concept-xblock 0.4.0

concept XBlock

ConceptXBlock

This is a simple XBlock which will allows one to tag problems with concepts. To be useful, it requires a concept server. There is one in the matching concept-tag-server repo.

Usage:

   <Concept server="http://www.sample-concept-demo-server.org:7000/">

This displays:

In the bottom left, you can search for learning objectives, and drag them into one of the top three bins. The bins are:

• Taught: For concepts which the item introduces. For example, a video explaining the quadaratic equation would be tagged as teach the quadratic equation. Perhaps should be renamed to 'introduced'?
• Exercised: For concepts which the problem is explicitly designed to practice. For example, "Solve 5x^2+6x=7" would exercise the quadratic equation.
• Required: For concepts implicitly required. For example, a physics problem on the path of a rocket might have the quadratic equation as a prerequisite, but not be explictly designed to exercise it.

The edit button is a link back to the concept tag server, where we can edit concept descriptions.

The system has a few serious issues:

1. Performance. This is trivial to fix, but the system currently makes an AJAX request per objective on the page. Bulk requests would solve this.
2. 500 errors when e.g. a concept is not on the concept server.
3. No test cases.
4. Shown as a student (rather than instructor) view. This is a Studio limitation.
5. Lack of configurability. It works on my taxonomy (taught/exercised/required), and not yours.
6. Horrific styling. In desperate need of a cleanup.

It does have a few nice properties:

1. Continues to develop edX-as-a-platform, rather than edX-as-a-product.
2. Natural path (via concept wiki) to coming up with a concept taxonomy. Next steps will be to split and join objectives.
3. Natural extension to other wise of tagging objectives (e.g. Bloom's taxonomy, etc.)