This repository provides two XBlocks: Problem Builder and Step Builder.
Both blocks allow to create questions of various types. They can be used to simulate the workflow of real-life mentoring, within an edX course.
Supported features include:
- Free-form answers (textarea) which can be shared accross different XBlock instances (for example, to allow a student to review and edit an answer they gave before).
- Self-assessment MCQs (multiple choice questions), to display predetermined feedback to a student based on his choices in the self-assessment. Supports rating scales and arbitrary answers.
- MRQs (Multiple Response Questions), a type of multiple choice question that allows the student to select more than one choice.
- Answer recaps that display a read-only summary of a user's answer to a free-form question asked earlier in the course.
- Progression tracking, to require that the student has completed a particular step before allowing them to complete the next step. Provides a link to the next step to the student.
- Tables, which allow to present answers from the student to free-form answers in a concise way. Supports custom headers.
- Dashboards, for displaying a summary of the student's answers to multiple choice questions. Details
The following screenshot shows an example of a Problem Builder block containing a free-form question, two MCQs and one MRQ:
Install the requirements into the Python virtual environment of your
edx-platform
installation by running the following command from the
root folder:
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
Install to the workbench's virtualenv by running the following command from the problem builder repo root:
pip install -r requirements.txt
In the main XBlock repository, create the following configuration file
in workbench/settings_pb.py
in the XBlock repository:
from settings import *
INSTALLED_APPS += ('problem_builder',)
DATABASES['default']['NAME'] = 'workbench.sqlite'
Because this XBlock uses a Django model, you need to sync the database before starting the workbench. Run this from the XBlock repository root:
$ ./manage.py syncdb --settings=workbench.settings_pb
$ ./manage.py runserver 8000 --settings=workbench.settings_pb
Access it at http://localhost:8000/.
First, make sure the XBlock SDK (Workbench) is installed in the same virtual environment as xblock-problem-builder.
From the xblock-problem-builder repository root, run the tests with the following command:
$ ./run_tests.py
If you want to run only the integration or the unit tests, append the directory to the command. You can also run separate modules in this manner.
$ ./run_tests.py problem_builder/tests/unit
To extract/update strings for translation, you will need i18n_tools:
pip install git+https://github.com/edx/i18n-tools.git#egg=i18n_tools
To extract strings, use i18n_tool extract
. To build a dummy translation for
testing, use:
i18n_tool dummy && i18n_tool generate
Within the xblock-problem-builder repository, create the templates/xml
and
add XML scenarios to it - all files with the *.xml
extension will be
automatically loaded by the workbench:
$ mkdir templates/xml
$ cat > templates/xml/my_pb_scenario.xml
Restart the workbench to take the new scenarios into account.
To upgrade a course from xblock-mentoring ("v1") to xblock-problem-builder ("v2"), run the following command on a system with edx-platform, xblock-mentoring, and xblock-problem-builder installed:
$ SERVICE_VARIANT=cms DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="cms.envs.devstack" python -m problem_builder.v1.upgrade "Org/Course/Run"
Where "Org/Course/Run" is replaced with the ID of the course to upgrade.
Problem Builder releases are tagged with a version number, e.g.
v2.6.0
,
v2.6.5
. We recommend installing the most recently tagged
version, with the exception of the following compatibility issues:
edx-platform
versionopen-release/eucalyptus.2
and earlier must use โคv2.6.0. See PR 128 for details.edx-platform
versionnamed-release/dogwood.3
must use v2.0.0.- Otherwise, consult the
edx-platform/requirements/edx/edx-private.txt
file to see which revision was used by edx.org for your branch.
The edx-platform
master
branch will generally always be compatible with the most recent Problem Builder tag. See
edx-private.txt for the version
currently installed on edx.org.
To install Problem Builder on an Open edX installation, choose the tag you wish to install, and run:
$ sudo -u edxapp -Hs
edxapp $ cd ~
edxapp $ source edxapp_env
edxapp $ TAG='v2.6.5' # example revision
edxapp $ pip install "git+https://github.com/open-craft/problem-builder.git@$TAG#egg=xblock-problem-builder==$TAG"
edxapp $ cd edx-platform
edxapp $ ./manage.py lms migrate --settings=aws # or openstack, as appropriate
Then, restart the edxapp services:
$ sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl restart edxapp:
$ sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl restart edxapp_workers:
See Usage Instructions for how to enable in Studio.
This XBlock is available under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPLv3).