Tests & Quizzes

From e-Learning Documentation

Revision as of 13:03, 5 October 2010

Tests & Quizzes Overview

The Tests & Quizzes tool provides for online assessment of student knowledge. This assessment can be in the form of for-credit quizzes and exams, or self-assessment study aids. You may also use this tool to create anonymous surveys of student information.

Create and Manage Question Pools in Tests & Quizzes

As you use the Tests & Quizzes tool, you will be creating questions that can be used over and over in other exams in the future. You will want to organize your questions into Question Pools so that you can easily locate the questions you want to use in the future.

Once you have Question Pools, you can create an assessment that will randomly draw from one or more pools. For example, you might create two pools called "Chapter 1 Easy" and "Chapter 1 Difficult" that each contain 25 questions. You can set up an assessment that randomly pulls 5 questions from each of those pools so that all your students get 10 questions - five easy and five difficult - but they could each have an entirely different assessment.

NOTE:Question Pools are associated with your username, not the course in which they are created. So if you create a Question Pool in course ABC1234, and you also teach CBA4321, you will see your Question Pools in both locations and they are available to use in both locations. Because of this, you will want to name your Question Pools in a way that clearly identifies the questions.

Create a Question Pool in Tests & Quizzes

Within Tests & Quizzes:

1. Click Question Pools at the top of the page.
2. Click Add New Pool
3. Pool Name* - Type a name for the pool
   • "ABC1234 Textbook" is a name that would identify the source of these questions when you see this pool in other courses you teach.
4. Fill in any other content that could be helpful to you in the future.
5. Click Save

Import a Question Pool in Tests & Quizzes

You will see the option to Import a Question Pool. This option is not functional at this time.

Add Questions to a Question Pool in Tests & Quizzes

Within Tests & Quizzes:

1. Click Question Pools at the top of the page.
2. Click the hyperlinked name of the Question Pool to which you want to add questions.
3. A screen opens that shows all the Question Pool information, as well as how many subpools and questions are in the Question Pool. Beside the heading "Question" click Add at the right margin.
4. Select a question type from the "select a question type" drop-down menu.
   • See Question Types tutorial for an explanation of the various types of questions.
5. Click Save
6. Fill out the question information and click Save

Create a Subpool in Tests & Quizzes

Subpools offer another level of organization. If you create a pool called "ABC1234 Textbook," you might create subpools called "Chapter 1," "Chapter 2," etc. In those subpools, you could create more subpools called "Easy," and "Difficult."

Once you create subpools, you will see them listed when you click the hyperlinked name of the Question Pool. You may click the hyperlinked name of the subpools to add questions to subpools.

Within Tests & Quizzes:

1. Click Question Pools at the top of the page.
2. Click the hyperlinked name of the Question Pool to which you want to add a subpool.
3. A screen opens that shows all the Question Pool information, as well as how many subpools and questions are in the Question Pool. Beside the heading "Subpools" click Add at the right margin.
4. Pool Name* - Type a name for the pool
5. Fill in any other content that could be helpful to you in the future.
6. Click Save

Remove, Copy and Move Questions Within Question Pools in Tests & Quizzes

You may remove questions from a pool, copy them into another pool, or move them to another pool. Perhaps you create a Question Pool called "ABC1234 Textbook" in which you gather 200 questions. You decide you would like to organize these questions by chapter and difficulty level. You make subpools called "Chapter 1," "Chapter 2," etc. You may copy the questions into the appropriate subpools, which will mean that the questions are now in both the ABC1234 pool and the subpool. You may move the questions into the subpools, which means that the questions are removed from ABC1234 and are now only in the subpool. If you remove the questions, they are permanently deleted from that pool.

Within Tests & Quizzes:

1. Click Question Pools at the top of the page.
2. Click the hyperlinked name of the Question Pool that contains the questions you want to Remove, Copy or Move.
3. A screen opens that shows all the Question Pool information and lists all questions in that pool. Check the box beside the question(s) you want to Remove, Copy or Move.
4. Click Remove, Copy, or Move at the top of the list.
   • These links will not be live until you select at least one question.
   1. Remove - You will get a "Remove Question Confirmation" screen that asks if you are sure you want to remove the question(s). The question text will be listed so that you can be sure this is the question you want to remove. Click Remove.
   2. Copy - You will see a list of all available Question Pools into which you may copy the question(s). You can expand the Question Pools to find available subpools by clicking the triangle beside the pool name. Check the box beside the pool where you want to copy the question(s) and click Copy.
   3. Move - You will see a list of all available Question Pools into which you may move the question(s). You can expand the Question Pools to find available subpools by clicking the triangle beside the pool name. Check the box beside the pool where you want to copy the question(s) and click Move.

Question Types in Tests & Quizzes

All question types provide the Content Editor when you construct the question so that you can format the question, answer and feedback text, insert links, images, video, etc. There is also the option to add an attachment to the question.

All question types will allow you to provide feedback for each answer option as well as the entire question. You can provide different feedback based on whether the student answered the question correctly or incorrectly.

There are nine different question types available in Tests & Quizzes:

Multiple Choice

There are three different types of Multiple Choice questions:

• Single Correct - there is only one acceptable answer.
  • With this option you can enable negative marking, which means that students would be penalized for giving the wrong answer. If you select this option, a box is opened for you to enter how many points are taken off the grade for a wrong answer.
  • You can also enable partial credit, which will allow you to give some credit for answers other than the correct one. If you choose this option, each answer box will have the option to enter a "% Value." An example would be:

In what city will you find the Yenikapi arhcheological site?

• Rome (0% correct)
• Constantinople (50% correct)
• Istanbul (100% correct)

Since the city was named Constantinople in the past, I will allow half credit for this answer.

• Multiple Correct, Single Selection - there are several options that are considered "correct" but students can only select one.
• Multiple Correct, Multiple Selection - there are several options that are considered "correct" and students may choose more than one.

Multiple Choice questions allow for the answers to be randomized each time the question is displayed to a student so that the correct answer is a different option each time. You can also require the students to provide a rationale for their answer so that you can verify that the student knows the answer and isn't just guessing.

Survey

This question type is primarily used for gathering information from participants in an anonymous survey. It is not possible to assign points for this type of question. There are several answer options, including Likert Scale options.

Short Answer/Essay

Short Answer/Essay questions provides students with a text box for typing their answers. The text box does not provide the Content Editor and has a limit of 4000 characters. If you need students to have the ability to format their text and enter more than 4000 characters, use the "File Upload" question type. This type question is not automatically graded. The instructor must view the student submission and enter a grade.

Fill in the Blank

Fill in the Blank questions ask the student to insert a word or words into the question text to complete a sentence or paragraph. While this question type is automatically graded, the student's entry must match exactly the option(s) provided by the instructor. There is some flexibility in providing acceptable answers, matching case, etc., but the best practice is to only use this type of question with totally unambiguous test questions.

Numeric Response

Numeric Response is essentially a Fill in the Blank type question that uses numbers for the answer instead of words.

Matching

Matching type question require that the student matches one term, phrase or image to another. For example, you could insert an image of a plant and the student would have to choose the name of the plant from a list provided. You must have exactly the same number of items on each list.

True False

True False questions ask the student to determine if a statement is true or false.

Audio Recording

This function is not currently working, but will allow students to record an audio answer to a question - especially good for language classes to test student's pronunciation and conversation skills.

File Upload

This question type asks the student to submit a file as his/her answer to the question. Of course, this question type must be graded manually. The File Upload type can be used in place of the Assignment tool, though the Assignment tool has many more options.

An example of one way to use this question type in an assessment might be that you attach a spreadsheet to the question text and ask students to fill it out and submit it as the question answer. You might also ask them to prepare a file prior to the test and attach it to this question during the test.