DELIVERY OF QTIV2 QUESTION TYPES

The QTI standard identifies sixteen different question types which may be used in on-line assessment. While some partial implementations exist, the R2Q2 project has developed a complete solution that renders and responds to all sixteen question types as specified. In addition, care has been taken in the R2Q2 project to ensure that the solution produced will allow for future changes in the specification. The paper summarises the rationale of Web services and a Service Oriented Architecture, and then demonstrates how the R2Q2 project integrates into JISC’s e-Framework, and the reference model for assessment (FREMA1). The design of R2Q2 is described, the focus being on lessons learnt. We describe the architecture and the rationale of the internal Web services and explain the approach taken in implementing the QTI specification, showing how the design allows for future tags to be added with the minimal of programming effort. A major objective of the design was to solve the problem of having to undertake a major redesign and reimplementation as a result of minor modifications to the specification. In the 2006 Capital Programme from JISC, three new projects were commissioned in the area of Assessment: one for authoring of items, one for item banking, and one for a complete test engine as described in the QTI specification. The R2Q2 Web service is at the heart of all three projects and this paper will describe how the R2Q2 Web service will be used