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ShinyItemBuilder – Use Shiny with CBA ItemBuilder Items

The R project ShinyItemBuilder can be used to implement computer-based assessments using the CBA ItemBuilder and R/Shiny.

The CBA ItemBuilder is an authoring tool for designing and implementing simple and complex items for computer-based assessments (CBA) that can be used without a particular knowledge in a specific programming language (such as, for instance, JavaScript).

R/Shiny is a technology to create web applications using R. Packages and functions from R can be executed on the server side. R/Shiny requires special Shiny servers, such as an account on ShinyApps.io or a prepared server using, for instance, ShinyProxy or Shiny Server.

R/Shiny application can also be run locally directly from R.

Demo:

  • Install the packages shiny, remotes, knitr and ShinyItemBuilder by executing the following lines in R:
install.packages("remotes")
install.packages("shiny")
install.packages("knitr")
remotes::install_github("kroehne/ShinyItemBuilder", build_vignettes = TRUE)
installation
installation
  • Run the following code in R
# app.R

library(shiny)
library(ShinyItemBuilder)

item_pool <- getDemoPool("demo01")
assessment_config <- getConfig()

shinyApp(assessmentOutput(pool = item_pool,
                          config = assessment_config,
                          overwrite=T),
         renderAssessment)
demo01
demo01
  • If you don’t see the item, try to use the option “Run External”:
demo02
demo02

To use your own CBA ItemBuilder-project files, create a R-Studio project, copy the CBA ItemBuilder project files into a folder items and run the following code in R:

# app.R

library(shiny)
library(ShinyItemBuilder)

item_pool <- getPool(path="items/")
assessment_config <- getConfig()

shinyApp(assessmentOutput(pool = item_pool,
                          config = assessment_config,
                          overwrite=T),
         renderAssessment)

Multiple assessment components (items, instruction pages, etc.) can be used as individual CBA ItemBuilder Project Files (and Tasks). The order can be customized in the R-object item_pool, or a separate function to navigate between tasks is provided as part of the assessment_config configuration.

This software is currently a proof-of-concept.

Find more information about the CBA ItemBuilder at cba.itembuilder.de.

To see provided vignettes run in R (or open view online):

browseVignettes(package="ShinyItemBuilder")