The STACK plugin for Moodle brings the Maxima to Moodle. Maxima is a Computer Algebra System which will calculate question variables and test student answers.
This is a first blog post in a set which will give tips for anyone wanting to start writing questions using STACK. There is also an Authoring Quick Start guide included in the documentation.
1. Write all your calculations into the Question variables field
It’s easiest to do all your calculations in one place and then includes these in the model answer and answer test fields. For worked answers, calculate intermediate results.
NB: all statements are terminated with a semi-colon; comments are shown by /* some text */
simp:false; /* turn simplification off */ x:2; /* define x variable */ y:3; /* define y variable */ Ques:x*y; /* product of x and y with simplification off */ Ans:ev(Ques,simp); /* product of x and y evaluated with simplification on */
You can now put Ans into the model answer field, and test against Ans in the potential response tree.