Hi Ian,

In Maple T.A. 5.0 questions are now stored in the database rather than in question bank files. This makes it easier to copy questions between groups and to share questions with colleauges accessing the same instance of Maple T.A. The current version does not support batch deletion of questions however, but this is on our radar, going forward.

In the 5.0 model, questions are identified internally by their id in the database, rather than by question name. This is why you get duplicate questions on subsequent imports. I agree it would be very useful to have the option of overwiting questions, and we are considering how best to implement that functionality in the curernt model.

In the meantime, if you want for questions in one class to match those in another, one approach would be to set up a parent class for the question authoring, then add child classes for the actual courses.

Sincerely,

Carl

Hello,

Rather than using the Fill-in-the-Blanks quetsion type, I would recommend that you use the newer "Question Designer" type to author questions with multiple response areas. In this question type, on the screen where you enter the question text, look for the checkmark button that lets you insert a blank. After you click it, you can choose "List" as the question type, then select "Ignore case text match" to ignore case. Use the "Item" and "Weight" columns to add any number of possible answers along with the credit to award for each one. And it is perfectly acceptable to give full weight to more than one item in your list.

On the other hand, you want to let students enter a full sentence and then grade it for key words, then you should use the 'Key Words' question type. Currently, key-words question cannot be authored within Maple T.A.'s question editor. Instead, you would create a question script file in a text editor, and then import it into your Maple T.A. class.

For example, try pasting the following lines into a text editor, then save the file on your computer. Notice how key words are identified by enclosing them in parentheses:

qu.1.topic=Key Words Question Example Script@

qu.1.1.mode=Key Words@

qu.1.1.name=<b>Translation into French - four houses</b>@

qu.1.1.question=<b>Translate into French:</b>

<p>"four houses".</p>

@

qu.1.1.answer=The French phrase for "four houses" is "(quatre) (maisons)"@

Next, in your Maple T.A. class, select the "Import Question Bank" action to import your .qu file.

Maple T.A. checks the text of the student response for the key words you identified. It ignores other text, extra white space, and capitalization. Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Carl Hickman

Hello,

Assuming you are using Maple T.A. 5.0 and only deleted the group itself, you should find your questions in the Question Repository under "Questions not in groups". You can put the questions back into a group by placing a checkmark next to each question, then clicking the "Add To Groups" button at the top, and then selecting a group and clicking "Submit".

Sincerely,

Carl Hickman

Hello,

As the full question statement is generated when you navigate to the question, it is not possible to show the response to first part in the statement of second part. However, if you use the Fill-in-the-Blanks question type, the answer to second part can be defined in terms of response to first part. The Blanks question type supports text, menu, and formula grading (but not Maple grading). For example:

qu.1.topic=Blanks Chaining@

qu.1.1.mode=Blanks@
qu.1.1.id=blanksEx@
qu.1.1.name=Blanks Chaining@
qu.1.1.comment=@
qu.1.1.editing=useHTML@
qu.1.1.solution=@
qu.1.1.algorithm=$n=range(2,5);
$fcn=mathml(x^$n);@
qu.1.1.question=1. Compute the antiderivative of $fcn (omit constant term):  <1> <br> <br> 
2. Differentiate your answer to part 1:  <2> @
qu.1.1.blank.1=${maple("integrate(x^$n%2cx)")}@
qu.1.1.blank.2=${maple("diff($response.blanksEx.1%2cx)")}@
qu.1.1.grader.1=formula@
qu.1.1.grader.2=formula@
qu.1.1.extra=@
qu.1.1.format.input=text@

Note that when setting the answers to this question type, any commas (like in diff(... , x)) should be encoded with %2c hex.

Going forward, we would like to make this available to Inline and Multipart questions as well.

Sincerely,

Carl Hickman

Hello,

Yes, it is possible to disallow certain Maple commands in the answer by having Maple search the reponse string for those commands.

For example, suppose you were asking for a derivative and wanted to disallow use of Maple's diff command. Then you could define the grading routine as follows:

  evalb(simplify($ANSWER-$RESPONSE)=0) and evalb(0=StringTools[Search]("diff","$RESPONSE"));

Carl

Hi,

Currently this is not possible in Maple T.A., but is worth exploring, going forward.

Sincerely,

Carl

Hello Andrew,

Assuming you're using Maple T.A. 2.51 or higher, you should be able to enter the following (for example) into the algorithm of your question:

$seed=range(10^6);
$p=plotmaple("
randomize($seed):
G := networks[random](8, 10):
networks[draw](G)
");

To display the graph in the question text, just reference the variable $p.

Note that the networks package has been deprecated in favour of the newer GraphTheory package. If your Maple T.A. application points to version 11 or higher of Maple, you should be able to define the algorithm as follows:

$seed=range(10^6);
$p=plotmaple("
randomize($seed):
G := GraphTheory[RandomGraphs][RandomGraph](8, 10):
GraphTheory[DrawGraph](G)
");

Hope this helps.

Carl

Dear Toby,

This can happen if the assignment was left open by an administrator who is not the instructor of the class. This user would not show up in the Gradebook which currently lets you search by student, proctor, or instructor, but not by administrator.

Please have the administrator go into the Class Homepage and resume the assignment session by clicking on the assignment name (like a student would). When the assignment opens, have the user click on "Grade". That should unlock the assignment.

If you have many administrators and are not sure who might have left the assignment open, let me know.

Thanks,

Carl

Dear Harry,

Maple T.A.'s built-in functions, including decimal(n, x), are documented in the its online help system.

On your specific question, decimal(2,-0.625) returns -0.62 while decimal(2, 0.625) returns 0.63. Similarly, decimal(1, -0.65) = -0.6 while decimal(1, 0.65) = 0.7. What is common to all these cases is that Maple T.A. rounded up whenever the number lay right in the middle.

Thank you,

Carl Hickman

Hi there,

Are you an instructor or a student? Does your institution have Maple T.A. already? Please let me know so that we can better assist you.

Thank you,

Carl

Hi Ian,

Currently it is not possible to do what you are asking within a given assignment. You could create a copy of the assignment and set it up so that students can take the second assignment only if they've already made an attempt at the first assignment, for example.

Carl

In the grading code for a Maple syntax question, it is possible to capture the student response as a string rather than an expression, by referencing "$RESPONSE" rather than $RESPONSE. Theoretically, you could use Maple's StringTools package to write a procedure that takes a formula string and inerts a * symbol whererever it is implied. You could then have Maple parse the new string as an expression and continue from there.

Such a routine may involve more than a few lines of code and I would recommend storing it in a Maple library which could then be uploaded to your class and linked to your Maple syntax question(s), so that you could call the routine without having to write out the code each time. Please note that there is currently no LaTeX macro for specifying a library path for grading; you could either use the Question Bank Editor or edit the .qu text file for that purpose.

Dear George,

I would recommend approach #3, the Maple syntax question. The obvious drawbacks are that implicit multiplication (2x as opposed to 2*x) is not accepted and students cannot use the Equation Editor. Having said that, a Maple syntax question passes student response straight to Maple, unaltered, and Maple understands equations. This question type also lets you customize the grading mechanism.

For instance, the following routine will grade student response against correct answer by first bringing everything over to one side of each equation and then checking whether the resulting expressions are equal up to a constant multiple:

gradeAlgebraicEqn := proc(resp,ans) 
   local a,b,f,g,v:
   f := expand(lhs(ans)-rhs(ans)):
   v := sort([op(indets(f))]):
   a := lcoeff(collect( f, v, `distributed` ), v):
   g := expand(lhs(resp)-rhs(resp)):
   b := lcoeff(collect( g, v, `distributed` ), v):
   evalb(a*b<>0 and simplify(a*g-b*f)=0):
end proc:

gradeAlgebraicEqn($RESPONSE,$ANSWER);

Thank you,

Carl Hickman, Maplesoft

Dear sir,

Our developers say that this should be possible. Links to your assignments should look like the following: 

  http://<server:port>/modules/test.Test?className=<classname>&testName=<testname>

The classname and testname may need to be escaped to work properly.

Thank you,

Carl Hickman, Maplesoft
 

Hello,

Maple T.A.'s plot driver cannot render all the finer details of a worksheet plot. However, Maple T.A. 4.0 will give you the option of hooking into MapleNet, which supports much finer plot control, including the ability to label axes with symbols. Please note that MapleNet is a separate product that would need to be installed before it can be accessed by Maple T.A.

Carl Hickman
Maplesoft