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Data Assist P. O. Box 26114 Columbus, Ohio 43226 P C - Q U I Z Z E R Version 2.0 12-Jun-87 Copyright (c) 1987 - Data Assist. PC-QUIZZER is distributed through Shareware and is licensed for use to registered users. Non-registered users are entitled to use the product for evaluation purposes only. Copies of PC-QUIZZER may be distributed to other users for evaluation purposes. Use of this software by any person or organization for any other purpose is prohibited. Educational or Commercial use of this software and its documentation without a site license agreement is also prohibited. INTRODUCTION PC-QUIZZER is Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) package designed for easy use while retaining many of the features found in expensive CAI packages. The product permits the user to create lessons without the requirement to learn a complex CAI programming language. The lesson is presented to the student using windows which contain options, questions, the answer prompt, and help. In addition, PC-QUIZZER permits the use of color text, color graphics, and music. A VOTRAX speech synthesizer may also be used to produce speech. Throughout this document we will refer to 'the student' and 'the author'. The student is the person who is taking the quiz or lesson. The author is the person who is writting the lesson. From the options menu the student is able to select features such as Immediate question retry, Repeat missed questions, Almost correct answer, Select questions based on keywords and others. PC-QUIZZER lessons are text files which contain questions and commands which control the presentation of the questions. The questions used in a PC-QUIZZER lesson may be true/false, fill in the blank, multiple choice, or K-type multiple-choice. The questions on the quiz may be given sequentially or randomly chosen by the computer. Questions that are missed are flagged for later retry, or they may be asked again immediately until the correct answer is given. Each question may contain multiple correct answers and incorrect answers. Various levels of help and other information may be included and is displayed when the student needs help or has entered a right or wrong answer. Quiz files may be created using any standard ASCII text editor or word processor. The entire quiz file may be loaded into PC- QUIZZER or certain questions may be selected based on a list of keywords. Graphics images for use with PC-QUIZZER may be created with any graphics or painting package or by a BASIC program. 1 Another PC-QUIZZER option permits answers that are "almost correct." This feature allows minor misspelled words to be accepted if the response is "similar" to the correct answer. For example: The response "Georg Washington" may be considered correct as the answer to "Who was the first President of the United States?" PC-QUIZZER can be used for instruction in almost any subject including foreign languages, history, science, math, vocabulary and word definitions. It may also be used to ask trivia questions at your next party for hours of fun. PC-QUIZZER is an excellent educational tool and a must for everyone involved with learning or teaching. AVAILABILITY PC-QUIZZER is available for the IBM PC and most compatibles. PC- QUIZZER requires only one disk drive and either a Monochrome, Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) or EGA. The system should have at least 128K of RAM memory. Color Graphics is only supported on a IBM compatible CGA or EGA. PC-QUIZZER may be obtained through various PC User Groups, Public Domain software vendors, BBS's or directly from Data Assist. OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS PC-QUIZZER is executed by typing 'QUIZ' from the MS-DOS '>' prompt. PC-QUIZZER will begin by displaying the title screen. Press the Return key to continue to the main menu. The main menu contains several options which are used to load files and set parameters which control the way PC-QUIZZER operates. Simply press the key corresponding to the appropriate menu option. The following section describes in greater detail the main menu options and how they are used. MAIN MENU OPTIONS Option A - Allow Approx. Match This option may be used to enable or disable PC-QUIZZER from allowing minor misspelled answers from being accepted as correct. If this parameter is set to NO, the student must enter the answer exactly as specified in the QUIZ file. Only an exact match will be accepted. PC-QUIZZER will always accept answers in either upper or lower case. When this parameter is set to YES, PC-QUIZZER will determine if the answer entered by the student is "almost" like one of the correct answers given in the question entry. This feature may be used when the student should not be penalized for a minor mis- spelling of the answer. 2 Option B - Begin Quiz This option is used to begin a quiz. Before you may begin a quiz you must load one into the computer by using either Option L or Option K. After the quiz has completed you may repeat the quiz again by selecting Option B a second time without the need to reload the quiz file. Also see Option M. Option C - Display Correct Answer This option is used to control if the correct answer is displayed whenever the student enters an incorrect answer. If this parameter is set to NO, the correct answer will not be displayed. If this parameter is set to YES, the correct answer will be shown to the student. You may choose to set this option to YES while the student is studying the subject matter or is taking a practice quiz. Note: Should the question contain multiple correct answers, only the first correct answer will be displayed. Also see $ANSWER. Option E - Exit Program This option will cause PC-QUIZZER to exit back to MS-DOS. Option H - Display Help Lines This option controls whether PC-QUIZZER displays HELP lines during the quiz. If this parameter is set to YES, the student may request help by entering a question mark while at the answer prompt. PC-QUIZZER will display a window containing any HELP lines given in the question entry. If this parameter is set to NO, then the help text will not be displayed. If no help is available for a question and the student asks for help, an error messages will be displayed in the error window. This parameter should be set to YES during drill and practice sessions. Also see $HELP under the commands section. Option I - Immediate Retry This option is used to control whether the student will be given a second (or third) chance to correctly answer a question. If the Immediate Retry option is set to YES, the student is given three attempts to supply a correct answer to a question. If the Immediate Retry option is set to NO, the student will be given only one try to enter the correct answer. If the student enters an incorrect answer, the question will be graded as wrong. The student may retry the missed question at a later time by choosing option M on the main menu. Also see Option M. 3 Option K - Keyword Load This option performs the same function as Option L except that the student may specify a list of keywords. The keywords are used to select questions from the quiz file. After the student has specified the quiz filename, PC-QUIZZER will display a keyword window. The keywords are entered into this window, and the arrow keys may be used to move around the inside of the window. When all the keywords have been entered the END key is used to terminate the list. The keywords may be entered in either upper or lower case. When searching the quiz file, PC-QUIZZER will select only those question which contain one or more of the keywords within the text of the question. Also see Option L and $KEY under the commands section. Example: Use Option K to load the STATES demo file and specify the name of your state and the name of each of your adjacent states. Option L - Load All This option is used to Load All questions from a quiz file. All of the questions will be loaded and selected. After the quiz file has been loaded, select Option B to begin the quiz. Also see Option K. Option M - Repeat Missed After completing a quiz, Option M may be used to repeat any questions that were missed. Option M may be repeated over and over again until no more questions are missed. The field 'Wrong:' on the main menu indicates the number of questions which will be selected if Option M is specified. Option R - Random Mode This option tells PC-QUIZZER to randomize the questions before they are asked. This is a very useful study technique. Random mode is the opposite of Sequential Mode. Also see Option S. Option S - Sequential Mode This option is the opposite of random mode. If sequential mode is specified, PC-QUIZZER will present the questions in the same order as they appear in the quiz file. This is the default mode. Also see Option R. Option V - VOTRAX Output If your computer has a VOTRAX Type'n Talk (or Personal Speech System) you may select option V to tell PC-QUIZZER to use your VOTRAX. PC-QUIZZER will "speak" the questions and other messages to the student. 4 Note: PC-QUIZZER requires an initialization file to define the VOTRAX communications port. Registered user should contact Data Assist for an Applications Note which describes how to set up the port before using their VOTRAX device. Registered users with a speech synthesizer other than a VOTRAX may also contact Data Assist for possible support. CREATING YOUR OWN LESSON FILES Lesson files, or quiz files, may be created using any standard text editor or word processor. If a word processor is used be sure that the non-document or ASCII mode is used. Questions are organized into question entries. Each entry contains the text of the question, one or more correct answers, any anticipated incorrect answers and optional text to be dis- played for various conditions. The question entry begins with a '$QUE' command and ends with a '$EOQ' command. Each line of text between these two commands is part of the question entry. Up to 100 questions may be contained in a single quiz file. SIMPLE COMMANDS A question entry must contain at least three PC-QUIZZER statements. Example: $QUESTION <-- marks the start of a question What is 1+1? $ANSWER 2 <-- indicates a correct answer $EOQ <-- marks the end of the question Each PC-QUIZZER command begins with a dollar sign which must start in column one. The command name may be abbreviated to three character, but no less! Lets take a more detailed look at the three commands that were just used. Command: $QUESTION Syntax: $QUESTION [name] Description: This command marks the begining of a question. The question may optionally contain a name from 1 to 8 characters in length. Although you do not need to name a question, if a name is used, it must be unique. Following the $QUESTION statement is the body of the question. This text is displayed in the question window when PC-QUIZZER asks the student this question. 5 Command: $ANSWER Syntax: $ANSWER answer-string Description: The $ANSWER command tells PC-QUIZZER what the correct answer to a question is. A question may contain multiple correct answers but each correct answer must be specified on a different $ANSWER command. After the $ANSWER statement you may have additional lines of text. These lines will be displayed in the question window if this answer matches that given by the student. If your question has multiple correct answers, you may have different responses for each possible correct answer. Command: $EOQ Syntax: $EOQ Description: This command marks the End of the Question (EOQ). It must be the last statement is the question entry. Its purpose is to mark the end of the question and all the additional commands and text lines which are part of the question entry. HELP AND INFORMATION COMMANDS Command: $HELP Syntax: $HELP Description: The $HELP command marks the beginning of a HELP block. The lines following the $HELP statement (until the next command) will be displayed if the student enters a '?' to the Answer prompt. If menu option H is set to OFF then PC-QUIZZER will not provide the student with help. The HELP text is displayed in the HELP window. Command: $RIGHT Syntax: $RIGHT Description: The $RIGHT command begins a block of text which is displayed whenever the student enters any answer that is correct. This statement is typically used when the question has multiple cor- rect answers. 6 Command: $WRONG Syntax: $WRONG Description: The $WRONG command is similar to the $RIGHT command except that the block of text is displayed only when the student enters a wrong answer. Command: $NOT Syntax: $NOT incorrect-answer-string Description: The $NOT command is similar to the $ANSWER command except that it specifies an incorrect answer. The text block following the $NOT statement will be displayed in the question window if the student enters an incorrect answer which matches the incorrect-answer- string. A question entry may contain more than one $NOT command. COLOR GRAPHICS COMMANDS PC-QUIZZER supports color graphics through the use of BASIC BSAVE files. While there are better ways to store graphic images, the BSAVE format is already supported by many graphics editors, utilities, and slide show systems. For this reason it is possible to create graphic images for PC-QUIZZER using many different tools which already exist. Registered users may write to Data Assist for an Applications Note which describe how to use various graphic editors and utilities to create picture files useable with PC-QUIZZER. Command: $CGA Syntax: $CGA mode picture-file-name Description: The $CGA command is used to display a Color Graphic image. The mode parameter specifies the video mode needed to display the graphic image. Currently only modes 4, 5 (medium resolution) and 6 (high resolution) are supported. Picture-file-name is the name of a disk file which contains the color graphic image. The complete file path name must be given. The graphic image must be stored in BSAVE format. If possible you should store the graphic images on a RAM disk. This greatly speeds up graphics with PC-QUIZZER. Also see $PCOLOR and demo file USA.QIZ. 7 Command: $PCOLOR Syntax: $PCOLOR pallet-number Before using the $CGA command you should set the desired pallet- number by using the $PCOLOR command. The pallet-number may be either 0 or 1 on a Color Graphics Adapter. Command: $PAINT Syntax: $PAINT x-loc y-loc color-code Description: The $PAINT command is used to paint an area of the screen. The x- loc and y-loc specify the starting x and y location of the area to paint. PC-QUIZZER will paint the area using the color-code specified. The area to be painted must be outlined with a color different from the present color of the area. See demo file USA.QIZ. Note: $PAINT should NOT be used to paint complex areas of the screen. Doing so may cause the stack to overflow and the PC to lock up!!! Command: $ASK Syntax: $ASK prompt-string Description: The $ASK command may only be used in conjunction with the $CGA command. The purpose of the $ASK command is to prompt the student for an answer while the graphic screen is displayed. If the $ASK command is not used, PC-QUIZZER will return to the text screen and prompt the student for an answer. If $ASK is used while a text screen is currently displayed, it will be ignored. See demo file USA.QIZ. COLOR AND MONOCHROME TEXT COMMANDS When using a color monitor you may wish to display characters of different colors in your text displays. This is accomplished by using the $TEXT command along with $TCOLOR or $TATTRIB. Command: $TEXT Syntax: $TEXT text-string Description: The $TEXT command displays the text-string in the question window. If the text string contains sub-strings enclosed inside of {} characters, these sub-strings will be colored using the color codes specified by the $TCOLOR or $TATTRIB commands. Each group of sub-strings may be colored differently. Up to ten sub- strings may occur within one text-string. 8 Command: $TCOLOR Syntax: $TCOLOR index f-color b-color [BLINK] The $TCOLOR command defines a foreground color and background colors for use with the $TEXT command. The index may range from 1 to 10. You may optionally use the modifier BLINK to select a blinking color. The $TCOLOR statement must come before the first $TEXT statement within a question entry. Up to ten different color groups may be defined and used per $TEXT command. Once the colors are defined by $TCOLOR, they may be used by multiple $TEXT commands within the same question entry. See demo file TCOLOR.QIZ. The color codes which may be specified for f-color and b-color are: Black, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Brown, White, Grey, LBlue, LGreen, LCyan, LRed, LMagenta, Yellow and LWhite. Example: $QUE $TCOLOR 1 BLACK WHITE $TCOLOR 2 WHITE BLACK BLINK $TCOLOR 3 RED BLACK $TEXT This is {Reversed}. This is {Blinking}. This is {RED}. And this is a normal line of text... $TEXT What does {1+1} equal? $ANS 2 $EOQ Command: $TATTRIB Syntax: $TATTRIB index f-attrib b-attrib Description: The $TATTRIB command provides an alternate, shorthand method to specify foreground and background colors. This command performs the same function as $TCOLOR however numeric attribute (color) codes are used rather that the symbolic codes as used by $TCOLOR. $TATTRIB also provided the ability to specify attributes for use with Monochrome monitors and color display adapters which use non-standard color attributes. See demo file MONO.QIZ. ADDITIONAL COMMANDS Command: $KEY Syntax: $KEY keyword-1 keyword-2 ... Description: The $KEY command gives the author the ability to enter additional keywords into a question entry. The keyword(s) specified on the $KEY statement are used by menu option K when a Keyword Load is requested. 9 Command: $PRESS Syntax: $PRESS Description: The $PRESS command will cause PC-QUIZZER to display 'Press Enter to continue.' in the answer window. The lesson will pause until the student presses the Enter key or the Return key. The command may be used to divide up a large questions into smaller para- graphs which fit inside of the question window. Another use for the $PRESS command is just prior to the use of a $CGA command. This allows the student an opportunity to read a question before being presented with a graphic image. Command: $PLAY Syntax: $PLAY music-string Description: The $PLAY command is used to play music. The music-string contains an expression which describes the music to be played. The music string uses a format similar to the PLAY statement in BASIC. See demo file MUSIC.QIZ. A-G: plays this note in the current octave. On: sets n as the current octave. (0..6) Nn: plays note n. (0..84) Ln: set the length of the following notes. (1..64) Pn: set the length of a rest. (1..64) Tn: sets the number of quarter notes in a minute (32..255) >n: plays not n in the next higher octave. <n: plays not n in the next lower octave. ML: play complete period of Ln value. MN: play 7/8 time of Ln value. MS: play 3/4 time of Ln value. Example: $QUE Name this tune... $PLAY T120L4MNO4C8C8DCFE2C8C8DCGF2C8C8O5CO4A $PLAY FED2T90B-8B-8AFGF2 $ANS HAPPY BIRTHDAY That was an easy one. $EOQ ... Command: $SLEEP Syntax: $SLEEP seconds Description: The $SLEEP command causes PC-QUIZZER to sleep for the specified number of seconds. 10 K-TYPE QUESTIONS Command: $KTYPE Syntax: $KTYPE code Description: PC-QUIZZER provides a facility to accept K-type questions. The K- type question format is often used on professional examinations. A K-type question contains 4 items of which 1 or more are true. The answer is either A, B, C, D, or E and is formed using these fixed rules: The answer is A if items 1, 2 and 3 are true. The answer is B if items 1 and 3 are true. The answer is C if items 2 and 4 are true. The answer is D if only item 4 is true. The answer is E if items 1, 2, 3 and 4 are true. Example: $QUE Which of the following Presidents were in office before 1850? 1. George Washington 2. Ronald Reagan 3. Andrew Jackson 4. Abraham Lincoln $ANS B $! B means that 1 and 3 are true. $KTYPE 1 George Washington's term began in 1789. $KTYPE 2 Ronald Reagan's term began in 1981. $KTYPE 3 Andrew Jackson's term began in 1829. $KTYPE 4 Abraham Lincoln's term began in 1861. $EOQ The correct answer in this example is B, which means that (1) George Washington and (3) Andrew Jackson were both in office before 1850 and the others were not. Should the student incorrectly answer this question, PC-QUIZZER will use the text following the corresponding $KTYPE statement to display why the specified answer was wrong. Note: In order for PC-QUIZZER to properly ask a K-type question, the above format must be used. For more insight into using K-type questions experiment using the sample file KTYPE.QIZ on the distribution disk. Note: KTYPE questions may not be used in conjunction with Graphic Screens. 11 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PC-QUIZZER may be used on a Monochrome Monitor or a Color Graphics Monitor. The program defines 6 windows which are used for all screen displays. They are numbered as follows: 1 - Main Menu Window 2 - Question & File Load Window 3 - Answer Window 4 - Help & Keyword Load Window 5 - Error Window 6 - Grade Window On a Monochrome system each window appears the same color. On a color system PC-QUIZZER defines each window using just black and white. Currently these colors are not changeable through a PC- QUIZZER command or menu option. Registered users who wish to change the default window colors may request an Application Note from Data Assist which describes how to set the foreground and background color of each window. --- PC-QUIZZER uses direct memory I/O to the video screen. While this technique is very fast, it is also prone to not work correctly on some not-so-compatible computers. Should PC-QUIZZER not work correctly on your system, you may request a version which uses MS-DOS I/O; a slow but sure method of doing I/O. You must be a registered user in order to purchase the MS-DOS I/O version. --- PC-QUIZZER permits all responses to be entered in upper or lower case. This includes menu options as well as keywords and question answers. --- When entering True/False questions into the quiz file, the author should enter "$ANSWER T" or "$ANSWER F" as the correct answer. This will enable the student to enter "T", "F", "TRUE" or "FALSE" as their answer. RESTRICTIONS A maximum of 100 questions may be entered into a question file. Depending on the size of the questions and amount of memory in your computer, It is possible to exceed memory before 100 questions have been loaded. The length of each quiz text line should not exceed 100 characters. 12 ERROR MESSAGES Can't open the quiz file. Please try again -- The quiz file specified does not exist or the filename was entered incorrectly. Illegal CGA mode -- Only CGA modes 4, 5 and 6 are supported in this version of PC-QUIZZER. See section on $CGA command. Illegal command or parameter -- A command was read from the quiz file which is either an unknown command or is a legal command which contains an illegal parameter. Correct the statement and try again. Maximum of 100 questions loaded -- A maximum of 100 questions were loaded from the quiz file. PC-QUIZZER will only use the first 100 questions on the quiz. 300 questions for site licensed copies. No questions are currently selected -- Before entering option B to begin a quiz, you must load a quiz file using either option K (Keyword Load) or option L (Load All). No questions were missed -- An attempt has been made to use option M when there are no questions marked as being missed. See discussion of option M. Not enough memory -- PC-QUIZZER was unable to allocate enough memory to work correctly. For most quiz files, 128K of memory should be sufficient. Question entry is missing an answer -- A question does not contain an $ANSWER statement. PC-QUIZZER will skip this question. Quiz file is empty. Please try another file -- The file you are trying to load into PC-QUIZZER does not contain any questions. Are you sure that you specified the correct name of a quiz file? This question does not have an answer. Skipping on -- PC-QUIZZER is trying to ask you a question which does not have an answer. Edit the quiz file and be sure that each question entry has at least one $ANSWER command with the correct answer specified. See also $ANSWER. Too many lines read -- The quiz file you are loading is too big for the version of PC-QUIZZER that you have. (3000 lines) Make the quiz smaller and try again. Unable to load picture -- While executing a $CGA command, PC- QUIZZER was unable to locate the file which contains the graphic image. Make sure that the picture file exists in the path you specified on the $CGA command. Unable to open VOTRAX port -- PC-QUIZZER could not open the port which drives the VOTRAX unit. Make sure that the port is configured into your system. VOTRAX port is unknown to PC-QUIZZER -- Prior to using the VOTRAX device with PC-QUIZZER you must create an initialize file which sets up the port. Contact Data Assist for support. 13 SAMPLE FILES Several sample quiz files have been included on the distribution diskette. These files are intended to show examples of the format used to build your own lesson files. We suggest that you experiment with these files to help you better understand how to use PC-QUIZZER. REQUESTS Data Assist has designed PC-QUIZZER to be both flexible and easy to use. Like any software package there are numerous improve- ments and additions which could be made. We have received several requests and invite you to submit written requests at any time. Registered users are also permitted to "vote" for the requests they would like to see implemented. To vote, simply mail us a letter indicating which requests from the list below you would like to see implemented. Those items which get the most votes will get the most attention in future releases. Be sure to include your own requests or comments if you have any. We believe that registered users should have a voice in future enhancements to PC-QUIZZER and we invite your input. REQ001: Add EGA graphics support. REQ002: Add an $INCLUDE command to include files. REQ003: Save scores on disk with student names. Also a list of which questions they missed would be nice. REQ004: Allow colors to be used in help messages. REQ005: Would like to save a quiz in the middle and resume at a later time. REQ006: Need to have multiple part questions. i.e. here is some text, and these five questions are about this text. The GMAT has questions like this. REQ007: Would like to be able to change menu options like A,C,H,R,S and I in the middle of the quiz. REQ008: Would like to 'preview' a lesson. i.e. have the computer ask the questions and show me the answer. Then I can practice typing in the answers. Later on I will take the quiz and enter the answers the normal way. Many times I just want to learn how to spell the answers and this would sure help. REQ009: Provide an option to scan a quiz and mark the questions to be selected. It would be nice if the selected questions could be written back to disk as another quiz. COMMENT: You should be able to do this with a good text editor. Will consider. REQ010: Sometimes I find typo errors in my questions. I'd like to be able to call up an editor while in PC-QUIZZER and fix it. 14 REQ011: For very large questions, I'd like to be able to scroll back and forth in the window. Need this capability on the HELP window too. REQ012: I would like to say "Skip question M if I got question N right." Or "Skip question M if I got question N wrong..." REQ013: Need to have numeric answer ranges. Example: the square root of 2 is? 1.41 --> 1.414213 REQ014: The ability to load selected questions from multiple quiz files using keywords. (or Load All from multiple files). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PC-QUIZZER was written in Turbo C from Borland International. The source is over 3,100 lines of C code. About 10% of the code is in-line assembler. We have found the Turbo C compiler to be very fast and highly recommend it. REGISTRATION PC-QUIZZER is licensed for use to registered users only. The cost of the registration is $25. If you wish to receive the next release when it becomes available, add an additional $10 to your order and specify the version number of the release you are currently using. Registered users receive: * Limited telephone support * Notice of future releases * Access to Public Domain lesson files * Access to Application Notes * The right to request new features * Voting rights for new features Some PC-QUIZZER users have asked about the availability of existing quiz files. In the interest of our users, Data Assist is collecting quiz and picture files with the intent of releasing a PC-QUIZZER library. All REGISTERED users will receive a notice when this library is available. Should you develop a QUIZ file that you believe other people could use, please send it to Data Assist. Any user who submits a quiz file which we include in the library will receive a free update to PC-QUIZZER and a copy of the library. Thank you for your support and we hope you enjoy using PC-QUIZZER. TRADEMARKS MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft. IBM-PC is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. PC-QUIZZER is a trademark of Data Assist. Turbo C is a registered trademark of Borland International. VOTRAX and Type'n Talk are trademarks of VOTRAX Corporation. 15