Inserting a passage (or shared stimulus)

A passage is a piece of information, usually in text form, which sets the context for a question or a series of questions. A passage can be used in multiple Items, and is therefore sometimes referred to as a Shared Stimulus, though in most versions of TAO, the term “shared stimulus” has been replaced by the term “passage”.

Passages are .xml files which contain a simple or complex text (a text with integrated images). For users of the Premium/Ignite Edition (or higher) of TAO, a Passage Editor is available in which passages can be created. They can be stored in the Asset Manager, so that they can be accessed easily for use in Items. See the chapter on the Passage Editor for information on how to create passages in TAO.

If you do not have the Premium/Ignite Edition of TAO, you can use the template below, in the form of an empty XML file, to author a new passage (outside of TAO):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<div xmlns="http://www.imsglobal.org/xsd/imsqti_v2p1" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="stimulus_content" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.imsglobal.org/xsd/imsqti_v2p1 http://www.imsglobal.org/question/qtiv2p1pd2/xsd/imsqti_v2p1.xsd">

<h1>Title</h1>
<p>Text here...</p>

</div>

To create a passage with a media file, reference the media file using its relative location and include it in a zip file together with the XML file, then import the zip file.