Question and Test Interoperability (QTI)

Introduction

Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) v2.1 is a specification that allows the communication and exchange of content between multiple assessment systems. QTI specifies a standard XML language for the representation of questions, tests and results. Thus, it enables the exchange of question, test and results data between authoring tools, item banks, test construction tools, learning systems and assessment delivery systems.

The QTI standard was developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium, an industry and academic consortium that develops specifications for interoperable learning technologies. Developing and validating quality questions can be time consuming. QTI was inspired by the need to avoid people losing or having to re-create assessment materials when technology changes.

QTI defines several different questions types or interactions. The Janison CLS can create, import and export a number of these QTI-compliant question types, as shown in the table below. Note that in some cases the QTI question type has a different name in the CLS.

QTI Interaction	Janison Question Name
Inline Choice InteractionText Entry InteractionGap Match Interaction	Cloze
Text Entry Interaction	Keyword
Match Interaction	Match
Choice Interaction	Multiple Choice
Choice Interaction	Multiple Choices
Extended Text Interaction	Short Answer
Hot Text Interaction	Text Spot
Choice Interaction	Yes/No
Choice Interaction	True/False
Hot Spot Interaction	Hot Spot Interaction
Select Point Interaction	Select Point Interaction
Drawing Interaction	Drawing Interaction
Slider Interaction	Slider Interaction
Order Interaction	Order Interaction
Match Interaction	Match Interaction
Gap Match Interaction	Gap Match Interaction
Graphic Order Interaction	Graphic Order Interaction
Associate Interaction	Associate Interaction
Graphic Associate Interaction	Graphic Associate Interaction
Position Object Interaction	Position Object Interaction

QTI Questions in the CLS

Creating a QTI-compliant question type in the CLS is simply a matter of creating a new Question and selecting an appropriate Question Type from the list above.

A QTI Question can be exported alone or as part of a collection of Questions.

QTI questions can be imported into the CLS from other sources.

Exporting QTI Questions

When you export QTI-compliant Questions in the CLS, each Question is exported as an IMS Content Package consisting of four files and a subfolder inside a zipped folder. Although multiple Questions can be contained within a single IMS Content package, the CLS exports them individually to minimise the margin for error. Thus, when multiple Questions are exported together in the CLS, multiple IMS Content Packages are collected into another, master folder which is zipped and saved to disk.

The diagram below shows the three options for exporting QTI-compliant Questions:

1. Individually – start at the Questions page and export a QTI Question from there.
2. All Questions in a filtered list – start at the Questions page, filter the Questions using search, then export the filtered list of Questions.
3. Questions in an Assessment Module – start at the Module’s details page and export Questions in the module.

Export a Question

A QTI Question is exported by clicking its download icon on the Questions screen. You can then save the file to disk. Depending on your browser settings, this will probably be placed in the downloads folder.

Navigate to Design > Questions and locate the Question. Click the
 icon. Only QTI Questions have this icon.

The name of the package is displayed on the left hand side. Click Download to save the package as a zipped folder on your local machine.

Note that if there are issues with the compliance of the Question these will be displayed as Warnings and Errors, for example:

In the example above, you can still proceed with exporting this Question, however the CLS will not accept it in a subsequent import because it has an Error.

Export a Filtered List of Questions

You can export a number of QTI Questions that you collect into a filtered list. Navigate to Design > Questions.

1. Click Search for Questions.
2. Filter the list of Questions by specifying search parameters and clicking Search.
3. Select Export QTI Items.

Export Questions in an Assessment Module

All of the QTI compliant Questions in an Assessment Module can be exported directly from the Module’s details page.

• Navigate to Design > Modules and click the Assessment Modules tab.
• Click the Module from the Display Name list.

• On the Module’s details page select Export QTI Items from the Actions drop-down.

A pop-up text box lists the numbers of QTI Questions in the Module, divided into categories based on workflow states. Click the checkbox(es) to export the Questions in the desired workflow states.

Note that the workflow states that are checked by default are the same states that were checked the last time a QTI export was done.

Click the close box to terminate this action or click Export QTI Items to continue with the export.

The following screen displays the name of the export package and any compliance errors in the Questions.

Click Download to download the file and complete the export.

In the example above two Questions were exported so the zipped file contains two QTI content packages, one for each of the Questions selected.

Importing QTI Questions

You can import QTI questions into Modules in the CLS, both Learning and Assessment Modules. However if your purpose is assessment then you must import them into Assessment Modules.

The process involves importing one or more QTI question packages that have been created by an export process either within or outside the CLS. The CLS makes sure that imported questions adhere to the QTI standard and it will not import those that have errors.

The package formats that the CLS will accept when importing are:

• An IMS Content Package zip file containing a single QTI assessment item.
• An IMS Content Package zip file containing multiple QTI assessment items.
• A zip file containing multiple IMS Content Packages zip files. The IMS Content Package zip files can contain a single or multiple QTI assessment items.

The following rules apply to the import process:

• An import requires that the Module where the Questions will be added already exists.
• If any aspect of a single question package fails then the whole question package fails and does not import.
• If a Question with the same Identifier already exists in the system, you will be warned that existing Questions will be overwritten if you proceed.
• When Question Workflows are enabled,
  • questions will be imported with a status of Draft.
  • if a Question with the same Identifier exists in the system and that Question has a status of Draft a warning message will be displayed to the User. If the user continues with the import process all changes that have been made to the question in the CLS will be lost. This also applies to resources.
  • if a Question with the same Identifier already exists in the system and that Question has a status other than Draft, an error message will be displayed. The question will not be able to be re-imported. This also applies to resources.

For more information about workflow states see the Workflow document.

• The bulk upload of QTI packages follows other CLS import processes such that packages with errors are skipped and the rest of the QTI packages continue to be imported. The resultant errors are provided in a report which can be used to rectify the questions that failed to import.
• The import process supports the importing of full questions only, unless the option to ignore this has been set in QTI settings or specified in the import.
• The bulk import uses the common browse file functionality but allows multiple files to be selected.
• Messages are displayed for any QTI interaction attributes that are not supported.
• The CLS will use a task scheduler process wherever possible so that importing can be performed on another server to improve performance.
• When importing large files the system will provide feedback so that you can track the progress of the import.

The diagram shows the process of importing QTI Questions.

Import QTI Questions

Navigate to Design > Questions and select Import QTI Items from the Actions drop-down.

1. Discipline –select the Discipline.
2. Module –select the Module where the imported Questions would be added.

Note: the drop-down lists only show Disciplines and Modules where the User has permission to create Questions.

3. Scoring not in package – check this box to indicate that the scoring of the QTI items in the package is not required.
4. Package Password – if a password was set when the QTI Items were exported then it needs to be added here.
5. Select QTI Packages – this button becomes available once the Discipline and Module have been selected. Click it and select the files to be imported from your local machine. You can do this more than once.

Next you will be presented with the validation of the files you selected. A number of different possibilities can occur for each question package. These are:

• Success – No warnings and errors.
• Warnings – the package has warnings, but can still be imported. Click on the Warning to expand the section and see the details.
• Errors – the package has errors and cannot be imported. Click on the Error to expand the section and see the details.

After validation, you can import each package individually by clicking the Import button, or use the Import All button to import all packages that do not have errors. In the example below, only one of the two question packages is error–free so the two buttons will achieve the same result.

QTI Settings

To change the QTI settings navigate to Settings > QTI Settings.

1. Check this box to specify that when importing questions the CLS uses the assessment Item identifier as the CLS question identifier, thus bypassing automatic generation of this value.
2. Check this box to specify that importing Questions that do not have complete scoring information (i.e. a fully defined responseDeclaration element) is enabled.
3. Check this box to enable the encryption of packages, using passwords for both import and export.
4. Check this box to include information about the owner modules and discipline in the exported resource metadata/QTIMetadata element when exporting Questions.