WIRIS quizzes 2 in your assessment system: technical view

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1 WIRIS quizzes 2 in your assessment system: technical view Document Release: may, Maths for More Summary This document is the starting point to understand how to use the WIRIS quizzes to enhance the assessment in mathematics and science. It explains what features are enhanced and provides an overview of technical information. Table of contents WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system... 2 Enhancing features... 2 Do we need to use all features?... 3 Architecture... 4 Underlying WIRIS technologies... 5 At which places does the integration happen?... 6 Level 1. Short answer question with equality criteria... 6 Level 2. Short answer question with WIRIS quizzes studio... 7 Level 3. Random questions... 7 WIRIS quizzes studio... 9

2 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v2.3 2 WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system WIRIS quizzes is a set of components that work together to enhance the computer-based assessment in mathematics and science. It offers new unique possibilities and fills the gap between the current question systems and the specific needs of the mathematical and science community. WIRIS quizzes is powered by some WIRIS technologies which are easily integrable in any assessment system with a minimal development investment. Let us observe that an assessment system is usually as part of a virtual learning environment (VLE). Formulas Random questions WIRIS quizzes Students input of formulas Grading criteria Students input syntax check WIRIS quizzes enhancing features Enhancing features 1. Formula edition at authoring time and formula visualization at presentation time. 2. WYSIWYG input of formulas in the student answers of open question. Formulas are input in the habitual mathematical notation. Country locales. 3. Syntax validation in student answers. Real time syntax validation if needed. 4. Grading the answers considering mathematical equivalences and criteria. Use WIRIS quizzes studio to choose your assertions for grading. 5. Generating random questions via an algorism and advanced grading (when it is not sufficient to compare the student answer with the correct answer).

3 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v2.3 3 Do we need to use all features? No. You can integrate only the features that you need. For example, the following scenarios with increased complexity are possible: Level 1. For short questions types, use the validation Web service to validate the correct answer with the answer of the student. The validation criteria will be always the mathematical equality (for example, 2+x is equal to x+2). You might or might not allow your student to input the answers using the WIRIS editor (which always includes the input syntax check). Level 2. For short answer question types, you can integrate our rich assertion builder called WIRIS quizzes studio to allow your authors to choose the correctness grading criteria. For example, 2 might be a wrong 4 answer if the author requested a simplified response. Thus, simplified is one of the possible criteria that can be chosen with the WIRIS studio. Level 3. Use the generation of random questions. You can add this feature to any question type (multiplechoice, true/false, matching, essay, etc.) in addition to the short answer question type. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Grading with equality assertion Input formulas with WIRIS editor Choose the evaluation criteria with WIRIS quizzes studio Random questions

4 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v2.3 4 Architecture WIRIS quizzes Javascript HTML Assessement system PHP, Java,.NET,... Let us call the assessment system to the part of your own platform where WIRIS quizzes has to be integrated. WIRIS quizzes can be integrated in any technology due the usage of for the browser and for the server. WIRIS quizzes does not requires any plugin installed in the browser because is based on and HTML in a way that all modern browsers accept. The underlying WIRIS server components are software as a service (SaaS). Optionally, you can install all the WIRIS server components in your own server. In order to help the integration of our tools we offer a server-side library in different technologies (Java, PHP,.NET) with the solely purpose to facilitate the usage the services.

5 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v2.3 5 Underlying WIRIS technologies WIIRIS quizzes relies on the following WIRIS technologies 1. WIRIS editor. Provides the editor and the formula image web service. 2. WIRIS quizzes. Interface to access the WIRIS CAS and grammar engine. Available as SOAP & REST Web service protocols: a. WIRIS cas. It is a computer algebra system with graphical and interactive capabilities. Used to provide mathematical equivalence and in the generation of random questions via an algorithm. b. Grammar engine. Client and server scope. In the client site, the grammar engine is responsible to real time validation and highlight of the incorrect syntax. In the server, the MathML is translated into the WIRIS cas specific language. The adoption of the WIRIS quizzes solution involves using only some or all components to achieve only one or all the enhancing features. Assessment system (server) WIRIS Quizzes Web Services Grammar engine WIRIS cas WIRIS Editor: image web service Assessment system (client) WIRIS Editor: editor WYSIWYG edition Formula visualization

6 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v2.3 6 At which places does the integration happen? The integration of the WIRIS quizzes happens in different places depending on the chosen level. For example, for level 1 and when the editor is not used, the only integration point will be the calls to our WIRIS quizzes. The interaction between WIRIS quizzes and the assessment system might take place in three ways: means that a script provided by WIRIS quizzes has to be included in the HTML pages. Additional HTML tags should also be needed to be included in the same pages. Then, the of WIRIS quizzes traverse the entire page in search of meaningful content and transform it accordingly. For example, MathML formulas are turn into images; <input> tags with the proper class are transformed into the WIRIS editor, etc. The benefit that the integration takes part in the browser side is that it does not depend on the server technology and saves server infrastructure. Server side scripting, optionally, the usage of the can be replaced by running scripts in the server. We provide a library with different technologies (Java, PHP or.net) to do that. Note that the WIRIS editor cannot be replaced by server side scripting. means that the assessment system calls provided by WIRIS quizzes. These services might be remote or local to the assessment system server depending on whether the SaaS model is chosen. Level 1. Short answer question with equality criteria The easiest way to enhance an assessment system with WIRIS quizzes is to improve the short answer questions or fill the blanks question type. This is a question type where the student should input the response as a number or formula and it is possible to automatically score the response (no human intervention is needed). In the scenario 1, you only want to check whether two values are mathematical equal. In this case you only need to call the WIRIS quizzes. Delivery WIRIS editor () Validation Optionally, you might embed the WIRIS editor to allow the student to input the answer.

7 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v2.3 7 Level 2. Short answer question with WIRIS quizzes studio The improvement allows: 1. Editing and displaying formulas easily. 2. The student can input the answers with the WIRIS editor. Syntax checking is done at real time. 3. The WIRIS quizzes will evaluate the student answer with the correct answer using the mathematical equivalence chosen by the author in the WIRIS quizzes studio. 4. Some additional feedback is provided by WIRIS quizzes which might optionally be displayed to the student. For short answer questions, a single direct call to the WIRIS quizzes from the assessment system is needed during the validation phase. The remaining integration is done at level in the browser. Authoring and delivery Validation Feedback Level 3. Random questions The full potential of WIRIS quizzes is achieved with the generation of random questions. By random questions we mean that a given text question can be parameterized with many gaps filled by random numbers or formulas. It is important to note that the random values are not necessarily numbers but more common formulas like fractions, polynomials, elementary expressions, matrices, etc. For random questions, WIRIS quizzes is involved in the different steps of the live-cycle of a question in an alternation of inclusions and invocations. Authoring Instantiation Delivery Validation Feedback

8 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v Authoring New options should appear in the authoring form to input how to generate the random question.. This new options are handled automatically by the script of quizzes: the assessment system only needs to add a new <input> tag with a given class. 2. Instantiation Instantiation is when an instance of the question is created in the server side because a student wants to do a test. The assessment system calls the WIRIS quizzes web services to generate random formulas. In return, WIRIS quizzes responses a value that should be stored within the instance of the question because this value should also be included in the other steps: visualization, validation and feedback.. During this step, a single Web service invocation to WIRIS quizzes is needed. 3. Visualization. The value returned by WIRIS quizzes is used to display the random values.. The value is put in the HTML of the question and the script of WIRIS quizzes will replace the random questions directly on the browser. 4. Validation Remember that the correct answer might be also random. Web service. The value generated during instantiation by WIRIS quizzes is sent to the validation service to complete the other parameters. 5. Feedback We might want to display the random values also in the feedback.. The replacement of the random values is done by in the same way as in visualization.

9 2016, Maths for More WIRIS quizzes in your assessment system. v2.3 9 WIRIS quizzes studio WIRIS quizzes studio is the visual editor for the enhanced features of a question. WIRIS quizzes studio is a tool used by the authors of a question. Using WIRIS editor to input the correct answer Using WIRIS quizzes studio to input the comparison criteria