Educational Software Cooperative 4

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Text File | 1996-01-31 | 22.3 KB | 517 lines

Version 1.30 + Added automatic word wrap feature when the teacher is entering a new question. + Scoreboard files (*.SCB) are now encrypted to prevent any possibility of students changing their scores. + The student can change the order of questions from random to sequential mode from within the program at the Options Menu. + New command line parameter "ENFORCE" when used with "STOPAT=" or "STARTAT=" parameters will prevent a student from exiting the program/quiz until the specified range or quantity of questions have been attempted. + New command line parameter "NODUPES" when used in random mode will guarantee that no duplicating questions will be given to the student. In other words, each question presented to the student will appear only once (i.e., no duplicates). + New command line parameter "QTY=" where "QTY=5" specifies that five RANDOM questions MUST be answered before exiting a quiz. + Directive pointers can be imbedded in an answer that will force what question number the student will be presented based upon their answer of the previous question. + Documentation can be printed from within the program. Version 1.34 + Longer multiple-choice answers + Replace the "_" fill-in-the-blank default character with a different character using FIBCHAR=x + NOREVIEW withholds answers and/or reviewing of previous choices during an on-screen test. + SCOREALL prevents user from bypassing the top 10 score chart. + NOOPTS suppresses the "Play Options" menu. Version 1.35 + Longer references (up to 19 lines via use of ALT+M maximize hot-key). + REFNOTES parameter forces automatic display of long reference notes after each question + Fixed a bug that causes computer lockup when two or more players participate using sequential question mode. After the last question is displayed, the program locked up. + Alternating background colors are now used when more than one student is taking an on screen quiz. Player #1's background color is blue, player #2's is red, and so on... This helps to identify whose turn is up when playing contests. + When sequential question mode is active during an on screen quiz, a new "How many questions remaining" indicator appears in the status bar at the top of the screen. The number of remaining questions is identified as "Left: ###" where "###" is the number of questions remaining to be answered before the quiz is finished. + Teacher can now redirect printouts of their quizzes (from the editor) to an ASCII disk file by using the command line parameter LPT=filename Version 1.36 + Allowed use of a double comma token to represent a true comma in a fill-in-the-blank answer. Example, if the question was "What is 500+500? _" the answer the student may think to enter may be 1,000 or 1000. Since a comma represents a separator between multiple answers, previous versions would not except "1,000" as a correct answer since "1,000" would be interpreted as either "1" or "000". To avoid this problem the teacher can now use a double comma when creating a fill- in-the-blank question where there is a need for an actual comma in the answer itself. In the example above, the teacher would code the actual answers as "1,,000, 1000". + Fixed a bug that would lock up the computer if the user was taking a sequential quiz and reached the very last question and having answered the question then pressed [ESC]. If the student then selected "Exit to D.O.S." from the Options menu, the computer would lock up. This problem has been fixed. + The prompt window that asks for the quantity of students participating in an on-screen quiz, and then the following prompt asking for their name can now be customized. If you create an ASCII file an name it "QUIZ.WHO", the contents of this file will change the prompts in these two windows. On line 1 of this QUIZ.WHO ASCII file, enter the word(s) that would go in the following blank: "Enter total number of ________ participating: " If line 1 of this file is left blank, the word "students" will appear since it is the default. On line 2 of the same file, enter a text string that you want displayed when each player is prompted for their name. Example: "Please enter your student identification number:" If this line is left blank, then the default prompt "Please enter your name:" will be used. Version 2.00 + Enhanced reference note file parameter added that will define the last line to display within an ASCII reference file. Previous versions would only allow a beginning line number to be specified (e.g. {BIBLE.ASC,15} start on line 15). Now you can define the last line to be displayed in the reference file by adding another comma and the ending line number (e.g. {BIBLE.ASC,15,25} where only lines 15 to 25 of this ASCII file will be displayed as an reference introduction to a specific question). + A custom "help screen" can be displayed on the screen for a student taking a quiz. If a "xxxx.HLP" file exists, it will be displayed PRIOR TO the first question in a quiz. "xxxx" represents a file name (up to 8 characters) and MUST match the same name of the quiz file (xxxx.QZ). The extension ".HLP" must be used. This "help screen" (or information screen) is a simple ASCII text file. If one does not exists, it will not be used. Also, this same .HLP file can be accessed at ANY TIME during the actual quiz by pressing the [F1] key. If you would like to have such a screen appear PRIOR TO the first question in a quiz, but NOT be available again after the first question is displayed, then use the file extension ".1ST" instead. Again, it is important that all these files have the same prefix filename as the quiz file (.QZ) that you wish to use. Example: MYTEST.QZ and MYTEST.HLP, and STUDY.QZ and STUDY.1ST are valid file combinations. + A new command line parameter has been added that will bypass the scoreboard at the conclusion of a quiz or the program. If you DON'T want your students' progress or scores recorded via the scoreboard, add "NOSCORE" to the command line when starting Create A Quiz from the DOS prompt (QUIZ NOSCORE). + Multiple choice questions have been expanded to support up to 7 choices per question (previous versions supported up to 5). Also, the number of lines available to the question field has been expanded from 4 lines to 6. + The file/quiz selection menu now SORTS all listings by the quiz file name ALPHABETICALLY. Previous versions performed NO sorting whatsoever. + The student taking a quiz on-screen can now print individual questions "on the fly" by pressing the [P] key. Version 2.01 + Fixed a bug which would occur during a teacher printout of questions (when in the editor mode) when answer strings were longer than 68 characters. + Fixed a bug that caused the question window to explode and fill the screen entirely when really long words occurred (e.g. thrombolymphangitis) at the end of a question line. Version 2.02 + Fixed a bug which would occur when any question contained 6 or 7 multiple choice answers AND when the solution was either multiple choice number 6 or 7. This error would not occur if 6-7 m/c answers existed AND the actual correct solution was either m/c answer 1-5. + Fixed a bug that during actual quiz time would cause multiple-choice windows to be too small for all the possible m/c answers when 6-7 m/c answers existed. Choices 6 and 7 would spill outside of the window. Version 2.10 + Added the ability to delete a question from within the editor. + Changed all Yes/No window prompts to a more sophisticated menu selection with a moving highlight bar. Version 2.11 + Fixed a bug that would intermittently occur when loading a .QZ file containing a large number of questions. The program would abort during the percentage bar display and report an error 5. This only occurred with registered versions. + Added an "[O] Options" feature in the editor that when chosen gives the teacher the ability to force prerequisites on that particular quiz. For example, if the teacher wanted to insure that before QUIZ-2.QZ the student took QUIZ-1.QZ and achieved a score/percentage of 20 questions taken with a percentage of 80% or above, then the teacher can define these prerequisites from the new "[O] Options" input window. When ANY student attempts to take QUIZ-2.QZ, the scoreboard file for QUIZ-1.QZ will be scanned, and the highest score (regardless of the student's name) in the QUIZ-1.SCB scoreboard file will be compared with the prerequisites you have defined. If you specify in QUIZ-2.QZ that a score of 75% or better (with a minimum of 10 questions attempted) be obtained from QUIZ-1.QZ, then QUIZ-1.SCB will be checked as the student attempts to take QUIZ-2.QZ. If the highest score in QUIZ-1.SCB exceeds this requirement, then the student will be allowed to continue with QUIZ-2.QZ. + For real long questions (170 characters or >, approximately 3-6 lines of data) the question pop-up window has been expanded to fit better in the interactive quiz interface. Previous versions force a question window of no greater than 55 characters. This made the window much taller than necessary when it appeared to the student. This version now makes the pop-up question window wider and narrower for real long questions. Version 2.20 + With all the command line parameters now available, it can get very crowded at the DOS prompt when you try to create a custom environment for your students. To eliminate the lengthy DOS command line startup, the user can now create a QUIZ.CFG and enter the parameters into that file rather than type the parameters at the DOS prompt. Here's an example: Instead of typing QUIZ TESTME.QZ NODUPES STARTAT=1 when starting a interactive quiz session for your students you can create an ASCII file and on line #1 of the QUIZ.CFG file place the text --> TESTME.QZ NODUPES STARTAT=1 Next time when you start the program (just type QUIZ) the QUIZ.CFG will be looked for, and if it exists, the first line will be loaded and the parameters used. + Fixed a bug that occurred when {NOERR} was used with multiple- choice questions where the answer chosen was greater than 55 characters in length for the "Your response..." window. Since {NOERR} is an undocumented feature, this bug affected no one. + Create A Quiz is now "Create A Survey", with the new command line parameter "SURVEY". What this parameter does is turn off all scoring (no score header, nor scoreboard), and record all responses from the student during a quiz in an ASCII file "RECORD.LOG". The student's name, the quiz, the date and time, in addition to all the responses to the questions are maintained in the RECORD.LOG file on the default disk. Version 2.21 + If you as a teacher would like to grade your students' knowledge of a quiz but do not want them to know how they scored, then use the command line parameter "4AGRADE". This new command will instruct Create A Quiz to 1) suppress the "Correct" or "Wrong" result window; 2) suppress the status header from displaying "Correct:" and "Percent:". The teacher will find the student's answers/repsonses in a file called "RECORD.LOG" and their scores in the "SCORE.LOG" file. + For those students who are heavy handed, or all thumbs, you can give them the opportunity to change their answer/response to a quiz by adding the command line parameter "CONFIRM". After the student selects/inputs his response, a confirmation window will appear asking the student if he is sure that he wants to accept his response, with an option to return to the question and choose/input a different answer. After the student has confirmed his response, his response will be judged "Correct" or "Wrong". + The teacher can customize what appears on the top status line with the command line parameters "NOPCT" or "NOSTATS". The former will display the following: ┌─────────────────────── WHO'S WHO ─────────────────────────┐ │ Name: James Attempts: 4 Left: 3 │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ If you wish to suppress all of the status line, use "NOSTATS" and you will instead have the following header: ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ WHO'S WHO - LESSON 1 - FAMOUS MEN │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Version 2.22 + The student's version has been modified so that when the quiz file pick list is displayed the actual .QZ file names are excluded. Only the quiz title and description will be shown to the student to pick from. We felt that there was no reason for the student to know the actual DOS file name of the .QZ file, hence we have removed it from the display list. The teacher's edition, however, still has the .QZ file names displayed in the file pick lists. + When a quiz is being taken in sequential mode (i.e., 1,2,3,) a bug would occur if the user exits to the Options Menu early and then resumes the very same quiz. The problem involved the program failing to set the quiz back to the beginning of the quiz, rather than continuing where they left off. This problem has been corrected. Version 2.23 + The teacher can now specify a random selection of questions to be printed. This now means the teacher has the option to print quizzes: 1) by range (from # to #), 2) by marked questions, or 3) by random selection. + When printing quizzes (see above) the option has been added that allows two printouts to be created automatically - one for the teacher (with the solutions revealed), and one for the student (no solutions shown). + The teacher can set an expiration period in minutes which when a specified quiz is used beyond this time limit the quiz will become unaccessible to a student. In plain English, this means that the teacher can establish a time limit of 120 minutes for EXAMPLE.QZ. Over the period of days, weeks, etc. the program will track the time all students use EXAMPLE.QZ. If the accumulated time over the days, weeks EXCEEDS 120 minutes, the EXAMPLE.QZ will not longer be available for the student to use. This "expiration" option can be set from the Teacher's edition editing screen - select [O] for advanced "Options" menu. Version 2.24 + Fixed a bug which would occur with the "Take a quiz" selection where sometimes dummy answers are displayed from a previously edited quiz. This would only occur if a teacher edited a quiz, saved the file, and then immediately took/played a different quiz. + Added step-by-step instructions when a new quiz is created, plus added more input error checks to make the program more user friendly for the novice teacher and for those who don't read the documentation. Version 2.25 + Adding the command line parameter "NOQS" will turn off the familiar ? ¿ wallpaper symbols that appear on the screen. + The teacher can now EXPORT questions to a new .QZ file from the edit session. Exporting can be based on marked questions or a range of questions. + The QUIZ.WHO file format has been expanded in order to prompt more information from the student prior to taking a quiz. Lines 3-9 can now be used to gather information from the student, such as address, social security number, age, and so forth. See Version 1.36 notes above for details on lines 1 & 2. If you are going to take advantage of this expanded prompt feature to collect detailed information from the student prior to taking a quiz, then lines 1-2 can be left blank. Line 3 of the ASCII file QUIZ.WHO will be assumed to be a prompt asking the student for their name. Lines 4-9 then can be used to prompt for whatever additional information one wishes. Example QUIZ.WHO file: Line 1 -> Line 2 -> Line 3 -> Your complete name Line 4 -> Your age Line 5 -> Social security number What value is this additional information? If you use the command line parameter LOGFILE=xxxx then all of the additional information input by the student will be saved in the specified log file. If you do not use the LOGFILE=xxxx parameter, then all of this extra prompted information is of no value. + The command line parameter LOGFILE=xxxx will save ALL questions choices presented to the student, AND the student's response. Replace "xxxx" with a legal DOS file name. Included in this log file will be the student's name (and additional prompted data, see above), quiz name, date, time, and a summary of attempts, correct responses, etc. Version 2.26 + The command line parameter LOG1ST has been added which is used in conjunction with the QUIZ.WHO file (see Version 2.25 notes). LOG1ST will cause the student input prompt window to appear only once EVER. If the student attempts a second quiz on another day, there will be no expanded input prompts to greet them (asking for address, city, phone, whatever...). How does the program know whether the student is using the program for the first time? Because when LOG1ST is used, it will automatically delete the QUIZ.WHO file if it exists. Since the QUIZ.WHO is used to determine what input prompts are displayed, if it does not exist, then no expanded prompts will appear. So in review, LOG1ST with a QUIZ.WHO file will cause an expanded player input field window to display the first time the student uses a quiz. The program will then automatically delete the QUIZ.WHO file, which means any future uses of the program will NOT display an expanded player input prompt window. + The reference/help files were limited to a maximum of 500 lines each in previous versions. The maximum limit has now been increased to 1000 lines in a reference or help file. Error checking has been added also to prevent the teacher from going beyond this limit (which was lacking in previous versions). + Fixed a bug which prevented reference notes from displaying AFTER a question IF there was a reference file {} displayed BEFORE a question. + Fixed a bug which would not allow quizzes to be used from the command line or from a QUIZ.CFG file if that .QZ file had a "-" dash in the .QZ file. In other words, starting the program from the DOS prompt --> QUIZ MY-TEST.QZ would have tripped an error message, whereas QUIZ MYTEST.QZ would have been OK. This has been fixed. + The NOEDIT command line parameter will remove the "Create" and "Edit" selections from the Main Menu in the Teacher's Edition. This is used when you want to prevent students from accessing or tampering with your quizzes. Version 3.0 + Added support to use high-resolution 16 color .PCX images with each question. + Provided an option screen layout format where instead of the traditional "pop-up exploding" windows and menus, a more "open" and wider screen layout is used. With this new screen layout (that appears during interactive test time) the answers are preceded with "A...B...C" letters and the student must now press "A" or "B" or "C" etc. to select the correct response. + Added a new NAME= command line parameter that allows you to pass the name of a single student/user to Create A Quiz. By passing this value the "Please enter your name:" prompt will not appear when a student selects a quiz. Example: QUIZ NAME=MIKE If the name you are using consists of more than one name, then use an underscore character "_" to connect each name (example: QUIZ NAME=MIKE_R._JONES). + At the conclusion of each interactive quiz, a window will now appear on the screen that displays in a list the questions that the student answered INcorrectly, along with the correct answers. This feature is useful in reviewing the areas where the student needs to concentrate further study. + Create A Quiz is now offered in a "Lite" version. Most of the bells and whistles and advanced features (such as command line parameters) have been REMOVED and are not available in the "Lite" version. This "Lite" version is priced 1/3 less to offset the increase in prices. Version 3.01 + The maximum number of lines in a .HLP file has been increased to 2000 lines (up from 1000). Version 3.02 + Greater control over how a question is displayed/formatted on the screen has been added. The teacher can force new lines in questions by using the "|" character. See QUIZ.ADV file for an example of how this works. + If you create a DOS environmental variable and call it "USER" and then store a value/string to it, Create A Quiz will pass the contents of USER= to the name of the player/ student taking the test. + We have now insured that when Create A Quiz is used on a network that unique temporary file names are created that store the progress of each user. In the past, the same temporary file name was always used, which created a problem on a network when more than 1 user would be opening the same temporary file. + Existing quizzes are now renamed with a .BAK extension whenever the user saves a quiz. Version 3.03 + Fixed a bug which would report that a file was missing or corrupt when you saved a new .QZ file. This problem was a side-affect from the v3.02 file backup feature.