Essay with plain text (plaintext)

The essay with plain text Question is referenced by its Question type in the code, which is plaintext. This Question allows students to give long, detailed answers to Questions (up to a maximum of 10,000 words). As the grading of an essay is subjective, the Question cannot be auto scored.

Read the authoring documentation for a description of what this Question does.
Read the developer reference documentation to see configuration options for this Question type.

Examples

{
    "response_id": "60019",
    "type": "plaintext",
    "stimulus": "Write an essay, without formatting controls.",
    "show_word_limit": "always",
    "show_word_count": "on-limit",
    "max_length": 10,
    "show_copy": true,
    "show_cut": true,
    "show_paste": true,
    "character_map": "1"
}

Attributes

is_math boolean

Set to true to have LaTeX or MathML contents to be rendered with mathjax.

Default: false
metadata object

Object containing additional information about the question.
metadata.distractor_rationale string

Used to display individual response feedback/rationale to the student.
metadata.rubric_reference string

A unique identifier for the rubric to be used with the question - defaults to course rubric if assigned in activity
metadata.sample_answer string

A sample answer to be displayed on the Learnosity Reports API. HTML is supported.
metadata.acknowledgements string

References for any text passages, documents, images etc. used in the question.
stimulus string

The question stimulus. This can include text, tables, images, resources and LaTeX entered via the Math Editor.
stimulus_review string

HTML/Text content displayed only in review state rendered above the response area. Supports embedded Feature <span> tags. Will override stimulus in review state.
instructor_stimulus string

HTML/Text content displayed when showInstructorStimulus is set to true on the activity. Supports embedded Feature <span> tags.
type string

Type of question being asked, e.g. 'association'

Default: "plaintext"
ui_style object

User interface style
ui_style.fontsize string

Controls the size of base font for this question. Options are among 'small', 'normal', 'large', 'xlarge' and 'xxlarge'.

Default: "normal"
ui_style.min_height stringUnits

The minimum height of the text entry area, input as units. Example: "100px"
ui_style.max_height stringUnits

The max height of the text input including units. Example: "100px"
validation object

In this section, configure the correct answer(s) for the question.
validation.max_score number

The highest score a marker can award to this question response.
validation.min_score_if_attempted number

Positive value indicating the minimum score if a student attempted the question.

Default: 0
validation.unscored boolean

When enabled, this option will remove all scoring from the question. This is useful for creating practice questions.

Default: false
description string

Deprecated See stimulus_review.
Description of the question and its context to be displayed. It supports HTML entities.
character_map boolean / array [characters]

If true, the character map button will display within the short text field. The character map will display the default set of special characters.
If an Array, the character map button will show and display only the array of characters.
IMPORTANT The HTML document will require a charset of utf-8: <meta charset="utf-8">

Default: false
max_length number

Maximum number of words that can be entered in the field. Maximum: 100,000 chars ~ 10,000 words

Default: 10000
show_copy boolean

When this is true the Copy Button is shown in the plain text toolbar.

Default: false
show_cut boolean

When this is true the Cut button is shown in the plain text toolbar.

Default: false
show_paste boolean

When this is true the Paste button is shown in the plain text toolbar.

Default: false
show_word_limit

Determines how the word limit UI will display. Options are the following strings:
"always": Word limit is always shown and updated as the user types
"on-limit": Word limit is only displayed when the word limit is exceeded
"off": No word limit is shown.

Default: "always"
submit_over_limit boolean

Determines if the user is able to save/submit when the word limit has been exceeded.

Default: false
spellcheck boolean

Control the input/textarea attributes spellcheck, autocapitalize, autocomplete and autocorrect. See "Spell check MDN". "Autocapitalize MDN". "Autocomplete MDN" " Autocorrect ". Note these are browser features and may not always be available.

Default: false
placeholder string

Placeholder text that can be added into the response entry area, which disappears when user starts typing.

Response format

The data returned in the response format for this Question is the text content that the student entered, and the wordcount that gives an idea of how much text was written (often, a minimum or maximum number of words is required).

Response format examples

{
    "value": "The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.",
    "wordCount": 9,
    "type": "string",
    "apiVersion": "v2.173.0",
    "revision": 1
}

Response attributes

value string

The text content entered by the student.
wordCount numeric

A value indicating how much text was written in the student response.
type string

Informs the scoring engine about what kind of data to expect in the values entered by the student. For this Question type, you must always supply a string for this attribute with the value "string".
apiVersion string

The version of the Questions API that returned this response.
revision numeric

Keeps track of the number of Question attempt submissions, i.e. how many times the student answered the Question and submitted it.