Numbas

Numbat

(Photo Martin Pot, CC-BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)

Numbas is an open-source system developed by the e-Learning Unit of Newcastle University's School of Maths and Stats, based on many years of use, experience and research into e-assessment.

It's aimed at numerate disciplines.

It creates SCORM-compliant exams which run entirely in the browser, compatible with VLEs such as Blackboard and Moodle.

Design goals

• Scalable, reliable and accessible to a broad range of users.
• Good at maths, but usable for other subjects too.
• Good-looking and easy for students to use.
• Used by question authors who aren't experts.
• Emphasis on creating rich formative e-assessment and learning materials.
• Feedback an important part of the design and implementation.

Why use Numbas?

• Easy to obtain, use and tailor to your own requirements.
• You have full control over the creation, use and dissemination of assessment.
• Customisable everywhere, from appearance down to core functionality.
• Browser-based so you can include all that the web can offer.
• Sustainability built in - fully supported by the School of Maths and Stats at Newcastle.

Integration with a VLE

• Numbas can use the SCORM standard to integrate with compliant VLEs, such as Moodle and Blackboard.
• Or there's a Basic LTI tool provider which works better than most SCORM implementations.
• Or you can use it without a VLE.

Current use

• At Newcastle in the Maths and Stats degree, and many service courses.
• 100+ universities in the UK and around the world.

The mathcentre editor

• Open to everyone.
• Over 1,000 questions available to use.
• Collect ready-made questions into a custom test, or write your own.

numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk

Transition material

This Summer, five student interns made > 150 questions aimed at transition to uni.

All available under CC-BY licence.

A great place to start!

Get involved

Website

• numbas.org.uk

Contact

• Email: numbas@ncl.ac.uk
• Twitter: @NclNumbas

Source code

• github.com/numbas

Task 1: Create a test using existing questions.

1. Register at numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk.
2. Browse the question bank. Try a few questions.
3. Add some questions to your "basket", and create an exam using them.
4. Upload your exam to Blackboard.

Task 2: Intro to writing questions.

1. Have a look at the Numbas documentation on question writing (bit.ly/numbasdocs).
2. Think of your own question, and implement it.

Tips

• Give everything sensible names!
• Avoid complicated ideas