Class 9: Semester Org Files (4/4): Exams and Assignments¶
ORG 0000 Joon H. Ro & Jae-Eun Namkoong Class 9 [2018-09-25 Tue]
1 Exams Top-level Tree¶
Instructors can create content for exams as they wuold for lectures. Lists can be used to create multiple choice questions. See the Org mode manual for more information. To minimize redundancy, exams are designed to be modular and common elements are shared as much as possible. Furthermore, Org mode’s property inheritance allows instructors to conveniently create answer keys to multiple choice questions and to export the exam with or without the keys.
As shown in the following example, there are two subtrees in the Org-Coursepack: one for the exam title page and another for the mid-term exam.
* Exams :Exams:
:PROPERTIES:
** Title Page
** Mid-Term Exam
1.1 :PROPERTIES:¶
The properties have general information common across exams, such as LaTeX headers.
1.2 Title Page Subtree¶
The content of this subtree will be shared across exams via the
#+INCLUDE statement. Instructors can include general information
pertaining to exams (e.g., student code of conduct) in this page. Note
that any information about a specific exam (e.g., exam date, exam
time, number of questions) can be specified by passing property values
to the Title Page subtree. For example, the exam time information
uses the value of the property TIME using {{{property(TIME)}}}.
1.3 Exam subtree¶
The mid-term exam subtree in the Org-Coursepack has the following structure:
** Mid-Term Exam
:PROPERTIES:
*** 01
*** 02
*** Exam Content
Each exam has a separate subtree for each course section, and they will
share common Exam Content.
1.3.1 :Properties:¶
Each exam subtree has properties containing information common across sections. See example below.
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Exam/1
:EXPORT_TITLE: Exam 1
:EXPORT_DATE: {{{DATE_EXAM_1}}}
:TIME: 75 Minutes
:END:
1.4 Section Subtrees¶
Each exam in the Org-Coursepack has two section subtrees. Instructors
may add additional sections. Each subtree has section-specific
information about the exam in their :PROPERTIES:. Each section can
have multiple versions of the same exam (e.g., A and B versions),
with each version beloning to a separate subtree. The exam content
includes a title page, multiple choice questions, and short
answers. See the example and note below.
*** 01
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_AUTHOR: {{{COURSE_NUM}}}-01: {{{COURSE}}}
:ANSWER:
:END:
**** A Type
:PROPERTIES:
#+INCLUDE: "2020 Spring.org::#Exam/Title Page" :only-contents t
***** Multiple Choice :newpage:
(2 points each, unless otherwise specified)
#+INCLUDE: "2020 Spring.org::#Exam/1/MC/A" :only-contents t
***** Short Answers :newpage:
#+INCLUDE: "2020 Spring.org::#Exam/1/Short Answers" :only-contents t
Note
Note that the property :ANSWER: is empty. This is to hide answers for
multiple choice questions–see Exam Contents/Multiple Choice for details.
1.5 Exam Content Subtree¶
The Exam Content subtree contains exam questions. Its content can be
pulled in section-specific exam subtrees to create exams. The Exam Content subtree
can also be used to create exam keys by exporting the version subtree
(e.g., Type A (Key)) under Exam Content/Multiple Choice.
*** Exam Content
**** Multiple Choice
:PROPERTIES:
***** Type A (Key)
***** Type B (Key)
**** Short Answers :newpage:
:PROPERTIES:
#+INCLUDE: "../../../Topics/Org_Teaching.org::#Question/SA" :only-contents t
1.6 Multiple Choice¶
The Org-Coursepack exams have two versions (type A and B). The two versions have the same multiple choice questions in the same order, but the choice options are in different orders.
Note
To create a new version, an instructor may first create a duplicate of the
original version subtree and use the Alt+Up or Alt+Down keys on the choice
options to change their orders. Pressing C-c C-c automatically re-numbers the
items in the list.
The example below shows a
subset of content in the Multiple Choice tree.
**** Multiple Choice
:PROPERTIES:
:ANSWER: \checkmark
:END:
***** Type A (Key)
:PROPERTIES:
1. Which of the following is a vegetable?
1. Okra
2. Carrot {{{property(ANSWER)}}}
3. Eggplant
4. Pepper
***** Type B (Key)
:PROPERTIES:
1. Which of the following is a vegetable?
1. Okra
2. Pepper
3. Eggplant
4. Carrot {{{property(ANSWER)}}}
Note
The answer to each multiple choice question is marked with the macro
{{{property(ANSWER)}}} and the Multiple Choice tree has the property of :ANSWER: \checkmark. Hence, an instructor can export the version subtree (e.g., Type A (Key)) to obtain the answer keys, with correct answers marked by a checkmark symbol.
1.7 Short Answers¶
Since open-ended questions do not typically require multiple versions,
one can have such questions in the corresponding topic Org file
(e.g., under the Questions top-level tree) and include them here.
2 Assignments Top-level Tree¶
- Instructors can create assignments as they do lecture content using Org mode.
- Assignment instructions may be created in the
Assignmentstop-level tree of a topic Org file, which are then included here. - See
Org_Teaching/2020 Spring/2020 Spring.orgfor an example.
3 Local Variables Top-level Tree¶
Local variables top-level tree has file-local variables. See the
Emacs manual for more information. File-local variables include the
options to (a) skip confirmation on running elisp-link functions
(org-confirm-elisp-link-function: nil), (b) allow property
inheritance (org-use-property-inheritance: t), which is important
for many functionalities of the Org-Coursepack to work properly, and (c)
change the default timestamp format.
The following shows the content of this subtree.
# Local Variables:
# org-confirm-elisp-link-function: nil
# org-export-babel-evaluate: 'inline-only
# org-use-property-inheritance: t
# org-time-stamp-custom-formats: ("<%a, %b %d, %Y>" . "<%a, %b %d, %Y %l:%M%p>")
# org-latex-active-timestamp-format: "%s"
# org-latex-inactive-timestamp-format: "%s"
# End: