General Instructions for Tutorial Questions

Introduction

Each source file should contain the text for one question; the text is marked-up in an extension of HTML. In general, the markup used is no different from standard HTML, except that lines beginning with any of the following elements are handled specially:
	<QUESTION ...>
	</QUESTION>
	<CHOICES ...>
	</CHOICES>
	<RESPONSES>
	</RESPONSES>
	<WHEN ...>
	<ANSWER ...>
	<HINTS>
	</HINTS>
	<HINT>
Note that as the gateway does not implement a full HTML parser, the above elements, if they appear and are to be effective, must be the first on their respective lines.

Note also that even though an extension of HTML is used, the gateway never passes any of the extended elements to the client; therefore clients do not have to be modified to use the tutorial documents.

General Structure

The general structure of a tutorial question is as shown here:
	. . .
	<QUESTION TYPE=xxx>
	...
	</QUESTION>
	. . .
The . . . at the beginning and end represent normal HTML material. The ... in the middle represents special question markup material.

All material before the start element and after the end element is included verbatim in the resulting document served to the viewer; this material therefore should be in standard HTML. Material between the elements is handled differently depending on the type of question, although there are some things that are common to all question types.

"xxx" identifies the type of question. Allowable types are:

The text between the <QUESTION...> and </QUESTION> elements is marked up into a number of sections (depending on the question type). Text that is not within one of the sections is transfered verbatim.

Example Structure

A full example template for a multiple-choice question is shown here:
	<HTML>
	<HEAD>
	<TITLE> . . . </TITLE>
	</HEAD>
	<BODY>
	<H1> . . . </H1>
	. . .
	<QUESTION TYPE=Multiple-Choice>
	. . . 
	<CHOICES>
	<CHOICE ANS=...> . . .
	. . .
	</CHOICES>
	<ANSWER ANS=...>
	<RESPONSES>
	<WHEN ...> . . .
	. . .
	</RESPONSES>
	<HINTS>
	<HINT> . . .
	. . .
	</HINTS>
	</QUESTION>
	</BODY>
	</HTML>
Of course, most browsers allow the <HTML>, </HTML>, <HEAD>, and </HEAD> tags to be omitted.

Sections of a Question

The various sections in the question text are delimited by the following elements:

The sections may be in any order, but the order given above is recommended.

Hints Section

The format of a hints section is show here:
	<HINTS>
	<HINT> . . .
	. . .
	<HINT> . . .
	. . .
	</HINTS>

Each <HINT> marks the start of a new hint. The gateway will generate links and URL's so that on the first request, the first hint will be revealed, on the second request the first two will be revealed, and so on.

The gateway automatically generates an indicator, with the proper link references, indicating that hints are available.

Other Sections

The other sections are discussed with the applicable question type.

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