We'd like to do some analysis to see what correlations, if any, are there between the number of attempts of problems, the number of problems attempted, homework score and exam score. Is there a way to download the information on the number of attempts for each homework problem for all students for each homework assignment or for all homework sets?
In the logs folder for a course (go to File Manager and navigate up one level from the templates folder) there is an answer log file. It is supposed to capture data from each time a student hits submit. It uses pipe characters to separate columns of data. You can download this file, open it in Excel, and use Text to Columns to turn the pipe into a column delimiter (or perhaps do that automatically when you open the file). Then you can play with analyzing the data.
Thanks. I found the log file and managed to get it into excel.
why does the first indicator have only one digit?
this seems right.
I can interpret the first 5 columns: date,student id, assignment, problem no., correct indicator for each part,
But the next columns seem to be related to the answers but I can't figure out which answers go with which columns and all answers do no seem represented. I can see the past answers by going to the student's info in student progress and looking at each problem set and problems within that - so that information is saved somewhere. I just don't see it in the excel sheet.
I need help with interpreting column 5 - correct indicators
in on case the problem has 4 parts but the indicators are
| 3 | 0 |
| 3 | 1100 |
| 3 | 1100 |
| 3 | 1100 |
the grade record shows the student had 5 attempts and got 100% but this shows only 4 attempts and would indicate 50%
The other 3 problems for this set seem to agree with the record for the grades, e.g., for problem 1 the grade record shows 5 attempts and 90% and the excel sheet shows
| 1 | 1110101100 |
| 1 | 1110101100 |
| 1 | 1110101110 |
| 1 | 1111101110 |
| 1 | 1111101111 |
Thanks for your help
It's possible there is no reliable way to tell which parts of a problem the student had right. Sometimes problems are coded so that you can answer two blanks in both orders, and other similar situations. Ultimately analysis may not be able to go deeper than each pg file.
Can you look at what the student actually submitted that first time for a clue? Maybe some answer that broke an answer checker and so the problem never moved on to check other parts. That's just a guess.
Can you double check that this student's fifth attempt on problem #3 is not somewhere farther down in the file? They might have returned a substantial time later to finally get it right.
In case you are scratching your head about the next entry, it's the unix timestamp. Then I think you have the text strings the student entered.
Can you look at what the student actually submitted that first time for a clue? Maybe some answer that broke an answer checker and so the problem never moved on to check other parts. That's just a guess.
Can you double check that this student's fifth attempt on problem #3 is not somewhere farther down in the file? They might have returned a substantial time later to finally get it right.
In case you are scratching your head about the next entry, it's the unix timestamp. Then I think you have the text strings the student entered.
I found the missing attempt. It was later as you thought. I"ll sort the file using layered variables, Name, problem set, problem number, (maybe time stamp after that if needed)
you mentioned the next column and that made no sense to me. I was working with a class from spring 2015. there was no timestamp. I download the log from one used this summer and found the timestamp column. Evidently, the webwork versions save different things. That may make analysis comparing different classes a bit problematic, but I'm hoping I don't have to use the timestamp or the actual answers
Thanks
If you have access to your WeBWorK server it may be more convenient to get this data directly from the database, since it stores the number of incorrect and number of correct attempts a student had on each problem.
For example, you could run the following command:
echo 'SELECT user_id,set_id,problem_id,num_correct,num_incorrect,status FROM `[coursename]_problem_user` where set_id="Assignment_1"' |mysql -u webworkWrite -p webwork
(you will need to look up the password for the mysql user in your site.conf file)
This returns output like
user_id set_id problem_id num_correct num_incorrect status
student1 Assignment_1 1 0 1 0.25
student2 Assignment_1 1 0 0 0
student3 Assignment_1 1 0 0 0
The data is tab-delimited, so it is easy to import into excel. Note that you can get the data for all assignments by leaving off the where clause before the |. If you want the data saved to a file, add "> somefilename.txt" to the end of the command (without the quotes).