Forum OpenACS Q&A: Re: Surveys and Branching

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16: Re: Surveys and Branching (response to 1)
Posted by Staffan Hansson on
As I've told you before Dave, I like that concept too. But as I look through my old notes, I see that I once concluded that the IMS Simple Sequencing model should not be viewed as a generic sequencing engine but as a specific one for curriculum management - and that it should not be pulled out of the Curriculum package, which was the topic of the day back then. Unfortunately I forgot to make a note about my grounds for that conclusion...

So, I revisited the IMS Question & Test Interoperability - ASI Selection & Ordering Specification: it never mentions "simple sequencing" but only "sequencing" - it seems to propose a somewhat simpler type of sequencing for assessment. (When IMS people wish to describe a more complex type of sequencing they prepend the word "simple"...) The same spec also mentions an IMS Sequencing working-group, which sounds like a team that might know a thing or two about this issue. I searched the site for this group but was only offered a dead link.

This sequencing confusion probably only emphasizes your point that the Curriculum package and the Assessment package should be coordinated (as sequencing is introduced into Curriculum, which we'd be happy to do this summer if the funding can be found). I doubt that the two of them are as similar to one another as they seem conceptually, but they will hopefully work together at some point. I think Pind's Rule of Five might apply here.