IMS Question and Test Interoperability Assessment Test, Section, and Item Information Model

Attribute : identifier [1]: string
The principle identifier of the item. This identifier must have a corresponding entry in the item's meta-data. See Meta-data and Usage Data for more information.

Attribute : title [1]: string
The title of an assessmentItem is intended to enable the item to be selected in situations where the full text of the itemBody is not available, for example when a candidate is browsing a set of items to determine the order in which to attempt them. Therefore, delivery engines may reveal the title to candidates at any time but are not required to do so.

Attribute : label [0..1]: string256

Attribute : lang [0..1]: language

Attribute : adaptive [1]: boolean = false
Items are classified into Adaptive Items and Non-adaptive Items.

Attribute : timeDependent [1]: boolean

Attribute : toolName [0..1]: string256
The tool name attribute allows the tool creating the item to identify itself. Other processing systems may use this information to interpret the content of application specific data, such as labels on the elements of the item's itemBody.

Attribute : toolVersion [0..1]: string256
The tool version attribute allows the tool creating the item to identify its version. This value must only be interpreted in the context of the toolName

Contains : responseDeclaration [*]

Contains : outcomeDeclaration [*]

Contains : templateDeclaration [*]

Contains : templateProcessing [0..1]

Contains : stylesheet [0..*]

Contains : itemBody [0..1]

Contains : responseProcessing [0..1]

Contains : modalFeedback [*]

When items are referenced as part of a test, the test may impose constraints on how many attempts and which states are allowed. These constraints can be specified for individual items, for whole sections, or for an entire testPart. By default, a setting at testPart level affects all items in that part unless the setting is overridden at the assessmentSection level or ultimately at the individual assessmentItemRef. The defaults given below are used only in the absence of any applicable constraint.

Attribute : maxAttempts [0..1]: integer
For non-adaptive items, maxAttempts controls the maximum number of attempts allowed in the given test context. Normally this is 1 as the scoring rules for non-adaptive items are the same for each attempt. A value of 0 indicates no limit. If it is unspecified it is treated as 1 for non-adaptive items. For adaptive items, the value of maxAttempts is ignored as the number of attempts is limited by the value of the completionStatus built-in outcome variable.

A value of maxAttempts greater than 1, by definition, indicates that any applicable feedback must be shown. This applies to both Modal Feedback and Integrated Feedback where applicable. However, once the maximum number of allowed attempts have been used (or for adaptive items, completionStatus has been set to completed) whether or not feedback is shown is controlled by the showFeedback constraint.

Attribute : showFeedback [0..1]: boolean
This constraint affects the visibility of feedback after the end of the last attempt. If it is false then feedback is not shown. This includes both Modal Feedback and Integrated Feedback even if the candidate has access to the review state. The default is false.

Attribute : allowReview [0..1]: boolean
This constraint also applies only after the end of the last attempt. If set to true the item session is allowed to enter the review state during which the candidate can review the itemBody along with the responses they gave, but cannot update or resubmit them. If set to false the candidate can not review the itemBody or their responses once they have submitted their last attempt. The default is true.

If the review state is allowed, but feedback is not, delivery systems must take extra care not to show integrated feedback that resulted from the last attempt as part of the review process. Feedback can however take the form of hiding material that was previously visible, as well as the more usual form of showing material that was previously hidden.

To resolve this ambiguity, for non-adaptive items the absence of feedback is defined to be the version of the itemBody displayed to the candidate at the start of each attempt. In other words, with the visibility of any integrated feedback determined by the default values of the outcome variables and not the values of the outcome variables updated by the invocation of response processing.

For Adaptive Items the situation is complicated by the iterative nature of response processing which makes it hard to identify the appropriate state in which to place the item for review. To avoid requiring delivery engines to cache the values of the outcome variables the setting of showFeedback should be ignored for adaptive items when allowReview is true. When in the review state, the final values of the outcome variables should be used to determine the visibility of integrated feedback.

Attribute : showSolution [0..1]: boolean
This constraint controls whether or not the system may provide the candidate with a way of entering the solution state. The default is false.

Attribute : allowComment [0..1]: boolean
Some delivery systems support the capture of candidate comments. The comment is not part of the assessed responses but provides feedback from the candidate to the other actors in the assessment process. This constraint controls whether or not the candidate is allowed to provide a comment on the item during the session.

Attribute : allowSkipping [0..1]: boolean = true
An item is defined to be skipped if the candidate has not provided any response. In other words, all response variables are submitted with their default value or are NULL. This definition is consistent with the numberResponded operator available in outcomeProcessing. If false, candidates are not allowed to skip the item, or in other words, they are not allowed to submit the item until they have provided a non-default value for at least one of the response variables. By definition, an item with no response variables cannot be skipped. The value of this attribute is only applicable when the item is in a testPart with individual submission mode. Note that if allowSkipping is true delivery engines must ensure that the candidate can choose to submit no response, for example, through the provision of a "skip" button.

Attribute : validateResponses [0..1]: boolean
This attribute controls the behavior of delivery engines when the candidate submits an invalid response. An invalid response is defined to be a response which does not satisfy the constraints imposed by the interaction with which it is associated. See interaction for more information. When validateResponses is turned on (true) then the candidates are not allowed to submit the item until they have provided valid responses for all interactions. When turned off (false) invalid responses may be accepted by the system. The value of this attribute is only applicable when the item is in a testPart with individual submission mode. (See Navigation and Submission.)

Figure 5.1 Variable Declarations.

Item variables are declared by variable declarations. All variables must be declared except for the built-in session variables referred to below which are declared implicitly and must not be declared. The purpose of the declaration is to associate an identifier with the variable and to identify the runtime type of the variable's value.

An item variable may have no value at all, in which case it is said to have the special value NULL. For example, if the candidate has not yet had an opportunity to respond to an interaction then any associated response variable will have a NULL value. Empty containers and empty strings are always treated as NULL values.

Attribute : identifier [1]: identifier
The identifiers of the built-in session variables are reserved. They are completionStatus, numAttempts and duration. All item variables declared in an item share the same namespace. Different items have different namespaces.

Attribute : cardinality [1]: cardinality
Each variable is either single valued or multi-valued. Multi-valued variables are referred to as containers and come in ordered, unordered and record types. See cardinality for more information.

Attribute : baseType [0..1]: baseType
The value space from which the variable's value can be drawn (or in the case of containers, from which the individual values are drawn) is identified with a baseType. The baseType selects one of a small set of predefined types that are considered to have atomic values within the runtime data model. Variables with record cardinality have no base-type.

Contains : defaultValue [0..1]
An optional default value for the variable. The point at which a variable is set to its default value varies depending on the type of item variable.

A class that can represent a single value of any baseType in variable declarations and result reports. The base-type is defined by the baseType attribute of the declaration except in the case of variables with record cardinality.

Attribute : fieldIdentifier [0..1]: identifier
This attribute is only used for specifying the field identifier for a value that forms part of a record.

Attribute : baseType [0..1]: baseType
This attribute is only used for specifying the base-type of a value that forms part of a record.

Attribute : interpretation [0..1]: string
A human readable interpretation of the default value.

Contains : value [1..*]

single

multiple

ordered

record

An expression or itemVariable can either be single-valued or multi-valued. A multi-valued expression (or variable) is called a container. A container contains a list of values, this list may be empty in which case it is treated as NULL. All the values in a multiple or ordered container are drawn from the same value set, however, containers may contain multiple occurrences of the same value. In other words, [A,B,B,C] is an acceptable value for a container. A container with cardinality multiple and value [A,B,C] is equivalent to a similar one with value [C,B,A] whereas these two values would be considered distinct for containers with cardinality ordered. When used as the value of a response variable this distinction is typified by the difference between selecting choices in a multi-response multi-choice task and ranking choices in an order objects task. In the language of [ISO11404] a container with multiple cardinality is a "bag-type", a container with ordered cardinality is a "sequence-type" and a container with record cardinality is a "record-type".

The record container type is a special container that contains a set of independent values each identified by its own identifier and having its own base-type. This specification does not make use of the record type directly however it is provided to enable customInteractions to manipulate more complex responses and customOperators to return more complex values.

A base-type is simply a description of a set of atomic values (atomic to this specification). Note that several of the baseTypes used to define the runtime data model have identical definitions to those of the basic data types used to define the values for attributes in the specification itself. The use of an enumeration to define the set of baseTypes used in the runtime model, as opposed to the use of classes with similar names, is designed to help distinguish between these two distinct levels of modelling.

identifier
The set of identifier values is the same as the set of values defined by the identifier class.

boolean
The set of boolean values is the same as the set of values defined by the boolean class.

integer
The set of integer values is the same as the set of values defined by the integer class.

float
The set of float values is the same as the set of values defined by the float class.

string
The set of string values is the same as the set of values defined by the string class.

point
A point value represents an integer tuple corresponding to a graphic point. The two integers correspond to the horizontal (x-axis) and vertical (y-axis) positions respectively. The up/down and left/right senses of the axes are context dependent.

pair
A pair value represents a pair of identifiers corresponding to an association between two objects. The association is undirected so (A,B) and (B,A) are equivalent.

directedPair
A directedPair value represents a pair of identifiers corresponding to a directed association between two objects. The two identifiers correspond to the source and destination objects.

duration
A duration value specifies a distance (in time) between two time points. In other words, a time period as defined by [ISO8601]. Durations are measured in seconds and may have a fractional part.

file
A file value is any sequence of octets (bytes) qualified by a content-type and an optional filename given to the file (for example, by the candidate when uploading it as part of an interaction). The content type of the file is one of the MIME types defined by [RFC2045].

uri
A URI value is a Uniform Resource Identifier as defined by [URI].

A special class used to create a mapping from a source set of any baseType (except file and duration) to a single float. Note that mappings from values of base type float should be avoided due to the difficulty of matching floating point values, see the match operator for more details. When mapping containers the result is the sum of the mapped values from the target set. See mapResponse for details.

Attribute : lowerBound [0..1]: float
The lower bound for the result of mapping a container. If unspecified there is no lower-bound.

Attribute : upperBound [0..1]: float
The upper bound for the result of mapping a container. If unspecified there is no upper-bound.

Attribute : defaultValue [1]: float = 0
The default value from the target set to be used when no explicit mapping for a source value is given.

Contains : mapEntry [1..*]
The map is defined by a set of mapEntries, each of which maps a single value from the source set onto a single float.

Attribute : mapKey [1]: valueType
The source value

Attribute : mappedValue [1]: float
The mapped value

Response variables are declared by response declarations and bound to interactions in the itemBody.

At runtime, response variables are instantiated as part of an item session. Their values are always initialized to NULL (no value) regardless of whether or not a default value is given in the declaration. A response variable with a NULL value indicates that the candidate has not offered a response, either because they have not attempted the item at all or because they have attempted it and chosen not to provide a response.

If a default value has been provided for a response variable then the variable is set to this value at the start of the first attempt. If the candidate never attempts the item, in other words, the item session passes straight from the initial state to the closed state without going through the interacting state, then the response variable remains NULL and the default value is never used.

Implementors of Delivery Engines should take care when implementing user interfaces for items with default response variable values. If the associated interaction is left in the default state (i.e., representing the default value) then it is important that the system is confident that the candidate intended to submit this value and has not simply failed to notice that a default has been provided. This is especially true if the candidate's attempt ended due to some external event, such as running out of time. The techniques required to distinguish between these cases are an issue for user interface design and are therefore out of scope for this specification.

Contains : correctResponse [0..1]
A response declaration may assign an optional correctResponse. This value may indicate the only possible value of the response variable to be considered correct or merely just a correct value. For responses that are being measured against a more complex scale than correct/incorrect this value should be set to the (or an) optimal value. Finally, for responses for which no such optimal value is defined the correctResponse must be omitted. If a delivery system supports the display of a solution then it should display the correct values of responses (where defined) to the candidate. When correct values are displayed they must be clearly distinguished from the candidate's own responses (which may be hidden completely if necessary).

Contains : mapping [0..1]
The mapping provides a mapping from the set of base values to a set of numeric values for the purposes of response processing. See mapResponse for information on how to use the mapping.

Contains : areaMapping [0..1]
The areaMapping, which may only be present in declarations of variables with baseType point, provides an alternative form of mapping which tests against areas of the coordinate space instead of mapping single values (i.e., single points).

Attribute : interpretation [0..1]: string
A human readable interpretation of the correct value.

Contains : value [1..*]

A special class used to create a mapping from a source set of point values to a target set of float values. When mapping containers, the result is the sum of the mapped values from the target set. See mapResponsePoint for details. The attributes have the same meaning as the similarly named attributes on mapping.

Attribute : lowerBound [0..1]: float

Attribute : upperBound [0..1]: float

Attribute : defaultValue [1]: float = 0

Contains : areaMapEntry [1..*] {ordered}
The map is defined by a set of areaMapEntries, each of which maps an area of the coordinate space onto a single float. When mapping points each area is tested in turn, with those listed first taking priority in the case where areas overlap and a point falls in the intersection.

Attribute : shape [1]: shape
The shape of the area.

Attribute : coords [1]: coords
The size and position of the area, interpreted in conjunction with the shape.

Attribute : mappedValue [1]: float
The mapped value

Outcome variables are declared by outcome declarations. Their value is set either from a default given in the declaration itself or by a responseRule during responseProcessing.

Items that declare a numeric outcome variable representing the candidate's overall performance on the item should use the outcome name 'SCORE' for the variable.

At runtime, outcome variables are instantiated as part of an item session. Their values may be initialized with a default value and/or set during responseProcessing. If no default value is given in the declaration then the outcome variable is initialized to NULL unless the outcome is of a numeric type (integer or float) in which case it is initialized to 0.

For Non-adaptive Items, the values of the outcome variables are reset to their default values prior to each invocation of responseProcessing. For Adaptive Items the outcome variables retain the values that were assigned to them during the previous invocation of response processing. For more information, see Response Processing.

Attribute : view [*]: view
The intended audience for an outcome variable can be set with the view attribute. If no view is specified the outcome is treated as relevant to all views. Complex items, such as adaptive items or complex templates, may declare outcomes that are of no interest to the candidate at all, but are merely used to hold intermediate values or other information useful during the item or test session. Such variables should be declared with a view of author (for item outcomes) or testConstructor (for test outcomes). Systems may exclude outcomes from result reports on the basis of their declared view if appropriate.

Attribute : interpretation [0..1]: string
A human interpretation of the variable's value.

Attribute : longInterpretation [0..1]: uri
An optional link to an extended interpretation of the outcome variable's value.

Declared outcomes with numeric types should indicate their range of possible values using normalMaximum and normalMinimum, especially if this range differs from [0,1].

Attribute : normalMaximum [0..1]: float
The normalMaximum attribute optionally defines the maximum magnitude of numeric outcome variables, it must be a positive value. If given, the outcome's value can be divided by normalMaximum and then truncated (if necessary) to obtain a normalized score in the range [-1.0,1.0]. normalMaximum has no affect on responseProcessing or the values that the outcome variable itself can take.

Attribute : normalMinimum [0..1]: float
The normalMinimum attribute optionally defines the minimum value of numeric outcome variables, it may be negative.

Attribute : masteryValue [0..1]: float
The masteryValue attribute optionally defines a value for numeric outcome variables above which the aspect being measured is considered to have been mastered by the candidate.

Contains : lookupTable [0..1]

An abstract class associated with an outcomeDeclaration used to create a lookup table from a numeric source value to a single outcome value in the declared value set. A lookup table works in the reverse sense to the similar mapping as it defines how a source numeric value is transformed into the outcome value, whereas a (response) mapping defines how the response value is mapped onto a target numeric value.

The transformation takes place using the lookupOutcomeValue rule within responseProcessing or outcomeProcessing.

Attribute : defaultValue [0..1]: valueType
The default outcome value to be used when no matching table entry is found. If omitted, the NULL value is used.

A matchTable transforms a source integer by finding the first matchTableEntry with an exact match to the source.

Contains : matchTableEntry [1..*]

Attribute : sourceValue [1]: integer
The source integer that must be matched exactly.

Attribute : targetValue [1]: valueType
The target value that is used to set the outcome when a match is found.

An interpolationTable transforms a source float (or integer) by finding the first interpolationTableEntry with a sourceValue that is less than or equal to (subject to includeBoundary) the source value.

For example, an interpolation table can be used to map a raw numeric score onto an identifier representing a grade. It may also be used to implement numeric transformations such as those from a simple raw score to a value on a calibrated scale.

Contains : interpolationTableEntry [1..*]

Attribute : sourceValue [1]: float
The lower bound for the source value to match this entry.

Attribute : includeBoundary [0..1]: boolean = true
Determines if an exact match of sourceValue matches this entry. If true, the default, then an exact match of the value is considered a match of this entry.

Attribute : targetValue [1]: valueType
The target value that is used to set the outcome when a match is found.

Contains : block [*]

The item body contains the text, graphics, media objects, and interactions that describe the item's content and information about how it is structured. The body is presented by combining it with stylesheet information, either explicitly or implicitly using the default style rules of the delivery or authoring system.

The body must be presented to the candidate when the associated item session is in the interacting state. In this state, the candidate must be able to interact with each of the visible interactions and therefore set or update the values of the associated response variables. The body may be presented to the candidate when the item session is in the closed or review state. In these states, although the candidate's responses should be visible, the interactions must be disabled so as to prevent the candidate from setting or updating the values of the associated response variables. Finally, the body may be presented to the candidate in the solution state, in which case the correct values of the response variables must be visible and the associated interactions disabled.

The root class of all content objects in the item content model is the bodyElement. It defines a number of attributes that are common to all elements of the content model.

Attribute : id [0..1]: identifier
The id of a body element must be unique within the item.

Attribute : class [*]: styleclass
Classes can be assigned to individual body elements. Multiple class names can be given. These class names identify the element as being a member of the listed classes. Membership of a class can be used by authoring systems to distinguish between content objects that are not differentiated by this specification. Typically, this information is used to apply different formatting based on definitions in an associated stylesheet.

Attribute : lang [0..1]: language
The main language of the element. This attribute is optional and will usually be inherited from the enclosing element.

Attribute : label [0..1]: string256
The label attribute provides authoring systems with a mechanism for labeling elements of the content model with application specific data. If an item uses labels then values for the associated toolName and toolVersion attributes must also be provided.

Elements that can appear within an object.

Elements that behave as spans of text, such as the contents of paragraphs.

Elements that provide structure to the text, such as paragraphs, tables etc. Most elements are either inline or block elements.

Elements that can appear inside list items, table cells, etc. which includes block-type and inline-type elements.

Attribute : base [0..1]: uri
An optional URI used to change the base for resolving relative URI for the scope of this object. Particular care needs to be taken when resolving relative URI included as part of an Item Fragment. See Item and Test Fragments for more information.

A sub-class of inline that excludes interactions.

A sub-class of block that excludes interactions.

A sub-class of flow that excludes interactions.

Contains : inline [*]

Contains : block [*]

Contains : inline [*]

A text run is simply a run of characters. Unlike all other elements in the content model it is not a sub-class of bodyElement. To assign attributes to a run of text you must use the span element instead.

Note that the title attribute defined by XHTML is not supported.

Note that the title attribute defined by XHTML is not supported.

Attribute : cite [0..1]: uri

Contains : flow [*]

Although pre inherits from atomicBlock it must not contain, either directly or indirectly, any of the following objects: img, object, big, small, sub, sup.

Attribute : cite [0..1]: uri

Contains : dlElement [*]

Contains : inline [*]

Contains : flow [*]

Contains : li [*]

Contains : li [*]

Contains : flow [*]

Contains : objectFlow [*]

Attribute : data [1]: string
The data attribute provides a URI for locating the data associated with the object.

Attribute : type [1]: mimeType

Attribute : width [0..1]: length

Attribute : height [0..1]: length

Attribute : name [1]: string
The name of the parameter, as interpreted by the object.

Attribute : value [1]: string
The value to pass to the object for the named parameter. This value is subject to template variable expansion. If the value is the name of a template variable that was declared with the paramVariable set to true then the template variable's value is passed to the object as the value for the given parameter.

When expanding a template variable as a parameter value, types other than identifiers, strings and uris must be converted to strings. Numeric types are converted to strings using the "%i" or "%G" formats as appropriate (see printedVariable for a discussion of numeric formatting). Values of base-type boolean are expanded to one of the strings "true" or "false". Values of base-type point are expanded to two space-separated integers in the order horizontal coordinate, vertical coordinate, using "%i" format. Values of base-type pair and directedPair are converted to a string consisting of the two identifiers, space separated. Values of base-type duration are converted using "%G" format. Values of base-type file cannot be used in parameter expansion.

If the valuetype is REF the template variable must be of base-type uri.

Attribute : valuetype [1]: paramType = DATA
This specification supports the use of DATA and REF but not OBJECT.

Attribute : type [0..1]: mimeType
Used to provide a type for values valuetype REF.

DATA

REF

Contains : inline [*]

Attribute : span [0..1]: integer = 1

Attribute : span [0..1]: integer = 1

Contains : col [*]

Attribute : summary [0..1]: string

Contains : caption [0..1]

Contains : col [*]
If a table directly contains a col then it must not contain any colgroup elements.

Contains : colgroup [*]
If a table contains a colgroup it must not directly contain any col elements.

Contains : thead [0..1]

Contains : tfoot [0..1]

Contains : tbody [1..*]

In XHTML, table cells are represented by either th or td and these share the following attributes and content model:

Attribute : headers [*]: identifier

Attribute : scope [0..1]: tableCellScope

Attribute : abbr [0..1]: string

Attribute : axis [0..1]: string

Attribute : rowspan [0..1]: integer

Attribute : colspan [0..1]: integer

Contains : flow [*]

row

col

rowgroup

colgroup

Contains : tr [1..*]

Contains : tr [1..*]