Export and Import items (Practique 8+)
- Radim Novotny
In Practique 7.1+ we changed the format of the item Export and Import CSV and XLSX files.
Items exported from Practique 7.1+ can be imported back as new items. Practique currently supports the import and export of mixed item types in one file.
Item export
The Item export has been moved to Batch operations. On the item list, there is a Batch… button on the right side of the filtering panel. The batch operates on items currently filtered so select your preferred filtering criteria and click at Batch… button. Follow the instructions to export the items. Items are exported as CSV and XLSX file at the same time.
Item import
File header
The item import could be either an XLSX (Excel) file, a CSV file or a ZIP file. If it’s a ZIP file, then you can import resources together with exactly one Excel or CSV file in the ZIP file at the same time. The rules for preparing XLSX/CSV file are the same for both cases - even if it’s uploaded alone or as a part of the ZIP file.
The only difference between XLSX/CSV file uploaded separately is, it can't contain references to resources as file name but still can contain references to resources as Resource numbers (see below).
Each import file has to contain a header row. You can download an example file here:
The header column titles do not have to be exactly as defined in the example, you can use any wording in the header, but this recommended column titles allows us to create a correct mapping before the actual import.
The header is internally split into two parts:
Item related data
Criteria related data
To explain the difference between Item data and Criteria data, each item type in Practique contains item-data and criteria-data. For most of item types the criteria data are not available directly but are hidden on the item edit form. For example SBA, SAQ, VSAQ, MTF, EMQ, CPQ, PVSA. On the other side, some item types user can add/edit/remove the criteria directly. That’s for OSCE and MWQ (Multipart written question - available since Practique 7.1).
For example, an SBA item has item number, version, question text, etc and also a “hidden” sba type criterion that holds the possible answers and identifies the correct answer.
Another example could be a SAQ item whose criterion is a ‘text’ type criterion.
EMQ item is an example of a written item with more than one criterion. It has as many criteria as a number of stems.
The OSCE item type is based on user-defined criteria (a marksheet).
Similarly, a “Written question” type (MWQ) has a set of user defined criteria, like the OSCE item type.
Blueprinting, Count as
Any Dimensions applicable to OSCE or Written items can be specified in the header as well.
To be able to support both item-data dimensions (Blueprinting) and CountAs (for criteria) you have to partially keep the order of fields. Item data fields should be followed by the Criteria data fields.
The most important for support Blueprinting and Count as is any of the Criteria data fields:
“Type” OR “Available answers” OR “Correct answer”
As soon as the importer finds a field header with one of the titles specified above, all Dimension names found in the header after that column are considered as “Count as” fields and the tagging is attached to the marksheet criteria instead of the Item.
Data Rows
To be able to support a nested structure item → criteria it’s important to follow the structure of the data rows. Each imported item is defined on at least one row.
The following item types do not support multiple rows, because they contain exactly one criterion:
SBA, SAQ, VSAQ, ARQ, CPQ, MTF
The other item types can have one or more rows, depending on the number of criteria. For example, an EMQ item with 4 stems will be defined on 4 rows. The first row contains item data like item type, number, summary, blueprinting and includes the first Stem data as well. The other three rows define only the additional three stems.
Any data row with an empty Item type column is considered as a continuation row for the previous one and should not define any item-type data.
Required fields
The set of required fields depends on the item type and the row. For example, for an item-type row, the ITem type is required but for the continuation row, it has to be left empty.
Minimal example
There is a minimal example of importing two simple SBA items. These items get the first available item number for SBA item type because the Item number is not defined.
Item type | Question title | Available answers | Available answers | Available answers | Available answers | Available answers | Correct answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SBA | Select the largest animal | Dog | Elephant | Crocodile | Mouse | Elephant | |
SBA | Select the darkest colour | Yellow | Purple | Black | Green | Red | Black |
Alternatively, the set of available answers could be defined in one column. Each answer is separated by a semicolon ; Please see Multivalued columns paragraph below for more details.
This applies to ALL columns marked as “Multivalued” in the field list table below.
Item type | Question title | Available answers | Correct answer |
|---|---|---|---|
SBA | Select the largest animal | Cat;Dog;Elephant;Crocodile;Mouse | Elephant |
SBA | Select the darkest colour | White;Yellow;Purple;Black;Greed;Red | Black |
There could be fewer columns defined if we include the “scoring” in the Available answers list. That could be used if the SBA item should not have a score of 0 or 1 but for example 1 for correct answer, -0.25 for an incorrect answer and 0 for “I do not know” answer. This version is used if you Export items from Practique because it’s the most general.
Item type | Question title | Available answers |
|---|---|---|
SBA | Select the largest animal | Dog;0;Elephant;1;Crocodile;0;Mouse;0 |
SBA | Select the darkest colour | Yellow;0;Purple;0;Black;1;Green;0;Red;0 |
Item types
Type code | Item type name |
|---|---|
ARQ | Assertion-Reasoning Question |
CPQ | Clinical Prioritisation Question |
EMQ | Extended matching question |
MTF | Multiple True/False |
MWQ | Written question (Multipart written question) |
OSCE | OSCE Station |
PVSA | Prescribing Question |
SAQ | Short Answer Question |
SBA | Single Best Answer Question |
VSAQ | Very Short Answer Question |
Criteria types
Written question (MWQ) type and OSCE station type can define different criteria types for the mark-sheet (Type column in the table below). Some item types, like SBA, SAQ, VSAQ, MTF, EMQ, CPQ etc., have the Type fixed and can't be changed. Only MWQ and OSCE should specify the “Type” column. It’s ignored for the other item types.
Type | Notes | OSCE/MWQ |
|---|---|---|
discrete | Single answer only - the possible answers could have a different scoring but the only one can be selected. | both |
boolean |
| both |
text | A free text. It cannot be automatically marked so the maximum score should be specified if it makes sense. Can be also used just as a comment field. | both |
label | Criterion Stem field is rendered as a label only. It can be used to visually split the mark-sheet to different sections. | both |
vsaq | One line answer is expected from the candidate. It allows defining a set of possible answers that can be automatically marked using the Levenshtein threshold value. For example, accepted answer is Meprobamate If the threshold is 1 and the candidate writes Mepromamate then the answer is accepted and marked with full score. because there is 1 letter difference between Meprobamate and Mepromamate | both |
cpq | This is a default type for CPQ question type but it can be used for MWQ as well if needed. The possible answers associated with this criterion type defines a correct order of answers to the question Stem and the candidate is supposed to specify a correct order of the answers. | MWQ |
mac | Multi answer criterion (multiple correct answers) This allows defining a set of possible answers and the candidate can pick more than one. | MWQ |
Field list
| Field name | Item type | Multivalued | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Item data | Item type | all |
| One of the available Item types or empty for a continuation row. PVSA and OSCE are not supported at the time of writing. |
Item number | all |
| Optional item number | |
Question title | all |
| Item title | |
Question text | all |
| Summary text | |
Variant | all |
| Item variant if the variant support is available. Contains a variant code, for example, ‘en’ | |
Comments | all |
| The comments are displayed only on the item page | |
Examiner notes | all |
| These are examiner comments. Displayed on the marking page for the examiner and also on Candidate feedback report | |
Number of markers | all |
| Applicable to multi marking only | |
Marking method | all |
| Applicable to multi marking only. Supported values are: criteria total | |
Marking resolution | all |
| Applicable to multi marking only. Supported values are: manual avg sum | |
Resource | all | Yes | It can contain either file name (see Candidate resources below) or an existing resource number from the Resource library. | |
Resource title | all | Yes | Resource title. The title is assigned to the resource defined in the previous column If multiple resources are defined in separate columns and at least one has a Resource title defined, this column must exist for each resource but could be empty if the title should not be defined. | |
Resource caption | all | Yes | Resource caption. The caption is assigned to the resource defined in the previous column. If multiple resources are defined in separate columns and at least one has a Resource caption defined, this column must exist for each resource but could be empty if the caption should not be defined. | |
Candidate resource | OSCE | Yes | Supported only if item import is uploaded as a ZIP file. Must contain a relative file name inside the zip file. | |
Candidate resource title | OSCE | Yes | See Resource title | |
Candidate resource caption | OSCE | Yes | See Resource caption | |
Examiner resource | OSCE | Yes | Supported only if item import is uploaded as a ZIP file. Must contain a relative file name inside the zip file. | |
Examiner resource title | OSCE | Yes | See Resource title | |
Examiner resource caption | OSCE | Yes | See Resource caption | |
Marking note for examiners | OSCE | Yes | Supported only if item import is uploaded as a ZIP file. Must contain a relative file name inside the zip file. | |
Marking note for examiners title | OSCE | Yes | See Resource title | |
Marking note for examiners caption | OSCE | Yes | See Resource caption | |
Role player resource | OSCE | Yes | Supported only if item import is uploaded as a ZIP file. Must contain a relative file name inside the zip file. | |
Role player resource title | OSCE | Yes | See Resource title | |
Role player resource caption | OSCE | Yes | See Resource caption | |
… dimension 1 … | all | Yes | Define a list of values for one dimension. Please see the Multivalued columns paragraph below. | |
… dimension 2 … | all | Yes | Define a list of values for one dimension. Please see the Multivalued columns paragraph below. | |
| <--> |
|
| This is just a placeholder exported by the Item export feature from Practique. It helps to quickly distinguish between item data and criteria data and is ignored during import. |
Criteria data | Stem | OSCE, EMQ, MTF, MWQ |
| Criterion text. |
Stem comments | MWQ |
| Comments explaining this stem, like item comments | |
Marker notes | MWQ |
| Notes for markers - like item examiner notes or a Model answer | |
Type | OSCE, MWQ |
| Sheet (criterion) type. See the Criteria types above. | |
Answer ordering | Ignored for CPQ and MTF |
| Applicable to ‘discrete’ criteria type only. | |
Weight | OSCE |
| Criterion weight. | |
Mandatory criterion | all |
| Defines if this criterion has to be answered | |
Levenshtein threshold | VSAQ only |
| Defines the Levenshtein threshold for the automated marking. | |
Number of lines | MWQ with ‘text’ criteria only. |
| How many lines would be rendered on item preview or item paper. | |
Indentation level | MWQ |
| The indentation level allows us to visually specify sub and sub-sub parts of a question on the paper. Defaults to 0 and can be defined as numbers 0,1,2,3 etc | |
Maximum mark | SAQ or ‘text’ |
| Defines the maximum mark for this criterion. It’s computed automatically for discrete type but has to be specified for text type because there is no list of scored available answers. | |
Angoff | all |
| Angoff for this criterion | |
Difficulty | all |
| Ebel difficulty - supported values depends on instance settings, but defaults to easy, medium, hard | |
Relevance | all |
| Ebel difficulty - supported values depends on instance settings, but defaults to essential, important, acceptable | |
Feedback visible to candidate | all |
| Boolean value - 0, 1. If not set, then it’s not visible to the candidate | |
Available answers | SBA, OSCE ‘discrete’, MWQ 'discrete', EMQ | Yes | It makes sense for item types where the available answers can be defined so usually discrete criteria or VSAQ. | |
Correct answer | like Available answers |
| If defined, the answer would have set a score of 1 mark. If any other mark is required, please use the extended answer definition format | |
Resource | all | Yes | It can contain either file name or an existing resource number from the Resource library. See the “Resource” row in the item part above. | |
… dimension 1 … |
| Yes | Define a list of values for one dimension. This will be used as CountAs for the current criterion. Please see the Multivalued columns paragraph below. | |
… dimension 2 … |
| Yes | Define a list of values for one dimension. This will be used as CountAs for the current criterion. Please see the Multivalued columns paragraph below. |
Multivalued columns
Columns marked as Multivalued in the table above can be defined in two variants.
all values in one column separated by a semicolon
each value in a separate column - all columns must use the same column header title
Yes in the table above means, option 1. is NOT available. The values can't be separated by a semicolon but the columns can be repeated.
If any of the values should contain a semicolon, this character has to be escaped by \ character. For example:
Text\; with a semicolon
The Dimension columns can also contain a nested definition of a category. For example:
Life Support Systems > Alimentary System
Which points to a category named Alimentary System in Life Support Systems parent category. Tagging column for a dimension could look like:
Life Cycle & Regulatory Systems > Reproduction, Development & Ageing;Life Support Systems > Alimentary System;Another category\; with a semicolon
Alternatively, you can split the three categories above to the three columns with the same header. The escaped semicolon has to be used in any case.
Extended answer definition format
This format of Available answers column is used by item export and can be imported back. It’s detected automatically if
column value can be split by a semicolon
there is even number of elements after the split
every second element can be converted to a float number
Examples:
Yellow;0;Purple;0;Black;1;Green;0;Red;0
Yellow;-0.25;Purple;-0.25;Black;1.0;Green;-0.25;Red;-0.25;I don’t know;0