Questions

Instructor workflow

graph LR
  A(1. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/setup/'>Setup ChooChoo</a>) --> B(<b>Basic usage</b> <br> 2. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/basic#2-monitor-class-progress'>Monitor class progress</a> <br> 3. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/basic#3-manage-class-participants'>Manage class participants</a> <br> 4. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/basic#4-add-links-to-the-objectives'>Add links to the objectives</a> </br> 5. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/basic#5-publish-tutorials'>Publish tutorials</a> ); 
  B --> C(<b>The question bank</b> <br> 6. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/advanced#6-add-questions-to-the-question-bank'>Add questions to the question bank</a> <br> 7. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/advanced#7-accept-student-contributions'>Accept student contributions</a> </br> 8. <a href='https://lucydot.github.io/ChooChoo/instructors/advanced#8-generate-personalised-question-sets'>Generate personalised question sets</a>);
  style A stroke:#333,stroke-width:4px
  style B fill:#bbf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:4px,text-align:left
  style C fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:4px,text-align:left

ChooChoo question bank

ChooChoo is designed so that admins, instructors and students can propose questions for the question bank. Other participants then review the proposed questions, and up-vote those which they think should be accepted to the bank.

This process is motivated by the evidenced benefits of co-creation in education. It is now well established that learners construct knowledge when they are actively engaging with content rather than passively taking in information. Teaching is not a one-way process flowing from teacher to student; the best learning takes place when knowledge is created together. By writing assessment questions the students are actively engaging with the subject matter, and developing a deeper understanding of it. In addition to this it is an opportunity to learn basic Markdown.

Note

Students can propose questions for the question bank, and vote for the questions they think should be accepted. However only admins can add questions to the question bank; they have ultimate responsibility for quality control.

6. Add questions to the question bank

1. Open a Question thread issue in the ChooChoo repository

2. Complete the fields in the form:

   • authors: Github username(s) of the question author(s)
   • title: Question title
   • Question: Question. This can be formatted using the webpage icons or Markdown. You can preview your text using the Preview tab.
   • Answer: Answer. This can be formatted using the webpage icons or Markdown. You can preview your text using the Preview tab.
   • Checklist items: Select the checklist items this question is designed to assess

3. Click on submit new issue

4. If you need to edit a question, see the steps below.
5. Once you are happy with the question, you can add it to the question bank using choochoo bank question
6. A message will be posted to the issue thread when the question has been successfully banked.
7. You can build the question bank for online viewing using choochoo build question bank
8. A message will be posted to the issue thread which contains a link to the webpage. It may take a few minutes for the webpage to reflect your latest changes.
9. You can link your new question to a particular objective using the command choochoo add question [webpage address] to objective [positive integer]. The webpage address could be an anchor link to a question in your question bank. To get the anchor link, hover over the question title - you will see a link icon appear. The objective number can be found in any student issue thread.
10. To build a checklist containing this new link run choochoo build checklists.

Editing a question

1. Open your Question issue thread
2. Click the button with the three dots (next to the smiley face) and click Edit. You will see Markdown text displayed.
3. Carefully edit the relevant fields. Do not edit the headings (starting withh ###).
4. Click on Preview to preview your edits.
5. Once you are happy, click Update comment.

Important

• All web links must be given using the full web address including https://.

Hint

There is often more than one way to do something in ChooChoo. For example to add a question to the question bank the instructor could raise a question issue and then use the command choochoo bank question. Alternatively, they could edit ./questions/question_bank.yml directly.

7. Accept student contributions

• Students are also allowed to propose questions using the Question thread issue form.
• ChooChoo participants can then vote their support for a question using the command choochoo vote up in the corresponding issue thread.
• When a certain number of votes are reached (determined by the votes_required option in ./instructor/settings.yml), the admins will be mentioned in the issue thread.
• To accept and publish this student contribution follow steps 4 to 9 in Step 6 above.

Note

Students may need extra support to write effective questions. You may like to point them to existing ChooChoo question banks for inspiration.

8. Generate personalised question sets

• All ChooChoo participants can generate personalised question sets using one of two ways. Whichever way you choose, the command should be used in a student issue thread.
• choochoo generate [positive integer] questions will generate a webpage containing [positive integer] questions from the question bank. The questions correspond to the objectives which have not been ticked in the issue thread.
• choochoo generate [positive integer] questions for objectives [positive integers with spaces] will generate a webpage containing [positive integer] questions from the question bank. The questions correspond to the specified objectives.
• Unless otherwise specified the webpage can be found at username.github.io/repo_name/questions/handle where handle is the github username of the person issuing the command.