questions about Parsons problems

[Alex Jordan]

I see an "adaptive" attribute on Parsons problem examples, but I couldn't find an explanation of what that means. Can anyone shed light on that?

Is there such a thing as an optional Parsons block? Consider each line as a block in a Parsons problem:

2(x + 3) + 4

= (2⋅x + 2⋅3) + 4

= (2x + 6) + 4

= 2x + (6 + 4)

= 2x + 10

In that example, I'd like to make the second item:

* present, for the sticklers among faculty users; it would be part of the official correct answer

* but optional; it's not worth marking a student wrong if they leave that out

[Rob Beezer]

I think adaptive refers to giving hints, removing blocks, combining blocks, etc as more attempts are made. Look at sample book source, or XSL source for confirmation or fine points.

I don't think there are optional blocks like you suggest. Possibly when the directed acyclic graph support is implemented this might be possible as something like a loop or length two circuit or some other nearly degenerate specification within a larger problem.

Rob