Using R's exams package for assignments: Is it possible to add question hints?

Question

The exams package is a really fantastic tool for generating exams from R.

I am interested in the possibilities of using it for (programming) assignments. The main difference from an exam is that besides solutions I'd also like hints to be included in the PDF / HTML output file.

Typically I put the hints for (sub)-questions in a separate section at the end of the PDF assignment (using a separate Latex section), but this requires manual labour. These are for students to consult if they need help getting started on any particular exercise, and it avoids having them look at the solutions directly for hints on how to start.

An assignment might look like:

1. Question 1
2. Question 2 ...
3. Question 10
4. Hints to all questions

I'd be open to changing the exact format as long it is possible to look up hints without looking up the answer, and it remains optional to read the hints.

So in fact I am looking for an intermediate "hints" section between the between the "question" and "solution" section, which is present for some questions but not for all.

My questions: Is this already possible? If not, how could this be implemented using the exams package?

Answer 1

R/exams does not have dedicated/native support for this kind of assignment so it isn't available out of the box. So if you want to get this kind of processing you have to ensure it yourself using LaTeX for PDF or CSS for HTML.

In LaTeX I think it should be possible to do what you want using the newfloat and endfloat packages in the LaTeX template that you pass to exams2pdf(). Any LaTeX template needs to provide {question} and {solution} environments, e.g., the plain.tex template shipped with the package has

\newenvironment{question}{\item \textbf{Problem}\newline}{}
\newenvironment{solution}{\textbf{Solution}\newline}{}

with the exercises embedded as

\begin{enumerate}
%% \exinput{exercises}
\end{enumerate}

Now instead of the \newenvironment{solution}... you could use

\usepackage{newfloat,endfloat}
\DeclareFloatingEnvironment{hint}
\DeclareDelayedFloat{hint}{Hint}
\DeclareFloatingEnvironment{solution}
\DeclareDelayedFloat{solution}{Solution}

This defines two new floating environments {hint} and {solution} which are then declared delayed floats. And then you would need to customize these environments regarding the text displayed within the questions at the beginning and the listing at the end. I'm not sure if this can get you exactly what you want, though, but hopefully it is a useful place to start from.