Sugar Labs - User contributions [en]

Math4Team/RIT/Projects

2009-05-18T18:39:01Z

Jfinney: /* Question Support API */

{{TOCright}}
==[[Flash Card Game - Assimilate]]==
This project is one of [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Math4Team/RIT/Projects many small projects] focused on developing 4th grade math games which will run on the OLPC XO. We are [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Math4Team/RIT/Students RIT students] who are working on this with the help of other developers who become interested in our projects.
The focus of this project is to turn an existing game ([http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Assimilate Assimilate]) into a math based flash card game which will hopefully be included on future XO's.

Group members:
[[User:Dbj4366|Dennis Jalbert]], [[User:Jck1089|James Kolb]], [[User:bjr9081|Brendan Reen]]

==[[Fun Towers]]==
Fun Towers is a pre-existing game that can be found online in several version (http://www.funnytowers.com/ is one example) that has been ported to the XO, written in Squeak. Our team is modifying this purely numerical/card based game into one that can be used as a teaching tool as part of the 4th grade math project.
Our initial goals in modifying the pre-existing game remain relatively simple and achievable, and our goal is to produce verifiable results that can be used to point to the very preliminary success of the math4 program, while more in-depth projects are still in development.
The game itself is simple, users are given a card and with it are able to remove from one of 3 pyramids of cards a card that is one greater or one lower in value. This card that has been removed is the users new card, and any cards that were covered by the removed card are now in play.

Group members are
[[User:EricMallon|Eric Mallon,]] [[User:eldrac|Tyler Bragdon,]] [[User:Cdaniels29|Chris Daniels]]

==[[Lemonade Stand]]==
Lemonade stand (or more likely, *Insert produce here* stand) is a collaboration project at RIT. It is designed to test children on fractions, working with money, estimation, and other math topics. While our time restraints limit the extent to which we can implement features, the current goal is a feature complete program even if lacking in graphics. We plan on having a system based on buying and selling commodities and an eventual season based economy.

The largest and most complex task of the project will be the introduction of a basic AI to handle the economy, the use of graphics, and localization. We are planning on introducing the game with a generic currency model while trying to find a commodity that either works worldwide, or is easy to replace for regional types. At the very least, we plan on having a feature complete text model that can be finished by other interested parties.

The RIT students currently working on the project are [[Anthony King]], [[User:Qalthos|Nathaniel Case]], [[User:Jsang1|Jonathan Sanger]], [[User:Mdd8919 | Mitchell DeMarco]], [[User:sss1406|Steven Schoenfeld]], and [[User:Echo35|Anthony Lubriani]].

==[[Math4Team/RIT/Projects/Muthris|Muthris]]==
==[[Produce Puzzle]]==
The object of the game is to solve a system of equations with unknowns represented by fruits. The player is given the column sums and row sums, and from there he must determine the value of each fruit. The game difficulty can be changed, and it ranges from solving 3x3 fruit equations, all the way up to 9x9 fruit grids.

We, [[Abbi Honeycutt]] and [[Kennedy Kong]] from Rochester Institute of Technology, has taken over this project. Previous creators were Matthew Michihara, Elizabeth Deng, and Aaron Macris from University of Southern California during their "Code for a cause OLPC Hack-a-thon".
==[[/Question Support API|Question Support API]]==
The purpose of the Question Support API is to provide a unified method for Activities to access standardized format question files. The API currently supports the use of multiple choice questions with a single correct answer and no partial credit. Currently, the API only reports questions in a plain text format from Moodle format question files.

Group members are
[[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]], [[User:Jfinney|Jameson Finney]], [[User:Bbl5660|Brian Long]]

==[[Teacher Reporting]]==
We, Wesley Dillingham, and Jeremiah Green hope to utilize modified Moodle modules and a customized XS School Server operating system. Our goal is to allow results and / or grades, from student activities to be readily available to teachers. Based on their wants and needs, the teachers can then generate custom reports on a class or student and have the ability to determine what types of problems students are finding most difficult. Additionally we would like to implement logic in the module which analyzes student activity and checks for a strict yes or no interpretation of whether or not each student understands various curriculum standards. In the end we imagine the XS environment running on an XO itself, allowing the teachers the same portability as the students.

==[[Tips & Tricks]]==
==[[Complaints & Problems]]==

[[Category:Idea]]

Math4Team/RIT/Projects/Question Support API

2009-05-18T18:38:58Z

Jfinney: /* Project Information */

{{TOCright}}
==Question Support API==
===Project Information===
{{Definition_table
|Primary Project Contact| [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]]
|Project Members| [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]], [[User:Jfinney|Jameson Finney]], [[User:Bbl5660|Brian Long]]
|Source Repository| http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/question-support-api
}}

===Current Goals===

* Documentation
** Packaging
** Documenting Dependencies and how to enable them in a development environment (Simple tutorial on setting up your Question API Development Environment)
** Question Authoring guidelines
** Integrate within lesson planning
** How does an instructor get the questions they have written/found into an Activity?
* Liase w/ other Math4 teams and Sugarlabs (What would it take to be included in the Sugar core?)
* Future Development (Needs / Wants — collect proposals from other teams)
* Discovery / Plugin (How do activities find questions, i.e. how to get URIs to load questions from?)

===Setting Up a Development Environment (For Newbies)===
These are links, tutorials and things that [[User:Bbl5660|Brian Long]] has found along the way, as well as help gained from [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]]. Brian is new to the Linux / OpenSource community, and is working on documenting a development environment for you and for us to continue developing this API. The small amount of information below is meant to help someone new step into the world of developing for the Sugar environment, from Ubuntu and have all dependencies and things setup to continue development of this API. Next Brian would like to document how to setup these sort of items for [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Creating_an_activity Activity developers] to include our API and be able to extend it.

* For development environments, you may consider consider first installing a linux OS and the the LAMP stack with PhpMyAdmin. Brian is choosing Ubuntu, Aptana as a (free) Python IDE that can be used with PyDev to easily allow Python writing.
* Links that Brian is relying on at the moment include:
** http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP
** http://www.sqlalchemy.org/docs/04/ormtutorial.html
** http://docs.python.org/
** http://andrewbleakley.com/blog/2008/11/01/installing-and-running-aptana-on-ubuntu-810/
** http://forums.aptana.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7147&p=32918&hilit=ubuntu#p32918

====Dependencies that will be required / Installing them from the terminal====

* sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
* sudo easy_install pyparsing
* sudo easy_install peak-rules
* sudo easy_install sqlalchemy

===Motivation===
In the RIT class working on the Math4 projects, many proposed activities
require a question database of some kind. A common API or library for
accessing databases in different formats, stored either locally or remotely,
along with a simple mechanism to determine more complex formatting or
presentation than simple text (e.g. to include simple graphics or
mathematical notation) would cover a majority of the cases where the
activity needs some configurable "curriculum data".

Eventually this library could be extended to provide hints, explanations, or
walkthroughs for questions, in addition to the basic metadata about level,
grouping, difficulty, and subject matter that would be part of the base
system.

===Envisioned Usage===
Consider a simple flash-card-like activity. It presents a question from a
list of questions, allows the student to select an answer from the provided
answers for the question or to enter their own answer. Then the correct
answer is revealed and the student it told whether their answer is correct.
If the question has an explanation of the correct answer, the flash-card
activity will show the explanation of the correct answer. (Note that this
is just a simple usage example, the interaction design of a drilling
activity could be very different.)

The flash-card activity would use this proposed Quiz API for the following:

* Loading the questions from the storage location into memory. This includes any filtering or network lookup to download the questions from a remote resource and select appropriate questions for the student.

* Determining whether the student has entered a correct answer.

To start with, the library would simply be a time-saving tool for developers
needing similar functionality, but as the XS (School Server) becomes more
fully developed the library should integrate the functions provided by the
XS to enable automated update of course material for the current topic of
study so the students can drill material using any tool they prefer, while
still reporting progress to the instructor using the XS services.

===Current Status===

Currently, (14 May 2009) the API supports parsing the GIFT file format well enough to import Multiple Choice and True/False questions, along with complete implementations for basic functionality of the corresponding question objects. No support for partial credit answers is currently implemented, nor are other question types working correctly (though most can be parsed to some extent). Export to CSV works as intended, though it is intentionally simple. Documentation on usage and integration of the API into an activity is in the doc/ directory of [[http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/question-support-api the repository]]. A simple, but complete usage example, using a console interface is available in tests/complete_test.py.

===Current implementation===
1. Ensure that PyParser and PEAK-Rules are installed 
2. Include the quizdata module
import quizdata
3. Select plain text output
from quizdata.text import plain_text
4. Select desired question types
from quizdata.question import MultipleChoiceQuestion, MissingWordQuestion
5. Import when function to assist with question sorting
from peak.rules import when
6. Handle questions (this section should be rewritten as needed for your activity
# this is the base case for any question type we don't handle otherwise.
def do_question(q):
print "Unhandled question type.", type(q)
# for multiple choice questions (incl. subclasses) we do this...
@when(do_question, (MultipleChoiceQuestion,))
def do_multi_questions(q):
print plain_text(q.text)
for a in zip('0123456789', q.answers):
print "%5s: %s" % a
answer = int(raw_input())
q.answer = q.answers[answer]
print q.correct
# for missing word-style questions, which aren't implemented correctly yet, and
# are a subclass of multiple choice questions... we make sure to ignore them
# with a more specific rule.
@when(do_question, (MissingWordQuestion,))
def do_mw_question(q): # XXX: inheritance is annoying here...
print "Unhandled question type. (MissingWordQuestion)"
7. Open questions
questions = quizdata.open("file://%s?format=gift" % path.join(base_path, 'tests', 'multi_choice.txt'))
for q in questions:
do_question(q)

===Education Standards===
As a general API and not a standalone Activity, along with the nature of the API in specific, this project does not directly address any specific education standards or learning outcomes. It is reliant on educators to write questions, or have questions available to them in usable formats. As such, the potential educational standards this project could help to meet includes **any** standard where drilling or question/response evaluation is appropriate. (This includes a wider range of topic areas than the Math4 focus, even.)

===Milestones===
;Initial Prototype Phase (1)
:Simple implementation, data model not yet nailed down, focus on import and utility to question *consumers*, Like Activities. Initial formats to include MoodleXML, GIFT.

;Rigorous Design Phase (2)
:Nail down the data model, including developing the 'native' format, probably using a sqlite file mechanism, or other database support, if possible. Freeze the Question object (in terms of required properties, etc.), finalize decisions about URLs for question aquisition. Make sure requirements of other projects *can* be met by the design at this stage.

;Full Implementation Phase (3)
:Complete the implementation of the import formats, including the 'native' format. Should be usable to other Activity developers at this point (hopefully useful, before now, but all needs should be filled at this point). Export implementation should start now, along with prototyping for an authoring activity. (Collaboration with the reporting team *needs* to happen at this point, as the activity will probably be combined with reporting tools.)

;Activity Development Phase (4)
:Complete the authoring/reporting activity for the teachers, allowing export to file formats (and possibly *serving* the questions to other XOs; requires support in activities (using the API) to support).

===Community Contacts===
[[User:FGrose]], [[User:Tony37]] (see [[Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}|talk page]])

===RIT Project Usage===
{{Definition_table
|Produce Puzzle| No API need or usage.
|Lemonade Stand| No API need or usage.
|Assimilate| API Usage needs documented on [[Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}|talk page]]. Progress not far enough to start implementation using the API.
|Fun Towers| No API need or usage.
|Reporting Team| Simple export format documented at [[{{PAGENAMEE}}/API_Design|API Design]]. Futher integration work would be nice, but there is more work than could be done in a year along these lines (and neither team is prepared to embark on it).
|Muthris| No contact from? Probably no API need or usage.
}}
===See Also===
{{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAMEE}}/}}

Math4Team/RIT/Projects

2009-05-18T18:37:37Z

Jfinney: /* Question Support API */

{{TOCright}}
==[[Flash Card Game - Assimilate]]==
This project is one of [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Math4Team/RIT/Projects many small projects] focused on developing 4th grade math games which will run on the OLPC XO. We are [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Math4Team/RIT/Students RIT students] who are working on this with the help of other developers who become interested in our projects.
The focus of this project is to turn an existing game ([http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Assimilate Assimilate]) into a math based flash card game which will hopefully be included on future XO's.

Group members:
[[User:Dbj4366|Dennis Jalbert]], [[User:Jck1089|James Kolb]], [[User:bjr9081|Brendan Reen]]

==[[Fun Towers]]==
Fun Towers is a pre-existing game that can be found online in several version (http://www.funnytowers.com/ is one example) that has been ported to the XO, written in Squeak. Our team is modifying this purely numerical/card based game into one that can be used as a teaching tool as part of the 4th grade math project.
Our initial goals in modifying the pre-existing game remain relatively simple and achievable, and our goal is to produce verifiable results that can be used to point to the very preliminary success of the math4 program, while more in-depth projects are still in development.
The game itself is simple, users are given a card and with it are able to remove from one of 3 pyramids of cards a card that is one greater or one lower in value. This card that has been removed is the users new card, and any cards that were covered by the removed card are now in play.

Group members are
[[User:EricMallon|Eric Mallon,]] [[User:eldrac|Tyler Bragdon,]] [[User:Cdaniels29|Chris Daniels]]

==[[Lemonade Stand]]==
Lemonade stand (or more likely, *Insert produce here* stand) is a collaboration project at RIT. It is designed to test children on fractions, working with money, estimation, and other math topics. While our time restraints limit the extent to which we can implement features, the current goal is a feature complete program even if lacking in graphics. We plan on having a system based on buying and selling commodities and an eventual season based economy.

The largest and most complex task of the project will be the introduction of a basic AI to handle the economy, the use of graphics, and localization. We are planning on introducing the game with a generic currency model while trying to find a commodity that either works worldwide, or is easy to replace for regional types. At the very least, we plan on having a feature complete text model that can be finished by other interested parties.

The RIT students currently working on the project are [[Anthony King]], [[User:Qalthos|Nathaniel Case]], [[User:Jsang1|Jonathan Sanger]], [[User:Mdd8919 | Mitchell DeMarco]], [[User:sss1406|Steven Schoenfeld]], and [[User:Echo35|Anthony Lubriani]].

==[[Math4Team/RIT/Projects/Muthris|Muthris]]==
==[[Produce Puzzle]]==
The object of the game is to solve a system of equations with unknowns represented by fruits. The player is given the column sums and row sums, and from there he must determine the value of each fruit. The game difficulty can be changed, and it ranges from solving 3x3 fruit equations, all the way up to 9x9 fruit grids.

We, [[Abbi Honeycutt]] and [[Kennedy Kong]] from Rochester Institute of Technology, has taken over this project. Previous creators were Matthew Michihara, Elizabeth Deng, and Aaron Macris from University of Southern California during their "Code for a cause OLPC Hack-a-thon".
==[[/Question Support API|Question Support API]]==
The purpose of the Question Support API is to provide a unified method for Activities to access standardized format question files. The API currently supports the use of multiple choice questions with a single correct answer and no partial credit. Currently, the API only reports questions in a plain text format from Moodle format question files.

==[[Teacher Reporting]]==
We, Wesley Dillingham, and Jeremiah Green hope to utilize modified Moodle modules and a customized XS School Server operating system. Our goal is to allow results and / or grades, from student activities to be readily available to teachers. Based on their wants and needs, the teachers can then generate custom reports on a class or student and have the ability to determine what types of problems students are finding most difficult. Additionally we would like to implement logic in the module which analyzes student activity and checks for a strict yes or no interpretation of whether or not each student understands various curriculum standards. In the end we imagine the XS environment running on an XO itself, allowing the teachers the same portability as the students.

==[[Tips & Tricks]]==
==[[Complaints & Problems]]==

[[Category:Idea]]

Math4Team/RIT/Projects/Question Support API

2009-05-18T18:35:05Z

Jfinney: /* Question Support API */

{{TOCright}}
==Question Support API==
===Project Information===
{{Definition_table
|Primary Project Contact| [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]]
|Project Members| [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]], [[User:Jfinney|Jameson Finney]], [[User:Bbl5660|Brian Long]], TODO: Add yourself here...
|Source Repository| http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/question-support-api
}}

===Current Goals===

* Documentation
** Packaging
** Documenting Dependencies and how to enable them in a development environment (Simple tutorial on setting up your Question API Development Environment)
** Question Authoring guidelines
** Integrate within lesson planning
** How does an instructor get the questions they have written/found into an Activity?
* Liase w/ other Math4 teams and Sugarlabs (What would it take to be included in the Sugar core?)
* Future Development (Needs / Wants — collect proposals from other teams)
* Discovery / Plugin (How do activities find questions, i.e. how to get URIs to load questions from?)

===Setting Up a Development Environment (For Newbies)===
These are links, tutorials and things that [[User:Bbl5660|Brian Long]] has found along the way, as well as help gained from [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]]. Brian is new to the Linux / OpenSource community, and is working on documenting a development environment for you and for us to continue developing this API. The small amount of information below is meant to help someone new step into the world of developing for the Sugar environment, from Ubuntu and have all dependencies and things setup to continue development of this API. Next Brian would like to document how to setup these sort of items for [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Creating_an_activity Activity developers] to include our API and be able to extend it.

* For development environments, you may consider consider first installing a linux OS and the the LAMP stack with PhpMyAdmin. Brian is choosing Ubuntu, Aptana as a (free) Python IDE that can be used with PyDev to easily allow Python writing.
* Links that Brian is relying on at the moment include:
** http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP
** http://www.sqlalchemy.org/docs/04/ormtutorial.html
** http://docs.python.org/
** http://andrewbleakley.com/blog/2008/11/01/installing-and-running-aptana-on-ubuntu-810/
** http://forums.aptana.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7147&p=32918&hilit=ubuntu#p32918

====Dependencies that will be required / Installing them from the terminal====

* sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
* sudo easy_install pyparsing
* sudo easy_install peak-rules
* sudo easy_install sqlalchemy

===Motivation===
In the RIT class working on the Math4 projects, many proposed activities
require a question database of some kind. A common API or library for
accessing databases in different formats, stored either locally or remotely,
along with a simple mechanism to determine more complex formatting or
presentation than simple text (e.g. to include simple graphics or
mathematical notation) would cover a majority of the cases where the
activity needs some configurable "curriculum data".

Eventually this library could be extended to provide hints, explanations, or
walkthroughs for questions, in addition to the basic metadata about level,
grouping, difficulty, and subject matter that would be part of the base
system.

===Envisioned Usage===
Consider a simple flash-card-like activity. It presents a question from a
list of questions, allows the student to select an answer from the provided
answers for the question or to enter their own answer. Then the correct
answer is revealed and the student it told whether their answer is correct.
If the question has an explanation of the correct answer, the flash-card
activity will show the explanation of the correct answer. (Note that this
is just a simple usage example, the interaction design of a drilling
activity could be very different.)

The flash-card activity would use this proposed Quiz API for the following:

* Loading the questions from the storage location into memory. This includes any filtering or network lookup to download the questions from a remote resource and select appropriate questions for the student.

* Determining whether the student has entered a correct answer.

To start with, the library would simply be a time-saving tool for developers
needing similar functionality, but as the XS (School Server) becomes more
fully developed the library should integrate the functions provided by the
XS to enable automated update of course material for the current topic of
study so the students can drill material using any tool they prefer, while
still reporting progress to the instructor using the XS services.

===Current Status===

Currently, (14 May 2009) the API supports parsing the GIFT file format well enough to import Multiple Choice and True/False questions, along with complete implementations for basic functionality of the corresponding question objects. No support for partial credit answers is currently implemented, nor are other question types working correctly (though most can be parsed to some extent). Export to CSV works as intended, though it is intentionally simple. Documentation on usage and integration of the API into an activity is in the doc/ directory of [[http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/question-support-api the repository]]. A simple, but complete usage example, using a console interface is available in tests/complete_test.py.

===Current implementation===
1. Ensure that PyParser and PEAK-Rules are installed 
2. Include the quizdata module
import quizdata
3. Select plain text output
from quizdata.text import plain_text
4. Select desired question types
from quizdata.question import MultipleChoiceQuestion, MissingWordQuestion
5. Import when function to assist with question sorting
from peak.rules import when
6. Handle questions (this section should be rewritten as needed for your activity
# this is the base case for any question type we don't handle otherwise.
def do_question(q):
print "Unhandled question type.", type(q)
# for multiple choice questions (incl. subclasses) we do this...
@when(do_question, (MultipleChoiceQuestion,))
def do_multi_questions(q):
print plain_text(q.text)
for a in zip('0123456789', q.answers):
print "%5s: %s" % a
answer = int(raw_input())
q.answer = q.answers[answer]
print q.correct
# for missing word-style questions, which aren't implemented correctly yet, and
# are a subclass of multiple choice questions... we make sure to ignore them
# with a more specific rule.
@when(do_question, (MissingWordQuestion,))
def do_mw_question(q): # XXX: inheritance is annoying here...
print "Unhandled question type. (MissingWordQuestion)"
7. Open questions
questions = quizdata.open("file://%s?format=gift" % path.join(base_path, 'tests', 'multi_choice.txt'))
for q in questions:
do_question(q)

===Education Standards===
As a general API and not a standalone Activity, along with the nature of the API in specific, this project does not directly address any specific education standards or learning outcomes. It is reliant on educators to write questions, or have questions available to them in usable formats. As such, the potential educational standards this project could help to meet includes **any** standard where drilling or question/response evaluation is appropriate. (This includes a wider range of topic areas than the Math4 focus, even.)

===Milestones===
;Initial Prototype Phase (1)
:Simple implementation, data model not yet nailed down, focus on import and utility to question *consumers*, Like Activities. Initial formats to include MoodleXML, GIFT.

;Rigorous Design Phase (2)
:Nail down the data model, including developing the 'native' format, probably using a sqlite file mechanism, or other database support, if possible. Freeze the Question object (in terms of required properties, etc.), finalize decisions about URLs for question aquisition. Make sure requirements of other projects *can* be met by the design at this stage.

;Full Implementation Phase (3)
:Complete the implementation of the import formats, including the 'native' format. Should be usable to other Activity developers at this point (hopefully useful, before now, but all needs should be filled at this point). Export implementation should start now, along with prototyping for an authoring activity. (Collaboration with the reporting team *needs* to happen at this point, as the activity will probably be combined with reporting tools.)

;Activity Development Phase (4)
:Complete the authoring/reporting activity for the teachers, allowing export to file formats (and possibly *serving* the questions to other XOs; requires support in activities (using the API) to support).

===Community Contacts===
[[User:FGrose]], [[User:Tony37]] (see [[Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}|talk page]])

===RIT Project Usage===
{{Definition_table
|Produce Puzzle| No API need or usage.
|Lemonade Stand| No API need or usage.
|Assimilate| API Usage needs documented on [[Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}|talk page]]. Progress not far enough to start implementation using the API.
|Fun Towers| No API need or usage.
|Reporting Team| Simple export format documented at [[{{PAGENAMEE}}/API_Design|API Design]]. Futher integration work would be nice, but there is more work than could be done in a year along these lines (and neither team is prepared to embark on it).
|Muthris| No contact from? Probably no API need or usage.
}}
===See Also===
{{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAMEE}}/}}

Math4Team/RIT/Projects/Question Support API

2009-05-18T18:30:56Z

Jfinney: /* Question Support API */

{{TOCright}}
==Question Support API==
===Project Information===
{{Definition_table
|Primary Project Contact| [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]]
|Project Members| [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]], [[User:Jfinney|Jameson Finney]], [[User:Bbl5660|Brian Long]], TODO: Add yourself here...
|Source Repository| http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/question-support-api
}}

===Current Goals===

* Documentation
** Packaging
** Documenting Dependencies and how to enable them in a development environment (Simple tutorial on setting up your Question API Development Environment)
** Question Authoring guidelines
** Integrate within lesson planning
** How does an instructor get the questions they have written/found into an Activity?
* Liase w/ other Math4 teams and Sugarlabs (What would it take to be included in the Sugar core?)
* Future Development (Needs / Wants — collect proposals from other teams)
* Discovery / Plugin (How do activities find questions, i.e. how to get URIs to load questions from?)

===Setting Up a Development Environment (For Newbies)===
These are links, tutorials and things that [[User:Bbl5660|Brian Long]] has found along the way, as well as help gained from [[User:Enimihil|Greg Stevens]]. Brian is new to the Linux / OpenSource community, and is working on documenting a development environment for you and for us to continue developing this API. The small amount of information below is meant to help someone new step into the world of developing for the Sugar environment, from Ubuntu and have all dependencies and things setup to continue development of this API. Next Brian would like to document how to setup these sort of items for [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Creating_an_activity Activity developers] to include our API and be able to extend it.

* For development environments, you may consider consider first installing a linux OS and the the LAMP stack with PhpMyAdmin. Brian is choosing Ubuntu, Aptana as a (free) Python IDE that can be used with PyDev to easily allow Python writing.
* Links that Brian is relying on at the moment include:
** http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP
** http://www.sqlalchemy.org/docs/04/ormtutorial.html
** http://docs.python.org/
** http://andrewbleakley.com/blog/2008/11/01/installing-and-running-aptana-on-ubuntu-810/
** http://forums.aptana.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7147&p=32918&hilit=ubuntu#p32918

====Dependencies that will be required / Installing them from the terminal====

* sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
* sudo easy_install pyparsing
* sudo easy_install peak-rules
* sudo easy_install sqlalchemy

===Motivation===
In the RIT class working on the Math4 projects, many proposed activities
require a question database of some kind. A common API or library for
accessing databases in different formats, stored either locally or remotely,
along with a simple mechanism to determine more complex formatting or
presentation than simple text (e.g. to include simple graphics or
mathematical notation) would cover a majority of the cases where the
activity needs some configurable "curriculum data".

Eventually this library could be extended to provide hints, explanations, or
walkthroughs for questions, in addition to the basic metadata about level,
grouping, difficulty, and subject matter that would be part of the base
system.

===Envisioned Usage===
Consider a simple flash-card-like activity. It presents a question from a
list of questions, allows the student to select an answer from the provided
answers for the question or to enter their own answer. Then the correct
answer is revealed and the student it told whether their answer is correct.
If the question has an explanation of the correct answer, the flash-card
activity will show the explanation of the correct answer. (Note that this
is just a simple usage example, the interaction design of a drilling
activity could be very different.)

The flash-card activity would use this proposed Quiz API for the following:

* Loading the questions from the storage location into memory. This includes any filtering or network lookup to download the questions from a remote resource and select appropriate questions for the student.

* Determining whether the student has entered a correct answer.

To start with, the library would simply be a time-saving tool for developers
needing similar functionality, but as the XS (School Server) becomes more
fully developed the library should integrate the functions provided by the
XS to enable automated update of course material for the current topic of
study so the students can drill material using any tool they prefer, while
still reporting progress to the instructor using the XS services.

===Current Status===

Currently, (14 May 2009) the API supports parsing the GIFT file format well enough to import Multiple Choice and True/False questions, along with complete implementations for basic functionality of the corresponding question objects. No support for partial credit answers is currently implemented, nor are other question types working correctly (though most can be parsed to some extent). Export to CSV works as intended, though it is intentionally simple. Documentation on usage and integration of the API into an activity is in the doc/ directory of [[http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/question-support-api the repository]]. A simple, but complete usage example, using a console interface is available in tests/complete_test.py.

===Current implementation===
1. Ensure that PyParser and PEAK-Rules are installed
2. Include the quizdata module
import quizdata
3. Select plain text output
from quizdata.text import plain_text
4. Select desired question types
from quizdata.question import MultipleChoiceQuestion, MissingWordQuestion
5. Import when function to assist with question sorting
from peak.rules import when
6. Handle questions (this section should be rewritten as needed for your activity
# this is the base case for any question type we don't handle otherwise.
def do_question(q):
print "Unhandled question type.", type(q)
# for multiple choice questions (incl. subclasses) we do this...
@when(do_question, (MultipleChoiceQuestion,))
def do_multi_questions(q):
print plain_text(q.text)
for a in zip('0123456789', q.answers):
print "%5s: %s" % a
answer = int(raw_input())
q.answer = q.answers[answer]
print q.correct
# for missing word-style questions, which aren't implemented correctly yet, and
# are a subclass of multiple choice questions... we make sure to ignore them
# with a more specific rule.
@when(do_question, (MissingWordQuestion,))
def do_mw_question(q): # XXX: inheritance is annoying here...
print "Unhandled question type. (MissingWordQuestion)"
7. Open questions
questions = quizdata.open("file://%s?format=gift" % path.join(base_path, 'tests', 'multi_choice.txt'))
for q in questions:
do_question(q)

===Education Standards===
As a general API and not a standalone Activity, along with the nature of the API in specific, this project does not directly address any specific education standards or learning outcomes. It is reliant on educators to write questions, or have questions available to them in usable formats. As such, the potential educational standards this project could help to meet includes **any** standard where drilling or question/response evaluation is appropriate. (This includes a wider range of topic areas than the Math4 focus, even.)

===Milestones===
;Initial Prototype Phase (1)
:Simple implementation, data model not yet nailed down, focus on import and utility to question *consumers*, Like Activities. Initial formats to include MoodleXML, GIFT.

;Rigorous Design Phase (2)
:Nail down the data model, including developing the 'native' format, probably using a sqlite file mechanism, or other database support, if possible. Freeze the Question object (in terms of required properties, etc.), finalize decisions about URLs for question aquisition. Make sure requirements of other projects *can* be met by the design at this stage.

;Full Implementation Phase (3)
:Complete the implementation of the import formats, including the 'native' format. Should be usable to other Activity developers at this point (hopefully useful, before now, but all needs should be filled at this point). Export implementation should start now, along with prototyping for an authoring activity. (Collaboration with the reporting team *needs* to happen at this point, as the activity will probably be combined with reporting tools.)

;Activity Development Phase (4)
:Complete the authoring/reporting activity for the teachers, allowing export to file formats (and possibly *serving* the questions to other XOs; requires support in activities (using the API) to support).

===Community Contacts===
[[User:FGrose]], [[User:Tony37]] (see [[Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}|talk page]])

===RIT Project Usage===
{{Definition_table
|Produce Puzzle| No API need or usage.
|Lemonade Stand| No API need or usage.
|Assimilate| API Usage needs documented on [[Talk:{{PAGENAMEE}}|talk page]]. Progress not far enough to start implementation using the API.
|Fun Towers| No API need or usage.
|Reporting Team| Simple export format documented at [[{{PAGENAMEE}}/API_Design|API Design]]. Futher integration work would be nice, but there is more work than could be done in a year along these lines (and neither team is prepared to embark on it).
|Muthris| No contact from? Probably no API need or usage.
}}
===See Also===
{{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAMEE}}/}}

Math4Team/RIT/Alumni/Spring-2009

2009-05-07T18:56:10Z

Jfinney:

{{TOCright}}
==Computer Engineering Technology==
===[[User:Nikeunltd|Kennedy Kong]]===
2nd Year

==Computer Science==
===[[User:Mdd8919 | Mitchell DeMarco]]===
xl

3rd Year

===[[User:Enimihil|Gregory Stevens]]===
5th Year (Graduating after this class)

Shirt size: Large

===[[User:Jck1089|James Kolb]]===
4th Year (Double majoring in Math)

Medium

===[[User:Qalthos|Nathaniel Case]]===
3rd Year 
Large shirt size

===[[User:EricMallon|Eric Mallon]]===
3rd Year

M

===[[User:Eldrac|G. Tyler Bragdon]]===
3rd Year (Minoring in Math)
Shirt Size: L

==Information Technology==
===[[User:bjr9081|Brendan Reen]]===
4th Year

===[[User:bbl5660|Brian Long]]===
4th Year
Medium T-Shirt Size

===[[User:Echo35|Anthony Lubrani]]===
2nd Year

===[[User:jrgreen118|Jeremiah Green]]===
5th year 
Shirt Size: Extra Large

===[[User:wwdillingham|Wesley Dillingham]]===
5th year

==Photo Journalism==
===[[User:Jsang1|Jonathan Sanger]]===
1st year 
L

==Networking==
===[[User:Classclownfish | Abbi Honeycutt]]===
1st year

Small?

===[[User:Epsilon748 | Anthony King -XL]]===
2nd year

===[[User:Sss1406 | Steven Schoenfeld]]===
4th Year NSSA Student

Shirt Size: Large

===[[User:Jfinney | Jameson Finney]]===
3rd year 
Medium

===[[User:dbj4366 | Dennis Jalbert]]===
5th year (Graduating after this quarter) 
Medium

==Software Engineering==
===[[User:Cdaniels29 | Chris Daniels]]===
5th Year
Medium

===[[User:Dpk3062 | Doug Krofcheck]]===
5th Year

Shirt Size: Large

Math4Team/RIT/Alumni/Spring-2009

2009-05-07T18:55:28Z

Jfinney: /* Jameson Finney */

{{TOCright}}
==Computer Engineering Technology==
===[[User:Nikeunltd|Kennedy Kong]]===
2nd Year

==Computer Science==
===[[User:Mdd8919 | Mitchell DeMarco]]===
xl

3rd Year

===[[User:Enimihil|Gregory Stevens]]===
5th Year (Graduating after this class)

Shirt size: Large

===[[User:Jck1089|James Kolb]]===
4th Year (Double majoring in Math)

Medium

===[[User:Qalthos|Nathaniel Case]]===
3rd Year 
Large shirt size

===[[User:EricMallon|Eric Mallon]]===
3rd Year

M

===[[User:Eldrac|G. Tyler Bragdon]]===
3rd Year (Minoring in Math)
Shirt Size: L

==Information Technology==
===[[User:bjr9081|Brendan Reen]]===
4th Year

===[[User:bbl5660|Brian Long]]===
4th Year
Medium T-Shirt Size

===[[User:Echo35|Anthony Lubrani]]===
2nd Year

===[[User:jrgreen118|Jeremiah Green]]===
5th year 
Shirt Size: Extra Large

===[[User:wwdillingham|Wesley Dillingham]]===
5th year

==Photo Journalism==
===[[User:Jsang1|Jonathan Sanger]]===
1st year 
L

==Networking==
===[[User:Classclownfish | Abbi Honeycutt]]===
1st year

Small?

===[[User:Epsilon748 | Anthony King -XL]]===
2nd year

===[[User:Sss1406 | Steven Schoenfeld]]===
4th Year NSSA Student

Shirt Size: Large

===[[User:Jfinney | Jameson Finney]]===
3rd year
Medium

===[[User:dbj4366 | Dennis Jalbert]]===
5th year (Graduating after this quarter) 
Medium

==Software Engineering==
===[[User:Cdaniels29 | Chris Daniels]]===
5th Year
Medium

===[[User:Dpk3062 | Doug Krofcheck]]===
5th Year

Shirt Size: Large

Math4Team/RIT/Projects

2009-04-20T17:17:25Z

Jfinney:

{{TOCright}}
==[[/Question Support API|Question Support API]]==

==[[Flash Card Game - Assimilate]]==
==[[Produce Puzzle]]==
==[[Lemonade Stand]]==
==[[/Fun Towers]]==

[[Category:Idea]]

Math4Team/RIT/Projects

2009-04-20T17:16:45Z

Jfinney: /* Question Support API */

{{TOCright}}
==[[/Question Support API]]==

==[[Flash Card Game - Assimilate]]==
==[[Produce Puzzle]]==
==[[Lemonade Stand]]==
==[[/Fun Towers]]==

[[Category:Idea]]

Math4Team/RIT/Projects

2009-04-20T17:16:28Z

Jfinney:

{{TOCright}}
==[[Question Support API]]==
==[[Flash Card Game - Assimilate]]==
==[[Produce Puzzle]]==
==[[Lemonade Stand]]==
==[[/Fun Towers]]==

[[Category:Idea]]

Math4Team/RIT/Projects/Question Support API

2009-04-20T17:15:50Z

Jfinney:

User:Jfinney

2009-04-17T14:33:52Z

Jfinney: /* Contact Info */

=Jameson Finney=

==About Me==
Hello, I am Jameson Finney, a 3rd year Information Security & Forensics, or ISF, major at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I have an interest in emergency relief, especially communications and asset tracking. I am a licensed amateur radio operator with the call-sign KI4JOA. At RIT, I have taken classes in C++ and BASH. I also have taught myself a little bit of PHP and SQL on a summer side project.

==[[Math4Team/Resources/Curriculum_Chart | Topics I am interested in]]==
* 4N4
* 4N5
* 4N6

==Project==
* API Team

==Contact Info==
* jrf1310 at rit.edu

User:Jfinney

2009-04-17T14:08:33Z

Jfinney: /* Project */

User:Jfinney

2009-04-17T14:08:22Z

Jfinney: /* Project */

User:Jfinney

2009-04-07T03:03:48Z

Jfinney: /* Jameson Finney */

User:Jfinney

2009-04-07T03:03:02Z

Jfinney: /* Topics */

User:Jfinney

2009-04-07T03:00:57Z

Jfinney: /* Intro */

User:Jfinney

2009-04-07T02:35:00Z

Jfinney:

=Jameson Finney=

==Intro==
Hello, I am Jameson Finney, a 3rd year Information Security & Forensics, or ISF, major at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I have an interest in emergency relief, especially communications and asset tracking. I am a licensed amateur radio operator with the call-sign KI4JOA.

User:Jfinney

2009-04-07T02:30:35Z

Jfinney: /* Relevant Programming Experience */

==Skills==
* Programming
** SQL
** BASH

User:Jfinney

2009-04-07T02:29:25Z

Jfinney: /* Programming */

==Skills==
===Relevant Programming Experience===
* SQL
* BASH

User:Jfinney

2009-04-07T02:25:54Z

Jfinney: New page: ==Skills== ===Programming=== • C++ • PHP • SQL • BASH

==Skills==
===Programming===
• C++
• PHP
• SQL
• BASH

Math4Team/RIT/Alumni/Spring-2009

2009-04-07T01:20:22Z

Jfinney:

{{TOCright}}
==Computer Engineering Technology==
===Kennedy Kong===
2nd Year
I am interested in having the other side touch pads running and integrate them with some kinda of software.
I am interested in also having a web cam program running, but that seems to be taken by an external team. I might collaborate with the webcam group.

==Computer Science==
===[[User:Mdd8919 | Mitchell DeMarco]]===
3rd Year

===[[User:Enimihil|Gregory Stevens]]===
5th Year (Graduating after this class)

===James Kolb===
4th Year (Double majoring in Math)

===Nathaniel Case===
3rd Year

===[[User:EricMallon|Eric Mallon]]===
3rd Year

===[[User:Eldrac|G. Tyler Bragdon]]===
3rd Year (Minoring in Math)

==Information Technology==
===[[User:bjr9081|Brendan Reen]]===
4th Year

===[[User:bbl5660|Brian Long]]===
4th Year

===[[User:Echo35|Anthony Lubrani]]===
2nd Year

===[[User:jrgreen118|Jeremiah Green]]===
5th year

==Photo Journalism==
===Jonathan Sanger===
1st year

==Networking==
===[[User:Classclownfish | Abbi Honeycutt]]===
1st year

===[[User:Epsilon748 | Anthony King]]===
2nd year
===[[User:Sss1406 | Steven Schoenfeld]]===
4th year

===[[User:Jfinney | Jameson Finney]]===
3rd year
===[[User:dbj4366 | Dennis Jalbert]]===
5th year (Graduating after this quarter)

==Software Engineering==
===[[User:Cdaniels29 | Chris Daniels]]===
5th Year

===Doug Krofcheck===
5th Year

Math4Team/RIT/Alumni/Spring-2009

2009-03-21T20:25:30Z

Jfinney: Added student "Jameson Finney"

{{TOCright}}
==Computer Engineering Technology==
===Kennedy Kong===
2nd Year

==Computer Science==
===[[Mitchell DeMarco]]===
3rd Year
===Gregory Stevens===
5th Year (Graduating after this class)

==Information Technology==
===Brendan Reen===
4th Year
===Brian Long===
4th Year

==Photo Journalism==
===Jonathan Sanger===
1st year

==Networking==
===Abbi Honeycutt===
1st year
===Anthony King===
2nd year
===Steven Schoenfeld===
4th year
===Jameson Finney===
3rd year

==Software Engineering==
===[[Chris Daniels]]===
5th Year
===Doug Krofcheck===
5th Year