[QTI] ListInteraction and Searching questions

[William Billingsley]

Steve Lay kindly pointed me in the direction of this discussion.

There's a related kind of question I developed a couple of years ago,  
a "searching question" (sometimes called a "massively multiple choice  
question"), that would perhaps be worth discussing in the same  
context, as searching questions and Michael's list-interactions are  
similar in the kind of information they contain.

In searching questions, the user is given a search box.  They type a  
query, and any of the answer options that match the query are returned  
as a pick-list to choose from.  An example question is online at http://www.theintelligentbook.com:9080/bla.mmcq?questionId=2bi

With a searching question, browsing is still difficult even if there  
are only a handful of answers, because the user must first enter a  
matching search query.  And, as matching is not strictly alphabetical  
as it is in list-interaction, a search for "Winston Churchill" would  
find "Sir Winston Churchill".  We found there are also some unexpected  
uses.  If a question is set one year as a short answer question, the  
submitted answers, together with their marks and feedback, can be  
loaded as a searching question the following year.  This effectively  
restages the question as "here are some answers to the question,  
consider which you think are good answers".

The question format is a simple text file, but could be represented in  
XML.  The header of the file contains various options: for example,  
whether to include synonyms, whether to require a minimum number of  
non-stop-list words in the query, whether the search should be "match  
any" or "match all" keywords, a limit to the number of queries, the  
number of answers required, and whether to apply an adjustment to the  
mark based on how many searches were attempted.

In this case, there are two synonym mechanisms.  The first is a system- 
wide synonym mechanism based on the publically available wordnet  
database.   The second is acheived by appending additional keywords to  
the index string that might not appear in the answer but are  
considered synonymous terms for that answer.

The body of the file then contains the prompt, followed by answer  
options.  The answer options contain the marks awarded, the text of  
the option, any additional keywords to consider for the option (ie,  
custom synonyms), and the feedback to give for that option.

An example question file is attached (although not all the options  
appear in the header, as many are defaulted)

The 2007 paper  -- Billingsley & Robinson, "Searching Questions,  
Informal Modelling, and Massively Multiple Choice", International  
Conference of the Association for Learning Technology 2007 -- contains  
the first published details; as does my section 10.3 of my PhD thesis  
obtainable here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL- 
TR-719.html ).

best regards,
William Billingsley
Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET),
University of Cambridge

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id:2bi
question:The diagram shows the human heart.<br /><img src="heart.jpg" /><br/>There are two valves marked on the diagram; what is the job of these valves?
next:bla.mmcq?questionId=2bii
searchKeywords:yes
searchAnswers:yes
answer:0|They shut to stop blood from entering that section of the heart.|chamber atrium atria ventricle|<p class="feedback">Blood does enter that section of the heart, but only from one direction</p>
answer:0|One carries oxygenated blood away from heart and the other carries deoxygenated blood back to heart.||<p class="feedback">The arteries carry the blood.  What do the valves do?</p>
answer:0|They control what can enter and leave the heart.|inlet outlet|<p class="feedback">You need to be more specific</p>
answer:0|To let in oxygen and blood, and then give it out.|inlet outlet air|<p class="feedback">You need to be more specific</p>
answer:0|One lets the air from the lungs enter the heart and it is pumped out through the other.|inlet outlet oxygen|<p class="feedback">Air in the heart?</p>
answer:0|Arteries pump oxygented blood around the body the veins bring in deoxygented blood and pumps them to the body.|air|<p class="feedback">But what do the valves do?</p>
answer:0|The triscupid valve and the biscupid valve.||<p class="feedback">I think you misread the question</p>
answer:0|To bring in air through the valves for the heart to keep going.|inlet oxygen breathing|<p class="feedback">Air in the heart?</p>
answer:0|To allow blood to enter the ventricle in order to be pumped out.|inlet|<p class="feedback">You need to be more specific</p>
answer:0|To prevent blood from flowing backwards into the ventricles.|stop chamber section back return|<p class="feedback">One of them stops blood from flowing backwards into an atrium</p>
answer:0|The valves limit the flow of blood from the atrium back into the ventricle.|atria control return|<p class="feedback">Limit?</p>
answer:0|They filter the blood.|clean get rid of waste|<p class="feedback">The heart is not a cleaner</p>
answer:They clot the blood when required
answer:They cause the heart to contract.
answer:0|To control the amount of blood in each section of the heart.|atria atrium ventricle
answer:To limit the pressure of blood within the heart.| control
answer:To control the concentration of the blood. 
answer:To control the rate of flow of blood within the heart.
answer:To make the blood flow through the heart properly.
answer:0|To control when blood can enter the heart.|inlet
answer:0|To take oxygen from the blood.|air 
answer:0|The right valve oxygenates the blood and the left valve deoxygenates it.|air
answer:They help the heart to pump blood around the body
answer:0|They hold the blood so that the pressure can build up, so it can be pumped out of the heart.|outlet
answer:0|To allow blood to flow into the heart.|inlet
answer:0|One valve lets blood in and the other lets blood and oxygen mix.|inlet outlet
answer:The inlet valves let the blood into the heart and the outlet valves let blood leave the heart.
answer:0|One it to let air in and one is to let air out.|inlet outlet oxygen
answer:0|To let blood flow from the ventrical in to the atrium.|chamber section
answer:0|To let deoxygenated blood and oxygenated blood in at separate times|air oxygen
answer:0|To open and close certain parts of the heart at certain times.|timing
answer:0|They open and close to allow breathing.|air oxygen
answer:0|To open and close to either allow blood in or out.|inlet outlet
answer:0|They open and close when the heart contracts to allow the blood to be pumped.|timing
answer:0|To pass the blood round each part of the body.|transport
answer:The valves prevent oxygenated and deoxygenated blood from mixing.
answer:0|To stop the heart overfilling with blood.|control
answer:0|To pump oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood around the body.|air oxygen
answer:0|The job of the valves is to pump the blood to the lungs.|breathing
answer:0|To pump out oxygenated blood and take in deoxygenated blood.|air oxygen
answer:0|These valves push the blood from the atria into the ventricles.|section chamber
answer:0|To release blood into the ventricle or atrium when at maximum capacity.|section chamber
answer:To release white and red blood cells.
answer:0|The bicuspid and tricuspid valves separate the atrium from the ventricle.|section chamber
answer:0|To stop anything getting in the way.|prevent
answer:0|To stop blood from clotting in the heart.|prevent
answer:0|To stop the dirty blood from being pumped around the body.| clean filter
answer:0|The valve on the left stops too much blood being pumped out of the heart, and the one on the right stops too much blood from being pumped in.|inlet outlet control limit
answer:To store the blood that comes back into the heart after being pumped around the body.
answer:0|To tell the heart what to do.|control command
answer:0|To transport blood in and out of the heart.|inlet outlet
answer:0|To stop blood from escaping into different chambers in the heart.|artium atria ventricle section
answer:1|To prevent back-flow of the blood.|stop backwards return atrium back 
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