Q and A about homework sets

From an email exchange between Christelle Scharff and Mike Gage:

How do I delete problems from a set? (Is it: "Don't show this problem on the next update")

You delete problems from the "Hmwk sets editor" page. For each problem in a set there is a delete checkbox and the problems that have been checked for deletion are deleted when the page is saved or updated. The "don't show this problem on the next update" checkbox on the "Library Browser" page simply cuts down the clutter when you are picking problems from the library. We made the decision to separate out the actions of choosing problems from the library from all of the other actions involving a constructing a set in order to cut down on the complexity on the set construction pages. Problems are picked for inclusion in a homework set on the library browser page -- rearranging the problem order, deleting problems, changing the weight (how much a problem counts) and the number of times it can be attempted are all accomplished on the "Hmwk sets editor" page.

When adding a new problem what does "Make this the set header for" mean?

The set header is the text that appears on the "home page" of the set — along the right hand side of the homework set's main page which contains the list of problems. Typically it has some reminder of when the homework set is due, perhaps which section of the book the problems come from and so forth. It is written as a normal PG problem, but it is handled somewhat differently in presentation. Effectively making a problem the "set header" makes it problem 0 so that it appears on the homeworkset's homepage. It is also possible to write two files, one which is processed when handling screen output and a second (hardcopy set header) which is processed when creating hardcopy output. I personally prefer to combine these two files into one.

What are the possible values for the attempts of a problem? ("unlimited" is one. Are there other non-numeric options?)

Unlimited (or -1 ) means there is no limitation on the number of attempts allowed 5 means that a maximum of 5 attempts are allowed on that problem.

Is "Mark correct?" for (manually) verified problems?

It can be used for that, although it is not that convenient. (We don't yet have a module dedicated to hand grading problems -- it's on my wish list also.) Mostly the "mark correct" checkbox is used to give full credit to all students if a problem was inappropriate for some reason (we didn't get to it in lecture, it was in the set by mistake, or for some reason the computer wasn't grading the problem correctly, etc., etc.) One could accomplish the same thing by changing the weight of the problem to 0, but psychologically students prefer being given credit for the problem. You can also mark correct an individual student's problem if there is a reason to do that.