INTERNET BASED DRILLS AND QUIZZES

Philip B. Yasskin Michael Stecher

yasskin@math.tamu.edu stecher@math.tamu.edu
G. Donald Allen Maury Rahe
dallen@math.tamu.edu rahe@math.tamu.edu
Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3368

Three important parts of an on-line math course are exploration, practice and testing. All of
these involve presenting the student with problems, providing an appropriate level of guid-
ance as the student solves the problems, receiving intermediate results and/or answers and
grading them either for self evaluation or course evaluation. As part of our WebCalC, Cal-
culus I course1 2 we have found that the more ways the students interact with the material,
;

the more they pay attention to the web pages and the more they think about the material. So
we have developed many types of interactive examples, exercises, tutorials, drills, quizzes
and exams. Some of these are presented in this paper. In the process, we will discuss some
lessons we have learned from teaching the course.

The main portion of our WebCalC, Calculus I course may be viewed only using Scientific
Notebook, which is a combination of (1) a WYSIWYG scientific word processor with ex-
cellent mathematical typesetting which stores its files in LaTeX, (2) an interactive computer
algebra system using the Maple kernel, (3) a web browser which displays LaTeX files within
SciNotebook and calls a standard browser for other files and (4) a quiz and exam generat-
ing program called Exam Builder. After installing SciNotebook on a Windows 95, 98 or
NT machine, click on File and Open Location and type
http://www.math.tamu.edu/˜webcalc/mindex.tex .
This will take you to the Main Index of the WebCalC, Calculus I course. The quizzes and
tutorials discussed in this paper are written in SciNotebook. The drills are written using a
CGI-form interface in a standard browser. These drills along with some demos and labs are
called CalcLab Software and may be accessed using any browser (Netscape works best) at
http://www.math.tamu.edu/˜webcalc/calclab/ .

The rest of the paper is divided into sections which discuss individual types of student ac-
tivities. These are:
1. Fixed Question and Answer
2. Random Question and Answer (Single-Question Quiz)
3. Multi-Question Quiz
4. Fixed Tutorial
5. Random Tutorial
6. Random Drill
Fixed Question and Answer: In this form of activity, the students are asked a question
and expected to give an answer. This is typical of the exercises which appear at the end of a
section. In a book, the answers to the odd problems are usually at the back of the book.
Often, the students complain that they don’t have the answers to the even problems and
cannot tell if they are right. In our web text, we also have exercises at the end of each section,
but we decided to give the answers to all the problems since the students may not have an
instructor to ask for help. At first, we put the exercises on one page and the exercises with
answers on another page. For example, the exercise page for derivative rules might contain
the problem:
,3 x
2
Differentiate: f (x)
,4=
x
and the corresponding answer page would include
2
,3 x 0( x
2
,8 +3 x
Differentiate: ( ) =
f x
,4 x
f x) =
( , 4)2
x
However, we soon found that many students linked directly to the answer page without first
trying to do the problems themselves. So we decided to combine the two pages, putting the
answers into pop-up notes. Now the above problem would appear as:
x
2
,3
Differentiate: f (x) =
x ,4 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: A
When the student clicks on the A , a small note pops up which contains the answer:
x
2
,3 0 (x) = x
2
,8 +3 x
Differentiate: f (x) =
x ,4 f
( , 4)2
x

The students may still not be doing the problem but at least they need to pause for a second
and perhaps think as they click on the answer.

Eventually, we would like the above problem to appear as

x
2
,3
Differentiate: f (x) =
x ,4 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: H ... A ... S
Clicking on the H would pop up a hint such as
0 , pq 0
is f 0 =
p qp
The quotient rule says the derivative of f = .
q q
2

Clicking on the A would pop up the answer and clicking on the S would pop up the com-
plete solution as
x
2
,3 0 (x) = (x , 4)2 , ( 2 , 3) = 2 , 8 + 3
x x x x
Differentiate: f (x) =
x ,4 f
( , 4)2
x ( , 4)2 x

The pop-up notes are a substantial benefit of a web book over a paper book.

These simple question and answer problems appear not only on the exercise page, but also
in the regular text, directly after many of the examples. We find it useful to immediately
follow an example by an exercise on the same technique.
Random Question and Answer (Single-Question Quiz): The main drawback to the sim-
ple question and answer problems is that they are fixed; there is only one problem. If the
student gets it wrong the first time, there is no second problem for the student to try again. It
is the same problem when the student reads the page the first time and for review. Similarly,
the exercise page has a finite number of problems. This well-known problem with printed
texts is easily remedied on-line. One can use a large database of problems or use randomly
generated problems. We have opted for the latter because it provides more questions and
because it is easy to produce random questions with a small amount of programming using
SciNotebook’s Exam Builder. Thus, after many of our examples, there is a pop quiz which
usually consists of a single multiple choice problem on the same topic as the example. For
instance, the above problem on the quotient rule might be coded as
n
ax +b
Differentiate: f (x) =
cx +d
where a, b, c, d and n are random numbers which take on different values each time the stu-
dent looks at the pop quiz. If a, b, c, d and n each have 10 values, there are 100,000 versions
of this quiz. The multiple choice answers are also coded in terms of a, b, c, d and n. When
the student selects an answer, the quiz is immediately graded: “Instant gratification for our
TV viewers.” We can also include hints and a full solution.

Multi-Question Quiz: The randomly generated multiple choice quizzes are not limited
to a single question. After some examples and at the end of some sections there is a multi-
question multiple choice quiz with randomly generated questions and choices. Every time
the student opens the quiz, there is a new set of problems. After answering the questions,
the student can click on a button to have the quiz graded. If an answer is wrong, the student
can go back and try again or ask to see a hint, the answer or a full solution. We can also
have the student’s grade report emailed to the instructor. As an added bonus, the instructor
can print an instance of the quiz to administer to the whole class. An answer key is also
generated. In fact, the security minded teacher could print a separate quiz and answer key
for each student in the class. More realistically, in a distance learning situation where the
students work at their own pace and come to a testing center to take their quizzes, it may be
necessary to have each student take a different quiz.

Fixed Tutorial: The simple question and answer format is fine for a quiz but it doesn’t
give much guidance when the students are just learning a concept. For that the students
need a tutorial where they are guided through each step of the solution. For example, when
the students are learning the method of substitution, the following series of questions are
useful. Clicking on each A gives a pop-up note with the answer, as shown below each
question:
 Z  79  
4 3
1. To compute the integral x + 12x x +3 dx by the method of
substitution, you should define u as: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
4
u = x + 12x
2. With u defined as above, du is: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
   
3 3
du = 4x + 12 dx =4 x +3 dx
Z  79  
4 3
3. With u defined as above, the integral x + 12x x +3 dx

becomes: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
Z  79   Z 1
4 3 79
x + 12x x +3 dx = u du
4
4. The above u-integral is: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
Z 1 1 79 80
u du = u +C
4 320 Z  79  
4 3
5. Substituting back, the integral x + 12x x +3 dx is: : : : : A
Z  79   1  80
4 3 4
x + 12x x +3 dx = x + 12x +C
320

Random Tutorial: The above fixed tutorial can also be given in a randomly generated
form by coding it as: Z   
1. To compute the integral X + M aX X
,1 + a dX by theM
N
M

method of substitution, you should define u as: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A

2. With u defined as above, du is: : : : : :Z: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
  
3. With u defined as above, the integral X + M aX X
,1 + a dX
M
N
M

becomes: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
4. The above u-integral is: : : : : : : : : : :Z: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
  
5. Substituting back, the integral X
M
+ M aX X
N
,1 + a dX
M

is: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A
where
X is randomly chosen as one of the variables x, y , z or t;

M is one of the numbers 2, 3 or 4;

a is a random number between 2 and 9; and

N is a random number between 4 and 99.

The answers can be coded in pop-up notes or in multiple choice form in terms of the random
variables X , M , a and N .
Random Drill: A remaining drawback in all of the above randomly generated quizzes and
tutorials is that all of the answers appear either in pop-up windows or as multiple choice
answers. SciNotebook’s Exam Builder has the ability to allow students to enter extended
answers. However, at present, these must be graded by hand.

To remedy this situation, we have written randomly generated drills which appear as fill-in-
the-blank forms which may be viewed using any browser (Netscape works best). (Technical
Details: The drills are written as Perl CGI scripts which generate HTML code to display
the questions and answers in the browser and which call Maple on the server to generate
and grade the problems.) These drills are essentially the same as the random quizzes and
tutorials discussed above, except that the students are expected to type the formulas for their
answers, and further, the drills are more interactive.

For example, in the drill on Shifting Functions, 4

the students are shown a plot such as the one at
the right (which is (x , 2)2 + 1) and told it is y
2
the graph of one of the basic functions (x, x2 ,
x
3 1 p
, , 2 , x, jxj) which has been shifted left
1
–4 –2 2 x 4
x x
or right and up or down. The students are asked
–2
to type in the formula for the function. The drill
is more interactive than the quizzes and tutori-
als because (1) the student can click in the plot to
4
get the coordinates of the vertex of the parabola
and (2) if the student gives the wrong answer (say y
2 2
(x + 2) + 1), the graph of the wrong answer is
added to the plot in a different color, as shown.
The students quickly learn how the signs control –4 –2 2 x 4
the direction of the shift, much more quickly than
–2
reading it or hearing the instructor say it.

In summary, a wide variety of interactive quizzes, tutorials and drills help students learn in
a web-based course, and we feel they are essential tools for a successful on-line course.

1
Allen, Stecher and Yasskin, “The Web-Based Mathematics Course,” Syllabus Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 4,
Nov./Dec. 1998, to appear.
2
Allen, Rahe, Stecher and Yasskin, “WebCalC I,” this volume.