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List: lon-capa-users
Subject: Re: [LON-CAPA-users] Referencing data from one problem in another
From: "Mills, Douglas G" <dmills () illinois ! edu>
Date: 2012-04-18 11:22:13
Message-ID: 434FDE2B-1387-4E66-A696-49EEAA6E43A1 () illinois ! edu
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Thank you Stuart. Very helpful. Our use case is collecting experimental data during a \
lab in one problem and then processing it in a postlab in a second problem. We had \
considered a multiparty problem but think we'll have finer grained control over \
separate problems if we want to control their availability to specific timeslots for \
example.
In the set I'm currently working on I've for the moment at least taken to generating \
random data if the student-entered data is missing-- at least for testing in the \
construction space, but it may also be a strategy we will consider for handling \
students who miss their labs but should still do the post-lab.
Thank you Stuart!
Doug
-sent from mobile-
On Apr 17, 2012, at 10:25 PM, "Stuart Raeburn" <raeburn@msu.edu> wrote:
> Doug,
>
> One thing to keep in mind when creating problems which use information from a \
> different problem is the impact on re-usability.
> If you require paired problems to operate together in a course in such a way that \
> one problem requires data from another problem, it would be good coding practice to \
> test for the existence of the other problem, and to alert the user (e.g., via an \
> <instructorcomment>) if the other problem is not present in the course.
> Another thing to bear in mind is that such problems will show degraded behavior \
> when previewing and testing in Construction Space, and instead need to be published \
> and imported into a course for the full capabilities to be seen.
> That is not too much of an inconvenience, given (a) access to a test course, and \
> (b) the availability of the "Edit resource" function for an item in a course, for \
> which the corresponding Construction Space is housed on the server hosting your \
> current session.
> One question I have is what is your particular use case where separate problems are \
> preferred to a multi-part problem?
> Anyway, the technique you identify -- defining mapalias(es) for the problem(s) in a \
> published sequence file, and importing the published sequence into a course, is the \
> strategy to use here.
> You will, however, be restricted in the data to which you have access between \
> problems. You should be able to retrieve preserved data (i.e., data stored for a \
> particular problem -- including a student's submission), but you will not have \
> access to perl variables in a different problem. That restriction occurs because \
> of the way LON-CAPA carries out its randomization - this occurs during the process \
> of rendering a problem.
> Future LON-CAPA versions will store the randomseed as part of the stored submission \
> history, which could provide a means to re-construct perl variables used in one \
> problem, when rendering a different problem, as long as the student has made at \
> least one submission in the first problem. Shared script blocks in published \
> library files would be a way to take advantage of that.
> However, for now, you'll be restricted to the data currently available from the \
> stored submission record, which includes things such as submission, award, solved \
> etc., accessed via an &EXT() call, as shown in \
> /res/msu/albertel/test/ext_examples.library etc., when browsing resource space.
> ******
>
> As a proof of concept the following pair of problems within a published sequence, \
> use an &EXT() call in the second problem to access the submission from the first \
> problem to determine what the correct answer will be for the second problem.
> ***********
>
> p1.problem (mapalias = first)
>
> ***********
>
> <problem>
> <script type="loncapa/perl">
> $a = &random(0,5,0.1);
> $b = &random(3,12,0.1);
> $c = $a + $b;</script>
> <startouttext />What is $a + $b?
> <endouttext />
> <numericalresponse answer="$c" id="11">
> <responseparam name="tol" type="tolerance" default="0.01%" description="Numerical \
> Tolerance" />
> <textline readonly="no" />
> </numericalresponse>
> </problem>
>
> ***********
>
> p2.problem (mapalias = second)
>
> ***********
>
>
> <problem>
> <script type="loncapa/perl">
> $othersub = &EXT('user.resource.resource.0.11.submission','first');
> if ($othersub eq '') {
> $othersub = 0;
> }
> $answer = 2.0*$othersub;
> </script>
> <startouttext />What is double the last number you entered for the previous \
> question?<br /> <endouttext />
> <numericalresponse answer="$answer" id="11">
> <responseparam name="tol" type="tolerance" default="0.01%" description="Numerical \
> Tolerance" /> <textline readonly="no" />
> </numericalresponse>
> </problem>
>
> **********
>
> published sequence (with mapaliases)
>
> **********
>
>
> <map>
> <param to="1" value="first" name="parameter_0_mapalias" type="string" />
> <param to="2" value="second" name="parameter_0_mapalias" type="string" />
> <resource src="/res/raeburn/stuart/paired/p1.problem" id="1" type="start" \
> title="First One" /> <resource src="/res/raeburn/stuart/paired/p2.problem" id="2" \
> type="finish" title="Last One" /> <link to="2" index="1" from="1" />
> </map>
>
> *******
>
> If you import the published sequence into a course (having set appropriate domain \
> and username in the src attributes in the map), you will find that p2.problem will \
> access the submission from p1.problem.
> If you take a look at the EXT subroutine in lonnet.pm (e.g., see:
> http://source.loncapa.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm?rev=1.1164;content-type=text%2Fplain)
>
> you will see this block of code:
>
> if ($realm eq 'user') {
> # --------------------------------------------------------------- user.resource
> if ($space eq 'resource') {
> if ( (defined($Apache::lonhomework::parsing_a_problem)
> > > defined($Apache::lonhomework::parsing_a_task))
> &&
> ($symbparm eq &symbread()) ) {
> # if we are in the middle of processing the resource the
> # get the value we are planning on committing
> if (defined($Apache::lonhomework::results{$qualifierrest})) {
> return $Apache::lonhomework::results{$qualifierrest};
> } else {
> return $Apache::lonhomework::history{$qualifierrest};
> }
> } else {
> my %restored;
> if ($publicuser || $env{'request.state'} eq 'construct') {
> %restored=&tmprestore($symbparm,$courseid,$udom,$uname);
> } else {
> %restored=&restore($symbparm,$courseid,$udom,$uname);
> }
> return $restored{$qualifierrest};
> }
>
> The key item here is this test:
>
> ($symbparm eq &symbread())
>
> which compares the unique resource instance identifier (the "symb") of the item you \
> are asking about -- which will have been interpolated from the mapalias argument in \
> your &EXT() call -- with the value of symbread, which is the "symb" for the problem \
> currently being rendered.
> If they are different, which is the case you are asking about, the data available \
> come from:
> %restored=&restore($symbparm,$courseid,$udom,$uname);
>
> which is a call to restore the record for the non-current "symb" in course: \
> $courseid for user $uname:$udom.
>
> Stuart
>
> Stuart Raeburn
> MSU LON-CAPA group
>
>
> Quoting "Mills, Douglas G" <dmills@illinois.edu>:
>
> > Following up on the question below, I know that you can use &EXT functions \
> > inside a Conditional statement in a sequence, for example, to access information \
> > from within one of the problems in the sequence via that problem's mapalias. I'm \
> > experimenting to see if that works also between two problems in a course if one \
> > of them has a mapalias set up, etc. It appears that this does not work, unless \
> > perhaps I'm not doing it right... Any tips on the boundaries that an &EXT \
> > function can cross vs. those it cannot, or guidance in its use or documentation \
> > besides
> > https://s10.lite.msu.edu/res/msu/albertel/test/ext_examples.problem#0
> >
> > Thank you!
> >
> > Doug
> >
> >
> > On 4/12/12 3:29 PM, "Douglas Mills" <dmills@ad.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I know this can be done between parts in a multipart problem, but is it also \
> > possible to reference student input or other PERL variables in one problem from \
> > a separate problem? If so, what is the mechanism for doing so? Is there an \
> > &EXT function that allows that? Thanks!
> > Doug
> >
> > Douglas Mills
> > Director of Instructional Technologies
> > Department of Chemistry
> > University of Illinois
> > dmills@illinois.edu
> > (217) 244-5739
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> LON-CAPA-users@mail.lon-capa.org
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