Short text (shorttext)

The short text Question is referenced by its Question type in the code, which is shorttext. This Question allows students to respond to Questions that have short, definite answers, for example, 1-2 words, or a number.

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": "60002",
    "type": "shorttext",
    "stimulus": "What is the capital of Ireland?",
    "instant_feedback": true,
    "case_sensitive": true,
    "validation": {
        "scoring_type": "exactMatch",
        "valid_response": {
            "value": "Dublin"
        },
        "alt_responses": [{
            "value": "Dubh Linn",
            "score": 2
        }, {
            "value": "Baile &Aacute;tha Cliath",
            "score": 3
        }, {
            "value": "Baile Atha Cliath",
            "score": 4
        }]
    }
}

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: "shorttext"
ui_style object

Object used to control different aspects of the UI
ui_style.fontsize string

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

Default: "normal"
feedback_attempts number

If instant_feedback is true, this field determines how many times the user can click on the 'Check Answer' button. 0 means unlimited.

Default: 0
instant_feedback boolean

Flag to determine whether to display a 'Check Answer' button to provide instant feedback to the user.

Default: false
validation object

In this section, configure the correct answer(s) for the question.
validation.allow_negative_scores boolean

Negative scores will be normalised to zero by default. Allowing negative scores, on the other hand, means that the score can drop below zero when penalties are applied.

Default: false
validation.penalty number

Value indicating the marks deducted for an incorrect response.

Default: 0
validation.min_score_if_attempted number

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

Default: 0
validation.scoring_type string

The way in which marks are distributed for the question.
- Exact Match - All parts of the question must be answered correctly to receive a mark.
- Partial Match Per Response - Each correct response element will be awarded an individual score.
- Partial Match - Each correct response element will be scored individually, and the overall question score will be divided between responses.
Default: "exactMatch"
validation.unscored boolean

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

Default: false
validation.valid_response object

An object containing the valid response score and value.
validation.valid_response.score number

Score awarded for the correct response(s).

Default: 1
validation.valid_response.matching_rule string

Matching rule that will be used to evaluate student's input

Default: "exact"
validation.valid_response.value string

Default: ""
validation.automarkable boolean

Defines whether the question will be marked automatically, or must be marked manually.

Default: true
validation.alt_responses array

Add an alternate response if there is more than one correct overall solution to a question.
validation.alt_responses[ ].score number

Score if the alternative response is correct.

Default: 1
validation.alt_responses[ ].matching_rule string

Matching rule that will be used to evaluate student's input

Default: "exact"
validation.alt_responses[ ].value string

Default: ""
validation.alt_responses[ ][ ].score number

Score if the alternative response is correct.

Default: 1
validation.alt_responses[ ][ ].matching_rule string

Matching rule that will be used to evaluate student's input

Default: "exact"
validation.alt_responses[ ][ ].value string

Default: ""
validation.enable_fullwidth_scoring boolean

For languages such as Japanese, where full-width and half-width characters are used, validate responses with either type of character width. For example, in this question: What do we call '犬' in English? And you have set 'Ｄｏｇ' (full-width) as the correct answer, if the learner enters 'Ｄｏｇ' (full-width) or 'Dog' (half-width) these will both be marked as correct responses when this option is enabled.

Default: false
description string

Deprecated See stimulus_review.
Description of the question and its context to be displayed. It supports HTML entities.
max_length number

Maximum number of characters that can be entered in the field. Maximum value is 250. For longer questions use longtext type.

Default: 50
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
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.
case_sensitive boolean

If true, responses will be compared against valid_responses considering the letters' case.

Default: false
ignore_leading_and_trailing_spaces boolean

Determines whether the automatic marking will ignore leading and trailing spaces. E.g. 'a' and ' a ' will be treated as the same.

Default: true
response_container array [response container object]

Array containing objects defining each individual response container style.
response_container.input_type string

Type of input

Default: "text"
response_container.aria_label string

The ARIA label for the response container. It will have a default value if no label is provided.

Response format

The data returned in the response format for this Question is the short text response, entered by the student.

Response format examples

{
    "value": "New Jersey",
    "characterCount": 10,
    "type": "string",
    "apiVersion": "v2.173.0",
    "revision": 2,
    "feedbackAttemptsCount": 1
}

Response attributes

value string

The short text response, entered by the student.
characterCount numeric

The number of characters entered by the student.
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.
feedbackAttemptsCount numeric

Keeps track of the number of feedback attempts.