[ale] Open Source Test Bank Oriented Test/Exam Generator

[Jim Kinney]

The two big issues are data entry for populating the database and the
formatting of the questions; short answer, multiple choice, etc.
For both, it's a UI problem. Solvable but tricky.

If I had a clone I would be able to generate new ideas twice as fast!
On Sep 5, 2014 11:47 PM, "Tom Freeman" <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:

>
> For what its worth - some of those ideas lacking sufficient time sound
> lovely. Would you be interested in a little financial aid to clone
> yourself??
>
> On the way home from dropping off the girl friend the blue mush in the
> skull wondered off by itself. Dangerous that. Cutting to the chase - would
> it be a big nightmare to put something together for 1 semester courses
> using perhaps the layout engine of LibreOffice, a modest database engine,
> and scripting glue. Enter each question with the chapter & section numbers
> to use for selection at first - and randomly hit appropriate questions
> until the test is long enough. Randomize the order, add good looking
> headers and footers, and publish to any of a number of appropriate
> media/formats.
>
> I know I'm missing an entire Omaha Beach landing zone worth of mines here,
> but is this vaguely feasable?
>
> Of course the problem at the moment is finding somebody who _needs_ to
> scratch this particular itch for those of us who seem to lack the ability
> (me).
>
>  On Fri, 5 Sep 2014, Jim Kinney wrote:
>
>  I've been (very slowly) working on such a thing off and on for a while.
>> It's nowhere ready for anything but a heavy coding session. I've looked at
>> pdfexam (rather nice but relies on php which I don't like) and really not
>> seen anything that's usable and open.
>>
>> I lost the link that has the common core grade/subject breakdown by code.
>> I
>> was planning to use that as a way to categorize the test questions
>> (Teacher
>> Sue wants 3rd grade earth science question set while teacher Joe wants 9th
>> grade literature, etc). So far I have a raw schema for a few topics and
>> even that's not usable yet. I _really_ want to displace that reader tool
>> the schools all got suckered into - it only uses the books they sell, the
>> questions are crap and schools can't add their own questions.
>>
>> a giant, 'no possible way any student can memorize all the questions and
>> answers' test bank that's readily available for all teachers is needed.
>>
>> <sigh> So many ideas and so little time </sigh>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 5:19 PM, Tom Freeman <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I've been futzing around for the past two weeks or so looking for
>>> something that can maintain a test bank data base, generate and format at
>>> least semiprofessionally random tests and quizzes, figure point values
>>> with
>>> minimal hints, that an adjunct can afford to use and take to the next
>>> school (I know adjuncts working 4 different schools at the same time -
>>> lets
>>> not get close to licensing issues!) By vast desire, fully open source
>>> even
>>> if they expect a minimal support fee.
>>>
>>> I've somewhat looked at "Respondus" (sp?), which appears to do everything
>>> needed. And lisenced up the wazoo best I can figure (I can cheat on one
>>> school I'm associated with but...) For the equivelent of 6 contact hours
>>> of
>>> pay, there is a private lisence under Windows <<shudder>>
>>>
>>> Lets not talk about vendor supplied test generators or their free to use
>>> while you use our book test bank. The test questions (at least for
>>> chemistry) suck at near black hole intensities. There are nice things to
>>> say about multiple guess - but I don't believe in lying to say them. In
>>> fact, I hate them.
>>>
>>> (IF you wonder about US education, take a look at how dependent the
>>> schools are on the textbook vendors for a possible large negative
>>> influence. IMHO of course, and IANAL etc etc. But I'd love to see a
>>> physicist/chemist/biologist apply the standards of their fields to
>>> investigating the publishers.)
>>>
>>> Is there such a beast available (Exam generator, open source, good
>>> formating at least - I can contribute test questions)? I'm suspecting
>>> not,
>>> so do any of the list members associated with academia know of a resource
>>> who might fall in love with creating such a thing? Windows is probably a
>>> needed platform, but if it ain't Linux I for one will try to look
>>> further.
>>>
>>> I've had two supervisors tell me I'm writing pretty decent tests, but
>>> they
>>> take too long to write in batches of 3-4 (one per section, one for
>>> outside
>>> testing, and a space just in case). I need a better way, and I don't
>>> think
>>> I'm alone in this.
>>>
>>> Thanks as always for a stimulating list, and the use of your bandwidth.
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
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