The student enters a mathematical formula, which can be either in calculator syntax or using a WYSIWYG editor and the grader determines whether the formula is mathematically equivalent to the correct answer. The standard constants and functions of a scientific calculator are available, although these can optionally be disabled (e.g., so as to support questions such as "What is sin(pi/2)?"). A range of other question types extended this capability to other mathematical settings. (See this paper for details of the grading algorithm.)
The student's response is graded on whether it is mathematically equivalent to the correct answer. However, in this case, the student response may differ from the given answer by a constant, in order to allow for constants of intgration of calculus.
The student enters a mathematical equation and their response is graded on whther it is mathematically equivalent to the desired equation. Equivalent equations are accepted, so, for example, both "x^2 + y^2 =1" and "y^2 = 1 - x^2" would be accepted as the equation of a circle.
Grades entries consisting of tuples of numbers or formulas such as "(-1, 3)" or "(3, 7, 3z)". Grading is done based on the mathematical equivalence of the terms.
Grades an unordered list of numbers or formulas based on mathematical equivalence.
Presents the student with a question and a rectangular grid of entry fields. The student can provide numbers or formulas as the matrix entries and the response is graded on mathematical equivalence to the correct answer.
The question author is free to write any Maple expression they want, which will be evaluated with the student response entered in a named variable. The expression returns true or false to indicated the grading, and the full range of symbolic and numeric compoutuion of the Maple kernel is available.
The student enters a numeric answer with units. Grading takes into account equivalences between units (e.g., 100cm is the same as 0.1m). The response can be required to have a specified number of significant digits, and to be exact, or else within a mergin of error (absolute or percentage). The range of units avaialble can also be customized.
Like the Numeric question, grading btakes into account equivalences of units (e.g., 100cm is the same as 0.1m). However in this question type the responses can be numeric expressions (e.g., 5.25 * 10^4 L) or formulas (e.g., (1/2) m v^2 J).
Grades simply on numerical equality, without units or tolerance. Numbers can be entered in decimal form or scientific notation.
The student picks one choice from a list of possible responses. Optionally, the order of the responses may be randomly permuted.
The student selects one or more checkboxes for the correct response(s). Partial credit is assigned if some, but not all, of the correct responses have been selected. Optionally, the order of the responses may be randomly permuted.
The student is given a choice to mark the question statement as true or false.
The student selects the correct region on an image, for example picking out the correct state fron a map of the USA.
The student uses the mouse to sketh out a curve on the displayed set of axes. The resulting student response is graded by whether it passes a series of qualitiative criteria (e.g. "increasing", "comcave down") and quantitative criteria (e.g. passes through, above or below a specified point).
The student builds up an expression in a WYSIWYG editor using subscripts, superscripts, and a customizable library of symbold. The primary use case was to enable students to construct chemical formulas and balanced chemical reaction equations.
The student is shown an interactive spreadsheet (rendered in the page by a Java applet) with some cells populated withg data and lothers left empty. The student edits the spreadsheet, using text, formulas, and the usual spreadsheet tools, and their response is graded on whether the resulting computed sheet holds the correct values.
The question loads a Java applet created by the question author, and this has full control of the student UI and the grading logic.
The question loads a Flash movie created by the question author, and this has full control of the student UI and the grading logic.
The student sees a numbered list of terms and their corresponding definitions (in randomized order) below. Using a drop-down the student matches each term with the correctly-numbered definition.
The student is shown a "fill in the blank" question consisting of text with certain portions replaced by either a drop-down menu of choices or a free-response text box. Grading of the free-response parts can be either exact text match, or else mathematical equivalence.
The grader looks for an exact or close-to-exact match between the student's response and the correct answer text. Extra whitespace and non-alphanumeric characters are ignored and the comparison is case-insensitive.
The student is prompted to enter completely free-form text as their response. The author enters the desired answer with certain key words or phrases marked out (by enclosing them in parentheses), and the grade is determined by counting which of these key words or phrases appear in the student's response. All other text is ignored.
The student enters a completely free-form textual response, which is assigned a grade later by the instructor.
This displays a list of questions of any type, arranged as separate parts of a single multipart question. As well as the component parts, a block of introductory text can be included, and the labelling for the parts can be customized (lower alpha, upper case alpha, numeric, etc). In addition, multipart questions can themselves be parts in other multipart questions, so hierarchies of parts can be built up.
The Inline question type is a blend of the Multipart and the Blanks questions. The student sees a block of text (with rich text formatting), into which various response widgets have been inserted. Unlick the Blanks type, which supports only drop-dpwn list and text entry, this question type supports widgets for multiple choice, multiple selection, formula, etc. Thus, in principle any kind of mutipart question can be coded in this question type, with complete flexibility in formatting.
