Possible problem in StrictFactoringEvaluator b/c of the removal of asterisks in the formatting

[mehmetfdemirel]

webwork-open-problem-library/OpenProblemLibrary/macros/CollegeOfIdaho/CofIdaho_macros.pl

Line 502 in 233a1b1

$format_ans =~ s/[\*]//g; #Remove any astrix

My brother goes to college, and a homework problem on the website was asking the following question:

Factor out the greatest common factor: $15x^4 y^3 + 5x^3y^2$.

However, even though it accepts the following answer as correct:

5x^3y^2(3xy+1)

it says the following one is INCORRECT (even though the Answer Preview shows the same mathematical expression for both inputs):

5x**3y**2(3xy+1)

This seems to be happening because of the formatting of the answer string in the code where asterisks are removed.

In his orientation for WeBWorK, my brother was taught that both ^ and ** can be used interchangably for exponentiation, as can also be seen in here.

Is this a bug or are we misunderstanding something?