The Walden ’ s Paths Quiz Engine Avital Arora, Emily Barker, Unmil P. Karadkar, Pratik Dave, Luis Francisco-Revilla, Richard Furuta, Frank Shipman, Suvendu Dash, Zubin Dalal Center for the Study of Digital Libraries Texas A&M University

Walden’s Paths – Overview Facilitates inclusion of Web-based information to achieve teachers’ curricular goals Most information on the Web is not suitable for use in classroom education Information needs to be contextualized –To suit the curricular goals –To highlight focal points for students –To present issues of interest Paths are annotated lists of Web pages

Walden’s Paths – Overview WWW Host Web Page Internet Backbone A Path

Walden’s Paths Server Content frame Annotation frame Control frame

Walden’s Paths Server Off-path traversal

Early Walden’s Paths Quizzes Annotations contained the questions Students turned in answers on paper

Benefits of Online Testing Students –Quicker turnaround time (improved feedback) –Pointers to additional information –Easily track personal progress –Take multiple practice quizzes to fine-tune learning process Teachers –Reduced grading burden via automation –Easily generate slightly modified tests to discourage cheating –Include additional information for student perusal –Easily track overall and individual performance –Improve teaching methods or materials

Highlights of Teacher Survey Most teachers use the Web to disseminate course information Some teachers use online testing extensively Others do not use it at all Lack of support for expressive answers –Drawing graphs –Deriving equations –Writing complex mathematical formulae

Quiz Engine – Design Principles Simplicity for wider use –By teachers with little technological experience –With little or no training Loosely tied to the Walden’s Paths Server –Quizzes in conjunction with paths –Stand-alone quizzes –Quizzes in conjunction with other software Promote variety of use –Created by teachers or students –Quizzes for academic evaluation or practice

Quiz Engine – Features Interactive and Passive Quizzes –Immediate evaluation and feedback during preparation –Delayed evaluation for academic assessment Separation of question authoring and quiz creation –Teachers may author questions at their convenience –Creation of question banks for future use –Quizzes generated based on the questions available at the time –Students may generate practice quizzes (in progress) Centralized question bank –Community benefit — use of questions by other teachers –Historical benefit — use of questions from earlier semesters

Quiz Engine – Features Support for different types of questions –Multiple choice with single correct answer (includes true-or-false) –Multiple choice with multiple correct answers –Specific word or phrase as the correct answer –Long essay-type answer (graded by the instructor) Supplementary information –URL for a Web page with more information –Image as an intrinsic part of the question or as a clue Quizzes with varying properties –Randomize questions –Include questions authored by others

Quiz Engine – Authoring Questions

Quiz Engine – Creating a quiz

Quiz Engine – Interactive quiz

Quiz Engine – Passive quiz

Current Directions Integrate the Quiz Engine into the Path Server –Enable students to track their own progress –Student initiated quizzes – “Take Quiz Now” icon –Path Server will track path reading sessions –Support complex relations between browsing and quizzes Explore changes to nature of paths –Embedded quiz pages –Mandatory or optional –Announced or surprise (pop quizzes) –Engage students in the learning process Support co-authoring of paths and quizzes Widen the variety of supported question types

Resources Walden’s Paths Homepage Principal Investigators Richard Furuta Frank Shipman Walden’s Paths Test Server