As a matter of fact, it IS possible to use the exact student response as a string, even if it is invalid Maple syntax, by using an extra pair of quotes: expr:=convert("$RESPONSE",string). You need type=maple@, though.

The students have been taking and retaking the test since Monday, a total of approx. 550 so far by approx. 275 students. My first reaction of course was "change settings, update browser, update java, enable java" etc. but it was very persistent and today it became clear that there is a real problem here as some students who definitely know what they are doing cannot overcome the problem. I have a discussion board for student's reactions and those having REPORTED the problem count at least 40. The nature of the problem is very much as described by Pedro Duarte on MaplePrimes (http://www.mapleprimes.com/forum/sketch-questions-in-maple-ta-0) in his last posting in that thread: "Most clicks I don't see any node, just the 'false' message in the java console. From time to time i get a square shaped red node. Even more scarcely i get a blue line segment joining the nodes. It's all very unpredictable." (My students have not come beyond the dot-stage, I have no blue lines reports.) They DO get the graph and axes, it's just they cannot draw in it. I also asked students to mail me their settings using the BrowserHawk website, and the reports I've had so far are mostly IE6, some FF2, with Java 1.5.0_06 (some) or 9 (most) and Plugin_Ver 1.4+ (IE) or 1.5.0_06/9 (FF). Myself, I've tried FF1.5, FF2, IE6 and Opera with XP and FF1.0 and IE6 (I think, rarely use it) with Win2000 - no problems. I have to say though that I use the English versions of everything and my students most likely the Dutch versions. The one thing that can be of help may be the following report I got from 1 of the students: his JavaScript Console keeps reporting: "Fout: appl.getResponse is not a function" (Fout=Dutch for Error), followed by a link to scripts/main.js in the Maple server's codebase. As is to be expecred, his FF errorlog reports the line resp = new String(appl.getResponse()); from readAppletItems in main.js as the culprit. One student reported het did NOT get this error, but I'm not entirely certain he looked at the JavaSCRIPT console - I asked him for confirmation but did not get that yet. One more thing: Symbol Mode DOES work for the students, which further suggests it's not the Java. TA version is 2.51 running Maple10. Sample edu, stripped down: qu.1.1.mode=sketch@ qu.1.1.question=

Draw ${MMLline}.

@ qu.1.1.gridlines=10@ qu.1.1.axes=-5,5,-5,5@ qu.1.1.axes.labeled=true@ qu.1.1.axes.background=\@ImageBase @ qu.1.1.example=-5,${p},5,${q}@ qu.1.1.answer=check(( linear($1) ) && ( goes_through($1,-5,${p}) && goes_through($1,5,${q}) ))@ qu.1.1.algorithm=$p = range(-5,5); $q = range(-5,5); $line = maple("y=($p)+(($q)-($p))*(($v)+5)/10"); $MMLline = maple("printf(MathML:-ExportPresentation($line))"); @ They cannot draw in the following testapplet: Download 2846_testapplet.html
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