I found that authoring questions in STACK requires a relatively steep learning curve. The main reason is that STACK exposes the Maxima Computer Algebra System, and its command set which is ‘ALGOL-like‘. This is was very unfamiliar on first look but has elements which I recognised, having programmed in the R statistical language.
The following documentation sources have been invaluable in writing effective STACK questions:
- Plug-in overview on Moodle.org
- Documentation which installs with the Moodle Plug-in. This will be installed on any system running STACK. It’s easiest to view on GitHub.
- Documentation for Maxima on its’ SourceForge home site
- Maxima syntax documentation summary. Some of the guide is for interactive mode, but it shows how to craft expressions for your model answer and and potential response tree.
- Moodle’s LaTeX summary. Note that the \[ … \] markers are preferred to the $$ … $$ markers in STACK questions.
I also found it useful to install wxMaxima to use on my Ubuntu Linux box.