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Using the Tutorial Feature
We are excited to announce the initial release of the WebAssign Tutorial feature, which you can use to create simple or complex tutorial questions for your students.
What is a tutorial question?
A tutorial question gives you the flexibility to organize complex questions of any type into small, manageable chunks your students can more easily understand. You add each chunk as a separate part of the question the student answers, and you can add hints that guide them along the way.
For example, you may want to add a tutorial to a very detailed question where step-by-step examples will help students on their way to finding the correct answer.
Only one part is active on the screen at a time, so students are focused on only that specific part. Parts they already completed display in gray below the current tutorial question part for quick reference.
When can I use it?
You can turn any WebAssign question into a tutorial question by adding a few tutorial-specific tags to the question content.
How is a tutorial question scored?
Each question part within a tutorial has 1 point assigned to it by default.
You can change the score for each question part in the tutorial by changing the point value in the Assignment Editor.
For example, you may have a question that contains a tutorial within it. If you do not want the tutorial part of the question to be scored, you can set the score for the tutorial question part to 0 (zero) points. That way, the student receives points for the question but not for the tutorial part.
How can I set up a tutorial question?
Get as creative as you want to when you design a tutorial question. This new feature lets you design your questions using a premise and as many parts and hints as you want to get your students through the question. You can make tutorial questions simple, or you can make them very complex with many levels - it's all up to you to decide how to use the new tutorial features.
You can:
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Make an entire question a tutorial.
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Add a tutorial as only part of a question.
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Add more than one tutorial to a question.
What are the new features?
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Feature
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Tag
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Description
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Tutorial
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<tutorial> </tutorial>
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Use this tag to start and end a tutorial question. All of the tags in this table go inside the tutorial tag.
You can turn any type of question into a tutorial question.
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skip
skip_text
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These tags control if a Skip button displays, and the text that displays on the button.
By default, a Skip button displays allowing a student to move to the next part without answering the question.
Displaying the Skip Button
To display the button with the Skip text, you do not need to do anything.
You can remove the button if you want so students must complete each part of the tutorial question. To do so, type skip='no' within the tutorial tag.
Example: <tutorial skip='no'>
Changing the Text of the Skip Button
If you use a Skip button, the button automatically displays as "Skip". Once a student skips a tutorial step, the correct answer displays. You can change the "Skip" button text for all of the steps in the tutorial. To do so, type different text, such as "Next" or "I don't know," within the tutorial tag.
Example: <tutorial skip_text="Next">
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Premise
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<premise title> </premise>
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A premise describes the overall question, and it displays on each screen as the student completes the question. Each premise must have a title.
By default, no premise displays.
Although this is optional, we recommend you add a premise for each tutorial question.
To add a premise to the tutorial, add the premise tag and required title attribute within the tutorial tag, typically just after the opening tutorial tag.
Example: <premise title="Think about this first">This is the text of the premise</premise>
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Step
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<step> </step>
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Each part of a question is a step. You must add at least one step to each tutorial question.
You can add as many steps as you want within a tutorial question. Each step displays as a different question part, one part at a time, on the the student's screen.
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label
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By default, WebAssign shows a label that displays "Part x of y." The label identifies which part of the question the student is on, such as "Part 1 of 3."
If you want some other wording, you can enter custom text as a step label. To do so, type the text in the step tag using the label attribute.
Example: <step label="Hint">
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title
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By default, WebAssign does not display a title unless you add one.
If you add a title, it displays after the label. You can add a title to further clarify the question part. To do so, type the text for your title in the step tag using the title attribute.
Example: <step title="Reasoning Exercise">
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button
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By default, WebAssign displays a tutorial question part by part on the screen when the student reaches the tutorial point in the question.
You can change the default by collapsing the tutorial question into a button.
When the student clicks the button, the tutorial expands and they can go through it.
To collapse the tutorial into a button the student must click to see the tutorial, add the button attribute to the step tag and type the text for the button.
Example: <step button>Click here for a Sample</button>
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skip_text
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By default, if you use a Skip button the button automatically displays as "Skip." Once a student skips a tutorial step, the correct answer displays.
You can change the text that displays on the button to something other than "Skip" for the parts in this step if you want to. To do so, type the text for the button in the step tag using the skip_text attribute.
Example: <step skip_text="Show Me">
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<hint> </hint>
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Use this to add a hint anywhere a student may need it. You can enter more than one hint in a step. A hint displays as a light bulb before a student clicks it. When clicked, it displays the text you entered in the hint tag.
To do so, enter the hint text that displays when a student clicks the Hint button in the hint tag.
Example: <hint>This is a hint for your students.</hint>
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Conclusion
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<conclusion title> </conclusion>
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By default, no conclusion displays.
Although this is optional, it is a good idea to add a conclusion to visually signify the end of the tutorial question.
The conclusion displays at the end of the question. Each conclusion must have a title.
To add a conclusion to the tutorial, add the conclusion tag and required title attribute within the tutorial tag (before </tutorial).
Example: <conclusion title="Done">Thank you for completing this assignment</conclusion>
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What does a tutorial question look like?
This example shows a simple tutorial question. It has a premise, two parts with a hint in each part, and a conclusion.
Coding Example
The entire code for the above example follows.
Thank you for using WebAssign! We hope you enjoy using the new Tutorial feature.
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