FRANCES GRIFFIN AND ROSS MOORE
Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
ross@maths.mq.edu.au
Abstract: In this talk we describe a system for generating
self-marking mathematical quizzes, built using
pdfTEX and extensions to Donald Story's
exerquiz package.
JavaScript embedded within the PDF documents provides
not only the self-marking aspects to these multiple-choice quizzes,
but also allows the results obtained by a student
to be sent to a central server,
for recording a log of each student's attempts.
Solutions are included with the PDF document, but these are not accessible until after the quiz has been attempted. Students request a quiz through a web interface, but a random element ensures that no two quizzes are identical. With the help of a symbolic algebra package, such as Mathematica, each quiz has solutions tailored to the specific correct answer, and there is a high degree of plausibility to each incorrect option.
New quizzes can be easily constructed from a database of question types. This allows quizzes to be developed which test either just a single concept repeatedly, or several different concepts within the same quiz. The purpose in developing this system was to provide students with a way to revise basic skills in mathematics, before embarking on new courses at a higher level. Other applications are certainly possible.
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