Wikisoba project/JSON specification for version 2

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This is the working page for designing the JSON specification for Wikisoba Mark II.

Working assumption

The JSON for any one "slide" (adopting the term in Mark I) reads as 

{"configuration":configuration object, "meta":metadata object, "data":data array]

The configuration object includes giving the "slide type", which would be 1 for questions, out of about five types in all, the other types being ways of including supporting material. The object as explained below will have about a dozen field.

The metadata should be adequate to the needs of Creative Commons licensing, at the very least. Who authored the question and licensing should be covered, and import, adaptation and authoring information maintained. A Wikidata item here to indicate general topic area would be a good idea. (Should look into general metadata use.) The legacy of Moodle export shows up in the JSON-GIFT sample, and is to reconcile with what we would want.

Overall structure of a quiz

This should be as: 

{"intro": , "sections":section array, "outro": }

with the section array as: 

[section(1), section(2), ..., section(K)]

and a section as 

{"nav1": , "slides":slide array, "nav2": }

Here a slide array is like 

[slide(1), slide(2), ..., slide(K)]

and the slides are expected to be of about five types, type #1 being the question type.

Choice-cloze type

This is to be a versatile question type, including a number of typical multiple choice and missing text (cloze) formats. Its data array will look like 

[S-array, T-array]

Here the S-array will be 

[S(1), S(2), ..., S(N + 1)]

and the S(i) will be strings, possibly null, subject to JSON constraints[1] and the constraint that S(N + 1) is either null or ends in a terminating punctuation mark.[2]

The T-array will be 

[T(1), T(2), ..., T(M)]

Example would be the case M = N, each T(j) is a single word, and the piece of text to reconstruct reads S(1) T(1) S(2) T(2) ... S(N) T(N) S(N + 1). Then the software should display boxes between the S(i), and display the words T(j) below in a random order. The user is supposed to drag the words into the boxes.

In general T(j) will be an object 

{"string":acceptable answer1, "string":acceptable answer2, ..., "annotations": }

Here the first component consists of strings each of which is an acceptable answer in the place between S(j) and S(j + 1). The annotations have to carry the other information in the question, namely any dummy answers and set responses,[3] custom hints, special reset information, special scoring information. The dummy answers need to contain pairs like [input_string, response]; where response can be set to null as the default.

Five examples

Going beyond simply matching phrases into boxes (type A question), there are two types of added complexity, namely multiple choice, and colour coding. Colours can identify which answers relate to which box (i.e. calibrate the missing phrases a bit).

Type Plain Coloured
Matching A n/a
Check box B C
Complex D E

The colouring option clearly should be operated by the question subtype field, but may also be a custom hint. The dummy answers should be listed in the annotations.

Traditional multiple choice

There is only one box, so N = 1 for multiple choice, and S(2) is null. Also M = 1. Only types B and D are relevant, and correspond to ...

"Checkbox handling": to give credit for partial correct choices where there are multiple correct answers, "fraction" fields should be filled in with precentages of full credit. (Numerical variable.)

Configuration object

This is a provisional listing of some "fields" that should occur in the configuration object, mostly with default values.

Working content:

  1. (Slide type) 1
  2. (question name)
  3. (question type) choice/cloze
  4. (question subtype) A to E[4]
  5. (equality test) non-case sensitive equality of Unicode strings[5]
  6. (display type) graphical[6]
  7. (wikidata item) Use as a tag for topic area
  8. (response type) enabled[7]
  9. (hint type) i.e. go back | wikidata | custom
  10. (reset type) back to question start
  11. (scoring type) none[8]
  12. (timing type) none

Also:

  1. Legacy fields: allow for some carried forward from Moodle
  2. Metadata to track provenance and attribution of question

In other words the working content is like:

{"slide type": , "question name": , "question type": , "question subtype": , "equality test": , "display type": , "wikidata item": , "response type": , "hint type": , "reset type": , "scoring type": , "timing type": }

Legacy fields to include "usecase", "hidden", "old type", "description". Provenance fields to include "quizencodingversion", "old name", "description", also license and attribution information

Notes

  1. ↑ I.e. can be Unicode, but with certain characters escaped.
  2. ↑ I.e. ends in . or ? or !.
  3. ↑ I.e. false answers, in multiple choice terms.
  4. ↑ See previous section
  5. ↑ Caveat about JSON's use of escapes
  6. ↑ As opposed to buttons
  7. ↑ I.e. display responses in the feedback area before moving on to next question. The default would be like this. Standard messages for: question completed correctly; question partially completed, as far as it goes; some incorrect answers where wrongly matched. If some dummy answers are chosen, use the response settings for those if some relevant ones are different from "null".
  8. ↑ E.g. could include a set penalty for incorrect answers
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