[edutex] Some demo files and the edutex package documentation

[Ross Moore]

Hi Frank, Don, Joe,

On 29/08/2009, at 5:23 AM, Frank Quinn wrote:

>
> On Aug 28, 2009, at 2:32 PM, story at uakron.edu wrote:
>
>> I've finished a first attempt at writing the edutex package.
>
> Wonderful news! I'll look at it right away.
>
>> Another problem that occurred to me, is that in for credit mode,  
>> if the PDF is not encrypted,
>> a student can open the PDF in a text editor and find the  
>> JavaScript assocaited with the
>> submit button, and basically quite easily see the answers to each  
>> problem.
>
> Please don't worry about this now. The current focus is on practice  
> versions, and security issues are for another day.

Agreed.
A student can do this in the privacy of his/her own home, but so
also can he/she get someone else entirely to do the quiz or test.
That's one of the reasons why our MacQTeX quizzes have no mark value
attached, but are nevertheless compulsory for our students.


Besides, if a student knows enough about the internal structure
of the PDF document, what is he/she doing in a low-level maths course?
  :-)

> I've had a lot of experience with high-stakes testing: it's  
> complicated but I'm confident we can deal with it when the time comes.

For high-stakes you need invigilators, and a closed laboratory.
Also, there'll be time-pressure.

So attempts to use software other the the quiz/test documents
is likely to be noticed, or detected by the system environment.
   (thinking some kind of logging software may be running in the
background)

>
> Frank



BTW, in testing the "Preview" and "Practice" mode demos, the
JavaScript "Launch URL" link was active in both cases.
The documentation says for Preview mode that:
   "The preview mode uses only the functionality available through
LaTeX with the hyperref package."
So I'd have expected the "Launch URL" would not be enabled in this case.
Don, is this wrong?
Or am I being too picky?


Nice work,

	Ross


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross Moore                                       ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                           office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                             tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                          fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
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