Standard Question Types:

Overview of Question Syntax:

• All Mallard filenames, names of question types, parameter names, etc. must be single words; in particular, no spaces are allowed. For this reason, an underscore ("_") is typically used to connect what would otherwise be two words (e.g. multiple_choice and partial_credit).
• All Mallard questions have the following syntax structure:
  <input type=...>
  
  <param ...>
  
  other input information
  
  </input>
  
  <answer>
  
  answer
  
  </answer>
  

  The input information is given between the <input> and </input> tags and consists of:

  • a required specification of the question type

    <input type=blank>

  • optional parameter specifications

    <param size=25 feedback=high display=pulldown>

    Parameters control how a question is displayed, what factors need to be checked in evaluation of the student response, assignment of credit, and feedback. It is not necessary to list all parameters, because each parameter has a default value.

  • input information required for question types such as multiple_choice, m_of_n_choice, match, true_false, and multiple_choice_group.

    <input type=multiple_choice>

    selection #1

    selection #2

    selection #3

    selection #4

    </input>

  The answer information is specified between the <answer> and </answer> tags. Examples include:

  • a correct textual answer (and allowable alternatives) for a Blank question (e.g., Illinois,IL,Ill)
  • the number corresponding to the correct response for a Multiple_choice question

  • a numerical value or expression for an Arith question (e.g., 2*3 or 6.0).

  • an expression involving previously defined random variables for an Arith question (e.g., <var name=x1> * <var name=x2>)

How Parameters Are Described:

The documentation for each question type includes a list and descriptions of allowable parameters. In order to understand this documentation, we explain here the terminology and notation of a few representative examples. Note that each parameter has a default value, which is used if the parameter value is not explicitly set to something else. Hence, if the author accidentally says "feedback=mdium" instead of "feedback=medium", the setting is not recognized and the feedback will revert to its default value of feedback=low.

feedback=[low, medium, high]

Listed in bold within the square brackets "[]" are the allowable values for the feedback parameter: feedback=low, feedback=medium, or feedback=high. The first value is always the default; i.e., if no other parameter value is specified, then the feedback is low for this question instance.

Example: <param feedback=high>

choice_text=[string] (Default is blank.) (Used only with display=pulldown

left_header1=[string] (Default is blank.)

The italic string means that the author supplies text in the form of a string some of characters that may include letters, numbers, spaces, punctuation, or other symbols. Even HTML tags can be used to specify what will appear as labeling text. This string could be a word, several words, or several characters. By default, no text is displayed.

Example: The following would display the message "You can do it!" at the top of a pulldown menu:

<param choice_text='You can do it!'>

Example: The following would display a boldface heading (Column A) centered above the left column in a match question:

<param left_header1="<center><b>Column A</b></center>">

size=[number] (Default is the browser default.)

The italic number means that the author supplies some number (and not the word "number"). The following would set the size of the input blank to 16.

Example: <param size=16>

non_shuffle_items=[list of integers] (Default is none.) (Used only with shuffle=yes.)

The italic list of integers means that the author specifies a list of integers. For instance, "2,4-6,8,9" and "2,4,5,6,8,9" and "2,4,5,6,8-9" correspond to all answer choices that are to remain in their given locations. By default, there are no non_shuffle_items and so all items are shuffled.

Example: The following would exclude answer choices 2,4,7,8,9 from being shuffled. They would remain in their given locations.

<param non_shuffle_items="2,4,7-9">

Feedback and Partial Credit Parameters

• feedback=low No information is given. Low feedback (the default) simply tells the student whether the the entire question has been answered correctly (totally right) or incorrectly (not totally right.) There is no partial information and no feedback message.

• feedback=high Total information is given. High feedback not only tells the student what parts were answered correctly, but also gives away the correct answers.

• feedback=medium Medium feedback lies between these two extremes: documentation needs to be consulted on a question-by-question basis. In some cases, there may be more than one medium feedback level, such as medium1 and medium2.

Partial credit parameters control the score a student receives on each question. The partial_credit parameter is a "gateway" to other partial credit parameters such as guessing_penalty, wrong_grammar_penalty, and out_of_order_penalty. If partial_credit=no, then no partial credit is given: the question will get full credit (100 points) or no credit (0 points). If partial_credit=yes, then different parts of questions are given equal weight; e.g., if there are N number of parts, then each part is worth 100/N.

If partial_credit=yes, then other partial credit parameters designate how much credit should be deducted for various types of errors. Wrong_grammar_penalty will deduct for case, spacing, or punctuation errors if grammar is being checked (i.e., if case, spacing, or punc = check). The out_of_order penalty will deduct for answers supplied in the wrong order if ordering is being checked (i.e., if ordered=yes). The guessing_penalty allows an author to deduct points for incorrect (as opposed to blank) responses. (Guessing_penalty can be used only with questions that have multiple responses, because no question can result in an overall negative score.)

The partial_credit and feedback parameters are completely independent. Although perhaps illogical, an author could give partial credit and yet give absolutely no feedback to hint at which items the student got right or wrong. For example, if an author wants only the answer 'Washington' to be accepted, he would set partial_credit=yes and case=check. This means that if a student answered 'washington', she would receive only partial credit (the default partial credit is 50%). If the author selected low feedback, the student would only see that her answer is incorrect (highlighted in red) but that her raw score is 50%. This could seem contradictory. Hence, if an author wishes to allow partial credit, it is more logical to use medium or high level feedback.