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In Box 1 (Launch to Custom Web Activity), provide the URL to the custom web activity, and indicate the maximum score that students can receive on the activity. Once you provide the URL, the Connection status should turn green and display “Connected”; then you can preview your activity in a new tab. Check the checkbox if the custom web activity is configured to allow students to view past submissions (this is an advanced feature; if you are unsure, leave this box unchecked). When Terracotta launches to your activity, it will append a set of launch parameters onto the URL . you provided (listed below).
In Box 2 (Return to Terracotta), you are provided with a return URL. Your custom web activity should redirect users to this return URL, and Terracotta expects that your custom web activity will append two URL parameters: (1) launch_token, and (2) score. If “score” is omitted, Terracotta will assume that the submission will receive the maximum score.
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The following variables are automatically provided to the custom web activity as URL parameters:
launch_token: A single-use token for launch validation and score return return. The launch token is in UUIDv4 format.
anonymous_id: Anonymized student identifier. This ID matches Terracotta’s participant_id, however, depending on the configuration in Terracotta, students who access an custom web activity may not be consenting participants. Thus, we use the label anonymous_id to refer to students accessing custom web activities.
assignment_id: Unique identifier for the Canvas assignment
submission_id: Unique identifier for the current submission attempt
condition_name: Experimental condition name
due_at: Assignment due date and time
experiment_id: Unique identifier for the experiment (specific to the course)
due_at: Assignment due date and time
remaining_attempts: Number of remaining submission attempts submission_id: Unique identifier for the current submission attempt attempts. If there are unlimited attempts available to the student, remaining_attempts = u.
Return to Terracotta
Terracotta expects that when a student completes the activity, they will be redirected to the URL:
https://app.terracotta.education/integrations
with two parameters appended to the URL: (1) launch_token, and (2) score. If “score” is omitted, Terracotta will assume that the submission will receive the maximum score.
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Record Granular Data: Your custom web activity will be responsible for a legitimate academic exercise, and it should keep records of users’ interactions, responses, and submissions. By doing so, your custom web activity will help ensure the integrity of students’ coursework.
Check if the Launch Token has Previously Been Used: When configuring a custom web activity in Terracotta, there is a checkbox: Tool allows students to view past submissions. If this box is checked, Terracotta will assume that the tool is able to display a past submission to a student. In this situation, if the external webpage receives a launch token that has previously been used, this indicates that a student is attempting to review their responses from a past submission. Check if the launch token has previously been used, and that the anonymous_id and assignment_id of the current launch matches the anonymous_id and assignment_id of the past submission associated with the launch_token. If so, the external page should display the data from the past submission associated with the provided launch token, with no interactivity. Confirm that the anonymous_id and assignment_id in the URL parameters match those in the past submission before displaying the past submission.
NOTE: There is one reserved launch_token:
"0000000-
0000-
4000-
a000-
000000000000". This launch token is issued by Terracotta when previewing external integrations.
Communicate When There are No Available Limited Remaining Attempts: When remaining_attempts is 0, the external webpage should still display the activity, but Terracotta will accept no submissions. In this situation, to avoid misleading students about whether they can make another submission, the external webpage should disable submission functionalitythe teacher has placed restrictions on the number of attempts that a student may submit in response to an assignment, it may be helpful for the custom web activity to communicate this to the student (e.g., if there is only 1 attempt remaining). If there are unlimited attempts available to the student, remaining_attempts = u. A custom web activity will never need to handle a situation where remaining_attempts = 0, because in this situation, Terracotta will not generate a launch_token and will not launch the student into an activity.
Respect Due Dates: Consider warning users when they are accessing the webpage after the due date. Submissions made after the due date will be delivered into Canvas, but will be flagged in Canvasas late.
Score Calculation: The custom web activity is responsible for determining the student’s score on the activity, which should be returned to Terracotta as a URL parameter value with the name “score.”
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| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
<script>
// Get URL parameters
const queryString = window.location.search;
const urlParams = new URLSearchParams(queryString);
constlet url_launch_token = urlParams.get('launch_token'); // Single-use launch token
const url_pid = urlParams.get('anonymous_id') // Participant ID
// If there is no launch_token provided, assume that this is a preview
if (url_launch_token == "" || url_launch_token == null || url_launch_token == undefined) {
url_launch_token = "0000000-0000-4000-a000-000000000000"; // reserved preview token
}
// Variable for the student's score
let score = 0;
// Container for responses
let responses = [];
function checkAnswer() {
// Get timestamp
var timestamp = Date.now();
// Correct answer
const correctAnswer = 2; // (2x + 3 = 7, x = 2)
// Get the user's answer from the input field
const userAnswer = document.getElementById("answer").value;
// Evaluate answer correctness
var correctness = parseFloat(userAnswer) === correctAnswer;
if (correctness) score += 1;
// Push the response
responses.push({
pid: url_pid,
question: "2x + 3 = 7",
correctAnswer: correctAnswer,
response: userAnswer,
correctness: correctness,
datetime: timestamp
});
// Display feedback and enable submit button
const feedback = document.getElementById("feedback");
feedback.textContent = JSON.stringify(responses); // save this
document.getElementById("answer-btn").disabled = true;
document.getElementById("submit-btn").style.display = 'inline-block';
}
function submit() {
window.location.href = `https://app.terracotta.education/integrations?launch_token=${url_launch_token}&score=${score}`
}
</script> |
To summarize, the :
The script receives the launch_token and the anonymous_id from URL parameters.
If the launch_token is missing, it assumes that the activity is a preview and assigns the reserved preview token ("0000000-0000-4000-a000-000000000000").
It then initializes the user’s score (0), and a container to record the user’s responses ([]).
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A function is defined, checkAnswer(), which is called when the answer button (answer-btn) is pressed. The checkAnswer()
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function…
records a timestamp of the user’s response (in Unix timestamp format, the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970)
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establishes the correct answer
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evaluates the correctness of the user’s response
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updates the user’s score
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pushes the user’s response into the response container
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displays the contents of the response container and enables a final submit button
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The function submit() is called when the user presses the submit button, which redirects the user back to Terracotta with the provided launch_token and calculated score.