April 10, 2006
How is XTutor different than other Content Delivery Tools?
One of the most exciting differences between XTutor and some of the other content management systems is that XTutor allows you to author your own customized problem set tags. XTutor includes all of the standard tags (i.e. multiple choice, true / false and fill in the blank questions) plus the ability to create your own.
Custom problems sets are the area where XTutor shines in a crowded list of alternatives. XTutor allowsyou to create custom problem sets by providing the content developer to place PYTHON scripts behind the form tags to do the special problem set processing connected to the XTag.
For example, I teach programming languages. One exercise that is done by all programming students is to learn operator precedence. What this means to the new programmer is that not all arithmetic operators are equal. If an expression had an addition symbol and times symbol, the computer will process the multiplication operator before the addition operator not matter where it is located. To illustrate:
3 + 2 * 6 = 15 not 36
I created a web page (Figure 4) that allows the student to test any expression of their choice and also verify that they understand what the correct answer should be. You can see this in action at: http://gnix.gc.maricopa.edu:9080/xtutor/testExpress.xdoc
Figure 4 - A correct answer to the Expression program set XTag
In Figure 4, we have a correctly formatted expression with the correct answer. If the student entered the same expression but this time put the wrong answer next to the equals sign, they would see a different icon and a message concerning their answer (Figure 5)
Figure 5- An incorrect answer to a problem set (note: icon and message)
The beauty in this approach is that as the instructor I did not have to hard code the expression and ask the student to submit just the answer. Instead, the student can put any expression they would like to test and the problem set will let them know if they have also submitted the correct answer. The problem set could be extended further by providing help or hints on incorrect answers.
XTutor XTags are designed to be reusable. The advantage of reusability is that I can take this problem set and share with other instructors or also use this in other web pages that would also need to evaluate expressions
How can XTutor Benefit You?
If you are creating a self paced web site that needs the student to respond to status check or checklist problem sets to confirm they understand the material presented, XTutor is a very viable alternative. Tests and quizzes can also be easily added to XTutor XDOCS.
The other benefit is the ability to create your own problem sets. From here, you are only limited by your creativity (and maybe your expertise in PYTHON and XML). Creating XTags is not a trivial exercise and it has a very steep learning curve but so do other tools. BlackBoard building blocks are also hard to write but they also can benefit the learning environment greatly. I think you should look at XTutor problem sets in much the same way.
I can only imagine how a custom XTutor XTag might:
Ask a question where the student must complete a math expression from a word problem that also determines if the equation and answer was done correctly. Again, not just the answer but also the equation is evaluated in the web page.
Have a foreign language student enter a Spanish vocabulary term taken from a story and have it verify their translation of the word or give them a list of hints based on their input.
A Biology student who much click on a picture of a human heart to identify important veins and arteries.
The possibilities are enormous....
Clip Here to check out some XTutor Demos