Note:

If you want to create a new page for developers, you should create it on the Moodle Developer Resource site.

Question Engine 2: Difference between revisions

From MoodleDocs
m (Added new question engine illustration)
Line 29: Line 29:


* Tracker issue: MDL-20636
* Tracker issue: MDL-20636
* Work in progress is down-loadable from github: http://timhunt.github.com/Moodle-Question-Engine-2/
* Work in progress is down-loadable from github: https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/commits/MDL-20636_master_new_question_engine
* The place to discuss this is the [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=121 quiz forum]. You might like to use [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=134156 this thread].
* The place to discuss this is the [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=121 quiz forum]. You might like to use [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=134156 this thread].
* There is also a [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=114527#p502692 Thread in Lesson forum].
* There is also a [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=114527#p502692 Thread in Lesson forum].

Revision as of 18:07, 6 June 2011

Be ware - the new question engine is still lacking the "I'm feeling lucky" button There are some long-standing problems at the heart of the Moodle quiz module. Some design decisions that made sense when the quiz was started in the Moodle 1.1 days that are creaking at the seams now, because the quiz and question system has expanded so much.

The main problems are

  • The database structure is not normalised. This leads to robustness issues, particularly on overloaded MySQL servers.
  • As features like adaptive mode and each attempt builds on last were added, the code has evolved into spaghetti.
  • And we want to add yet more things like certainty based marking.
  • It is more work than it should be create a new question type, and (judging by forum threads) the API is confusing.
  • It is difficult to use questions in other modules like lesson.

These are explained in more detail in Why this change is needed? below.

This is a large proposal, so I have broken it down into sections. The Design is the key part. The other sections support that.

See also