<div dir="ltr"><div><div>I've been (very slowly) working on such a thing off and on for a while. It's nowhere ready for anything but a heavy coding session. I've looked at pdfexam (rather nice but relies on php which I don't like) and really not seen anything that's usable and open.<br><br></div>I lost the link that has the common core grade/subject breakdown by code. I was planning to use that as a way to categorize the test questions (Teacher Sue wants 3rd grade earth science question set while teacher Joe wants 9th grade literature, etc). So far I have a raw schema for a few topics and even that's not usable yet. I _really_ want to displace that reader tool the schools all got suckered into - it only uses the books they sell, the questions are crap and schools can't add their own questions.<br><br></div><div>a giant, 'no possible way any student can memorize all the questions and answers' test bank that's readily available for all teachers is needed.<br></div><div><br></div><sigh> So many ideas and so little time </sigh><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 5:19 PM, Tom Freeman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tfreeman@intel.digichem.net" target="_blank">tfreeman@intel.digichem.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
I've been futzing around for the past two weeks or so looking for something that can maintain a test bank data base, generate and format at least semiprofessionally random tests and quizzes, figure point values with minimal hints, that an adjunct can afford to use and take to the next school (I know adjuncts working 4 different schools at the same time - lets not get close to licensing issues!) By vast desire, fully open source even if they expect a minimal support fee.<br>
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I've somewhat looked at "Respondus" (sp?), which appears to do everything needed. And lisenced up the wazoo best I can figure (I can cheat on one school I'm associated with but...) For the equivelent of 6 contact hours of pay, there is a private lisence under Windows <<shudder>><br>
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Lets not talk about vendor supplied test generators or their free to use while you use our book test bank. The test questions (at least for chemistry) suck at near black hole intensities. There are nice things to say about multiple guess - but I don't believe in lying to say them. In fact, I hate them.<br>
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(IF you wonder about US education, take a look at how dependent the schools are on the textbook vendors for a possible large negative influence. IMHO of course, and IANAL etc etc. But I'd love to see a physicist/chemist/biologist apply the standards of their fields to investigating the publishers.)<br>
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Is there such a beast available (Exam generator, open source, good formating at least - I can contribute test questions)? I'm suspecting not, so do any of the list members associated with academia know of a resource who might fall in love with creating such a thing? Windows is probably a needed platform, but if it ain't Linux I for one will try to look further.<br>
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I've had two supervisors tell me I'm writing pretty decent tests, but they take too long to write in batches of 3-4 (one per section, one for outside testing, and a space just in case). I need a better way, and I don't think I'm alone in this.<br>
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Thanks as always for a stimulating list, and the use of your bandwidth.<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br><i><i><i><i><br></i></i></i></i>Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.<br>
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain<br><i><i><i><i><br><a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><br></i></i></i></i></div>
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