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1: Assessment - Numerical Answer: Bug or design flaw...
01/19/14 12:21 PM
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Hi all,

I was experimenting with using Numerical Answer questions in the Assessment activity, using questions where it is important to use the correct unit.

Let's say that the correct answer is "120 min". I entered "120" as the value, "min" as the default unit with a multiplier of 1.0 and "hr" as a second unit with a multiplier of 0.0167

These responses were appropriately graded as correct:
"120 min"
"2 hr"

However, the answer "120" (without units specified) was also graded as correct.

This is either a bug or faulty design, in my opinion. A unit-less number may be the correct answer for some questions, but it is definitely different from the same number with a unit. In our questions, it is critical for learners to be precise, not only about about having correct units, but also whether the answer has a unit at all.

Comments?

Posted by Jonathan Maybaum

2: Re: Assessment - Numerical Answer: Bug or design flaw...
In response to 1 01/19/14 08:22 PM
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Hi Jon,

Yeah, I see what you are saying.

How about if we specify the units that are allowed when we present the question to the students and specifically state which unit is the default one.

So say we have set these units at authoring time:



Then, when the student gets the question, we display this message:


See the "Allowed units: min and hr (default unit: min)."






If not unit (or only one) is set, we won't display the message.

Would that work?

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

3: Re: Re: Assessment - Numerical Answer: Bug or design flaw...
In response to 2 01/19/14 10:00 PM
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H Ernie,
I want the students to have to choose the right kind of unit (or no unit), and not hand it to them. So, it would be OK to give a list of units to choose from, but only units of a certain type would be correct (e.g., time or concentration or mass or volume).

How about if they got a text field to enter the numerical part of the answer followed by a popup menu containing choices like:

(no unit)
min
hr
min ^-1
hr ^-1
mg/min
mg/hr

In the authoring screen, one implementation could be to enter multiplier values for acceptable answers only (lack of a multiplier value indicates an incorrect kind of unit.

Posted by Jonathan Maybaum

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