Tests & Quizzes

What Does It Do?

The Tests & Quizzes tool helps professors conduct asynchronous 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. 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.
Share the student test tips with your classes for more successful quiz or exam experiences.
Preview your tests. 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. You may also want to draft your test in a separate project site for added security.
Avoid student data loss! We strongly recommend that you release questions one at a time rather than all on the same page. If you present the questions all on the same page, you run the risk of students forgetting to save their progress and -- in the event of a power outage, internet problem, or quitting the browser by mistake -- they may lose their answers. Presenting one question at a time saves their progress as they move through the quiz or test.
Avoid your own data loss! When scoring exam questions (especially adjusting scores or adding grader notes), be sure you have closed out of all other Courses browser tabs and windows. In addition, be sure to save regularly and often.
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 by navigating to Site Info > Manage Tools.
Click the "Add" tab at the top of the tool to begin creating a new assessment.
In the "Create from Scratch" box, type in an Assessment Title (e.g. Quiz 1).
Select "Create using assessment builder."
Click Create.
Select the type of question you would like to use from the "Add Question" drop down list. Note: you can view more detailed guides on question types by clicking here.
Fill out the form. As an 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. 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 the "Correct Answer" in the radio button next to the correct answer.
- (Optional) Select whether to "Randomize Answers." We recommend this to display a different order of answers to each student.
- (Optional) Enter any optional feedback to offer automated guidance to the student after after assessment feedback has been released.
Click Save when finished.
Continue to add questions to your exam. Note: you can leave and come back to your assessment draft at any time.
When you have finished adding questions, click "Settings." Note: you may see more detailed guides and notes on assessment settings by clicking here.
Within the "Availability and Submissions" drop-down tab, be sure to establish the following:
- Submissions. Set the number of submissions allowed (e.g. 1).
- Delivery Dates. Set the "available" and "due" dates. Will you allow late submissions to be accepted? If "yes," then adjust the "until" date/time accordingly.
- 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. To specify a time limit, click the "and has a time limit of" checkbox and then specify the hours and minutes. Tip: For timed assessments, we recommend allowing late submissions to be accepted. This way, a student that begins the assessment 5 minutes before the deadline will have a chance to complete the entire assessment without an error.
On the "Grading and Feedback" drop-down tab, make note of the following items:
- Decide on whether to send grades to the Gradebook tool.
- Decide on feedback authoring (question-level, 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.
- Decide on what feedback will be shared with your students. We recommend selecting all options except statistics and histograms.
Within the "Layout and Appearance" drop-down tab, 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
Click Save Settings and Publish.
Confirm that you are ready to release and publish 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.