MathML? XML? Multiple choice quizzes...

Hi there,

Is anyone able to give me some pointers in the right direction?  I'm looking
for a way to create huge banks of searchable, randomisable multiple-choice
questions to be given and graded as quizzes *offline* from a CD-Rom.  The
more automated this is in the long run, the better.

Here's some of the issues:

-- the questions are currently in LaTeX format because there are a number of
mathematical symbols not easily displayed (unless they were converted to a
gif)
-- the questions often get students to refer to a data appendix -- which
could be done in a scrollable pop-up window
-- possiblity of hints
-- possibility of immediate feedback for the question (rather than all at
the end)

I've attempted converting LaTeX to an interactive PDF file.  While it keeps
the nice mathematical symbols, it's hard to navigate and show the data
appendix nicely -- gets fiddley very fast.

I've thought about converting LaTeX to XML in an automated sort of way, but
I run into the problem of having to convert all the math symbols into gifs
and then trying to format them nicely together.  Even if I do this, I don't
have experience with XML (yet) -- I'm used to php/mySQL.  Say I go along
this route, are there any examples of XML structures/parsers for multiple
choice data?

Does anyone else have any brainwaves as to how to do this?

*Many many thanks*
.: rachel

Received on Wednesday, 29 May 2002 19:55:32 UTC