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%TCIDATA{<META NAME="Title" CONTENT="Ch 1: Welcome to the Exam Builder">}
%TCIDATA{Created=Mon Aug 19 14:52:24 1996}
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\subsection{\textit{Chapter 1 \hrulefill }}

\quad

\section{Welcome to the Exam Builder\label{Welcome}}

Welcome to the \textit{Scientific Notebook }Exam Builder---the most powerful
product available for algorithmic generation of course materials.
Algorithmic generation is the automatic generation of slightly differing
versions of an exam or practice set based on a single set of algorithmic
instructions. In other words, instead of writing a series of exams, each
containing a variation of your questions and answers, you write a single
exam and state the questions and answers with algorithms. Your students can
drill and practice a skill at length by opening the same Exam Builder file
repeatedly, obtaining a slightly different set of questions each time.
Similarly, you can test each student with a slightly different version of an
exam, with each version drawn from the same Exam Builder source file.

The \textit{Scientific Notebook }Exam Builder combines the efficiency of
algorithmic generation with the ease of entering text and mathematics in
natural notation and the power of symbolic computation. You'll find the Exam
Builder invaluable, regardless of the course materials you need to
create---exams, quizzes, tests, tutorials, problem sets,\ drills, or
homework assignments---and regardless of the level of mathematics you
teach---elementary arithmetic, trigonometry, algebra, calculus, linear
algebra, differential equations, probability, or statistics. The course
materials you create with the Exam Builder can be worked and graded online
or in the traditional pencil-and-paper form. \vspace{1pt}

Use the \textit{Scientific Notebook }Exam Builder to \textbf{create course
materials easily }by using algorithmic generation, \textbf{save time }by
eliminating manual grading for online material, and \textbf{help your
students learn }by increasing their opportunities for practice and providing
instant feedback.

\subsection{How the Exam Builder works\label{How the Exam Builder works}}

The Exam Builder generates course materials from \emph{source files} that
you create in \textit{Scientific Notebook. }The source file starts out as an
ordinary document. When you are ready to generate exams from the source you
will save the source with the .qiz extension. When you try to open a qiz
file in \textit{Scientific Notebook} the following magic occurs: Exam
Builder reads the qiz source file and generates an instance of the exam. It
is this generated exam that is loaded into \textit{Scientific Notebook}.

Each source file contains a front section with information setting up the
exam. The front section is followed by a series of questions and answers.
Each question can have its own setup information. \vspace{1pt}

You create variations of the questions not by writing out each possible
variation of each question, but by supplying algorithms for the questions.
The Exam Builder does the work of creating the variations. The Exam Builder
has a rich set of tools for supplying algorithms and stating questions. You
can use random number functions and formulas to define variables that meet
certain conditions, then use those variables to state your questions. Your
questions can include tables, graphics, matrices, 2D and 3D plots, and any
other elements that can be included in \textit{Scientific Notebook }files.

Depending on the algorithms in your source file and the way you structure
the questions, any or all of these elements can vary slightly each time you
use the file to generate an exam:

\begin{itemize}
\item  the values of the variables that appear in the questions and answers

\item  the questions themselves

\item  the order in which questions and answers appear.
\end{itemize}

\noindent If your source file contains no algorithms, each generated
instance of the exam or problem set will be the same.

Each time you compile the source file, the Exam Builder generates an \emph{%
instance} of the exam or problem set. The exam instance is what the student
sees, and it's quite different from the source file for the exam. \hyperref{%
Click here to see a sample source file}{}{}{../Quizzes/fractions.tex}, then 
\hyperref{click here to see an exam instance}{}{}{../Quizzes/fractions.qiz}
generated from the source file. Click\FRAME{itbpF}{16.6875pt}{16pt}{2pt}{}{}{%
back.wmf}{\special{language "Scientific Word";type
"GRAPHIC";maintain-aspect-ratio TRUE;display "PICT";valid_file "F";width
16.6875pt;height 16pt;depth 2pt;original-width 17.8125pt;original-height
16.9375pt;cropleft "0";croptop "0.9857";cropright "0.9831";cropbottom
"0";filename 'back.wmf';file-properties "XNPEU";}}to return to this file
from the source and exam files.

If you have a local network or an account with an Internet service provider,
you can make the exam source file available online so students can answer
the questions using the computer. If they're working online, students can
submit their answers to multiple-choice questions for immediate automatic
grading. After looking at the graded result, students can then\ view the 
\emph{solutions }to obtain more detailed explanations of the problems. If
working online isn't an option for your students, you can print and make
copies of the exam and solutions files, grade the completed papers by hand,
and distribute copies of the solutions.

\subsection{Hardware and software requirements\label%
{Hardware and software requirements}}

The requirements for the Exam Builder are the same as the requirements for 
\textit{Scientific Notebook. }You need an IBM-compatible PC (486 or higher)
with 8 MB of RAM, a CD-ROM drive, and, depending on the type of hard drive
you have, approximately 50 MB of available disk space. Your system must be
running Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0. To take full advantage of the Exam
Builder, you also need a local network or an account with an Internet
service provider and an e-mail program.

\subsection{Automatic installation\label{Automatic installation}}

No special installation process is required. When you install \textit{%
Scientific Notebook,} the Exam Builder is installed automatically as
ExamBld2.exe in the \TEXTsymbol{\backslash}SciNotebook folder.

The installation program doesn't supply a desktop icon for the Exam Builder.
Instead, the program is called automatically any time you open a file with
the extension .qiz. You can run the Exam Builder as a separate application
directly from a DOS prompt or you can create your own Exam Builder icon and
then click it to start the software (see your Windows documentation for
instructions).

\subsection{Before you start\label{Before you start}}

You should be familiar with the basic operation of \textit{Scientific
Notebook }before you begin working with the Exam Builder. In particular, you
should know how to enter text and mathematics, how to use the popup menus to
tag text, and how to use the Maple menu to perform mathematical
computations. \textit{\hyperref{Getting Started with Scientific Notebook}{}{%
}{GScontents.tex} }and\ \textit{\hyperref{Doing Mathematics with Scientific
Notebook}{}{}{DM0-0.tex},} both of which are available online, are guides to
using the software to create documents and perform computations. You can
access additional information from the \hyperref{Help Contents}{}{}{%
Contents.tex}.

As you work with and learn how to use the Exam Builder, it will be very
helpful to refer to the sample exams supplied with \textit{Scientific
Notebook}. These are installed in the \TEXTsymbol{\backslash}SciNotebook%
\TEXTsymbol{\backslash}Quizzes folder.

\subsection{What this guide contains\label{What this guide contains}}

This online guide explains how to use the \textit{Scientific Notebook }Exam\
Builder to develop and deliver algorithmically generated course materials,
which we refer to generically as \emph{exams}. The guide begins with a
discussion of the tools available for creating algorithms (\hyperref{Chapter
2}{}{}{EBvariations.tex}) and an explanation of how to start source files (%
\hyperref{Chapter 3}{}{}{EBsource.tex}). It continues with explanations of
how to create the various parts of an exam (\hyperref{Chapter 4}{}{}{%
EBfrontsection.tex} and \hyperref{Chapter 5}{}{}{EBquestion.tex}). Finally,
the guide explains how to\ generate and exam to test a source file and how
to deliver the exam to students online or in print. (\hyperref{Chapter 6}{}{%
}{EBapply.tex}).

\end{document}
