Meclib: Dynamic and Interactive Figures in STACK Questions Made Easy

Abstract

Abstract—Making and interpretation of drawings and schematics is an important skill to be developed in engineering education. The question type STACK in the Moodle learning management system combined with the interactive graphics library JSXGraph has a great potential for implementation of e-learning resources addressing these skills in formative and summative settings. The authoring process of such materials is complex due to multiple markup and programming languages like HTML, LaTeX, Maxima and JavaScript (JS) being involved. The Meclib concept mitigates this complexity and allows for efficient bulk production of material with consistent appearance and user experience. The core of Meclib is a set of pre-defined JSXGraph-based objects with an interface to Maxima, such that no problem specific JS code is required at all. The present paper outlines the basic ideas of the implementation and demonstrates the approach for some typical examples of different complexity. The focus is on applications in engineering mechanics, starting from static illustrations up to an editor for free body diagrams, with rich adaptive formative feedback.