Tests & Quizzes

What Does It Do?

The Tests & Quizzes tool helps professors conduct asychronous online assessments. It offers many useful features: timed tests, auto-grading and feedback for objective-style questions, randomization of questions or answers, and much more. And there are many available question types, such as multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, matching, and more.

Whether you are looking for a formative or summative assessment tool, Tests & Quizzes can deliver.

How You Can Use It

Promote student preparation (or even take Attendance) through small quizzes before or at the beginning of a class session.
Administer surveys to evaluate student attitudes or even conduct midterm course evaluations to help guide your instruction.
Use it more traditionally as an assessment tool for an exam to measure various levels of student learning, ranging from recalling information to demonstrating critical thinking.

Recommendations:

Always offer students a practice quiz before administering a high-stakes exam. This will help them feel comfortable with the format of the online assessment and also help you iron out any wrinkles.
Use a guest account or enroll a colleague as a "student" in a class to review an assessment before you release it to your students.
Sign up for a one-on-one consultation to learn more about the tool and how it can meet your assessment goals.

Instructions

Click the tab for the course or project site.
Click Tests & Quizzes in the tools menu. If the tool is not listed, add it via Site Info > Edit Tools.
In the Assessment Title text box, enter the name of your test or quiz (e.g. Quiz 1).
Select "Create using assessment builder."
Click Create.
Select the type of question you would like to use from the Question Type drop down list.
Fill out the form. In this example, we'll use "Multiple Choice" and "Single Correct."
- Enter the "Answer Point Value" for the question, e.g. 2.
- Enter the "Question Text." For example, "What color is the sky on a cloudless day at the equator?"
- Enter answer values in each box and select the correct answer. To remove one of the option boxes, click the respective "Remove" link. To add additional choice boxes, use the "Insert Additional Answers" drop-down list and select the desired number.
- Select whether to "Randomize Answers." We recommend this to display a different order of answers to each student.
- Enter any optional feedback options to offer automated guidance to the student after an assessment and once you've decided to release feedback to them.
Click Save when finished.
Continue to add questions to your exam.
Click Settings.
Common options:
- Delivery Dates. Set the "available" and "due" dates. Leave the retract date empty. Consider the "retract" date to be a hard-coded deadline; it should only be used in select circumstances.
- Timed Assessment. Decide whether there is a time limit on the assessment. This is a fixed time and once the student begins the exam, the clock starts.
- Assessment Organization. We generally recommend "Random access to questions from a Table of Contents," "Each Question is on a separate Web page," and "Continuous numbering between parts."
- Submissions. Set the number of submissions allowed (e.g. 1) and decide on late submissions. For timed assessments, we recommend "Late submissions WILL be accepted after the due date." This way, a student that begins the assessment 5 minutes before the deadline can complete the entire assessment without error. (The link to begin the assessment will disappear after the deadline.)
- Feedback. Decide on feedback authoring (question-level, individual selection-level, or both). Decide on feedback delivery (this is critical!). We recommend "Feedback will be displayed to the student at a specific date" and set a date a few days after the deadline so you have time to offer make-up exams to students who are absent due to illness or other excuses. Never select "Immediate Feedback" unless you are creating a practice exam and want students to see answers during the exam. Finally, select what information will be shared. We recommend selecting all options except statistics and histograms. NOTE: If you want to share question-level feedback, selection-level feedback, or grader's comments, you must select at least "Student Response."
- Grading. Be sure to select "Students' identities can be seen by graders." Then decide on whether to send grades to the gradebook.
Click Save Settings and Publish.
Confirm that you're ready to release the test. NOTE: Once students begin the assessment you will not be able to edit questions or point values.
Click Publish. Be sure to mark if you would like to notify your students that this test or quiz is now available.