QTI and Item Banking

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QTI and Item Banking

• Steve Lay
• swl10_at_cam.ac.uk
• http//qtitools.caret.cam.ac.uk/

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What is QTI?

• Question and Test Interoperability
• An open specification from IMS GLC
• A file format for questions (and tests!)
• A runtime model of how questions and tests should
  be delivered (but not bound to a particular
  technology)
• And a file format for reporting results

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Why was QTI?

• The phrase question type is ubiquitous in the
  assessment world and yet there are many
  definitions
• QuestionMark lead the initial phase drawing on
  their experience of QML, customers want their
  data to be safe in an open format
• Items are stored in item banks, repositories with
  a long enough lifespan to make temporal
  interoperability an issue

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When was (is/will be) QTI?

• Conceived in 1999, v1.0 released in 2000
• Updated in 2001 (v1.1) and 2002 (v1.2) to
  improve and extend the model
• By 2003 it was clear that a major revision was
  necessary, a quick fix (1.2.1) was followed by a
  complete rewrite
• QTI v2.0 was published February 2005
• QTI v2.1 (PD2) published June 2006
• QTI v2.1 (Final) expected early 2007

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Assessment, Section, Item

• The ASI model was core to QTI v1
• Some items are closely linked, these are
  organized into sections
• Section may be perceived only as integrated whole
• Therefore repositories need to be capable of
  containing sections, not just items and
  relationships!
• Item bank became object bank in version 1 as a
  result

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TDA
TCS
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ASI Revisited

• QTI v2.1 clarifies concept of section, binding it
  more tightly to the concept of assessment
• But, QTI v2.1 also encourages the use of an
  include mechanism that allows near arbitrary
  fragments of assessment content to be managed as
  separate resources

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This diagram has been updated since the
presentation to reflect the more complex view of
test construction current in QTI v2.1 - relevant
following the discussion that took place in
Strathclyde.
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Example

• ltassessmentItem xmlns"http//www.imsglobal.org/xs
  d/imsqti_v2p1"
• identifier"20050227-ATP" title"Black Widows"
  adaptive"false"
• timeDependent"false"gt
• ltresponseDeclaration identifier"RESPONSE"
  cardinality"single"
• baseType"identifier"/gt
• ltitemBodygt
• ltpgtTrue or false?lt/pgt
• ltchoiceInteraction responseIdentifier"RESPONS
  E" shuffle"false"
• maxChoices"1"gt
• ltpromptgtA bite from a male black-widow
  spider can kill a man.lt/promptgt
• ltsimpleChoice identifier"T"gtTruelt/simpleCho
  icegt
• ltsimpleChoice identifier"F"gtFalselt/simpleCh
  oicegt
• lt/choiceInteractiongt
• lt/itemBodygt
• lt/assessmentItemgt

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Content Packaging

• IMS CP is crucial to interchange with QTI v2
• Tools need to maintain links between resources
  that define a test or item
• A resource may contain multiple files, such as
  associated media files
• CP facilitates convergence with learning
  objects
• CP allows QTI to take advantage of developments
  in the world metadata

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QTI (specific) Meta-data

• There is still meta-data in the QTI specification
  but...
• it has been stripped down to the information that
  can be derived directly from the content but
  which is commonly used in item banks for
  searching/classifying
• Pierre Gorissen has proved this by writing an
  XSLT that makes meta-data from the data itself

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QTI and SCORM

• ?

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Common Cartridge

• What happens when you press the export button on
  your VLE?
• Currently uses a profile of QTI v1 (which I
  havent seen for legal reasons)
• Item banks might be exportable, not a problem for
  QTI though as CC is based on CP (I guess)

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Further information

• Steve Lay
• swl10_at_cam.ac.uk
• http//qtitools.caret.cam.ac.uk/