<p dir="ltr">The two big issues are data entry for populating the database and the formatting of the questions; short answer, multiple choice, etc.<br>
For both, it's a UI problem. Solvable but tricky.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If I had a clone I would be able to generate new ideas twice as fast!</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sep 5, 2014 11:47 PM, "Tom Freeman" <<a href="mailto:tfreeman@intel.digichem.net">tfreeman@intel.digichem.net</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
For what its worth - some of those ideas lacking sufficient time sound lovely. Would you be interested in a little financial aid to clone yourself??<br>
<br>
On the way home from dropping off the girl friend the blue mush in the skull wondered off by itself. Dangerous that. Cutting to the chase - would it be a big nightmare to put something together for 1 semester courses using perhaps the layout engine of LibreOffice, a modest database engine, and scripting glue. Enter each question with the chapter & section numbers to use for selection at first - and randomly hit appropriate questions until the test is long enough. Randomize the order, add good looking headers and footers, and publish to any of a number of appropriate media/formats.<br>
<br>
I know I'm missing an entire Omaha Beach landing zone worth of mines here, but is this vaguely feasable?<br>
<br>
Of course the problem at the moment is finding somebody who _needs_ to scratch this particular itch for those of us who seem to lack the ability (me).<br>
<br>
On Fri, 5 Sep 2014, Jim Kinney wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I've been (very slowly) working on such a thing off and on for a while.<br>
It's nowhere ready for anything but a heavy coding session. I've looked at<br>
pdfexam (rather nice but relies on php which I don't like) and really not<br>
seen anything that's usable and open.<br>
<br>
I lost the link that has the common core grade/subject breakdown by code. I<br>
was planning to use that as a way to categorize the test questions (Teacher<br>
Sue wants 3rd grade earth science question set while teacher Joe wants 9th<br>
grade literature, etc). So far I have a raw schema for a few topics and<br>
even that's not usable yet. I _really_ want to displace that reader tool<br>
the schools all got suckered into - it only uses the books they sell, the<br>
questions are crap and schools can't add their own questions.<br>
<br>
a giant, 'no possible way any student can memorize all the questions and<br>
answers' test bank that's readily available for all teachers is needed.<br>
<br>
<sigh> So many ideas and so little time </sigh><br>
<br>
<br>
On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 5:19 PM, Tom Freeman <<a href="mailto:tfreeman@intel.digichem.net" target="_blank">tfreeman@intel.digichem.net</a>><br>
wrote:<br>
<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<br>
something that can maintain a test bank data base, generate and format at<br>
least semiprofessionally random tests and quizzes, figure point values with<br>
minimal hints, that an adjunct can afford to use and take to the next<br>
school (I know adjuncts working 4 different schools at the same time - lets<br>
not get close to licensing issues!) By vast desire, fully open source even<br>
if they expect a minimal support fee.<br>
<br>
I've somewhat looked at "Respondus" (sp?), which appears to do everything<br>
needed. And lisenced up the wazoo best I can figure (I can cheat on one<br>
school I'm associated with but...) For the equivelent of 6 contact hours of<br>
pay, there is a private lisence under Windows <<shudder>><br>
<br>
Lets not talk about vendor supplied test generators or their free to use<br>
while you use our book test bank. The test questions (at least for<br>
chemistry) suck at near black hole intensities. There are nice things to<br>
say about multiple guess - but I don't believe in lying to say them. In<br>
fact, I hate them.<br>
<br>
(IF you wonder about US education, take a look at how dependent the<br>
schools are on the textbook vendors for a possible large negative<br>
influence. IMHO of course, and IANAL etc etc. But I'd love to see a<br>
physicist/chemist/biologist apply the standards of their fields to<br>
investigating the publishers.)<br>
<br>
Is there such a beast available (Exam generator, open source, good<br>
formating at least - I can contribute test questions)? I'm suspecting not,<br>
so do any of the list members associated with academia know of a resource<br>
who might fall in love with creating such a thing? Windows is probably a<br>
needed platform, but if it ain't Linux I for one will try to look further.<br>
<br>
I've had two supervisors tell me I'm writing pretty decent tests, but they<br>
take too long to write in batches of 3-4 (one per section, one for outside<br>
testing, and a space just in case). I need a better way, and I don't think<br>
I'm alone in this.<br>
<br>
Thanks as always for a stimulating list, and the use of your bandwidth.<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
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