question is about exporting LON-CAPA problems to WebCT, then the
reply below is relevant to you. However, if you wish to export CAPA
problems, then you would first need to convert CAPA problems to LON-CAPA
for this to be relevant. (A conversion script to convert CAPA ->
LON-CAPA is available).
WebCT4 supports import of IMS packages, which can include problems in
addition to static content pages and course structure.
Development work for this summer's 2.0 release of LON-CAPA has included
extension of the existing IMS import utility to support import of WebCT4
content (including problems) into LON-CAPA. Transfer of problems in
the other direction (from LON-CAPA to WebCT4) has not received similar
attention. In addition, development work for the 1.3 release of
LON-CAPA included creation of an IMS export utility which could be used
to export all or parts of a LON-CAPA course to an IMS 1.1 content
package. At the time of release of v 1.3, the export utility was 90%
complete. It is hoped that additional time will be available for more
work on this utility in advance of the v 2.0 release.
The IMS content package standard does not itself provide definitive
specifications for import/export of assessment items (although a
separate standard - QTI - does address this). It appears that some
learning management system vendors (including WebCT) have addressed the
issue of export of assessment items by including QTI-like extensions in
their IMS content packages. So a possible approach to migrating
LON-CAPA problems to WebCT would be to convert LON-CAPA problems to
problems described using QTI-like extensions compatible with those
required for import into WebCT. Currently LON-CAPA's IMS export
utility saves course structure and static content in the IMS format, and
will include the raw problem XML for any LON-CAPA problem in the course
for which the individual completing the export is also the author of the
resource.
Export of LON-CAPA problems to WebCT is complicated by the fact that
WebCT supports a restricted set of problem types (Calculated, Matching,
Multiple Choice, String and Paragraph), compared with LON-CAPA. In
addition, LON-CAPA permits the creation of composite problems that may
include responses of a wide variety of types. So although it would be
possible to export simple types of LON-CAPA problems to WebCT, more
complex types (including those using condirional blocks etc.), or those
involving dynamic plots, click-on-image, randomly labelled images etc.
would not migrate from one system to the other. That said, the way I
would export simple types of LON-CAPA problems would be to extend the
IMS export utility to translate LON-CAPA problems to the QTI-like format
used by WebCT for export of its own question databases. This format may
differ between versions of WebCT - I am only familiar with WebCT 4 CE.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Stuart Raeburn
MSU LON-CAPA support/development
Richard Hoskins wrote:
> Is it possible and how would you export capa problems to WebCT?
>
> Richard Hoskins
>