Month: June 2016

Canvas Quizzes and Formula Questions

Katherine Hamilton teaches our SRA 365 statistics course. She came to me the other day with a request to build out assessments that randomly generate data sets for use in her quizzes.

As I understand it, there are three use cases that she described to me:

  1. A randomly generated data set used within a problem. The question is currently manually graded as an essay question.
  2. A randomly generated data set in the format of a table that is used in multiple questions.
  3. A randomly generated data set that includes many different formats of data that are used in multiple questions.

We spoke with Chris Gamrat here in my office because he is currently collaborating with Nick Giacobe. They are working on developing a tool that uses PII as random seeds to build questions. That tool is currently being developed outside of Canvas and does not have a clear completion date.

Katherine referred to the formula-format questions in Canvas, but I’m finding little documentation and what appears to be some significant shortcomings for our particular needs, especially for use cases #2 and #3.

My short-term solution was to create assessments using question banks and alternate versions. The question banks could either be configured in a traditional way to provide students with similar but different questions at random, or provide students with related sets of questions at random. Using alternate versions is also possible if we can figure out a scalable way to deliver the assessments each semester. Right now, it looks like we have to pick student individually as opposed to students in particular groups. I have to look into that more.

New addition to our online simulation tool: ADG#2 Diabolical Deeds in the District

I met with Col. Jacob Graham (ret.) earlier this week to show him the new online platform that I’ve created to deliver various online simulations that our faculty have authored and use in their resident and online courses. These simulations are team-based efforts that establish a narrative where students have to role-play various entities with the goal of uncovering a plot using intelligence analysis skills and techniques. Probably not accurate, but I would describe it as an elaborate game of Clue.

The platform I have developed uses Canvas and WordPress to deliver various forms of intelligence to teams on a scheduled and ad-hoc basis. In the past, it has taken us weeks to design and develop a simulation even with existing electronic content. A few days ago, I was able to spin up a completely working Analytic Decision Game (ADG) for Jake in a little more than 90 minutes. Granted, Jake still needs to review the intelligence to make sure the content is up-to-date and formatted correctly, but the ADG could run now if needed.

I have updated instructions and added a draft overview, but need to spend a lot more time building out those development resources in the event of a “lottery” moment – my term for succession planning.