This lesson covers the creation of a Flexible Assessment! This assessment is meant for online testing administration providing a flexible and efficient way to build your own teacher materials into assessments for your students.
Implementation Tip! Consider how you will train and guide users to access their data using our new Flexible Assessment Overview and how this may differ from their use of our Itembank and Manual/Hybrid Assessment Overview page utilization. Pilot groups and early adopters may be the best audience for this new Flexible assessment.
While these assessments are flexible, they are also new as of June 29, 2018. Please be advised that in comparison to our older Manual/Hybrid Assessments, this new assessment type at this time cannot do the following:
- Create Versions, or multiple answer keys in single assessment
- Configure Locked or Protected Features
- Select Assessments.
- Select Create Assessment to see all of your assessment creation options
You can also choose Create a Flexible Assessment to quickly begin! This will skip over choosing from a variety of assessment tools and straight into your new flexible assessment.
- Click to select Flexible Assessment
- Select Okay at the bottom of the menu to continue.
Flexible Assessment Overview
- Select Add a Description to add more information about this assessment you are building.
- To add keywords or criteria to help filter and find this assessment later, select Add Tags to apply them.
- Filter Standards is where you can add standards to the assessment. Later, you can align the standards to the questions.
- To attach a digital copy of any materials, select Upload Materials. This is an important step to making the assessment available for online testing.
- To begin adding questions and building your answer key, select Add.
- To quickly create a large of number of questions of a single item type, select Quick Entry.
- Review and manage your flex assessment tools and options by selecting Settings.
- When at least one answer is created, you will have the ability to Preview the student portal view of your assessment.
- When finished with building the answer key, select Continue.
The most important steps are your Answer Key and to Upload Materials. Without an answer key, students cannot take the assessment. All other options from standard alignment to descriptions to tags, can be applied later even with student data.
1. Review Your Test
Before you build your answer key, look at your test or materials. Review the Question Type you want for each of your questions. Think aloud "How do I want the student to answer?" or truly, show what they know for each question.
Flexible Assessments provides a variety of Question Types to choose from.
When building your answer key, you will select from a variety of Question or Item Types that match your expected assessment results. Below is a quick summary of each kind of type you can select when building your answer key.
To get a more detailed view of each type before you build, visit Flexible Assessment Question Types Guide.
| Item Type | Score Method | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Choice | Auto-Scored, Computer Graded |
Default: 5 answers, A-E; 1 point score; Only 1 answer can be correct, all others are incorrect. Best For: Single Answer Questions |
| Multiple Choice (Partial Answer) | Auto-Scored, Computer Graded |
Default: 5 answers, A-E; 1 point score; Only 1 answer can be correct, all others are incorrect. Option for incorrect scores to deduct points. Best For: Providing points on the correct answer and answers that are close or “almost” correct |
| Multiple Choice (Advanced) | Auto-Scored, Computer Graded |
Default: 5 answers, A-E; 1 point score; Ability to add alternative correct answers with allocated total points when selected. Best For: Questions that require a weighting of answer choices such as AE=2 but A=5. |
| Constructed Response | Teacher-Scored, Teacher Graded |
Default: 2 answers, 0-1; 1 rubric score with weight of 1 point as max rubric score; Paper Answer Sheet options to include background options such as line, blank, or grid space from 1 line to multiple pages. Best For: Fill in the blank, short answer, matching; Questions where the answer may be subjective |
|
Constructed Response (Advanced) |
Teacher-Scored, Teacher Graded |
Default: 4 answers, 1-4; 4 rubric score with weight of 4 points as max rubric score (ie. 3=12, 2=8, 1=4); Ability to alter other rubric scores and their point values (i.e. 3 = 15 instead of default 12). Paper Answer Sheet options to include background options such as line, blank, or grid space from 1 line to multiple pages. Best For: Short Answer (Paragraph); Essay; Charts, Graphs; Performance measured on multiple criteria in a rubric |
| Explicit Constructed Response | Auto-Scored, Computer Graded |
Default: 1 answers as entered; 1 point weight; Ability to add alternative correct answers and weight Best For: Fill in the Blank, Short Answer, Math, Vocabulary, Matching; Questions that the answered can be determined automatically, not subjectively |
2. Add Item(s)/Question(s)
You have two options when building your answer key. You can build one item at a time in conjunction with your material(s) or build a single item type in mass.
- Select Add to begin adding an item or questions.
By default, the item type will be Multiple Choice or MC, with 5 answer choices A-E and a weight of 1 point for the correct answer.
- You can modify or change the Label of the question.
- There are a variety of Question Types to choose from.
- Answer Choices are available in preset menu, defaulted to 5 with A-E.
- The weight or points possible for the item default to 1, but can be changed.
- (Optional) Align Standards to the item, if chosen before.
- (Optional) At anytime, you can go to Filter Standards to choose standards to review in your student results.
- (Optional) Align Question Group will tag and bundle the item into a group or area like "Reading" or "Multiple Choice".
- If applicable, mark this item Extra Credit which will only count for not against a student if answered correctly.
- Select Add to add another question.
Continue this process until your whole answer key is set.
- To add multiple items at one time, select Quick Create
By default, the item type will be Multiple Choice or MC, with 5 answer choices A-E and a weight of 1 point for the correct answer the number of questions you are adding to your answer key. You can change the item type later.
- Enter the number of Multiple Choice questions or items you want between 1 and 250.
- Select Cancel if you wish to not save your work and go back.
- To move forward with adding the number of items quickly onto your answer key, select Ok.
Need to edit and refine the newly adding questions? Continue to edit and change the question types, weights, and other information as needed for desired results as explained in above steps.
3. Preview Your Work
Want to preview your assessment before you administer it?
- Select the preview icon.
- Use Student Portal Tools as a student would to take the test, previewing your answer key and assessment design thus far.
- When finished, select Review/Finish Test to return to the previous tab or window where your assessment creation page is available.
Preview will provide a student preview of how the current assessment looks in Student Portal. You can act like a student, move from question to question, select answers, and even submit results, but you are never able to actually take a test on behalf of the student.
4. Continue or Complete Your Assessment
- Once your answer key and settings have been entered, select Continue to get ready for administration.
You have landed on the Flexible Assessment Overview page, where you will see all student results, navigate to reports, and additional visualization into your data! Until then, here are your options:
- Edit to return to modifying your answer key, descriptions, tags, and more.
- Share your assessment with others to use with their own students.
- Administer this assessment to your students either online, scanning, or manually enter/edit scores.
- Upload Materials such as attachments, a digital copy of the test, vocabulary lists, etc.
- Access Advanced Settings such as performance bands, restoring student scores, or duplicating this assessment.
Not done yet? Not to worry! Select Edit to return and continuing creating your answer key.
Next Steps
Want to learn more about the Question Types? Visit Flexible Assessment Question Types Guide to explore!
Ready to see what's next? Visit Flexible Assessment Overview Page to get started.
Have ideas to make us better? Join our Focus Groups who help with design and feedback throughout the year.
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