gift

<entry-title>GIFT Syntax</entry-title>

short URL

http://bit.ly/giftax

The GIFT picoformat allows writing multiple-choice, true-false, short answer, matching, missing word, and numerical quiz questions in a simple text format. The GPLed Moodle Course/Learning Management System can import and export questions in the GIFT picoformat.

Format

Symbol	Use
// text	Comment until the end of the line (optional)
::title::	Question title (optional)
text	Question text (becomes title if no title specified)
{	Start answer(s)
{T} or {F}	True or False answer
{ ... =right ... }	Correct answer for multiple choice, multiple answer, or fill-in-the-blank
{ ... ~wrong ... }	Incorrect answer for multiple choice or multiple answer
{ ... =item -> match ... }	Answer for matching questions
#wrong feedback	Answer feedback following an incorrect multiple choice answer
{#	Start numeric answer(s)
answer:tolerance	Answer and tolerance (+ or -) for numeric question
low..high	Specifies lower and higher boundary of accepted numerical answer
=%n%answer:tolerance	n percent credit for numeric range within tolerance from answer
}	End answer(s)

Examples

// true/false
::Q1:: 1+1=2 {T}

// multiple choice
::Q2:: What's between orange and green in the spectrum? {=yellow ~red ~blue}

// fill-in-the-blank
::Q3:: Two plus {=two =2} equals four.

// matching
::Q4:: Which animal eats which food? { =cat -> cat food =dog -> dog food }

// math range questions -- note: {#1..5} is same numeric answer range
::Q5:: What is a number from 1 to 5? {#3:2}

// alternate layout
::Title 
:: Question {
=Correct answer 1
=Correct answer 2
~Wrong answer 1
#Response to wrong answer 1
~Wrong answer 2
#Response to wrong answer 2
}

Note: the table and examples above was adapted from and then migrated back to the GPL-licensed Moodle site, not copied from there.

Extensions for learner adaptation

Still to be done to extend the format for learner adaptivity (per, for example, del Soldato, T. & du Boulay, B. (1995) "Implementation of Motivational Tactics in Tutoring Systems," Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 6(4): 337-78) is to add optional prerequisite and relative difficulty links to other questions (titles can be used) and optional question help text at two levels of specificity:

1. relations to other questions
   1. set of questions which help answer this question
   2. set of questions which answering this question helps answer

   (Can some of the directed graph of which questions assist in the answering of other questions be derived from categorization or must it be stored completely explicitly?)

2. set of relations to other questions by relative difficulty; for each:
   1. another question
   2. more or less difficult, and how much
3. (all these are optional)
   1. general help
   2. specific help

(source)

See also

• picoformats