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Much More on Quizzes
Categories of Questions
It is helpful to organize your questions in categories if you use quizzes a lot.Adding a category of questions
- To create a new category of questions in the Questions Database, under Manage Categories, select Add category.
- In the text box type the name of the category, and click Go. The table of questions screen appears. Note: the new category appears in the list of categories in the View category drop-down list.
Deleting a category of questions
- Warning: if you delete a category of questions, you will also delete all of the questions which belong to that category.
- To delete a category of questions, under Manage Categories, select Delete category.
- From the drop-down list, select the category to be deleted, and click Go. Two warning messages are
displayed. Click OK to each message. Note: the category is removed from the list of categories in the
View category drop-down box.Other Kinds of Questions
To add calculated questions (these are probably most useful for those teaching math/science)
After you have completed the information common to all question types, you provide other information specific to a calculated question.
- In the Formula text box, type the mathematical formula . Note: the variables for which WebCT substitutes values must be specified within braces, { }.
- Click Analyze variable. A list of variables appears.
- Under Variables, in the Min text box, type the minimum value for the variable.
- Under Variables, in the Max text box, type the maximum value for the variable.
- From the Decimals drop-down list, select the number of decimals allowed for each variable.
- Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 for each variable.
- From the Calculate answer sets to drop-down list, select the number of decimal places or significant figures to which the answers should be calculated. Note: to specify integer results, select 0 from the first drop-down box.
- Decimal Places: the answer is rounded to the number of decimal places that you specify.
- Significant figures: the answer is calculated to the specified number of significant figures.
- Under Answer set, from the Number/set drop-down list, select the number of answer sets that you want WebCT to generate, and click Generate random answer set. The table of answer sets appears. Note: WebCT generates the specified number of answer sets, and randomly selects one when students take the quiz.
- To adjust an answer set, click Edit answer set. The answer sets appear in text boxes.
- Type any changes to the answer sets into the text boxes, and click Update. The updated answer sets appear.
- In the Answer Tolerance text box, type the answer tolerance value.
- From the Answer Tolerance drop-down box, select whether the tolerance is calculated in units or a percentage. Note: the calculated answer tolerance is subtracted and added to the correct answer to provide a range within which an answer is considered to be correct.
- To specify units as being part of the correct answer, in the Units text box, type the type of unit, for example, mph or mg/L.
- To specify the percentage of the question's points to be allocated to the unit part of the answer, from the Value drop-down box, select the percentage value.
- To specify units as being required in the answer, select Required: Yes.
- To ignore spaces in the units part of the answer, select Ignore Spaces: Yes.
- To ignore case in the units part of the answer, select Ignore Case: Yes.
- To add the calculated question to the Questions Database, click Save.
To add short answer questions
After you have completed the information common to all question types, you provide other information specific to a short answer question.
- Under Settings, from the Number of answer boxes drop-down list, select the number of answer boxes that you want to provide to students.
- Under Case sensitive, select whether the answers are to be case-sensitive or not.
You can specify a single answer or multiple answers to a question. For each answer:
- Under Answer (N), in the Answer text box, type the answer text.
- In the Value % text box, type the percentage value of the answer. This value is used by WebCT to allocate the points that are available for the question when there are multiple correct answers.
- From the Width drop-down list, select the width of the answer box that appears to the student. Note: the width can be from five to 100 pixels.
- From the Grading option drop-down list, select the Grading option. This determines how WebCT grades a student's response. Note: three options are available:
- Equals: to be correct, a student's answer must match the answer exactly.
- Contains: to be correct, a student's answer must contain at least part of your answer.
- Regular Expression: you can specify a Perl regular expression which WebCT uses to evaluate a student's answer.
- From the Allow in answer box drop-down list, select if the answer is to be specific to an answer box. Note: if you do not require any particular sequence to multiple answers, then select All.
- To add the short answer question to the Questions Database, click Save.
To add paragraph questions
After you have completed the information common to all question types, you provide other information specific to a paragraph question. Note: this type of question must be graded by the instructor or a teaching assistant.
- Under Settings, from the drop-down lists, select the size of the answer text box. You can specify the number of lines long and the number of columns wide.
- Under Pre-fill answer box, in the text box, type the text that you want to appear in the answer box when the students sees the question. For example, you may want to start the answer for them, or give them directions on how to answer the question. Note: this is optional.
- Under Correct answer, in the text box, type the correct answer for the question. Note: this answer will be displayed to the students when they view the graded quiz, if this option has been enabled by the instructor (see Quiz & Survey Settings for more information).
- To add the paragraph answer question to the Questions Database, click Save.
Designer Help has much more information on quizzes that we encourage you to explore as you have time.
More Instructional Tips for Quizzes
- Use the paragraph feature to have students give weekly feedback for the course and also to evaluate the course when it is finished. The following links are test question databases that can be uploaded into your course and added to a quiz. Right click on the link and choose Save Link As.. and save the files to your computer. Then upload them into the question database. Weekly Feedback Questions | Course Evaluation Questions.
- Create a pretest and post-test for units of instruction. Use selective release to do a pretest that is automatically graded and students only the score, not the answers. Then the lesson icon shows up after they've taken the pretest and they go through the lesson. When students have finished the lesson, the post-test link appears.
- Add graphics for visual learners.
- Use the quiz feature to have students submit paragraph answer assignments. The instructor can make the students do one question again.