QTI Resources With Commentary
QTI Authoring Tools
Question Writer – The QTI compilation engine that used to be available on this website is now available in this Windows desktop application. It exports content as a Flash quiz or assessment for use on a website or CDROM as HTML in a VLE or LMS as a SCORM packages or for Questionmark Perception. It also has an export as QTI option.
Respondus – This tool is easy to use and is recommended for beginners with its tagline – “The interface is designed for teachers, not techies”. It installs onto any Windows platform and supports the import/export of questions from Blackboard, WebCT and eCollege. The QTI response processing output for some question types is a little confused. Be sure to use the ‘IMS QTI Personality’ on the start menu in Respondus if using its output with XQuestion.
Canvas Learning Author – Canvas Learning have a dedicated involvement in the evolution of the QTI specifications and are always very up-to-date with the latest developments. You can rely on their tools for exact compliance. Canvas Learning Author is a powerful development tool for those serious about using QTI but because of its many features, it has a steep learning curve.
IMS Assesst Designer – This runs as a web server on the desktop, allowing connections to the authoring interface through your web browser. You’ll probably want to make sure that you’re using a good firewall when using this authoring tool, as the server will accept connections from remote computers. It has a good range of features, especially in the section/assessment area, including duration allowed, objectives and rubrics. Another excellent feature is its use of feedback – you’ll be able to give different assessment feedback based on the total number of questions that have been answered correctly.
Questionmark Perception – A lot of the QTI examples available on the web are made with this tool suggesting that it is one of the more popular tools. It doesn’t export all of its available question types as QTI but it does cover all the basic types and exports question banks. It does have some issues with incorrect response-processing XML and avoid using any XML reserved characters with it (&,<,>) as this can cause it to output invalid XML. Perception is a windows based tool and comes with example questions.
QTI Players
XQuestion – Our very own XQuestion is a QTI compiler rather than a player, which means that it compiles QTI into flash software rather than using software to play QTI. That’s a subtle difference, but gives lots of advantages – the main one being that the source QTI doesn’t need to be distributed to make your test available to others. Handles assessments, sections and items, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank and essay style questions.
Granada Testwise – This renders assessments and covers a good part of the QTI specification. A little bit of disclosure – I had a hand in building this, so it is not surprising that I think it’s pretty good and very QTI conformant. You’ll need a recent Shockwave plugin and some assessment XML is provided for testing.
TOIA QTI and Content Package Previewer – This runs on windows and is part of the TOIA (Technologies for Online Interoperable Assessment) project. It renders the different types of multiple choice questions but doesn’t render other question types.
Cetis Test Engine (May be unavailable while it is being rebuilt) – This requires registration to use. It has a strong focus on interoperability and provides QTI examples for use in the engine. It covers a wide range of possible render-response combinations.
QTI Resources
IMS QTI Specifications – This is the official source for QTI documentation. The latest version is QTI 2. XQuestion supports upto version 1.2. To get up to speed with version 1.2, start with the document, IMS Question & Test Interoperability QTILite Specification. The QTI Lite specification contains everything you need to get multiple choice questions up and running.
Cetis Assessment News – Good quality articles appear here at a rate of about 2 per month. Always about assessment, but usually the stories have a QTI perspective.
Cetis IMS QTI Documentation and Resources Many useful resources here. It includes example items, discussion of various Response/Render combinations, and a QTI FAQ.
QTI List – List for technical discussion of QTI issues. Archives are avaiable on the web, and subscription requires an e-mail address. Many QTI experts on this list.
Cetis QTI SIG(Special Interest Group) Mailing List – This requires registration/login to access the archives and to join the mailing list. This list tends to focus on the academic aspects and discussion is often centered around the mathematical aspects (or lack thereof) in QTI.
Pierre Gorrissen’s QTI Quickscan report (pdf) and addendum (pdf). This report provides a good analysis of the various issues surrounding QTI in the following products : Respondus, QuestionMark, N@tschool!, Blackboard, WebCT, Learn eXact and in the addendum, Canvas Learning Flash Player.
Extending QTI for Mathematics QTI is short on detail when it comes to maths but there are a number of incentives underway. This document describes the efforts being made to extend the QTI specification to support features which are specific to the requirements of numerical assessment.
