Interactive Exercises and Textbooks--An Author Perspective

tower-hall

Copyright © Cay S. Horstmann 2018
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

About Me

cay-big

Author of Big Java, Big C++, Python for Everyone
Principal developer of the CodeCheck autograder
Designed interactive exercise templates for code tracing, rearranging code, memory diagram, algorithm step prediction
Carried out integration with learning management systems (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard), e-book platforms (VitalSource), online IDEs (Codio)

Exercise Templates

fm_walkthru

Example: Code tracing
I have 250 instantiations of the template
Template instantiation specified by
- plain text
- JSON
- Arbitrary JavaScript for dynamic behavior

What I'd Love to Have

rolls

A standard for interactive exercise templates...
... that is simple enough that anyone with normal programming skills can adapt to in < 1 day
... and simple enough that contributors can provide instances of the template with < 1 hour of training
... that can plug into e-books and LMS
... and systems for gathering education research data

What I Have

1200px-Trabbi_601-S_3828

Several thousand activities
Descriptions in XHTML
Templates in JavaScript
About 1000 autograded programming problems backed by CodeCheck
In Java, C++, Python, ...
Simple protocol for score reporting, state save/restore
Integrations with EPUB3, LTI, Wiley Engage, Codio

Aggregating Exercises

worksheets_pict_text3_05

Exercises need to show up in ebook, online course, exercise sets.
Pain points:
- Want to use iframes for isolation of resources (css/js)
- ebook—can't use iframes
- LMS—LTI useless for exercise sets

Scoring and State Restoration

Masters-final_taehxc

If instructors can't see how students are doing, nothing much will happen.
Pain points:
- Some instructors won't touch anything that's not integrated into an LMS
- Some instructors won't touch anything that requires an LMS
- Students want to take a break and come back
- Instructors want to see student work, not just scores
- Nothing is standard other than LTI grade passback (single score between 0.0 and 1.0)

Security

olavinlinna

Privacy
Plagiarism
- Parametric problems
Score reporting
- Anything can be hacked on the client
- Server verification

Discussion

discussion