IMathAS LTI sometimes not accessible from Canvas page

[joshdeutsch]

We have been using IMathAS as an LTI for Canvas to run some UCSC physics courses since September 2016. We successfully ran a course of 250 students without problems in Spring 2017. We're running it again now and have been getting many issues that we're not sure are related to Canvas, or IMathAS, or their interaction. Normally on clicking on some lecture questions, an iframe in canvas appears with a continue button from IMathAS. But sometimes this frame doesn't appear making in impossible for the student to access the question. By using another browser, students are able to resolve this problem. Here is a screenshot on my browser of how it normally looks (extra edit buttons are there because I'm a teacher), and another one from a student where the continue button is missing. Any ideas as to what might be going wrong?

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Josh Deutsch

[drlippman]

I haven't heard of this issue, and unfortunately it's pretty much impossible for me to diagnose the possible cause based on what I can see here. You might check the javascript console to see if Canvas is spitting out any errors, and look in the developer panel to see if Canvas is even trying to call bltilaunch from your IMathAS, and if so, see what the response is looking like

Out of curiosity, how old is the version of IMathAS you're running? I ask because that "Use Default" pulldown was eliminated about 9 months ago when we moved to user preferences for accessibility.

Also, are you using a global key and/or a key of the form LTIkey_###_1? If you're still using one of the old placein_###_1 style keys, I recommend updating it as individual assessment links use an improved behavior with the newer keys, and I'm no longer maintaining the old behavior.

[joshdeutsch]

Hi David,

Thanks for getting back to me so fast. When I open the javascript console, I don't see any errors, but I'm not getting any bad behavior either. The bug I described has been a problem for maybe 10-20% of the class, and it happens only sporadically for them. I've been running this imathas server since September 2016, and until this course, it's worked great. So I didn't have any reason to upgrade it. If you think I should, I will do so, but not until this course has ended for obvious reasons.

The consumer key is of the form LTIkey_###_1 so it sounds like you're saying that the key is OK.

There is another issue that a few students have also got, and I'm not sure if it's related, but I thought I mention it to you to see if you see any connection. It is that when they enter the correct solution to symbolic formulas, they are sometimes marked wrong. I attach a screen shot I got from a student, showing this problem, and I attach the source code for the problem as well. It looks like they get the correct solution, but it marks them wrong. I verified that this was their second attempt out of 5. I went directly into IMathAS for a couple of students to make sure their answers were correct, and it certainly looked that way. Again, we didn't get this problem in the Spring, and so far only perhaps 4 students have complained to me about this happening. I can't see any relationship with the above issue. Is this a javascript problem perhaps? The odd thing was that we didn't see this problem last time we ran the course either. I've asked students that encounter this problem to try it out directly on imathas: https://imathas.pbsci.ucsc.edu/IMathAS-master/assessment/showtest.php. or try changing their browser.

If any of this rings any bells, I'd really appreciate any input. For next time when we run the course, do you have any recommendations for what we should do?

Best wishes,

Josh

On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 12:33 PM, David Lippman notifications@github.com wrote:

I haven't heard of this issue, and unfortunately it's pretty much impossible for me to diagnose the possible cause based on what I can see here. You might check the javascript console to see if Canvas is spitting out any errors, and look in the developer panel to see if Canvas is even trying to call bltilaunch from your IMathAS, and if so, see what the response is looking like

Out of curiosity, how old is the version of IMathAS you're running? I ask because that "Use Default" pulldown was eliminated about 9 months ago when we moved to user preferences for accessibility.

Also, are you using a global key and/or a key of the form LTIkey_###1? If you're still using one of the old placein###_1 style keys, I recommend updating it as individual assessment links use an improved behavior with the newer keys, and I'm no longer maintaining the old behavior.

— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/drlippman/IMathAS/issues/109#issuecomment-358095954, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AhCDLvm5w_rYux87ls_WrO8ysRSzAu6Wks5tLQeVgaJpZM4RgLVb .

-- Josh Deutsch http://physics.ucsc.edu/~josh Physics Department UCSC josh@ucsc.edu Santa Cruz, 95064 http://deutsch.physics.ucsc.edu/ http://physics.ucsc.edu/~josh

$anstypes = "numfunc, numfunc"

$a, $b, $c, $d = rands(2, 9, 4) $e, $f = rands(3, 5, 2) $g = $e-1 $h = $f-1 $funcx = "($a t^{$e} + $b t^{$g})" $funcy = "($c t^{$f} + $d t^{$h})"

$qtext1 = "Suppose an object moves through space so that at all points in time, its position is described by the vector:"

$vec = "\vec{r}(t) = $funcx \hat{i} + $funcy \hat{j}"

$qtext2 = "What vector describes the object's velocity as a function of time? Type in your answer as a function in terms of ''t.'' Use e.g. ''2 t^4'' or ''2*t**4'' for 2 t^4."

$answer[0] = "($a$e)t^($e-1) + ($b$g)t^($g-1)" $answer[1] = "($c$f)t^($f-1) + ($d$h)t^($h-1)"

$variables[0] = "t" $variables[1] = "t"

$hidepreview = true $answerboxsize = 10

Question text:_____ $qtext1

$vec

$qtext2

\vec{v}(t) = $answerbox[0] \hat{i} + $answerbox[1] \hat{j} m/s

[drlippman]

The bug I described has been a problem for maybe 10-20% of the class, and it happens only sporadically for them.

The "sporadically" part baffles me. One common issue that can happen is if the student's browser is set to not allow third-party cookies, then IMathAS can't establish a login session. But I'm just guessing what might be going on.

I attach a screen shot I got from a student, showing this problem

It didn't come through. I don't think github's email system can put an email attachment into an issue comment automatically. 99.9% of the time the student says the system is marking them wrong, it's because they put in the wrong answer ;) Often they used the wrong variable, or are missing some important parens.

[joshdeutsch]

Thanks again for the rapid response! Yes, the LTI connection seems to be working fine for them, and then it stops. I might be able to reproduce this error in a development shell on Canvas and will let you know if this actually happens and if we're able to track this down.

The attachments weren't that important, they just show what appears to be correct answers marked incorrect with red around the boxes. I know what you're saying about being correctly marked wrong so I went into our IMathAS server and looked at what they typed (in the gradebook) and it looked completely correct. In another case, a student that added in spaces, and tried formatting it different ways. Eventually she got it to accept her answer with spaces, though the spaces she added would not have made any difference. But if I get any more problems of this kind, I'll try to do a screen-share with a student so I can determine if they're actually in the 99.9% percent of cases.

Best wishes,

Josh

On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 2:44 PM, David Lippman notifications@github.com wrote:

The bug I described has been a problem for maybe 10-20% of the class, and it happens only sporadically for them.

The "sporadically" part baffles me. One common issue that can happen is if the student's browser is set to not allow third-party cookies, then IMathAS can't establish a login session. But I'm just guessing what might be going on.

I attach a screen shot I got from a student, showing this problem

It didn't come through. I don't think github's email system can put an email attachment into an issue comment automatically. 99.9% of the time the student says the system is marking them wrong, it's because they put in the wrong answer ;) Often they used the wrong variable, or are missing some important parens.

— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/drlippman/IMathAS/issues/109#issuecomment-358132923, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AhCDLjQkiiFVEaZYL2XWICwJ49xiE3TVks5tLSY5gaJpZM4RgLVb .

-- Josh Deutsch http://physics.ucsc.edu/~josh Physics Department UCSC josh@ucsc.edu Santa Cruz, 95064 http://deutsch.physics.ucsc.edu/ http://physics.ucsc.edu/~josh