Forum: support

RE: Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ]
By: Achim Zeileis on 2021-02-16 08:21

Hi Joris & other Brightspace users, given that there was a bit of discussion around using R/exams for Brightspace I wanted to:

(1) ask whether you, Joris, had made some progress with adapting either exams2qti12() or exams2qti21() for Brightspace,

(2) post some updates from recent discussions with other Brightspace users.

* One issue was that the exams2blackboard output does not preserve the correct answers when imported to Brightspace. One user found a workaround, though. It's a bit cumbersome and slow but it works:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65754415/r-exams-d2l-multiple-choice-question-doesnt-select-correct-answer

* I also encouraged them to reverse engineer the QTI flavor that
Brightspace itself uses. But so far this wasn't successful:
https://community.brightspace.com/s/question/0D55W000001AfSw/importing-blackboard-quiz-questions-generated-via-rexams

* Finally, we also worked on the CSV-based import. I have renamed the exams2d2l() draft to exams2brightspace() (because Brightspace is the learning management system) and extended it to possibly import several schoice or mchoice questions. A disadvantage is that it does not preserve the folder structure of the question bank. Current version of the code attached.

RE: Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ]
By: Achim Zeileis on 2019-03-01 01:31

[forum:46594]

Joris, I feel your pain! Apparently, the companies do not expect that anyone who is not them (or another company) would want to write an interface...

Re: Exporting QTI 2.1 from Brightspace. I just logged in to https://trial.brightspace.com/d2l/home, created a trivial quiz within the system, and then exported it to QTI 2.1. I could go:

> Course Admin > Import / Export / Copy Components > Export Components > Quizzes

It's a bit hidden but seems to work. If this option isn't available in your current beta system, you can also consider using their free trial server (see link above).

Re: contributions. Definitely welcome! If this necessitates some more exchange (like it did for exams2blackboard), then we can also add you to the R-Forge project.

P.S.: I just noticed that I had written up my comments about Brightspace/D2L on StackOverflow as well: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52099046/exporting-exams-from-r-exams-to-the-d2l-learning-platform But apparently the OP there wasn't very happy with my answer ;-)

RE: Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ]
By: Joris Meys on 2019-02-28 16:58

[forum:46589]

Hi Achim,

thank you for the code! I've been dabbling with that CSV format myself as well, but "dense" is an understatement... And I don't find either our DICT department or D2L customer service particularly helpful either. For the moment I can click around to create questions, but I can't even export them, let alone a test. We're now in beta phase so this might change, so I keep my hopes up.

I'll experiment further and when I manage to get somewhere, I'll definitely come back with more info in either a blog post or a pull request with some new functions.

Cheers
Joris

RE: Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ]
By: Achim Zeileis on 2019-02-28 16:47

[forum:46588]

exams2d2l.R (4) downloads

I had looked at D2L only very briefly when it came up in the forum about a year ago. Back then going via Blackboard helped for some but not all issues. I don't remember if all plots were working correctly or not.

I had also had a quick stab at producing the CSV format that D2L can import. But that also didn't seem to be worth pursuing. Nevertheless I attach my code to this post in case it is useful for someone.

I think the cleanest thing would be to do what Niels did for Blackboard:
- Create exams within D2L and export them to QTI 2.1 XML.
- Try to reverse engineer their particular flavor of QTI 2.1, finding out which tags need to be used in which way.
- Write a custom exams2brightspace() or exams2d2l() that produces their QTI 2.1 flavor. Possibly this is just an interface to exams2qti21() like exams2openolat() is. Possibly more adaptations are necessary like for exams2blackboard().

Given that UGent is transitioning to D2L there might be enough interest to take this approach...

RE: Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ]
By: Joris Meys on 2019-02-28 16:34

[forum:46587]

Hi Niels,

Thank you for your swift response!

Brightspace is indeed D2L. Adding base64 = TRUE helps a bit, even though . The more important problem is that the question without a plot is just plain empty for some reason. Setting base64 = FALSE shows the question in the upload, but then returns an empty question in D2L.

I also figured out that if I use QTI2.1 the msimanifest.xml is created, but also there the upload fails with the message that no questions or sections were found. I'm probably doing something wrong in the creation of the exam, but I fail to see where.

I'm going to experiment a bit more, but if you have pointers as to how I can define sections and questions better, very welcome.

I should add that I'm using Rmd to create the questions, so that might be part of the problem as well.

Cheers
Joris

RE: Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ] By: Niels Smits on 2019-02-28 16:20	[forum:46586]
The argument should be set at TRUE, My Bad! Hi Joris, Is Brightspace the same thing as D2L? In that case we did some testing soem time ago using the exams2blackboard() function. If so, could you use base64 = TRUE, as in: exams2blackboard(myexam, base64 = TRUE) I think D2L has trouble finding plots. This option allows for embedding plots in the html code. Best, Niels

RE: Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ] By: Niels Smits on 2019-02-28 16:18	[forum:46585]
Hi Joris, Is Brightspace the same thing as D2L? In that case we did some testing soem time ago using the exams2blackboard() function. If so, could you use base64 = FALSE, as in: exams2blackboard(myexam, base64 = FALSE) I think D2L has trouble finding plots. This option allows for embedding plots in the html code. Best, Niels

Using rexams for Brightspace [ Reply ]
By: Joris Meys on 2019-02-28 15:55

[forum:46582]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get my questions into a Brightspace implementation that will be rolled out at our faculty. Currently I tried two ways:

exams2qti (both formats), but when uploading the zip file Brightspace complains that the imsmanifest.xml file is absent.

exams2blackboard, but when uploading that zip file Brightspace can't find any questions.

Anyone experience with using Brightspace? It's notoriously difficult to find any solid information on the exact specifications needed...

Cheers