[LON-CAPA-users] two different questions, randomly selected

[Guy Albertelli II]

Hi David,

> Suppose I have two homework problems which are quite different.  They 
> have a different number of responses required, and they have different 
> option choices.
> 
> How can I make Lon-Capa randomly display only ONE of them?

Well if they are separate .problems you can do

- create a folder in docs
- import both problems into the folder
- set 'Randomly Choose' to 1

If you really want these to be 1 problem.

<randomlist> is likely the way you would want to go as Ray said.

<randomlist> is really quite simple in execution, it randomzies the
order of the upper most blocks and then can show only a subset of
them.

For example. This:

<randomlist>
  <a> ... </a>
  <b> ... </b>
</randomlist>

Will randomize the order of just the blocks <a> and <b>, the contents
of <a> and <b> will retain their original order.

And

<randomlist show="1">
   <a> ... </a>
   <b> ... </b>
</randomlist>

Will effectively pick one of <a> .. </a> or <b> ... </b> to show and
hide the rest.


<randomlist> can only be used outside of a <*response>, it will fail
to work correctly inside of a <*response>



The 3rd option you mention <conceptgroup> is meant solely to group 2
or more <foil>s together, such only 1 of the included <foil>s is ever
picked to be shown. (The <foil>s are conectually the same. For
example: "a is greater than b" and "b is less than a" are the same
<foil> concetually, if you did:

<radiobuttonresponse>
  <foilgroup>
    <conceptgroup>
      <foil value="true"> a is greater than b </foil>
      <foil value="true"> b is less than a </foil>
    </conceptgroup>
  </foilgroup>
</radiobuttonresponse>

The some student will see the less than <foil> and some will see the
greater than <foil>


Perhaps with a more concrete example of the problem you have I can
suggest which way is best?

> <conceptgroup> and <randomlist> do not work as I expected them to, and 
> they are very poorly documented in the manual.  Is there are better 
> manual somewhere that foxuses on the XML programming?

The authoring manual is currently the best documentation for this.

-- 
guy@albertelli.com   0-7-2-1-27,137