Question: Length and Precison parameters

The table below shows what these two parameters stand for according to the type of question currently selected.

Type Length Precision  
Yes/No      
Text Box length y max length Displays a plain text, one-line box, of x characters length where maximum length of text entered is limited to characters.
Essay columns y rows Displays a plain text box with x columns (character width) and y rows (number of text lines).
If you leave both x and y to their default 0 value (or if you set it to 0), then HTML editor will be dislayed with standard height and width (if available in this course/user context).
Radio      
Checkboxes x boxes min boxes max Use this to force respondent to tick a minimum of x and a maximum of y check boxes. To force an exact number of check boxes to be ticked, set x and y to the same value. If only a min or a max value is desired, just leave the other value to its default 0 value. If you set x or y to values other than their default 0 value, a warning message will be displayed if respondent does not comply with your requirements. Obviously you should make any requirements clear to the respondent either in the general instructions of your portfolio or in the text of relevant questions.
Dropdown      
Rate x items y
  • x is the number of items to be used in your rate (Likert) scale. You would normally use a value of 3 to 5). If you do not change the default 0 value, then 5 will be used.
  • Set y to 1 if you want an N/A column to be displayed after your Rate scale items column(s).
  • Set y to 2 if you want to prevent duplicate choices in each degree column.
    • This is useful if you want the respondent to rank a number of items on a 1 to n scale and to force each rank to be unique. Example: order items A, B and C in order of preference will accept: A1, B3 and C2 or A3, B2 and C1, but it will not be possible for the respondent to enter: A1, B1, C2 or A1, B2, C2, etc.
    • Used in conjunction with the named degrees option, this option 2 can also be useful if you want the respondent to match items with named degrees, e.g. the colors red, blue, yellow with a set of physiological responses: excitement, tranquillity, concentration where one color can only match one physiological response.
  • Set y to 3 if you want to create a question of the Osgood's semantic differential type. This parameter must be used in conjunction with the named degrees option.
Date      
Numeric x length y precision

Use x to set a limit to the length of characters entered for a Numeric question. Use y to force response format to y decimal places.

  • Example 1: x=5; y=2. Reponse entered: 12 will be automatically re-formatted to 12.00
  • Example 2. x=5; y=2. Reponse entered: 12.569 will be automatically re-formatted to 12.57 (and a warning message will be displayed to the respondent explaining this transformation)
  • Example 3. x=5; y=2. Respondent cannot type a number longer than e.g. 12.57898 (max length (x) = 5 + decimal point + (y precision) 2 = 8.

Notes

  1. These Length and Precision parameter fields are not very friendly. In a further version of portfolio it is hoped to automatically display more meaningful names, according to the currently selected question type.
  2. The words Length and Precision have been kept for the sake of Moodle users who have already created questions. Obviously theses words will have to be changed when a) above is achieved. JR.

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