PrairieLearn OER Element: Chemistry Input

This element was developed by Ananya Barman, Jayshri Ganguli and Shengyuan Wang. Please carefully test the element and understand its features and limitations before deploying it in a course. It is provided as-is and not officially maintained by PrairieLearn, so we can only provide limited support for any issues you encounter!

If you like this element, you can use it in your own PrairieLearn course by copying the contents of the elements folder into your own course repository. After syncing, the element can be used as illustrated by the example question that is also contained in this repository.

pl-chem-input element

This element is intended for questions that require chemical equations as an answer. It is based on the Quill editor that is used in pl-rich-text, but it is simplified to only support superscripts and subscripts. It also supports auto-grading answers with some built-in flexibility for re-ordering elements within one part of the equation. States of matter are optional by default, but can be graded as well.

Example

<pl-chem-input question-name="water" show-help-text="false" prefill="H_2O -> H_2 + O_2"></pl-chem-input>

Customizations

Attribute	Type	Default	description
question-name	string (required)	None	A unique identifier for the question element.
weight	integer	1	Weight to use when computing a weighted average score over elements.
grade-states	boolean	false	If set to true, states of matter are considered for grading (and answers without them are treated as incorrect). If set to false, states of matter are optional.
placeholder	string	"Your answer here"	Text to be shown in the editor as a placeholder when there is no student input.
prefill	string	-	Initial answer to be prefilled when the question is first displayed.
source-file-name	string	None	Initial answer to be prefilled when the question is first displayed, loaded from a source file with existing content. The directory attribute can be used to locate the file. This attribute cannot be used in combination with prefill.
directory	string	None	Specifies the directory where the source-file-name file is located. Use clientFilesCourse or serverFilesCourse to reference course-level directories, or provide a relative path within the question's directory. If omitted, the file is searched in the question's main directory.
quill-theme	string	snow	Specifies the theme for the Quill editor; See the Quill documentation for more information about additional themes.
allow-blank	boolean	false	If set to true, empty inputs are allowed. By default, empty submissions will not be graded (invalid format).
show-help-text	boolean	true	If set to true, a help text tooltip is displayed next to the input field.
size	integer	100	The element width relative to parent container (in percent).
show-score	boolean	true	If set to true, a score badge is displayed next to this element after grading.
include-feedback	boolean	true	If set to true, students receive feedback when they submit an incorrect answer. The feedback tells students what part of the submission (e.g., reactants, products, states of matter) is incorrect.

Keyboard Shortcuts for the Editor

The following keyboard shortcuts can enhance the editing experience for students:

• Toggle Superscript (Option + ↑)
  Press the Option key (or Alt on Windows) with the Up Arrow to toggle superscript formatting.

• Toggle Subscript (Option + ↓)
  Press the Option key (or Alt on Windows) with the Down Arrow to toggle subscript formatting.

• Clear Formatting (Option + \)
  Press the Option key (or Alt on Windows) with the Backslash key to:

  • Remove the current script format when no text is selected.
  • Clear formatting for the selected text range.