Talks

State of Ximera and Overview

Jason Nowell giving a talk about this examples website and going over highlights and pitfalls of Ximera.

Basic Setup

Xourse and Ximera File Layout

How to write and layout the xourse and Ximera documentClass file to build an assignment.

Progress and Credit

How Ximera assigns progress/credit to students while they complete an assignment.

Publishing

How to publish Ximera content

Answer Types

answerBox

A description of how the answer box works, and it’s optional arguments.

multipleChoice

Multiple Choice Answer style syntax, usage, and known issues

selectAll

Select All Answer style syntax, usage, and known issues

wordChoice

In-line multiple Choice dropdown box.

Problem Environment

Problem Environment

A brief demonstration of the problem environment and nesting interactions for problems with multiple parts.

Alternate ‘problem’ Environments

Alternative problem environments. These work identically in every way, but have different ‘titles’ and can be used to signal to students different types of problems.

Rendering

Rendering Mathematics

A description of how math content is rendered

Tables and Arrays

A description of how tables and arrays are rendered

Images and Graphs

A description of how images and graphs are rendered or included.

Disable Rendering

A description of how to disable or hide rendered material - while still executing that code.

Answer and PDFs

A description of how the answer box behaves in the compiled pdf

Other Features

Theorem-like environments

Examples of the theorem environments.

Dialogue

Demonstration of the ‘dialogue’ environment

Feedback

Demonstration of the ‘feedback’ environment

Hints

Demonstration of the ‘hints’ feature.

Hiding Answers

How to hide answers from the right-click menu.

Expandable Content

Demo of collapsible/expandable content.

Footnotes

Show that footnotes work without anything special.

YouTube Embeddings

How to embed YouTube videos, and how they are validated.

Desmos Embeddings

How to embed Desmos Lessons

Embedding GeoGebra

A description of how to Embed and use GeoGrebra.

XKCD

Demonstration of the ‘XKCD’ environment

Localization Support

We are working on supporting additional languages!

Advanced Content

1Randomized Content

High level aspects of adding randomized content to your assignments

1.1Using Sage

We discuss aspects of Sage we use, and provide some core sage functions we use.

1.2Sage and Ximera

How sage interacts with Ximera.

1.3Randomizing with Sage

Common Sage Functions and Details

1.4Randomizing Problem Order

Common Sage Functions and Details

2Complex Validation

2.1Validation Types

3Black Magic Techniques

A Collection of very advanced techniques that may or may not break things.

3.1Generating Answer Boxes

How to generate a custom number of answer boxes on the fly via sage.

Overleaf Template

3.2Overleaf Template

We provide a link to an Overleaf Template that can be copied/saved and used for those without the ability, interest, and/or knowledge to install things locally.

Existing Custom Validators

3.3isPositive

This demonstrates a very basic custom validator, which returns correct if the submitted answer is positive.

3.4sameParity

This demonstrates a slightly more complex validator that uses both user input and supplied answer.

3.5caseInsensitive

Demonstrates a way to check student string against provided string, but without case sensitivity

3.6multiAns

Demonstrates a way to provide multiple acceptable answers from students.

3.7sameDerivative

Checks student submission and supplied problem to see if they have the same derivative

3.8factorCheck

Checks provided factoring to see if it matches author’s factoring.

3.9samePlane

This demonstrates the validator that tests for points to represent the same plane.

3.10Numeric Targeted Feedback

A requested proof of concept

3.11Matrix Equality

An attempt to develop a format for student answers, to allow students to enter a matrix and validate the answer as correct if it equals the instructor’s matrix.

3.12Convert to RREF

This “validator” is actually a set of subfunctions to be used in validators. This reduces a numeric matrix into reduced row echelon form.

3.13Known Issues

Known issues with validation - either default or custom.

Question Design

3.14Interval Answer Formats

Some Tips on Best Practices for Writing Problems.

3.15Interval Answer Formats

How to get students to input an interval as an answer.

3.16Randomized Multiple Choice

3.17Equalities with Radicals

A solution to the problem of making radical + value = radical + value style problems procedurally that remain suitably “nice” for precalc students.

3.18Cubic with Two Factorable Derivatives

How to generate “nice” polynomials that factor well, along with its first and second derivative.

You can download a Certificate as a record of your successes.