My colleagues and I were wondering if we are unduly multiplying server requests by using checkboxes questions with un-optimized feedback where every choice selected generates one feedback instead of a compound feedback for a selection of choices?
We were concerned about possibly affecting user experience because of extra CPU usage. Apart from creating a specific feedback for every possible combination of checkboxes (i.e. complete feedback table), we were wondering if there was any other optimal technological and pedagogical workarounds?
Here’s an example where every checkbox has its own feedback, independent of each other.
My programmer colleagues said it was “suboptimized” and recommended we do a feedback table to address each and every possible combination of answers to lower the number of requests to the server. They say this example requests more resources to display the feedback.
<problem>
<choiceresponse>
<p>Which properties does a loss function need to have in order to be solvable?</p>
<checkboxgroup>
<choice correct="true">A - Continuous
<choicehint selected="true">A - It's one of the options expected.</choicehint>
</choice>
<choice correct="false">B - Differentiable
<choicehint selected="true">B - Be careful, differentiability does not affect solvability.</choicehint>
</choice>
<choice correct="true">C - Convex
<choicehint selected="true">C - That's true, convex functions are easier to minimize but it's not enough.</choicehint>
</choice>
<choice correct="false">D - Concave
<choicehint selected="true">D - Actually we need a convex function!</choicehint>
</choice>
</checkboxgroup>
</choiceresponse>
<demandhint>
<hint>2 options are expected.</hint>
<hint><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/znM6x0xSvII?start=396"></iframe></hint>
</demandhint>
</problem>
Next, this is an example with a response table, which is by the way a lot longer to compose and doesn’t allow to use iframes inside the “compoundhint” components.
<problem>
<choiceresponse>
<p>What are examples of regulated domains in the United States? Please select all that apply.</p>
<checkboxgroup>
<choice correct="true">Housing</choice>
<choice correct="true">Credit</choice>
<choice correct="false">Race
<choicehint selected="true">This is an example of a legally recognized protected class. Please see this clip for more information: <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></choicehint>
</choice>
<choice correct="false">Disability status
<choicehint selected="true">This is an example of a legally recognized protected class. Please see this clip for more information: <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></choicehint>
</choice>
<choice correct="true">Education</choice>
<compoundhint value="A">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing Act.</compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="B">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.</compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.</compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A B">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts.</compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A B C">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A B D">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A B C D">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.</compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A C E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A D E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A C D E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="B E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.</compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="B C E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="B D E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="B C D E">It's not the complete answer expected! This comes from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.<br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TV6G_Uk0BSA?start=20"></iframe></compoundhint>
<compoundhint value="A B E">Correct! This comes from the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Education Amendments of 1972.</compoundhint>
</checkboxgroup>
</choiceresponse>
<demandhint>
<hint>3 answers are expected.</hint>
<hint>Race is an example of a legally recognized protected class and not an example of a regulated domain in the United States.</hint>
</demandhint>
</problem>
I do not think this will affect the performance much, and as you mentioned it will make authoring a lot more complicated. If there isn’t much value to be gained from hints specific to a particular combination of options, perhaps it can be avoided.
The number of requests to the server shouldn’t be affected by this. The code for this particular part of the platform can be seen here. It will simply look for a compound hint if one is available, and if not fall back to choice hints.
The issue of not being able to use iframes inside compoundhint components might be something that can be fixed via a contribution to the platform.
I also did not think it would affect performance, however I do not have the technical background of my colleagues who were preoccupied with that. Thank you for clarifying this.
The iframe integration to the compound hints would be useful eventually because some of our course designers like to link the exact second of the video where the information is given, with a YouTube link that has a start-time preset. It could also be useful to integrate PDFs or interactive mind maps.