Reading Activity

If you used the template repository from the guide, your repository already contains an exercise and a reading activity. Now, we will add a reading activity ourselves. This is useful for integrating extra information or small pieces of theory into your learning path. The existing reading activity can, of course, serve as an example.

Similar to an Exercise

The structure and config.json file for a reading activity are identical to those of an exercise. However, there are two key differences: the value of type must be set to content, and anything specific to exercises can be omitted.

1. Structure

Each reading activity in Dodona corresponds to a specific folder in the repository. That folder follows a fixed structure, which we will now create.

First, create a new folder for the reading activity, which we will call markdown_demo. Then, within this new folder, create a description folder, where the reading activity will be stored. After that, create a media folder inside the description folder, where images and other files will be stored.

The folder structure for this reading activity should look like this:

reading-activities//
└── markdown_demo/
   └── description/
      └── media/

2. Configuration

Dodona also requires each reading activity to have a configuration file. This file contains metadata used by Dodona.

Create the file config.json in the markdown_demo folder with the following content:

{
  "description": {
    "names": {
      "en": "Markdown demo",
      "nl": "Markdown demo"
    }
  },
  "access": "private",
  "type": "content"
}

This file specifies three things:

• names: The names of the reading activity as shown in Dodona, in Dutch (nl) and English (en). (In this case, both names are the same.)
• access: The access level is set to private. We choose a private reading activity because this is just a guide, but we encourage you to make your reading activities public (public), so other teachers can use them (just like you have access to public reading activities on Dodona).
• type: Must be set to content for reading activities. If omitted, the default value is exercise.

After creating this file, your repository should look like this:

reading-activities//
└── markdown_demo/
   ├── description/
   |  └── media/
   └── config.json

3. Adding Images or Files

To add an image, you have two options: You can either reference an image stored in the media folder, or you can reference the image via a direct link. Both methods will be demonstrated in the example below.

Download the following image of the UGent logo. Here is a direct link. Right-click the image and select Save image as....

Right-click the media folder in VS Code web and click Upload.... Select the image from your computer and click Open.

To reference the image, use the following syntax: The code starts with an exclamation mark (!), and the square brackets contain a description of the image. The round brackets contain the path to the image.

![UGent logo](media/logo_UGent.png)

4. Content

The next step is writing the content of the reading activity. Create a file description.en.md in the description folder of the reading activity with the following content:

# Markdown Demo

## Text Formatting

This is an example sentence with words in *italic*, **bold**, and a variable `result` in function `compute_solution()`.

## Links and Images

This sentence contains a [link](https://docs.dodona.be/en/references/exercise-description/) to the Dodona guide on Markdown.
Below is the Dodona logo displayed via a link.

![Dodona logo](https://dodona.be/icon.png)

Here, we reference the UGent logo directly from the `media` folder.

![UGent logo](media/logo_UGent.png)

### Most Popular Programming Languages on Dodona

1. Python
2. R
3. Java

### Types of Engineers

* Business Engineer
* Industrial Engineer (ing.)
* Civil Engineer (ir.)
* Bioengineer

## Mathematical Formulas

Calculate the length of the hypotenuse $$c$$ of a triangle using the formula $$c^2 = a^2 + b^2$$.

The solution can be found with the following formula:
$$
c = \sqrt{a^2 + b^2}
$$

## Code Snippets

In your solution, you can use this code: `print("text")`{:.language-python}.

```console?lang=python&prompt=>>>
>>> echo("Hello")
Hello
>>> echo("Other side")
Other side
```

```python
name = input()
print(f"Hello, {name}!")
```

## Callouts

{: .callout.callout-success}
> #### Note
> This is an important message.

## Quotes

This is not a quote.

> This is a quote.

If you also want to create Dutch content, use the name description.nl.md for the second file. The content of reading activities is written in Markdown, a relatively simple formatting language. More information about Markdown can be found here.

After creating these files, your repository should look like this:

reading-activities//
└── markdown_demo/
   ├── description/
   |  ├── media/
   |  |  └── logo_UGent.png
   |  └── description.en.md
   └── config.json

5. Saving Changes

Don't forget to commit your changes, or they will be lost!

An example of how to do this can be found here.

6. Reviewing the Reading Activity

The reading activity you just created can be found in your repository on Dodona. Check the reading activity. Does everything look good? If so, you can publish it by clicking Publish this exercise at the top of the reading activity. Your reading activity is now ready to be used on Dodona!