Show additional information with points in exam class

Question

I use the exam package for typesetting exam scripts. As a part of integrating Outcome-Based Education (OBE), we are required to show the Course Outcome (CO) and Program Outcome (PO) under the points for each question. A minimal example can be as follows:

As shown in the picture, these CO and POs can be set for questions/parts/subparts. Each question has at most 1 CO and 1 PO associated with them. Even if the question fits in 1 or 2 lines, 3 separate lines are added in the points section stating the points, CO, and PO, leaving empty spaces between questions. The points, CO, and PO are right-aligned with boldface.

To accommodate this in the exam class, I have gone through the Package Documentation to find any ideas on how to modify the points section. It contains instructions on how to modify \pointformat{} and \pointpoints{}{} to add static texts like "Points", or "Marks", but I could not figure out how to change it per question.

In my attempts to bypass the issue, I have used a custom \atright command from here to place the COs and POs at the end of the question line, but it does not put them below the points. Example:

How can I modify the points section to show additional information that can change per question/part/subparts?

Answer 1

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Read the catch below, before adopting this solution.

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With the help of comments from John Kormylo and Philip S. Hirschhorn, I was able to piece together a "hacky" solution.

The \pointformat command expects a single line as input. So, we can trick it into printing multiple lines using the `\parbox' command. It can be called in several ways. We specifically use the following format

\parbox[position][height]{width}{contents}

to write a custom command named \obe{}{}{}:

\newcommand{\obe}[3]{
   \parbox[t][0pt]{0.8cm}{
      #1\\
      (CO#2)\\
      (PO#3)
    }
}

It takes 3 arguments: the point value, the CO value, and the PO value, respectively. It can be called from the square brackets (where the points are given) of \question, \part, or \subpart. For example,

\question[\obe{5}{1}{2}] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

will display something like this:

Other parameters for the \parbox command are as follows:

• t - is used to set the alignment. The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the question. Alternatives: b and c.
• 0pt - the height of the box. Ignoring this one will give the box a height, which can result in adding space between the lines of the same question.
• 0.8cm - the width of the box. It can vary based on the size of the points margin that you use.

However, there's a catch. Whenever the question fits one or two lines, we will have to add spacing between questions manually. If we do not do that, for example:

\question[\obe{5}{1}{2}] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
\question[\obe{2}{2}{4}] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
\question[\obe{4}{3}{2}] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

this will result in:

To avoid that, we can use \vspace{2\baselineskip} for single-line questions, and \vspace{\baselineskip} for multi-line questions. To make things easier, I have defined another custom command:

\newcommand{\qspace}[1]{
   \vspace{#1\baselineskip}
}

that can be used by writing:

\question[\obe{5}{1}{2}] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
\qspace{2}
\question[\obe{2}{2}{4}] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
\qspace{1}
\question[\obe{4}{3}{2}] The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

which generates: