Unusual kinds of answer¶
Page status: Outline
This is a rough outline of an article. It might not use full sentences everywhere and probably won’t make much sense at the moment.
When the answer is not one of the built-in data types, what do you do?
Use the ‘closest’ built-in part type.
Ask for just bits of the answer, with some scaffolding, e.g. coefficients.
Write a multiple choice question.
Make a custom marking algorithm for a built-in part type.
Make a custom part type.
There’s a cost/benefit calculus for making a custom part type.
If making a custom marking algorithm, make it reusable - if you spot a bug or want to make a change, you don’t want to track down every copy of the algorithm.
Think about:
How does the student enter their answer?
What answers are invalid? Try to accept all reasonable efforts, but reject mistakes which might not be what the students intended.
How much feedback can you give? Want to explain the marking, but minimise hints as to the correct answer. Again, there’s a cost/benefit calculus for how many cases to catch.
Configuration options: if several questions ask the same sort of thing, use a single part type with options.