[LON-CAPA-users] Need Advice on Putting Up a Sample Test

[Amos Lee]

Amos Lee wrote:
> Gerd Kortemeyer wrote:
>> 
>> On May 16, 2008, at 12:59 PM, Amos Lee wrote:
>>>
> <snip>
>>> 
>>> (2) Feedback to each question will be postponed to the end of the  
>>> test.
>> 
>> 
>> That's possible. How should the test be started and ended?
>> 
> Thanks for the fast reply, Gerd.
> 
> We would like the test to start when the user activates the timer.
> The test would end either by timing out or when the user exits.
> 
> 
>>>
>>> (3) At the end of the test, a summary displays the test score, and
>>>    which questions have been answered incorrectly.
>> 
>> We have in the past built a custom XML-pages to do this. The typical  
>> grades display is too complex for just one test for most users.
>> 
>> 
> It would be great if you can supply us with some sample XML page for
> us to assess the level of programming expertise that would be involved.
> 
> 
>>>
>>> Some questions:
>>>
>>> Q1. How hard would it be to achieve these features in a login
>>>     environment for:
>>>
>>>    (a) users who are already in the class list?
>> 
>> Relatively easy.
>> 
>> 
>>>
>>>     More specifically, is there a published interface for
>>>     making database calls to retrieve test score and test
>>>     summary from Lon Capa?
>> 
>> You can access them through XML and &EXT() calls. Basically, you  
>> write a dynamic web page with embedded database calls and publish it.  
>> We have done that in the past, but it's a custom-job: you need to  
>> know exactly what's in your test, and where, and then you can  
>> retrieve the values. Others on this list may have example XML files.
>> 
>> 
> It will be greatly appreciated if someone can send us some example
> XML files illustrating such database calls.
> 
> Does Lon Capa have a stable, published and committed interface for 
> making such database calls? Or is it just whatever is being offered by 
> and documented inside the relevant perl modules (such as grades.pm)? 
> How likely would it be for such calls to "break" later if, say, one of 
> the perl modules gets a major upgrade or overhaul down the road?
> 
> 
>>>
>>>    (b) users who are not in the class list via "on-the-fly" online
>>>        registration (Emailing username and initial password to the
>>>        registered user)?
>> 
>> The next version LON-CAPA is going to have a self-enrollment  
>> interface. The users would then actually become part of a class, and  
>> the functionality would be the same as a).
>> 
> Great news! When would it be available? If it would be available
> within, say, the next couple of months, it would be kind of wasteful
> for us to write our own utilities to register users on the fly and 
> enroll them into a class list.
> 
>>>
>>>
>>> Q2. How hard would it be to achieve these features in a NON-login
>>>    environment?
>> 
>> Currently, I don't see a way to do this. See http://www.lon-capa.org/ 
>> demo.html for a non-login environment. You can do the problems, but  
>> when you leave them and come back, the values are gone.
>> 
>>>
>>>    More specifically, other than "cookies", are there other  
>>> technologies
>>>    available to obtain feature (1) above? Even with "cookies", how
>>>    would you rate the programming difficulty for a programmer who  
>>> knows
>>>    the basics of perl and web page scripting?
>> 
>> One would need to build on the mechanism used for http://www.lon- 
>> capa.org/demo.html and make it less forgetful. I am currently not  
>> sure what's involved. My recommendation would be the self-enrollment  
>> mechanism ... would that do the trick?
>> 
> Yes, a self-enrollment/registration mechanism, if available, would 
> certainly simplify much of our tasks, I think; if is already taken
> care of, the remaining major thing for us to learn would be making 
> database calls to retrieve a grade for a particular user within an
> XML context.
> 
> Thanks,
> Amos
> 
> --
> Amos Lee
> Department of Math & Stats
> University of Saskatchewan
> 
> 
> 
Hello All,

Just wondering if anyone has any sample codes from their past projects 
that we can peruse?

Thanks,
Amos

--
Amos Lee
Department of Math & Stats
University of Saskatchewan