Overview: Authoring Methods for Question Banks

There are three methods for authoring question banks in the system.

Question Bank Editor - Authoring Overview
Maple T.A. .qu plain-text script files - Authoring Overview
LaTeX files that can produce math-intensive questions formatted to Maple T.A. specifications - Authoring Overview

For project planning information, see Planning a Question Bank Project.

EDU Question Banks

Independent of the authoring method you use, a EDU question bank file is produced. Question bank files are plain-text files, with a .qu extension, structured according to the Maple T.A. question bank syntax.

Uploading files

If you use the Question Bank Editor, the files are automatically saved with a .qu file extension. However, you can upload a plain-text file with any file extension, for example, .htm, to the EDU system.

File Formats: Browsers and Platforms

With EDU you are essentially creating Web pages. Not all file formats are supported by all browsers or will run on all platforms. If adding an image file, make sure that it is widely supported by various browsers. Do not, for example, use bitmap image files in EDU

Which Method is Best for my Project

To edit a few existing questions	To edit or author many questions
To reorganize question bank topics and questions within topics	To work with information fields
To work with algorithmically-generated variable data in my questions	To work with symbolic expressions (chemistry, foreign languages, mathematics, logic)
To work with math-intensive content	To use specific advanced question types
To work with many outside reference objects (for example, image files)	To use Maple® to grade or generate plots in questions