INSTRUCTOR TUTORIAL: CREATING A TEST

Transcription

1 WHY WOULD YOU USE THIS FEATURE: Tests are sets of questions that are graded to measure student performance. Once a test is created in Blackboard, it must be deployed within a content folder before students can take the test. Note that some question types are not automatically graded (e.g. essay and short answer). The test or quiz item is automatically placed in the Grade Center if the instructor gives a possible point value during set- up. Students access the test through their Blackboard if made available and once finished; their score is calculated and will appear in your Grade Center. This tutorial will go over how to create a test and the types of questions available. HOW TO CREATE A TEST: 1. Access your course within Blackboard. 2. From the Control Panel, click Course Tools then click Tests, Surveys, and Pools.

2 3. Click Tests. 4. Click Build Test. 5. First provide a Name for the test which is a required field. You may add a description and instructions if you wish, but this is optional.

3 6. Click Submit when finished. 7. Before you begin adding questions, click on Question Settings in the upper right corner to modify or customize the settings for this particular test. **For more details on all of the question settings, view the Question Settings tutorial. 8. Make sure to check any boxes that correspond to settings you wish to use for this test. NOTE: Specify negative points for answers is a new tool in service pack 9 that allows you to deduct points for a question when students choose the wrong answer. If you wish to use this tool, make sure to check Specify partial credit for answers and Specify negative points for answers under Scoring. 9. Click Submit. 10. You are now in the Test Canvas, which allows you to add test questions. From the Create Question drop- down menu select the type of question you wish to add. For this example, we will add a multiple- choice question. An explanation of test question types is available at the end of this tutorial.

4 11. Next to Question Text, type the question in the text box. You have formatting options above such as font and size. 12. In Section 2 titled Options, select Answer Numbering and Orientation from the drop- down menus. Check the Show Answers in Random Order and Allow Partial Credit boxes if you wish. Note: If partial credit is allowed, each incorrect answer can specify what percentage of the total points should be given for that answer. 13. To use the Negative Points tool, click Allow Partial Credit and Allow Negative Scores for Incorrect Answers will appear. Check this box as well. 14. In Section 3 titled Answers, select the number of answers you wish to provide from the drop- down menu. Next to each answer there is a text box. Type the wrong answers and one correct answer in the boxes. To indicate the correct answer, check the circle next to the. answer. In this example, Answer 1 (A) is the correct answer.

5 15. If you have chosen to allow Partial Credit or Negative Points, a Partial Credit box will appear under each question. Here you can specify a percentage for partial credit or negative points for a deduction if the students select this incorrect answer. 16. In section 4 titled Feedback, you may provide feedback for incorrect and correct responses if you want students to have access to this information (optional). 17. In Section 5 titled Categories and Feedback, you may set categories, levels of difficulty, and topics for the question if you wish by clicking the Add button, but this is optional. 18. Click Submit when finished. 19. The question has been added to the test. You may now set a point value for that particular question (points for all questions must add up to the total desired points for the entire test) Type the points in the text box and click Update.

6 20. Click OK at the bottom of the Test Canvas. 21. You may always go back and edit the test by clicking the arrow to the right of the test and selecting Edit. 22. You may edit specific questions within a test if either the wrong answer had been identified as the correct answer, if you want to delete the question, or if you want to change the point values after students have already taken the test. a. To do this, click Edit beside the test you wish to edit. b. Find the question you wish to update and click Edit. c. Update the point value, delete the question, or identify a different answer as the correct answer. d. Click Submit. NOTE: This feature should automatically re- grade the student s score within the grade book. It is always a good idea to go into the grade book and double check, however. 23. (New Feature) Within the Edit test mode you may reorder and add additional questions. a) By clicking and holding your cursor over the striped column on the left- hand side of the question and dragging the question to the desired placement. b) By clicking the icon at either the top or bottom of the question you may add an additional question before or after the existing question. a b b

7 24. The created test now exists only within the Control Panel. The test must be added (deployed) to a Content Area so students can access the test (see the Deploy a Test tutorial). QUESTION TYPES: 1. Calculated Formula- A Calculated Formula question contains a formula, the variables of which can be set to change for each user. The variable range is created by specifying a minimum value and a maximum value for each variable. Answer sets are randomly generated. The correct answer can be a specific value or a range of values. Partial credit may be granted for answers falling in a range. 2. Calculated Numeric- This question resembles a fill- in- the- blank question. The user enters a number to complete a statement. The correct answer can be a specific number or within a range of numbers. 3. Either/Or- Users are presented with a statement and asked to respond using a selection of pre- defined two- choice answers, such as: Yes/No, Agree/Disagree. 4. Essay- Requires instructor to provide students with a question or statement. Students are given the opportunity to type and/or cut and paste an answer into a text field. Sample answers can be added for graders to use as a reference. Must be graded manually on Grade Assessment page. 5. File Response- Users upload a file from the local drive or from the Blackboard Content System as the answer to the question. This type of question is graded manually. 6. Fill in Multiple Blanks- This question type builds on fill- in- the- blank questions with multiple fill in the blank responses that can be inserted into a sentence or paragraph. Separate sets of answers are defined for each blank. 7. Fill in the Blank- Answers are evaluated based on an exact text match. Answers are not case sensitive, but are evaluated based on spelling. You may enter more than one answer to be understood as correct. 8. Hot Spot- Users indicate the answer by marking a specific point on an image. A range of pixel coordinates is used to define the correct answer. Hot Spot refers to the area of an image that, when selected, yields a correct answer. 9. Jumbled Sentence- Users are shown a sentence with a few parts of the sentence as variables. The user selects the proper answer for each variable from drop- down lists to assemble the sentence. Only one set of answers is used for all of the drop- down lists. 10. Matching- Allows students to pair items in one column to items in another column. Instructors may include different numbers of questions and answers in a Matching question. 11. Multiple Answer- Multiple answer questions allow users to choose more than one answer. Partial credit is not given for partially correct answers, but Instructors may manually change the number of points a Student receives on the Grade Assessment page.

8 12. Multiple Choice- Multiple- choice questions allow the users a multitude of choices. Users indicate the correct answer by selecting a radio button. The number of answer choices is limited to Opinion Scale/Likert- Question type based on a rating scale designed to measure attitudes or reactions. Users indicate the multiple choice answer that represents their attitude or reaction. When the instructor creates an opinion scale question, six answer fields are prepopulated with the following answers: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree, Not Applicable.