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Revise Essay Question Creation Process

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This feature request is part of (Project) Revision of Test Question Creation.

1 Initial Problem

The set of questions available has grown organically over many years. There are redundancies and inconsistencies and the forms to edit the questions are based on a lot of custom code based on the legacy forms featuring many unique concepts, like forms that are rendered by javascript on the client.

There is a clear need to bring this process back in alignment with the current way of doing things in ILIAS, to remove redundancies, and rectify inconsistencies.

2 Conceptual Summary

  • This Feature Request follows the guidelines set by Revision of ILIAS Test Question Creation Process and fleshed out for the answer form type "Cloze" in Revise Cloze, Long Menu, Numeric, and Text Subset Question Creation Process.
  • This request is only concerned with question creation and structure. The form to answer a question will basically stay as is and only undergo some minor tweaks.
  • The form to set up the answer form will offer
    • a checkbox to select if you want the counting of words to be enabled,
    • a numeric input to limit the characters that can be entered, if wanted,
    • if the answer form is used in a context where marking is required, a required select input to select the text matching method,
    • and,  if the answer form is used in a context where marking is required, a required switchable group to select the method for marking, containing an input allowing to select the amount of answer options awarding points that should be added, if some form of automatic marking is enabled, and potentially an input for the available points.
  • If some sort of of automatic marking is enabled and marking is required in the context an additional form step will be shown upon creation containing
    • the number of inputs selected in the previous form to enter answer options awarding points and, if the mode of marking is set to "Automatic Marking with Keyowrds an Finding Any", a numeric input to set the awarded points.
  • The feedback options are kept exactly as today and only offer options to provide feedback texts for the case the participant has given the best possible response or not.
  • We propose to keep the TinyMCE for answering Essay Questions. Markdown seems to be the wrong solution to enter text in an exam situation where you want to stick as close as possible to the input methods learners are used to. We would use the dependency directly, without using the RTE component and we would remove the option to disable it, so that TinyMCE will always be active in this case. The TinyMCE library is needed for the ILIAS Page Editorin any case.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

  • All views of `assTextQuestionGUI`

3.2 User Interface Details

The page shows a form with the fields "Count Words", "Maximum Number of Characters" (can be left empty), "Text Matching Method", and "Marking".
First form step for the creation of an essay question. If 'No Automatic Scoring' is selected this is also the only form.
The form shows as many sections as where requested in the previous form containing a field to enter a text and a field to enter the points awarded by this answer.
Form step to enter the answer options awarding points. Depending on the type of marking selected in the form before, the form may also be shown without the option to enter points.
The page shows a panel above, displaying the basic answer form properites (Count Words, Maximum Number of Characters, Text Matching Method, Marking) a button to add an answer option awarding points as well as a table showing the answer options awarding points and the amount of points they award.
Overview Page for the Answer Form. If marking is not set to "Automatic Scoring with Keywords on Finding ANY" the table will not contain a column points, but the points will be shown in the panel for the basic answer form properties. The table offers standard actions to edit a single, but also multiple answer options at the same time.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

None

3.4 Accessibility Implications

The forms to create questions are based on legacy-ui-forms with a lot of custom inputs that have a huge amount of accessibility issues. By moving these forms to KS-Forms a lot of the issues should be resolved. Additionally it will be easier to address future accessibility issue.

4 Additional Information

4.1 Involved Authorities

If this request is related to multiple components, please list both authorities for all related components.

4.2 Technical Aspects

Technical aspects of this request are provided as part of the project. See: (Project) Revision of Test Question Creation .

4.3 Privacy

This feature request doesn't change the data that is collected and also doesn't change how it is presented. It clarifies the storage of answers by users answering questions, by doing so it will improve the understandability and the structure of the data thus making it easier to control the data's lifecycle.

4.4 Security

By moving to KS-Forms and restructuring and clarify the storage of data, the data will be easier to control and user inputs in the KS-Forms will be more consistently validated and sanitized on output.

4.5 Contact

Person to be contacted in case of questions about the feature or for funding offers: Strassner, Denis [dstrassner]

4.6 Funding

Funding status and funding parties are listed in the block 'Status of Feature' in the right column of this page.

If you are interested to give funding for this feature, please get into contact with the person mentioned above as 'Contact'.

5 Discussion

6 Implementation

Feature has been implemented by {Please add related profile link of this person}

6.1 Description and Screenshots

{ Description of the final implementation and screenshots if possible. }

6.2 Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

  • {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

6.3 Privacy

Information in privacy.md of component: updated at {date} by {user} | no change required

6.4 Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.

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Last edited: 13. Aug 2026, 09:21, Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard]