Skip to content

Question File Documentation

When authoring using Nobius, question files will be the ones you will spend most of your time in. These are the files which hold all information and content to be rendered into Mobius questions and sheets. Since all your work is saved in .json files, it lives separate from its form as Mobius content. This tool focuses on converting data from question files into Mobius-understandable content, however these files could be used anywhere else to generate .pdf, or LaTeX documents for example.

For a concise summary of supported fields, whether they are required, and whether they are implemented, see the Field Reference.

Parameters

title

Optional but recommended, this string holds the title for the question file

Example 
"title": "Decompose a flow field"

master_statement

Optional but recommended, this string contains the question statement to appear over each part. It should hold general information relevant to all parts of the question, exposing the problem.

Example 
"master_statement": "Verify the given theorem for the given function (by evaluating BOTH the volume integral and the six surface integrals)"

media

Optional, this is a list strings containing the filenames (including extensions) for all media to import and display alongside the master_statement. Accepted file extensions include: .jpg, .png, .mp4.

Example 
"media": ["cat.png", "teacup.jpg", "windmill.mp4"]

Warning

The file names you add in a media block are not checked with media files you've added to a sheet's Media folder. There is not active link between the files you reference in a question and the ones in that folder. This means it's the author's job to ensure import and uploads for media are done correctly

icon_data

Optional, This dictionary holds information about the icons displayed at the top right of the page.

Example 
"icon_data": {
   "difficulty": 3,
   "par_time": [30, 45],
   "statement": "Add a comment about the question here, maybe some context for why the question is asked."
}

difficulty

This can be an integer from 1 to 3, corresponding to the amount of stars shown in the icons. They should be an indication of the relative difficulty of the question in that sheet.

par_time

This should be a array of length 2, containing the lower and upper bounds for the time required to complete the question, in minutes. These will be shown as a range on the clock icon, and used in the time analysis for a sheet shown to the author.

parts

This parameter holds information about each part of a question, it is a list of part objects. These have a great degree of customization and lots of features, which is why they get their own page in the docs! Take me to the part docs

Example 
"parts": [
  {
    "statement": "Simplify 4*x + 3*x",
    "response": {
      "mode": "Maple",
      "mapleAnswer": "7*x"
    },
    "final_answer": {
      "text": "7*x"
    }
  },
  {
    "statement": "Plot y = 2x + 4"
  }
]

adaptive

Optional metadata used by Nobius validation to flag constraints relevant to adaptive questions.

"adaptive": {
  "enabled": true,
  "notes": "Reserved for future adaptive authoring support."
}

At present this does not enable full adaptive rendering in Nobius. It exists so the validator can block response types that Möbius does not allow in adaptive sections, such as Essay and Document Upload.

Best Practices

Info

Both the master_statement, statement and text fields accept raw HTML, so if you want to embed a video, add a table or image outside of the normal available places you can! Warning: This HTML isn't checked so make sure you close all the tags you've opened

Single Part questions

There are multiple ways of dealing with this case, a question that only has a single part (so just one statement). The general idea for something like this is:

  • If the question doesn't require a response area, or help module (final answer, worked solutions, ...) then the question can entirely be created without a parts list, all in the master_statement.
  • If the question does then the master_statement field should be removed or left empty, and all information added to a single part inside of the parts list.