Installing the WeBWorK opaque server and the Moodle opaque client
Introduction
The Opaque question type and the Moodle Opaque client were created by Tim Hunt to allow webservices to power questions used in the Moodle quizzes. They were specifically designed to work with the OpenMark question engine at the Open University in England with the expectation that they could interoperate with other question engines as well.
The WeBWorK Opaque server described in this document accepts requests from the Moodle Opaque client and returns a rendered PG question.
The combination of the Moodle Opaque client and the WeBWorK Opaque server allows any WeBWorK question to be included in a Moodle quiz giving Moodle quizzes access to the entire range of mathematics questions commonly used in WeBWorK homework installations, in particular all of the questions in the OpenProblemLibrary. The WeBWorK/Opaque question type behaves much like STACK questions (created by Chris Sangwin) and supplements the mathematics questions available from STACK (System for Teaching and Assessment using a Computer Algebra Kernel).
This is a first attempt to interface WeBWorK (or to my knowledge any question engine besides OpenMark) with the Opaque client. Suggestions for improvements particularly from experienced Moodle users familiar with question “behaviours” and how to configure them to best advantage are welcome.
The main steps are as follows:
- Install the opaque question type client in Moodle
- Configure the Moodle question engine (and test)
- Create a Moodle quiz with opaque questions (and test)
The steps above do not require you to set up your own opaque server. You can use the publically available opaque servers listed to test that the Opaque client and Moodle quiz have been set up correctly.
If you already have a WeBWorK installation then adding the WeBWorK Opaque server is straight forward. “Install the WeBWorK Opaque Server”.
For information on installing a WeBWorK server from scatch see https://github.com/openwebwork/ww_install and http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Installation_Manual_for_2.12_on_Ubuntu_16.04
To see the tools available for duplicating an existing WeBWorK course asa course using Moodle quizzes read the section “How to transfer a WeBWorK course with homework sets to a Moodle course with quizzes”.
