AssessmentItem:Modal Feedback

The item author can specify feedback at different points during a candidate’s interaction with an item. These instructions are processed by a QTI-compliant delivery engine.

Different Types of Feedback
Before we look at modal feedback in particular, you should be aware that the specification actually supports three types of feedback (the italicised text below represents the definitions taken from the QTI specification)
 * Modal Feedback – “presented to the candidate on its own, as opposed to being integrated into the item's itemBody”. This type of feedback is relayed to the user immediately following response processing.


 * Integrated feedback – “integrated into the item's itemBody. Unlike Modal Feedback the candidate is free to update their responses while viewing integrated feedback”. This type of feedback is not dependent on having submitted an answer for response processing.


 * Test Feedback – “presented to the candidate conditionally based on the value of test Outcomes”. This topic is covered in the Assessment Test section.

A single QTI item may implement modal feedback or integrated feedback or both.

Modal Feedback
A modal feedback section refers to exactly one outcome variable; if you need to relay more than one outcome variable value you will need to create the appropriate number of modal feedback sections.

Modal feedback has its own section within the AssessmentItem element, whereas Integrated feedback instructions are hardwired inside the ItemBody section of AssessmentItem – as we shall see shortly.



Viewing and Hiding Feedback
The visibility of both modal and integrated feedback can be controlled, so that messages will appear only in the appropriate context.

This is achieved by setting the showHide and identifier attributes of feedback blocks. We will now look at an example item which uses these features.

Example of Modal and Integrated Feedback
The following example item (“Mexican President”) comes from the QTI specification



Note there is no feedback on screen at this time. The candidate chooses option 1 (George W Bush). After submission the following screen appears.



Note this item uses both integrated and modal feedback. First let’s examine the item variables   MGH001C     Notes
 * Response variable RESPONSE – holds the identifier associated with the option chosen by the candidate. The correct answer for this variable is the identifier MGH001C (this will be mentioned later)
 * Outcome variable SCORE – numeric variable to hold the candidate’s score
 * Outcome variable FEEDBACK – holds an identifier value; used during both types of feedback

Example of Integrated Feedback
Next look at the ItemBody section – that’s where the integrated feedback instructions reside.   Who is the President of Mexico? George W Bush No, he is the President of the USA.    Tony Blair No, he is the Prime Minister of England.    Vicente Fox <feedbackInline outcomeIdentifier="FEEDBACK" identifier="MGH001C" showHide="show">Yes. </feedbackInline> </simpleChoice> Ariel Sharon <feedbackInline outcomeIdentifier="FEEDBACK" identifier="MGH001D" showHide="show">No, he is the Prime Minister of Israel. </feedbackInline> </simpleChoice> </choiceInteraction> </itemBody> This item uses a choiceInteraction interaction, with each option having a separate simpleChoice element. In each of the latter, we see a feedbackInLine element such as <feedbackInline outcomeIdentifier="FEEDBACK" identifier="MGH001A" showHide="show"> No, he is the President of the USA. </feedbackInline> This not only contains feedback text but also instructions when to show it. Here’s how these directives are interpreted.

1. Compare current value of outcome variable called “outcomeIdentifier” with value of “identifier”. Do their values match?

2. If showHide is set to “show” AND the values in step 1 match THEN show the feedback message. Else hide the feedback message.

3. If showHide is set to “hide” AND the values in step 1 match THEN hide the feedback message. Else show the feedback message. In our example, the showHide attribute is set to “show”. If the candidate has chosen this option i.e. “George W. Bush” (with associated identifier MGH001A), the above comparison matches, and the integrated feedback message will appear underneath the option as shown above.

Notice that the ItemBody does not set the value of FEEDBACK; it only reads its value and produces integrated feedback if appropriate. So where is FEEDBACK set? In the response processing section, which follows on from ItemBody. <responseProcessing> <responseCondition> <responseIf> <variable identifier="RESPONSE" /> <correct identifier="RESPONSE" /> <setOutcomeValue identifier="SCORE"> <baseValue baseType="float">1</baseValue> </setOutcomeValue> </responseIf> <responseElse> <setOutcomeValue identifier="SCORE"> <baseValue baseType="float">0</baseValue> </setOutcomeValue> </responseElse> </responseCondition> <setOutcomeValue identifier="FEEDBACK"> <variable identifier="RESPONSE" /> </setOutcomeValue> </responseProcessing> First this section assigns the value 1 to RESPONSE if the candidate has chosen the correct answer; otherwise RESPONSE is set to zero. The last assignment copies the value of RESPONSE (e.g. MGH001D) into the FEEDBACK variable. Thereafter the value of FEEDBACK determines which integrated and modal feedback will physically appear.

Example of Modal Feedback
Note there are two modal feedback sections. <modalFeedback outcomeIdentifier="FEEDBACK" identifier="MGH001C" showHide="show">Yes, that is correct. </modalFeedback>

<modalFeedback outcomeIdentifier="FEEDBACK" identifier="MGH001C” showHide="hide">No, the correct answer is Vicente Fox. </modalFeedback> Refer to the above section about how the showHide attribute operates.

A reminder; these two elements are evaluated only after the candidate has submitted a response during an interaction. In contrast, the integrated feedback elements are evaluated each time the itemBody is rendered on screen.