Skip to content

graded() is used to signal a final grade for a submission. Most likely, you'll want to use its helper functions: pass(), fail(), pass_if_equal(), fail_if_equal(), pass_if() and fail_if(). When used in grade_this(), these functions signal a final grade and no further checking of the student's submitted code is performed. See the sections below for more details about how these functions are used in grade_this().

Usage

graded(correct, message = NULL, ..., type = NULL, location = NULL)

pass(
  message = getOption("gradethis.pass", "Correct!"),
  ...,
  env = parent.frame(),
  praise = getOption("gradethis.pass.praise", FALSE)
)

fail(
  message = getOption("gradethis.fail", "Incorrect"),
  ...,
  env = parent.frame(),
  hint = getOption("gradethis.fail.hint", FALSE),
  encourage = getOption("gradethis.fail.encourage", FALSE)
)

Arguments

correct

A logical value of whether or not the checked code is correct.

message

A character string of the message to be displayed. In all grading helper functions other than graded(), message is a template string that will be processed with glue::glue().

...

Additional arguments passed to graded() or additional data to be included in the feedback object.

type, location

The type and location of the feedback object provided to learnr. See https://rstudio.github.io/learnr/exercises.html#Custom_checking for more details.

type may be one of "auto", "success", "info", "warning", "error", or "custom".

location may be one of "append", "prepend", or "replace".

env

environment to evaluate the glue message. Most users of gradethis will not need to use this argument.

praise

Include a random praising phrase with random_praise()? The default value of praise can be set using gradethis_setup() or the gradethis.pass.praise option.

hint

Include a code feedback hint with the failing message? This argument only applies to fail() and fail_if_equal() and the message is added using the default options of give_code_feedback() and maybe_code_feedback(). The default value of hint can be set using gradethis_setup() or the gradethis.fail.hint option.

encourage

Include a random encouraging phrase with random_encouragement()? The default value of encourage can be set using gradethis_setup() or the gradethis.fail.encourage option.

Value

pass() signals a correct submission, fail() signals an incorrect submission, and graded() returns a correct or incorrect submission according to the value of correct.

Functions

  • graded(): Prepare and signal a graded result.

  • pass(): Signal a passing grade.

  • fail(): Signal a failing grade.

Usage in grade_this()

The graded() helper functions are all designed to be called from within grade_this(), but this has the unfortunate side-effect of making their default arguments somewhat opaque.

The helper functions follow these common patterns:

  1. If you don't provide a custom message, the default pass or fail messages will be used. With the default gradethis setup, the pass message follows the pattern {gradethis::random_praise()} Correct! , and the fail message follows Incorrect.{gradethis::maybe_code_feedback()} {gradethis::random_encouragement()}.

    You can set the default message pattern using the pass and fail in gradethis_setup(), or the options gradethis.pass and gradethis.fail.

    In the custom message, you can use glue::glue() syntax to reference any of the available variables in grade_this() or that you've created in your checking code: e.g. "Your table has {nrow(.result)} rows.".

  2. pass_if_equal() and fail_if_equal() automatically compare their first argument against the .result of running the student's code. pass_if_equal() takes this one step further and if called without any arguments will compare the .result to the value returned by evaluating the .solution code, if available.

  3. All fail helper functions have an additional hint parameter. If hint = TRUE, a code feedback hint is added to the custom message. You can also control hint globally with gradethis_setup().

  4. All helper functions include an env parameter, that you can generally ignore. It's used internally to help pass() and fail() et al. find the default argument values and to build the message using glue::glue().

Return a grade immediately

graded() and its helper functions are designed to short-circuit further evaluation whenever they are called. If you're familiar with writing functions in R, you can think of graded() (and pass(), fail(), etc.) as a special version of return(). If a grade is created, it is returned immediately and no more checking will be performed.

The immediate return behavior can be helpful when you have to perform complicated or long-running tests to determine if a student's code submission is correct. We recommend that you perform the easiest tests first, progressing to the most complicated tests. By taking advantage of early grade returns, you can simplify your checking code:

```{r}
grade_this({
  # is the answer a tibble?
  if (!inherits(.result, "tibble")) {
    fail("Your answer should be a tibble.")
  }

  # from now on we know that .result is a tibble...
  if (nrow(.result) != 5 && ncol(.result) < 2) {
    fail("Your table should have 5 rows and more than 1 column.")
  }

  # ...and now we know it has 5 rows and at least 2 columns
  if (.result[[2]][[5]] != 5) {
    fail("The value of the 5th row of the 2nd column should be 5.")
  }

  # all of the above checks have passed now.
  pass()
})
```

Notice that it's important to choose a final fallback grade as the last value in your grade_this() checking code. This last value is the default grade that will be given if the submission passes all other checks. If you're using the standard gradethis_setup() and you call pass() or fail() without arguments, pass() will return a random praising phrase and fail() will return code feedback (if possible) with an encouraging phrase.

See also

Other grading helper functions: graded(), pass(), fail(), pass_if(), fail_if(), pass_if_equal(), fail_if_equal().

Examples

# Suppose our exercise asks the student to prepare and execute code that
# returns the value `42`. We'll use `grade_this()` to check their
# submission.
#
# Because we are demonstrating these functions inside R documentation, we'll
# save the function returned by `grade_this()` as `grader()`. Calling
# `grader()` on a mock exercise submission is equivalent to running the
# check code when the student clicks "Submit Answer" in a learnr tutorial.

grader <-
  # ```{r example-check}
  grade_this({
    # Automatically use .result to compare to an expected value
    pass_if_equal(42, "Great work!")

    # Similarly compare .result to an expected wrong value
    fail_if_equal(41, "You were so close!")
    fail_if_equal(43, "Oops, a little high there!")

    # or automatically pass if .result is equal to .solution
    pass_if_equal(message = "Great work!")

    # Be explicit if you need to round to avoid numerical accuracy issues
    pass_if_equal(x = round(.result), y = 42, "Close enough!")
    fail_if_equal(x = round(.result), y = 64, "Hmm, that's not right.")

    # For more complicated calculations, call pass() or fail()
    if (.result > 100) {
      fail("{.result} is way too high!")
    }
    if (.result * 100 == .solution) {
      pass("Right answer, but {.result} is two orders of magnitude too small.")
    }

    # Fail with a hint if student code differs from the solution
    # (Skipped automatically if there isn't a -solution chunk)
    fail_if_code_feedback()

    # Choose a default grade if none of the above have resulted in a grade
    fail()
  })
# ```

# Now lets try with a few different student submissions ----

# Correct!
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 42))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Correct] Great work!>

# These were close...
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 41))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Incorrect] You were so close!>
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 43))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Incorrect] Oops, a little high there!>

# Automatically use .solution if you have a *-solution chunk...
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 42, .solution_code = 42))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Correct] Great work!>

# Floating point arithmetic is tricky...
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 42.000001, .solution_code = 42))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Correct] Close enough!>
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 64.123456, .solution_code = 42))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Incorrect] Hmm, that's not right.>

# Complicated checking situations...
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 101, .solution_code = 42))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Incorrect] 101 is way too high!>
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = 0.42, .solution_code = 42))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Correct]
#>   Right answer, but 0.42 is two orders of magnitude too small.
#> >

# Finally fall back to the final answer...
grader(mock_this_exercise(.user_code = "20 + 13", .solution_code = "20 + 22"))
#> <gradethis_graded: [Incorrect]
#>   In `20 + 13`, I expected `22` where you wrote `13`.
#> >