Assessment setup with Respondus

Topics in this Article

Overview
Format Questions
Start Respondus
Import Questions
Settings (Optional)
Preview & Publish
Review in Blackboard

Respondus: Assessment Tools for Learning Systems UI Personality: WebCT 6 / Vista 4

Overview Respondus is a tool used for creating and managing assessments that can be printed to paper or published directly to Blackboard. The tutorial below covers our recommended method of creating assessments for the Blackboard environment. The process is as follows: Use your favorite Word processor such as Microsoft Word to write the assessment Save the Word processor to a text file Use Respondus to convert the text file to a Blackboard compatible assessment Use Respondus to publish the converted assessment to your Blackboard course site NOTE: WebCT 6 / Vista 4 is the Blackboard CE Learning System used on the UI campus. Visit Respondus.com for additional information and purchasing instructions. See the Assessment setup with Blackboard tutorial for an alternative method of creating assessments.

Format Questions	TOP
There are several options available to build an assessment in Respondus. The quickest method is to import a set of questions that are written in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. Open a word processing program such as Microsoft Word Type in your questions and answer options for the assessment using the format shown below. When creating the questions, use either periods or parenthesis to mark the question numbers (1, 2, 3, . . ) and answer options (a, b, c, . . .). Specify each correct answer with an asterisk (). You may build a number of different question types including Multiple Choice, True/False, Paragraph, Short Answer, and Matching. Please refer to the Respondus Help documentation for a full explanation of all question formatting options. Recommendation:* Create more questions than you need for the assessment so that you may select, for example, 25 out of 50 questions. This allows you to deliver a unique assessment with a different set of questions for each student. Multiple Choice Question Format Title: Speed of Light (Title is optional for MC questions) 1) Who determined the exact speed of light? a. Albert Einstein b. Albert Michelson c. Thomas Edison d. Guglielmo Marconi True False Question Format Title: Speed of Light T/F (Title is optional for T/F questions)* 2. Albert Einstein determined the exact speed of light. a) True b) False Paragraph Question Format Type: P Title: Michelson-Morely experiment 3) How is the Michelson-Morley experiment related to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity? Short Answer Question Format Type: S Title: Who invented television? 4. Who is known as the "father of television"? a. Zworykin b. Vladimir Zworykin c. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin Matching Question Format Type: MT Title: Scientific discoveries 5. Match the correct name to the discovery or theory. a) Michelson-Morely = Speed of light b) Einstein = Theory of Relativity c) Marconi = radio waves When the questions are complete, review* the questions one more time to be sure that each correct answer is marked with an *asterisk ()*. Save your document in plain text format. To do this in Microsoft Word 2007, select the Office Button* Choose Save As Select Other Formats Give your assessment a File Name Change Save as Type to *Plain Text (.txt) Save** this file to a location you will remember

Start Respondus	TOP
Open Respondus We recommend that you build multiple choice questions to list their answers in a randomized order whenever possible. You can set this up as a default by setting the randomization preference setting for Respondus. You always have the option in a later step to manually change the randomization setting for a specific question. To set the default preference, select File > Preferences Under the Edit & Publish tab, check Yes for Randomize answers in Multiple Choice/Response Note: If MOST of your questions have an option similar to "All/None of the Above", check No instead of Yes. Press OK

Import Questions	TOP
Go to the Start tab and select Current Personality > WebCT 6 / Vista 4 for Blackboard NOTE: WebCT 6 / Vista 4 is the Blackboard CE Learning System used on the UI campus. Press Import Questions Select Plain Text for the Type of file Note: There is also an option for importing Word Documents (.doc or .docx). However, less troubleshooting is involved in the conversion if the document is saved as a Plain Text (.txt) document in the step above. Press Browse, locate your file, and press OK Enter a Title for the Create a new document, named field Click the check box next to Use "stem" plus... Enter a "stem" such as exam01_ , chapter03_, or week02_ to quickly identify the category for each question Press Preview Verify that "No warnings" shows in the bottom window Problem? If there are problems with the import, look for a problem in the question directly after the last question that was imported successfully. Problems are generally caused by special characters or incorrect formatting. Contact the CTI (cti@uidaho.edu) if you need assistance in locating the error. Press Finish Go to the Edit tab to review the questions displayed in Respondus by clicking each question title (i.e. exam01_001) If needed, press Modify to edit a question

Settings (Optional)	TOP
You may set up your assessment settings in Respondus or you may skip this step now and set up your assessment's availability and scoring in Blackboard instead. Go to the Settings tab to define the Assessment Settings Question Sets option Select the Question Sets left menu option Select Add New Set Select to either add All or a Select number of questions. If you selected Select Number of questions, enter the number of questions to deliver in the assessment. Recommendation: Create more questions than you need so that you may select, for example, 25 out of 50 questions. This will allow you to deliver a unique assessment, with a different set of questions for each student. Basic & Availability option Select the Basic & Availablity left menu option Select Deliver all the questions at once CAUTION: We RECOMMEND selecting the Deliver questions all at once option under Question Delivery. If you select Deliver questions one at a time instead, this delivery method may cause as much as 10-12 second delays from one question to the next—causing additional stress to the students taking the assessment. Set a Quiz Duration, if desired NOTE: If you set an assessment duration, see the tutorial on Disability Accommodation for Timed Assessments for students with special needs. Set the Number of Attempts allowed Set the Start and End Dates under Availability Results option Select the Results left menu option Select when you would like the Score to be Released from the options listed If you allow multiple attempts, set how you want them scored Select what you want your students to see when they look at their assessment results

Preview & Publish	TOP
Respondus connects directly to Blackboard—importing the questions and assessment settings for you. Go to the Preview & Publish tab to preview the assessment and publish it to your Blackboard course site Preview option Select the Preview left menu option Close the preview when you are finished reviewing it Publish to WebCT option Select the Publish to WebCT left menu option NOTE: Even though it specifies WebCT, this will actually publish to Blackboard on the UI campus. Click Publish Wizard Ensure that WebCT 6 Server is set to MyUI Login NOTE: If the WebCT 6 Server is NOT set to MyUI Login, please follow the link to Setup the Server Connection for Respondus. Press Next Enter your Username and Password Press OK Select your Blackboard site next to Group or Section Select Create a new category and give it a Title Note: This will be the folder that holds all your questions in the Blackboard Question Database. Check the Create/replace Quiz box Create an Assessment Title Press Next Ensure that you see a Completed Successfully notice in the Publish Wizard window. NOTE: If you do not see this message, try to publish again. Contact the CTI (cti@uidaho.edu) if you have need help with troubleshooting.

Review in Blackboard	TOP
Login to your Blackboard site Under the Build Tab, click on Assessments. You should see the Assessment listed that was just Published via Respondus Preview your Assessment as a Student to check for errors See Assessments for additional help
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