The recent Maple 2023 release comes with a multitude of new features, including a new Canvas Scripting Gallery full of templates for creating interactive Maple Learn documents.

The Maple Learn Scripting Gallery can be accessed through Maple, by searching “BuildInteractiveContent Maple2023” in the search bar at the top of the application and clicking on the only result that appears. This will bring you to the help page titled “Build and Share Interactive Content”, which can also be found by searching “scripting gallery” in the search bar of a Maple help page window. The link to the Maple Learn Scripting Gallery is found under the “Canvas Scripting” section on this help page and clicking on it will open a Maple workbook full of examples and templates for you to explore.

The interactive content in the Scripting Gallery is organized into five main categories – Graphing, Visualization, Quiz, Add-ons and Options, and Applications Optimized for Maple Learn – each with its own sub-categories, templates, and examples.

One of the example scripts that I find particularly interesting is the “Normal Distribution” script, under the Visualizations category.

All of the code for each of the examples and templates in the gallery is provided, so we can see exactly how the Normal Distribution script creates a Maple Learn canvas. It displays a list of grades, a plot for the grade distribution to later appear on, math groups for the data’s mean and variance, and finally a “Calculate” button that runs a function called UpdateStats.

The initial grades loaded into the document result in the below plot, created using Maple’s DensityPlot and Histogram functions, from the Statistics package. 

The UpdateStats function takes the data provided in the list of grades and uses a helper function, getDist, to generate the new plot to display the data, the distribution, the mean, and the variance. Then, the function uses a Script object to update the Maple Learn canvas with the new plot and information.

The rest of the code is contained in the getDist function, which uses a variety of functions from Maple’s Statistics package. The Normal Distribution script takes advantage of Maple’s ability to easily calculate mean and variance for data sets, and to use that information to create different types of random variable distributions.

Using the “Interactive Visualization” template, provided in the gallery, many more interactive documents can be created, like this Polyhedra Visualization and this Damped Harmonic Oscillator – both from the Scripted Gallery or like my own Linear Regression: Method of Least Squares document.

Another new feature of Maple 2023 is the Quiz Builder, also featured in the Scripting Gallery. Quizzes created using Quiz Builder can be displayed in Maple or launched as Maple Learn quizzes, and the process for creating such a quiz is short.

The QuizBuilder template also provides access to many structured examples, available from a dropdown list:

As an example, check out this Maple Learn quiz on Expected Value: Continuous Practice. Here is what the quiz looks like when generated in Maple:

This quiz, in particular, is “Fill-in the blank” style, but Maple users can also choose “Multiple Choice”, “True/False”, “Multiple Select”, or “Multi-Line Feedback”. It also makes use of all of the featured code regions from the template, providing functionality for checking inputted answers, generating more questions, showing comprehensive solutions, and providing a hint at the press of a button.

Check out the Maple Learn Scripting Gallery for yourself and see what kinds of interactive content you can make for Maple and Maple Learn!