The goal of {webexercises}
is to enable instructors to easily create
interactive web pages that students can use in self-guided learning.
Although {webexercises}
has fewer features than RStudio’s
learnr package, it is more
lightweight: whereas {learnr}
tutorials must be either hosted on a
shiny server or run locally, {webexercises}
creates standalone HTML
files that require only a JavaScript-enabled browser. It is also
extremely simple to use.
You can install {webexercises}
from CRAN using:
install.packages("webexercises")
You can install the development version from GitHub with:
devtools::install_github("psyteachr/webexercises")
The webexercises package provides functions that create HTML widgets using inline R code. These functions are:
function | widget | description |
---|---|---|
fitb() |
text box | fill-in-the-blank question |
mcq() |
pull-down menu | multiple choice question |
torf() |
pull-down menu | TRUE or FALSE question |
longmcq() |
radio buttons | MCQs with long answers |
hide() and unhide() |
button | solution revealed when clicked |
total_correct() |
text | updating total correct |
The appearance of the text box and pull-down menu widgets changes when
users enter the correct answer. Answers can be either static or dynamic
(i.e., specified using R code). Widget styles can be changed using
style_widgets()
.
Examples are provided in the Web Exercises R Markdown template. To
create a file from the webexercises template in RStudio, click File -> New File... -> RMarkdown
and in the dialog box that appears, select
From Template
and choose Web Exercises
.
Alternatively (or if you’re not using RStudio) use:
rmarkdown::draft("exercises.Rmd", "webexercises", "webexercises")
Knit the file to HTML to see how it works. Note: The widgets only function in a JavaScript-enabled browser.
You can add webexercises to a bookdown project or start a new bookdown
project using add_webex_to_bookdown()
.
# create a new book
# use default includes and scripts directories (include and R)
add_webexercises_to_bookdown(bookdown_dir = "demo_bs4",
output_format = "bs4_book",
render = TRUE)
add_webexercises_to_bookdown(bookdown_dir = "demo_git",
output_format = "gitbook",
render = TRUE)
add_webexercises_to_bookdown(bookdown_dir = "demo_html",
output_format = "html_book",
render = TRUE)
add_webexercises_to_bookdown(bookdown_dir = "demo_tufte",
output_format = "tufte_html_book",
render = TRUE)
# update an existing book with custom include and script directories
add_webexercises_to_bookdown(bookdown_dir = ".",
include_dir = "www",
script_dir = "scripts",
output_format = "gitbook")
This
work is licensed under a
Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.