Creating exercises

A Bolt exercise is a PHP script. Here's an example consisting of a multiple-choice question:

<?php
echo 'Conifers are so named because:';
bolt_exclusive_choice(
   array(
      'They carry their seeds in cones.'
      'They are cone-shaped.',
      'They originated during the Coniceous era.',
   ),
);
?>

Each time the question is shown, the choices are shown in a random order. The correct choice is the first element of the array.

Here's an example that shows an image; a correct answer is a click in the indicated subrectangle.

<?php
echo "Click on the dog's nose:<p>";
bolt_image_rect(
   'dog.jpg',
   array(100, 60, 110, 70)
);
?>

Bolt supplies functions for other types of questions, such as inclusive multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank. An exercise can include multiple questions.

Course documents

The structure of a Bolt course is defined by a ​JSON document. Here's an example of a course with two lessons followed by an exercise:

{
   "name": "Identifying Sierra Conifers",
   "description: "Learn to identify the major conifers of California's Sierra Nevada",
   "items": [
      {
          "type": "lesson",
          "name": "Introduction",
          "file": "intro.html"
      },
      {
          "type": "lesson",
          "name": "The Linnaean hierarchy",
          "file": "linnaean.html"
      },
      {
          "type": "exercise",
          "file": "linnaean.php"
      }
   ]
}

Course items can be grouped into sets; for example:

{
   "type": "set",
   "show_n": 1,
   "order": "random",
   "items": {
      {
      ...
      }
   }
}

The attributes of a set include:

• show_n: the number of items in the set to show
• order: whether to show the items sequentially or randomly

Items (lessons, exercises, and sets) can include properties, e.g.:

{
   "type": "lesson",
   "name": "The Linnaean hierarchy",
   "file": "linnaean.html"
   "properties": {
      "verbal_level": 12,
      "detail_level": 0.8
   }
},

When Bolt has a choice of items (e.g. when it encounters a set from which a single item is to be shown) it calls, for each item, a course-supplied matchmaking function, passing to it the student object (which includes demographics such as age) and the item's properties (represented as a PHP object). The matchmaking function returns a number representing the estimated effectiveness of that item for that student, and Bolt chooses the item with the highest value.

Memory refresh

Bolt offers a memory refresh system that periodically repeats exercises and, if necessary, lessons. Memory research suggests that this is necessary for students to shift learning to long-term memory. This mechanism works as follows:

• A sequence of inter-refresh intervals is defined. For example, (7, 28) means that an exercise should be repeated 7 days after it is first taken, and then every 28 days thereafter.
• Bolt provides a function that returns the set of items, for a given student, for which refresh is due. Your course can use this function to implement a "Review now" button on web pages.
• Bolt provides a "review mode" in which the student is presented with exercises due for review.