About Math entry

The Math entry item allows participants to enter math answers using a user-friendly mathematical editor.

Creating a Math entry

Proceed as follows to create/edit a Math entry:

Go to Authoring > Items.
Go to the folder in Which you want to add your item.
Click onto add an item.
Select Math entry.
Result: The content pane of the item is opened.
Enter the item name in the breadcrumb at the top.
Select + Add block to add a content block and fill in the instruction.
Click in the answer block and click on + Problem to add your math problem.

Note: It is possible to enter text in the answer block and to add your math problem inline in the text.
Result: The Add a math problem dialogue window appears.
In the Add a math problem dialogue window:
- Enter your math problem by using the keyboard or by using the math buttons in the toolbar of the math editor at the top.
- Click +Gap at the bottom of the page to add the gap to be completed by the participant and enter the correct answer in the gap.
- Add additional gaps if required.
- Click Save.
  Result: The math problem is saved.
If you want to add additional problems, repeat steps 7 to 9.
Click Preview to try the item.

Adding more solutions

Proceed as follows to add additional solutions for the gap(s) in your math problem:

Select your math problem.
Result: The Problem tab is opened.
Click to add one or more solutions.

Customising the math editor

You can customise the math editor for participants by defining which buttons should be available in the player. This way, a different set of math-related buttons becomes available depending on the grade or knowledge level of the participants. You can also choose to show or not show the tooltips of the math buttons to the participants.

Proceed as follows to customise the math editor for participants:

Select the answer block.
Result: On the right side, the tab Block is opened. By default, all the buttons are activated, they are grouped by category and the tooltips are shown.
Disable Show tooltips for buttons if you don't want to show the tooltips (see image) to the participants.
If you want to show the buttons without categories in the player, deselect Group buttons by category.
If you want to activate/de-activate:
- an entire category of buttons, select or deselect the category.
- a selection of buttons, select or deselect the buttons of your choice.

Automatic evaluation of equivalent answers

assessmentQ contains a built-in Computer Algebra System (CAS), which is a system that can evaluate equivalent answers to math questions automatically. For example, if the answer is 1/2, then 2/4 or 0.5 or 0.50 can also be approved automatically. This is very helpful in case you organize a lot of math exams, and if the author cannot predict all possible answers.

The CAS can only be activated for the item type “Math entry”, and is displayed as an extra score setting:

When you enable the automatic evaluation of equivalent answers, you will see a popup with several options. This allows you to fine-tune the evaluation rules:

Setting	Explanation	Example
Approve all equivalent answers	All answers that are mathematically equivalent with one of the solutions will be approved automatically	if the correct solution is 1/2, then 2/4 or 0.5 or 0.50 will also be approved if the correct solution is 1/3, then 0.33 will not be approved, because 0.33 is rounded, and not mathematically equivalent with 1/3
Approve all equivalent answers, with a minimal precision of e.g. 2 decimals	All answers that are mathematically equivalent with one of the solutions will be approved automatically, as long as the first 2 decimals are correct.	if the correct solution is 1/3, then 0.33 will be considered correct, as it has 2 correct decimals. 0.333 or 0.3333 are also correct.
Approve answers that are identical to the solution, or have a different sequence of operations	The answer must contain the same components as the solution, but the order of operations can be different.	if the correct solution is 2x - 11, then -11 + 2x will be considered correct. However, - 5 - 6 + 2x will be considered incorrect.

Note: When Automatic evaluation of equivalent answers is activated, 'e' is interpreted as Euler's number, and 'i' is interpreted as the imaginary unit. We advise against using these characters if you want to create a math problem with variables.