Plotter

The graphic answer type aims to allow questions with an answer requiring the student to draw something on a canvas instead of selecting an option or writing an algebraic expression. With this feature, students will be able to draw points, lines, circles, conic sections, and more, and the new evaluation criteria will do the rest! You need to select the Plotter answer type for drawing answers involving geometric content.

Graphic answer type

When the Plotter option is selected, the drawing tool replaces the equation editor. Using the upper toolbar, you may readily draw the correct answer to the question. Bear in mind students will use the same toolbar (or a reduced version) to answer the question. They will also be able to use handwriting to do so, for which you can see more details here.

It's also possible to include initial content for the students. It can be beneficial when, for instance, we want them to indicate some elements of a given object.

As a brand new option of WirisQuizzes, it's also possible to import information from the initial content to the correct answer or vice-versa. Thus, you can build the corresponding graph once, and it will appear automatically on the correct answer, ready to be edited.

Input options

In the Input options screen, you can control how the toolbar provided to the students is displayed, the offered auxiliary input, and several other options.

Sometimes, we may not provide the student with all the graph resources. In the Customize toolbar section, you can define which will be shown in the student's graph by simply checking or unchecking the corresponding box. They are all selected by default.

The graph resources are divided into five sections explained below: toolbar, menu, floating, contextual (elements), and contextual (labels).

Toolbar

The Toolbar is at the core of many of the graph's possibilities. You can hide some icons to facilitate the research of those the students need or make the problem's resolution a little bit more complicated.

Element	Description	Icon
Select	To select objects and see their algebraic expression and modify their properties.
Handwriting	To handwrite any of the existing objects. See how here.
Point	To draw a single point.
Lines	Line: To draw a line passing through two given points.
	Segment: To draw a segment between two given points.
	Ray: To draw a ray given a starting point and a direction.
	Midpoint of a segment: To draw the midpoint of a segment.
	Mediatrix of a segment: To draw the mediatrix line of a segment.
	Parallel line: To draw the perpendicular line given a starting point and the initial line.
	Perpendicular line: To draw the perpendicular line given a starting point and the initial line.
	Vector: To draw a vector given a starting point and a direction.
	Parallelogram: To draw a parallelogram given a starting point and two different directions.
	Polyline: To draw a polyline given an ordered set of points.
	Polygon: To draw a polygon given a closed ordered set of points.
	Circle by centre and point: To draw a circle given its centre and a belonging point.
	Circle by three points: To draw a circle passing through three given points.
	Arc: To draw an arc of circumference.
	Parabola: To draw a parabola given a directrix line and its centre.
Conic sections	Ellipse: To draw an ellipse given an axis and a belonging point.
	Hyperbola: To draw a hyperbola given.
	Conic: To draw a general conic section given five belonging points.
	Interpolating polynomial: To draw a polynomial passing through a given set of points.
	Area: To fill an enclosed region and calculate its area.
Measures	Angle: To calculate the counterclockwise angle between two given elements.
	Length: To calculate the length of a bounded unidimensional element.
Label	To include any label within the plotter.
Expression	To include the graphic representation of any mathematical expression.
Image	To include an image within the plotter

Menu

The Menu options allow the students to configure the main plotter settings.

Menu

The Menu options allow the students to configure the main plotter settings.

Element	Description	Icon
Undo	To undo the last performed action.
Redo	To redo the last erased action.
Show hidden elements	To show those elements that were previously hidden.
Delete all	To delete everything drawn in the graph (including the initial content).
Restore	To delete everything drawn in the graph and restore the initial content.
Download	To download the plotter as a square PNG image of the desired size.
Settings	To modify the plotter configuration. See all the available options here.

Floating

The Floating elements are thought to facilitate the students' view of the plotter and make the content creation more comfortable.

Element	Description	Icon
Zoom in	To zoom in the plotter.
Zoom out	To zoom out the plotter.
Anima	To make the elements apparition dynamic. The different objects of the answer will appear one by one in its creation order.
Maximize	To maximize (or minimize) the plotter.

Contextual (elements)

The Contextual (elements) options enable the capability of modifying a plotted object's appearance

Element	Description	Icon
Fix label	To fix the algebraic expression of the represented object
Line width	To modify the line width of the represented object
Line style	To modify the line style of the represented object
Line colour	To modify the line colour of the represented object
Delete	To delete the represented object
Hide	To hide an element that may be necessary to build the object, but it's not expected to be displayed

Contextual (labels)

The Contextual (labels) enable the capability of representing a function by giving its algebraic expression or including any text in the plotter. The labels in grey are only available if we are introducing a mathematical expression.

Element	Description	Icon
Bold	To write text in bold.
Italic	To write text in italics.
Colour	To write text in any of the available colours.
Big fraction	To add a fraction
Superscript	To add a superscript.
Square root	To add a square root.
Root	To add a generic root.
Number	To add the irrational numbers π or e
Functions	To add any of the available functions (sin, tan, log, …)
Delete	To delete the written text or formulas

Answer input method

There are several additional properties you may be interested in customizing when creating a graphical answer question. In the Answer input method section, you will be able to configure all the following options.

Auxiliary input

Here, you can choose what kind of additional entry you want to offer to the students.

There are three options:

Initial content

Here, you can choose whether students can modify the provided initial content or not. If selected, the initial represented objects will be part of the student's answer and it won't be possible to delete them or change their location.

Display settings

Here, you can decide if the student sees the labels' name and value always, never or when they are focused.

Magnetic grid settings

Here, you can decide whether the magnetic grid option is enabled for the student answer field. The available options are Force, Snap or Disabled.

Validation options

The validation options field allows to define us how we want to evaluate the student's answer. This section is divided into two sections, explained below.

Elements

The Elements subsection is thought to select the elements in answer to be evaluated. By default, all the elements will be taken into account, and they will have to match the student's answer to be graded correctly.

On the other hand, it's also possible to distribute the grade among those selected elements if we want to consider partial grading.

Criteria

The Criteria subsection is thought to set the amount of error allowed between the student's answer and the correct answer. Moreover, it's also possible to consider some additional properties explained below.

We have introduced some new options in the toolbar that may offer a different way to present the question. You can see more details here.