Tests & Quizzes

From e-Learning Documentation

Revision as of 13:35, 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. If you use this option, your question pool is actually copied into the assessment created. If you change the question in the pool, it will not affect the 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. This also means that you are the only one that can see your Question Pools. If you have a TA or another instructor that needs access to a Question Pool, you must "share" that pool with that person. He/she then has the ability to copy it into his or her own pool.

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.

Share Question Pools with Other Instructor-Type Roles

Because Question Pools are associated with your username, not the course, if you want other Instructor-Type persons in your course to have access to them, you must "share" the question pool. Once shared, the pool can be copied to that person's pools and will then be available to that person in any course he/she teaches.

Share a pool

1. Within Tests & Quizzes, click Question Pools at the top of the page
2. Beneath the pool or subpool you want to share, click share
3. A list of people is displayed that all have access to the pool. Unless you have already shared this pool, the list will include only yourself. Below that is a list of eligible Instructor types (Instructor, Designer, Facilitator, Teaching Assistant) to whom you may give access. Check the box beside every person with whom you want to share the pool.
4. Click Share

Revoke a shared pool

1. Within Tests & Quizzes, click Question Pools at the top of the page
2. Beneath the pool or subpool you want to share, click share
3. A list of people is displayed that all have access to the pool. Unless you have already shared this pool, the list will include only yourself. Below that is a list of eligible Instructor types (Instructor, Designer, Facilitator, Teaching Assistant) to whom you may give access. Check the box beside every person with whom you want to share the pool.

Once someone shares a pool with you, you can build assessments utilizing the questions in this pool. To manage a pool that someone has shared with you:

1. Within Tests & Quizzes, click Question Pools at the top of the page
   • You will see the pool that has been shared with you. In the column called "creator," you will see who created this pool and shared it with you.

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.

Assessment Types in Tests & Quizzes

Assessment Types are a set of pre-set settings for your assessment. By default, you are offered a "Default Quiz" and a "Default Survey" Assessment Type. You also have the ability to create your own Assessment Type. You would only want to do this if you have a set of unusual settings that you use consistently in assessments. Like a Question Pool, if you create an Assessment Type, it is associated with your username, not the course in which it was created. So if you create an Assessment Type in your ABC1234 course, you will also see that Assessment Type in your BCA4321 course.