On improving the question-answer database of Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language
Author
Tuseeta Banerjee
Title
On improving the question-answer database of Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language
Description
On improving the question-answer database of Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language
Category
Essays, Posts & Presentations
Keywords
Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language, EIWL, Programming Questions
URL
http://www.notebookarchive.org/2021-07-62b0d3p/
DOI
https://notebookarchive.org/2021-07-62b0d3p
Date Added
2021-07-13
Date Last Modified
2021-07-13
File Size
8.65 megabytes
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WOLFRAM SUMMER SCHOOL 2021
On improving the question-answer database of Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language
On improving the question-answer database of Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language
Tuseeta Banerjee
Wolfram Research
Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language (EIWL) is perhaps one of the best, concise and one-stop and free introductions to the Wolfram Language. It not only introduces Wolfram Language, but can also be considered a tool to improve one’s existing coding skills. Any individual, with a programming or non-programming background can read this book for free, and get at par with programming in Wolfram Language. The chapters of this book do an excellent job of capturing the richness and variety of Wolfram Language and the interface of submitting answers with automatic grading is also quite attractive. Students at WSS over the past few years solve various problems from EIWL before moving on to Wolfram Challenges questions. However, the answers to the problems in the book are not unique, and that issue is already mentioned in the book. A part of this project is to create alternate versions of answers to challenges that do not currently exist in the database of answers, so that they may be helpful in improving the learning experience of thousands of students online who use this book judiciously to improve their coding skills.
A second aspect of the project is to identify questions that have ambiguity in them and may be subject to multiple interpretations from the student. From an educational stand point, the question in turn does not become a metric of the knowledge of the student, but the ability of the student to actually “guess” what the question-maker asks for. A part of this project also addresses some of these questions.
A second aspect of the project is to identify questions that have ambiguity in them and may be subject to multiple interpretations from the student. From an educational stand point, the question in turn does not become a metric of the knowledge of the student, but the ability of the student to actually “guess” what the question-maker asks for. A part of this project also addresses some of these questions.
Section 1: Database questions
Section 1: Database questions
Section 2: Ambiguous questions
Section 2: Ambiguous questions
Section 3: Entity questions
Section 3: Entity questions
Section 4: Manipulate questions
Section 4: Manipulate questions
Section 5: Apparently correct answers
Section 5: Apparently correct answers
Section 6: Time and day related questions
Section 6: Time and day related questions
Section 7: Geo-visualization questions
Section 7: Geo-visualization questions
Summary of the observations
Summary of the observations
The project was an exploratory one to identify the common pattern where the answers were not accepted. The questions were answered and the pattern of why the answers are not accepted are analysed. None of the answers are matched to the existing answers, to be fair to the users. Some pointers as to why there might be a difference between are pointed below as seen in the sections
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Some of the answers use existing rich databases in WL, and some of the outputs of the answers depend if they are updated or not. Such Expected Output should be updated as the databases are updated. Or for such answers, the methodology to the answer should be matched.
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Ambiguous questions on sizes of polygon, word/character size definitions could be reformulated.
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W|A query based/Entity based questions often fail even with typing with the exact phrase in the question. It appears mostly for the ambiguity in definition of the countries in Europe and mentioning which Pyramid might also help
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Some of the questions with Manipulate need to have better specifications of the step-sizes.
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Questions with maps need to specify the visualizations type. (GeoGraphics, GeoListPlot...)
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There are some cloud submission errors, and time outs for Entities (which are understandable)
Concluding remarks
Concluding remarks
Since this project was designed as a proof of concept, I have only gone over half of all the exercises in the book . I will keep adding examples and adding multiple answers to this database, as and when time permits . The scope of this project goes well beyond what is discussed currently . An ongoing project in the machine learning team at Wolfram Research, is to come up with ways of classifying errors and utilize some of the error kinds to build more robust code - correction models beyond parenthesis or sequence matching . This would require more reliable data, which in turn depends on updating the database or existing rules of checking answers for books like EIWL, Wolfram Challenges, etc .
Keywords
Keywords
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Wolfram Language
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Elementary Introduction
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Programming
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User Experience
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Question Interpretations
Acknowledgment
Acknowledgment
First, I would like to acknowledge that some exciting discussions during my office hours with Erin Cherry and Jesse Friedman led to this exploratory analysis. Furthermore, I would also like to thank some useful comments and valuable feedback I received from present and prior WSS students during my office hours and otherwise, about their experience with EIWL which further motivated me to take a more close look into the end of chapter problem sets.
Finally, I would like to thank the staff and administrators for inviting me to Wolfram Summer School. Without the challenging, yet, fun WSS environment, none of these projects would have been possible.
Finally, I would like to thank the staff and administrators for inviting me to Wolfram Summer School. Without the challenging, yet, fun WSS environment, none of these projects would have been possible.
References
References
Cite this as: Tuseeta Banerjee, "On improving the question-answer database of Elementary Introduction to Wolfram Language" from the Notebook Archive (2021), https://notebookarchive.org/2021-07-62b0d3p
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