www.on-lang.net

[lukasz]

Here is a proposal of an alternative method of uploading exercises onto the On-Lang server. While uploading exercises, we have noticed that "typing in" even the simplest exercise takes very long to finish. Our proposal therefore is a batch file with an exercise or exercises written in an XML format, which could be used instead of typing in exercises screen by screen.

As you can see, the document to be uploaded includes the same fields as those used in the uploading form on the platform. We see some advantages of this method. First of all it takes less time. Secondly the exercise can be prepared any place and any time with any word processing tool. It also does not require the computer to have access to the Net. Various exercises can be prepared by various teachers at the same time. Of course this method requires the knowledge of the tags used, hence it is suggested as an alternative for individuals with some experience in XML/HTML.

As it it the rule with XML, incorrect or unknown tags should be ignored. In the worst case, if some necessary tags are missing, the system may ask the teacher to supplement the missing parts upon parsing.

To make using the tags as simple and intuitive as possible, we suggest some simplifications, eg. omission of closing tags (</>) where possible or assigning some default values if a tag comes without the attributes. For the same reason the questions (<q>) and answers (<qa>) have not been numbered.

Another suggestion is the possibility to include HTML tags in out tag set. Thanks to this formatting the exercise and supplementing it with multimedia will be facilitated. This is why the tag for the answer to a question is marked by <qa> and not by <a>, as the latter is already used by HTML.

Below you will find a set of most basical tag proposals used in formatting the exercise. Both tag names and distribution are the points for discussion:


<exercise> - beginning of the exercise
ATTRIBUTES:
type - type of the exercise (multiple, fill-in, open)
name - name of the exercise (optional)

<skill> - skill to be checked
ATTRIBUTES:
name - name of the skill (reading, writing, listening, etc.)

<level> - language knowledge level
ATTRIBUTES:
name - name of the level (A1 thru C2)

<language> - studied language
ATTRIBUTES:
name - name of the language

<age> - student's age category
ATTRIBUTES:
name - name of the category (primary, secondary, university, adult)

<category> - exercise category information
ATTRIBUTES:
name - category type (structures, vocabulary, function, situation)
value - type name

<maxtime> - maximum time allocated to the exercise
ATTRIBUTES:
length - length in minutes

<file> - zipped file with multimedia files attached to the exercise (pictures, sound, video, etc.) (optional)
ATTRIBUTES:
name = name and path to the file

<instructions> - instructions to the exercise

<textbody> - main body of the exercise

<q> - question to the exercise
ATTRIBUTES:
example - question is an example
score - score assigned to the question (optional, if omitted 1 point is assigned by default)

<qa> - answer to the question
ATTRIBUTES:
correct - the answer is correct


Enclosed you will find an example of a multiple choice exercise. Similar ones can be written for both fill-in-the-gap and open exercises. Notice please that the exmple exercise has been saved as a .doc document solely to facilitate reading by others. Normally all exercises will have to be prepared as plain text files, as only such can be read and parsed by the software. It should also be possible to have more than one excercise in a single text file.

We also think it should be possible to prepare a similar set of tags to control emanager's work.

We hope you will find this proposal interesting and worth discussing.

Lukasz

PS: the file has been attached in the "Proposal for Uploading Exercises
" in the "Platform" section on this forum.