Ximera defines two new document classes, which are technically extensions of ’article’.
Document class ’ximera’
Ximera structures learning units into ’activities’ (activity), which are standalone LaTeX files with \documentclass{ximera}. Each ’activity’ document becomes one web page and is meant to achieve one or more well-defined learning goals (outcomes in Ximeran).
Examples can be: fractions.tex deals with the definition and basic properties of fractions (including some examples and exercises, because otherwise you can’t learn it), while fractions_exercises.tex contains extra exercises, fractions_challengingexercises.tex for example some non-trivial problems, and fractions_polynomials.tex gives extra theory. By convention, the exercises are in a subfolder exercises.
Each \documentclass{ximera} forms such an ’activity’: a clearly defined and in principle standalone piece of teaching material.
The terms ’activity’ and ’ximera’ are synonymous.
\documentclass{ximera} % this is an ’ximera’ or ’activity’
\input{../preamble.tex} % extra macros (from parent folder)
\addPrintStyle{..} % extra settings only for PDF
\begin{document}
\xmtitle{Introduction to fractions}{} % set and print title
\begin{definition}
A \textbf{fraction} is an expression of the form $\frac{a}{b}$, with $a,b\in\Z$.
\end{definition}
\end{document}
Document class ’xourse’
A \documentclass{xourse} is a course, and consists of a list of ’activities’. A xourse is essentially a list of ’includes’ of ximera’s, possibly including a specific introduction or preface. Therefore, a course is a particularly simple tex document, and it is consequently also very easy to compile new xourses based on existing activities.
\documentclass{xourse} % this is a ’xourse’
\def\isXourse{true} % necessary for technical reasons ...
\input{preamble.tex} % defines various extra macros and environments
\iftikzexport\else % for technical reasons only if NOT tikzexport ...
\usepackage{printstyle} % defines various settings only for the PDF version
\fi
\begin{document}
\xmtitle{My first Ximera course}{} % set and print title (from preamble.tex)
\part{Introduction} % standard TeX command
\activitychapter{math/introduction.tex} % include introduction as ’chapter’
\activitychapter{math/fractions.tex}
\practicesection{math/exercises/set1.tex} % include exercises as (sub-)section
\activitychapter{math/powers.tex}
\end{document}
2024-07-15 10:40:24