Task Construction

To build a new task, teachers must define:

• the Context in which the problem is defined; it must be chosen from a pool of predefined Contexts;
  
• a set of typed parameters representing terms (optional);
  
• a statement that describes the problem and issues the challenge; this can be a parametric statement depending on the above parameters — from it, several instances of the problem are generated;
  
• the problem assumptions as terms of the associated Context (optional);
  
• the solution set, that is, the answer type, and the Success meta-condition (the condition that any answer must fulfill);
  
• the set of subtasks; to be chosen from a menu of predefined tasks (optional).

By default, a task has no subtasks. In this case, the student has access to all predefined tasks sharing the same Context. This gives the student a great freedom to choose the resolution path he likes. In other words, no guidance is provided by the teacher.

By specifying subtasks, the teacher narrows the set of possible resolution paths, thus helping the student. The teacher can, furthermore, define a precedence graph among subtasks, which amounts to even more guidance through the task resolution process.

Most teachers will create tasks within already existing contexts supplied by experts, although any teacher with some programming skills will be able to make extensions of available contexts.