AutTopQ

AutTopQ is a software framework for automatically generating educational questions from textual materials. It combines natural language processing, transformer-based language models, and retrieval augmented generation to produce questions, extract correct answers from source texts, and generate short rationales or explanations.

The project originated as a collaboration among universities and ed-tech researchers seeking scalable assessment tools. It has been released in several versions under an open-source license, with ongoing contributions from a community of developers and educators. The goal is to provide a configurable pipeline that can be adapted to different subjects and curricula.

AutTopQ supports multiple question types, including multiple-choice, short answer, and open-ended questions. It includes an answerability filter to ensure generated questions can be answered from the provided material, a difficulty calibration mechanism, and multilingual support. It offers APIs and LMS plugins for integration, and can generate answer keys and explanations to aid learners and instructors.

The system consists of modules for data ingestion, content segmentation, question generation, answer extraction, quality scoring, and output formatting. It uses a pipeline approach: import content, identify relevant passages, generate candidate questions, evaluate answerability and quality, and publish configured outputs. A moderator review layer can be enabled for human verification.

AutTopQ is used to create practice quizzes, formative assessments, and study aids in classrooms and online learning platforms. It can reduce preparation time but may require human oversight to mitigate errors or biases in generated content. Ongoing evaluation relies on user feedback and automated quality metrics.