Generating Moodle Question Banks using Python and Sympy
Over the years I have developed some scripts for generating banks of questions for Moodle so that students can challenge themselves and check their answers. Sometimes I have been dealing with hundreds of students so an automated procedure is needed.
After checking with colleagues from my department at UPC and many hours of trial and error, I finally ended with the following solution, which works for GNU/Linux systems (although I guess that also works for other systems).
The process needs the following components:
-
A Python install (Python3).
-
The SymPy Python library for symbolic mathematics. Check the website for install and docs.
-
Lualatex, an extended version of pdfTeX using Lua as an embedded scripting language. For Ubuntu/Debian distributions, it can be found under the 'texlive-lualatex' systems. Pdflatex did not work for me because of UTF-8 encoding.
-
The moodle package for LaTeX. For Ubuntu/Debian systems, this package is included in 'texlive-latex-extra'.
-
The Python and TeX files you will find in this repository.
-
Update 'sample-quiz-generator.py' to tailor your wishes.
-
Execute this file using Python, for instance, in bash,
python ./sample-quiz-generator.py
This will generate a TeX file 'chunks-moodle.tex' which contains the different questions and is included within the main file 'template-python-moodle.tex'
-
Run LuaLaTex to compile the file:
lualatex template-python-moodle.tex -
This will create a PDF with solutions to preview and an XML to upload to Moodle.
-
Upload the XML file to the platform of your choice.