Molson Medical Informatics

Dion's Pretest Quiz Version 1.0

(Specific documentation for the Molson Medical Informatics Project)
 
Features

For quiz implementation, I have written 2 different Active Server Pages (ASP) scripts: pretest and posttest. The main difference is that pretest lists all questions at once, whereas posttest lists the questions one by one. Pretest can handle 2 to 5 multiple choices for each question. It displays all the questions and choices at once, and when the student answers them all and submits the answers, a results page will appear. For each answer, the corresponding question, the student's choice, the correct choice, and an explanation will be given in the results page. A score is of course provided. To faciliate question entry, retrieval, and scoring, the questions and choices are stored in a Microsoft Access Database file. Pretest retrieves the questions and paste them into your pre-written HTML file.

 

Requirements and Installation Instructions

  1. The webpages for the Molson Medical Informatics Project are served by a Windows NT 4.0 System running IIS 4.0, and the server should have been set up properly for ASP scripts to run.

  2. Working demos of pretest can be found below.

  3. The working files are stored in the folder /sprojects/asp/pretest/. This readme document is also included there. Copy all these files from there to your project folder in the server and work with the copies in your folder. (Click here for instructions on mapping network drive, accessing your files and other files such as these ones, copy/paste/upload, etc.) Pretest.mdb and pretest.asp are the essential files. Samplequiz.asp and samplequiz.html are provided to help you set up and can be deleted afterward. You can also download the zip file containing the whole package.

  4. If you have more than one quiz, please set up a different folder for each quiz. This way you can have multiple copies of the files above without having to rename the files. It is recommended that you do not change the filename of the files.

  5. Pretest.mdb is the questions database. You need to use Microsoft Access (the database software in the Microsoft Office 97 Package) to enter your questions. The file has 5 sample questions to show you how to fill in the database (self-explanatory). Replace those questions with yours. Leave the remaining choices blank if you have less than 5 choices for each question. Remeber to save your database file when done.

  6. You can use pretest.asp as it is, or better you can design the basic framework of your "Questions List" page. In your HTML file, I suggest you provide a title, a link back to your tutorial, questions copyright declaration, etc. Move your cursor to the mid-section of the page where you want the questions and choices listed, and go to edit HTML source from your HTML editor and paste into the HTML source code the following line:
    <!--#include file=pretest.asp-->

  7. Save your final HTML file with a .asp file extention (e.g., quiz.asp using File - Save As from your editor). For example, samplequiz.html and samplequiz.asp are actually identical files with different file extension. Samplequiz.html is a sample to show you Step 5 above. Then I saved it as samplequiz.asp where the .asp extension is needed for the server to paste your questions into the file.

  8. Voila! With quiz.asp, pretest.asp, and pretest.mdb in the server you are now all set. Point your browser to your quiz.asp file to see how nicely the quiz works!

 

Advance Features and Tips

  • Whereas you can design your fancy "Questions List" page,  the default Results page generated by the script is rather plain-looking. Within the pretest.asp script itself there are instructions for people familiar with HTML programming to play with things like the output format of the Results page (e.g., to add a title, to display the questions and feedback in a table, etc.)

 

Problems, Known Bugs and Updates

  • To date, there is no known bug. This script will not be updated until I receive a bug report or a suggestion for improvement that's worth working on (and provided that I get a breather from Medical school!)

 

Bug Report, Suggestions or Comments

  • I let you use this script for free, so it's your turn to give me some feedback! Please sign the guestbook.

 

Sites Using This Script

  • If you decide to use this script, I would appreciate a link back to this page. Please sign the guestbook if you want your site to be listed in this section of my page.
 

Other ASP scripts

 

Dion Fung (MD, CM, PhD '04),
Med Class of 2001
Last Modified: 08/24/00