[WWdevel] testing and showing results

[P. G. L. <gl...@um...>]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of converting our old (MapleTA) on-line placement test 
into a new (WeBWorK) version, and have come across the following: MapleTA 
allows a homework set (or test) to show the score or not, and the correct 
answers, or not, once the set (or test) has been submitted for a grade. 
For our placement test this is a good thing: we don't want people printing 
out copies of the test, and because the score on the test is just one of 
several factors determining a student's placement it's generally regarded 
as a good thing to avoid having the student see how s/he did on the test 
before talking with an advisor about her/his math placement.

This is, of course, not what WeBWorK does.  The easiest way I can see to 
add this capability to WeBWorK, and/or the WeBWorK gateway tests, is to 
add (another) column to the set table in the database.  Let's call it 
hide_results.  Then if this column has the value 0 (or null, if that's 
still allowed in the database) we behave as usual.  Other settings could 
include 1 - hide the problems but report a score (for a gateway assignment 
this should be easy to implement; for a homework, it might be a little 
harder, but I think it shouldn't be bad); or 2 - just report that the 
score was saved but return no data about the score.

(1) Does anyone else have a use for something like this, or see it as
   potentially useful?  In particular, should it be a gateway/quiz feature
   to the exclusion of homework?
(2) Is it a problem to add another field to the database tables?  (i.e.,
   has Sam's fevered work in the background to deal with those of me who
   keep adding fields finally made it extensible to the point of dealing
   with these gracefully?)

And, for the purposes of development
(3) If I update my test WeBWorK install from HEAD in the CVS, will it
   break everything (in particular, database access) at this point?  I've
   been sending my gateway revisions to HEAD, which suggests that I might
   want to start with an up-to-date copy before playing with this.

Thanks,
Gavin

-- 
P Gavin LaRose, PhD  |  gl...@um... | 734.764.6454  |  ...you have
Program Manager, Instructional Technology |   to respect someone who can
Mathematics Dept,  University of Michigan | spell  Tuesday, even if they
http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~glarose/   | can't spell it right. -Milne