Authoring Tool of Sharable Question Items Based on QTI Specification for E-learning Assessment

Transcription

1 2017 Asia-Pacific Engineering and Technology Conference (APETC 2017) ISBN: Authoring Tool of Sharable Question Items Based on QTI Specification for E-learning Assessment Tien-Wen Sung, You-Te Lu, Chia-Jung Lee, Yuan-Hsun Liao and Chyun-Chyi Chen ABSTRACT Although online examination for e-learning is widely realized nowadays. However the production of question bank is time-consuming. This paper proposes an assessment authoring tool to assist teachers in creating reusable test question items. The items conforms to the IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) specification and are easy to share, reuse, exchange, and access across distributed learning management systems (LMS). System design and implementation were presented in this paper for sharing and contributing development experiences to related works. INTRODUCTION The question items lack for a common standard representation in many existing online examination systems or assessment authoring tools. This will cause the reproduction overhead in transferring the question items to different platforms and questions are not sharable, reusable, and accessible across different learning management systems (LMS)[1-2]. Although some consortiums or organizations have proposed standards to solve the reuse problems of learning or testing contents, the standards are still not fully supported in most existing authoring systems. For the purpose of providing sharable, reusable and exchangeable question items, a question authoring tool was proposed in this paper. IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI)[3-4] is an international specification for supporting test questions standardization. It specifies a data model for the representation of question and test data and the corresponding result reports. It also describes how ASI (Assessments, Sections, and Items) contents and results can be exchanged by using an XML binding between assessment authoring, delivery and reporting systems. Accordingly, the system proposed in this paper conforms to the QTI Tien-Wen Sung 1,*, You-Te Lu 2, Chia-Jung Lee 1, Yuan-Hsun Liao 3, Chyun-Chyi Chen 4 1 Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Big Data Mining and Applications, College of Information Science and Engineering, Fujian University of Technology, China 2 Department of Information and Communication, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan 3 Department of Information Management, Tainan University of Technology, Taiwan 4 Department of Management Information System, Far East University, Taiwan 145

2 specification and supports various question types. The supported types can fit the requirements of most e-learning assessments. This is one of the features of the proposed system that different from some other systems. Fig. 1 shows the primary purpose of IMS QTI. Figure 1. Primary purpose of IMS QTI. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE Fig. 2 shows the system architecture for assessment question sharing, where the author (teacher) can make sharable question items by using the authoring tool. The tool helps to edit and convert questions into exchangeable QTI-compliant and XML-based packaged or stand-alone files. It also shows that the authoring system supports the components of (1) Various Question Types; (2) Question Editor; (3) Metadata Editor; (4) Template Previewer; and (5) XML-based QTI Converter. Supporting various questions types is essential to satisfy examination requirements. Authors can edit assessment questions and metadata by the developed editors. To take a direct vision of question display in real examination, the system provides a preview functionality for authors to make sure of the display of exam question. In the system, questions not only stored in local database system but also can be imported from or export to QTI-compliant files by the XML-based QTI converter component for the purposes of assessment questions sharing, reuse, exchange, and delivery. Once questions have been stored in standard XML formats, the question exchanges on the LAN or Internet will become possible and easy. There are two types of question files once they are exported by the system: (1) stand-alone XML files for each question item; and (2) compressed packaged files (.zip). A standalone XML file is suitable for storing individual question item without embedded multimedia materials such as pictures and audios. A compressed packaged file will contain question items, metadata, and multimedia files. 146

3 Packaged Files XML Files Local DB LMS Student Assessment System Question Editor Template Previewer Various Question Types Metadata Editor XML-based QTI Converter Teacher Exchange Authoring Tool Authoring Tool Network Delivery Assessment System Student Teacher Local DB LMS Student Packaged Files XML Files Figure 2. System architecture. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION The authoring workflow designed by the system is shown in Fig. 3. It contains the detailed system components of process and input/output data objects. In addition to converted XML question files, a local database is required and acts as a test bank repository for the purpose of faster and more efficient system operations. The detailed process components contain: (1) Author Login: The admission control for the system operation. It s important to avoid exposure of the question items. (2) Create Subjects: This module helps authors to edit subjects and group questions together under a single heading. (3) Structure Subjects: Different subjects can be organized hierarchically and become a multi-level structure. (4) Generate Metadata: Describes the resources of questions with XML-based and standard format for the items reuse and distribution. (5) Export Questions: Provide sharable and reusable question files or compressed packages. These exported files will be stored in standard XML formats which conform to the definition of QTI specification. (6) Import Questions: Import well formatted question files (or packages) come from other distributed machines. It extracts all the files of manifest, question items, and materials into local database with an indicated question subject. (7) Edit Questions: Provide the friendly interface and functionality for users to edit question items of various types. (8) Display Preview: Allow authors to see and adjust their editing results. Templates are provided to finish this function. Each type of question has a corresponding template with an XSL (extensible Stylesheet Language) file. Authors also can save the display result in XML with XSL or HTML files for further usage with different CSS templates. 147

4 Author Login Create Subjects Subjects Structure Subjects Local DB QTI XML Formats IMS Content Packaging Specification Edit Questions Generate Metadata Export Questions IMS Metadata Specification Media Files Questions Metadata QTI Content Package File (.zip) QTI XML File (.xml) Display Preview.zip Files Import Questions Question Templates Exam Question Display.xml Files Figure 3. System components and authoring workflow. SYSTEM INTERFACE AND RESULTS Since Microsoft Windows is the most popular operating system for general users in campuses, the system was developed on this platform with Visual Studio (C#). MS SQL Server is used as a local database system. Fig. 4 shows a screenshot of the question authoring system. The illustrated example is a choice question with single response. There is a menu bar on the top of the main form. The supported question types are listed in the left panel and the multi-level structured subjects are shown on the top box. The system supports the following question types: (1) true/false; (2) choice with single response or multiple responses; (3) order; (4) associate; (5) match; (6) gap match; (7) inline choice; (8) text entry; (9) extended text; (10) hot text; (11) hot spot; (12) select point; (13) graphic order; (14) graphic associate; (15) graphic gap match; (16) position object; (17) slider; (18) drawing; and (19) upload. Moreover, the question editing panel will be shown differently according to the different question types. In this case, question title, description, picture, degree of difficulty, answer choices, correct answer, shuffle checkbox and some function buttons were presented. Figure 4. System interface. 148

5 Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the examples of single response choice and gap match questions respectively and the difference between the XML contents. The response interaction for test participants is designed by different examination system [5] and not described in the XML files. The system doesn t support the use of pre-indicated scores, thus the XML tags <mapping>, <outcomdeclaration> and <responseprocessing> were also removed. Figure 5. Question item example choice (single response). Figure 6. Question item example gap match. CONCLUSION This paper proposed a question authoring tool that facilitates the sharing, reuse, exchange, and distribution of question items for e-learning assessments. The feature is that it conforms to the XML-based IMS QTI specification and provides various types of questions. System architecture, design, implementation, interface, and outcomes were described and illustrated in the paper. This work is partially supported by Fujian Provincial Department of Education, China, under Grant No. FJJKHX REFERENCES [1] J. Kim, J. Do, Learning management system: Medium For Interactive Communication, Int. J. Appl. Eng. Res., 11(2), (2016). 149

6 [2] T. Cai, From Learning Management System to Internet-Based Research in Mathematics Education, Critical Examinations of Distance Education Transformation across Disciplines (IRMA, Hershey, 2015). [3] L.A. Alvarez-Gonzalez, A. Campos, M.E. De la Maza, D. Ojeda, Interactive assessment learning environment system under IMS-QTI specification, Proceedings of International Conference on Education Technology & Computers (IEEE, Lode, Poland, 2014). [4] Y. Lee, Assessment Management System based on IMS QTI 2.1, Int. J. Softw. Eng. Appl., 8(1), (2014). [5] A. Abdelkader, D.S. Boumiza, R. Braham, E-Assessment System Based on IMS QTI for the Arabic Grammar, Int. J. Advanced Comput. Sci. Appl., 5(10), (2014). 150