FormulasQuestion
Improve tooltips
-
For fields of answer type number, there is no need to show the tooltip, as no special symbols are allowed and if the student enters anything else than a number (in normal or scientific notation), a warning symbol is shown, so they will know that something is wrong. Removing the tooltip makes the interface "lighter".
-
Currently, tooltips are shown when a field is focused and when the mouse hovers over a field. Hence, it is possible to have two tooltips at the same time. This does not really make sense. It would probably be better to have the tooltip shown only for the field that is currently active.
With MDL-85471, this becomes (almost) obsolete. Tooltips can now be dismissed by pressing the escape key, so a user is bothered by a tooltip, they can simply make it disappear.
I’d like to share a few ideas that might contribute to the ongoing reflection and perhaps support future improvements to the Formulas question.
Answer type toolkit
- Replace the answer type tooltip with a smaller box below the input field, since the large tooltip above is often obtrusive.
As-you-type (On-the-fly) validation
-
Replace the validation icon inside the input field with a message box below the answer type box, as the icon itself is often obtrusive.
-
Do not trigger an error for entries such as “+”, “-”, or “2+”.
-
Disallow illegal characters (e.g., non-digit characters in number answers, or symbols like “@” and “#” in all answer types).
If implementing the following recommandation is too difficult to implement during as-you-type validation, apply it during on-submit validation:
- Trigger an error for unknown functions and unknown variable names.
On-submit validation
- Do not submit the answer while a validation message is still displayed. Allow editing until the validation message disappears.
