A workshop on some of the testing and survey tools available at Purdue, including Qualtrics for anonymous surveys, BlackBoard for classroom testing, and Respondus for importing text documents into BlackBoard as tests.
2. Use Qualtrics for surveys and anonymous
assessments
Use Blackboard for graded assessments and
tests
Use Respondus to import tests from
MicrosoftWord or other text formats into
BlackBoard
3. http://purdue.qualtrics.com
Log in with your Purdue career account
They just updated their interface!You now
have a choice between classic and new views
Detailed and helpful tutorials:
New “Insight Platform”:
http://support.qualtrics.com/explore-the-new-
qualtrics
Classic platform:
http://www.qualtrics.com/university/
4.
5. Great for anonymous surveys, research,
feedback, and voting
A link is provided that you can send to
anyone to complete the survey
Reports are detailed and can be analyzed in a
number of ways
More help and manuals:
http://centers.pnw.edu/teaching/qualtrics/
6. Use the Create Project
button at the top right to
create a new survey
Once you’re editing a
survey you have a
toolbar of options
Survey: Content and
design
Distribution: Get your link
and other settings
Data & Analysis: Analyze
your data collected
Reports: Download
reports of results
7. Qualtrics offers many
different types of
questions, everything
from basic multiple
choice to matrixes,
ranking, and more
Additional options are
available for timing,
custom validation, and
skip logic
8. Can be mobile-capable or browser-only
Can be supported through Respondus
LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor
You can create tests from scratch or import
from RespondusTest Generator (or other
tools)
Test exceptions settings allow different
options for different students (like extra time)
See http://centers.pnw.edu/teaching/tutorials
9. Edit theTest Options -
check your settings
Do NOT turn on Force
Completion!
UseTest Availability
Exceptions for make-ups
and accommodations
Auto-Submit is ok –
forces the student to
stop when timer ends
Decide on options for
how and whether
students can receive
feedback
10. Not all test questions
can be automatically
scored (like essays)
Use the left-hand
sidebar and choose
Needs Grading to view
when new work has
been turned in
Alternately, in the Full
Grade Center, ungraded
work submitted will have
a “!” icon
11. Allows you to see all
grades at a glance –
works like a spreadsheet
You can create columns
for various purposes,
including calculated
columns
Use the Manage button
to change column
organization
Use the “arrow-menus”
to change settings, view
and edit grades
12. Respondus is a company that makes a couple
of products, including the lockdown browser
and a test generator
The test generator is the one we typically
refer to as just “Respondus”
Its job is to help you import fromWord or
textbook publisher formats into BlackBoard
13. Respondus is available by request to all
faculty
Contact the Helpdesk (x5511)
Visit
https://www.itap.purdue.edu/learning/tools/respo
ndus/ to request your copy and license key
License key is updated yearly on July 31 so
you must request every year!
Windows only – not Mac compatible
14. You can import tests fromWord documents
or from a publisher database online if your
textbook has one
Tests must be formatted in a certain way to
be properly recognized
Once your test is ready, you can export
directly to your BlackBoard course from the
Respondus program
15. (NOTE: Do not useWord auto-formatting for
your numbers!)
1. What color is the sky?
*A. blue
B. Red
C. Purple
2.True or false: PNW has three campuses.
A.True
*B. False
16. Type: F
Title:Who invented the telephone?
1. Who held the first patent for the invention
of the telephone?
A. AlexanderGraham Bell
B. Bell
C. Alexander Bell
D. alexander graham bell
17. How to format many types of questions:
https://wiki.csuchico.edu/confluence/display/tlp
kb/Formatting+guide+for+importing+different+
question+types+into+Respondus
Steps to importing questions (with sampleWord
document):
http://newsletter.respondus.com/september-
2011/import-questions-word/
Uploading exams into BlackBoard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcYSN5-
s7RQ&feature=youtu.be
18. Reach us at:
atrekles@pnw.edu
http://centers.pnw.edu/teaching for all
workshop notes, links, and training needs
Notas del editor
Welcome to Testing Tools– all about managing tests and surveys within Qualtrics, BlackBoard, and Respondus.
Qualtrics is a great tool for sending out anonymous assessments and surveys – it is often used for research purposes, and to get access to a wide range of participants.
BlackBoard is of course our tool of choice for graded assessments and tests within our courses.
Respondus also helps with BlackBoard in being able to import tests from Word or other text-only formats into BlackBoard – this function otherwise cannot be handled natively within BlackBoard.
Qualtrics recently went through an interface change, which actually streamlined a lot of operations. We’ll take a quick look at both views, though I would encourage you to try the new version when you’re prompted upon login. It’s pretty nice!
Log in at purdue.qualtrics.com, with your Purdue career account username and password.
You can see some differences between how Qualtrics displays information on the old and new views. There are fewer ”clicks” to do things in the new interface, and you can see basic results and other information right on the front page about your surveys. This can be very helpful for monitoring how many responses have come in and what the respondents are saying. There are, of course, deeper reporting capabilities available within Qualtrics once you enter your survey and choose Reports.
Take some time to explore Qualtrics in creating a new survey,
Use the Create Project button at the top right to create a new survey. You can create as many new surveys as you wish and they will stay with your account forever.
Once you’re editing a survey you have a toolbar of options available.
Survey: Content and design of the survey, including your questions and what the survey looks like
Distribution: Get your link and other settings, including sending directly to known email addresses
Data & Analysis: Analyze your data collected, including analysis of text and cross-tabulations
Reports: Download reports of results in various formats
Qualtrics offers many different types of questions, everything from basic multiple choice to matrixes, ranking, and more. There is almost no shortage to what Qualtrics can provide for your research needs.
Additional options are available for timing, custom validation, and skip logic. For example, you can create a survey with various if-then statements built into it so that if a respondent answers in a particular way, they can be directed to questions that would be different if they responded in another way.
There is also a Question Library with many pre-created questions that you can use. An example would be an already-prepared list of the 50 states to allow respondents to pick from the list if they are recording where they live.
Tests in BlackBoard can be designed as either “regular” assessments or as mobile-compatible tests, meaning they can be accessed through a mobile device or the BlackBoard app on iPad/Android. This is a great option if you have a lot of mobile users in your class, although be warned that there are far fewer options with mobile-compatible tests, and fewer test choices.
You can import tests through Respondus if you wish to set up tests in advance in a Word document and upload them. This is a great option for those converting their tests into an online format, or for those who download test banks from publishers that are not yet BlackBoard-ready. Respondus can be downloaded by contacting Purdue ITAP – see the link in the slide for directions.
Note that tests have many options that can help limit cheating and also ensure that all students have equal access. This includes the test availability exceptions, which allow for various exceptions for individuals or groups of students. This is especially useful for those with extra time accommodations, or for those who are making up late work.
Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor are other tools that can be used to limit cheating. LockDown Browser works best in lab environments, as it limits student access to other applications while taking a test. However, if you are giving quizzes online, you can combine Lockdown Browser with Monitor, a new tool that will be available by the fall to our campus, which sets up video and audio surveillance of students taking their tests. The system prompts the student to go through various actions to prove that they are alone and that they are who they say they are, and then the video of each test-taker is recorded and stored for later viewing by the instructor. Should you have concerns about a student’s test, you can go back to the video at any point to review whether there was any wrong-doing going on.
Some tips for giving successful tests in BlackBoard include checking your Test Options very carefully. Above all, avoid turning on Force Completion. This idea sounds great – it limits the student to taking the test in only one sitting – but the problem is that if the student’s Internet connection fails for any reason while taking the test, the test is forced to conclude. This means that students who legitimately lost their connection cannot continue with the test, and they will contact you frantically asking for a reset. They cannot return to their test in progress, so they would have to start all over again if you chose to allow them to go back to the test! This can be very unpleasant for all involved, so the rule of thumb is to avoid Force Completion all together.
Test Availability Exceptions, as mentioned before, can be wonderful for make-ups and accommodations – just set up your conditions for any student who needs it.
Auto-Submit is a good option that you may wish to turn on, as it forces the quiz to submit even if the student runs out of time on a timed exam. Otherwise, when the timer runs out, the student may still continue if she is not done with the test.
Finally, take note of the options for receiving feedback and ensure that you are giving students every chance at feedback that you wish to give them at any point in time. By default, no feedback other than the score is provided upon submission, but you can choose to give students an overview of the correct answers or the entire test, either right away or after all other students have finished the exam. Note that if you do choose to only release feedback after everyone has submitted, this will include any student who did not take the exam. You will need to manually assign them a grade of 0 for a missing assessment if you wish for BlackBoard to release the feedback under that condition.
You can access work that is ready to be graded through the Needs Grading option under the Grade Center tool in your left-hand toolbar. Optionally, you can go into the Full Grade Center and look for work with an exclamation mark by it – this work will be submitted but ungraded. Click on the arrow next to the exclamation mark to Grade User attempt or activity as needed.
The Full Grade Center allows you to see all grades at a glance in a spreadsheet-like view. You can actually enter items into the gradebook just like a spreadsheet, in fact – simply click in a box and enter a score, then hit Enter to save the grade. This is just one way of grading work, and necessary for any manually entered columns you may have. You can create new columns for all kinds of purposes, such as work that was submitted in class rather than in BlackBoard, or for special calculated columns like special percentage columns, letter grades, and more. BlackBoard will do a fair amount of calculations to your gradebook data, including weighted percentages, dropping highest or lowest grades, and other useful tricks. See the resources at the end of this presentation for specific tutorials.
You can use the Manage button to organize all of your gradebook columns as well, and the “arrow menus” by each column name and within each cell of your gradebook include options for editing, sorting, and getting statistics as needed.
Respondus is a company that makes a couple of products, including the lockdown browser and a test generator. We often get these tools confused, but when we say “Respondus,” we typically mean the test generator program. Its job is to help you import from Word or textbook publisher formats into BlackBoard.
You can request Respondus for your home or office computer through the Helpdesk, or by visiting the ITAP website. The license key will be provided to you, and you will need to request it each year on or after July 31. The key is different and renewable each year on that date.
Note that Respondus is a Windows-only application and is not available for MacOS.
Respondus can do a few different tricks, including the most common function that we use it for, which is importing tests from text documents into BlackBoard. Some textbooks also have online test pool databases that Respondus can draw from directly, or you can request text pools from your publisher that you can then import through Respondus.
In order to use a text document with Respondus, you must format your document in a particular way. The next slides will show some examples, and provide links where you can get detailed tutorials.
The basic format for multiple choice questions involves simply numbering your questions and designating an asterisk (*) in front of the correct answer. Note that in Word, you should avoid using the auto-formatting for numbering or outlining, otherwise you will have difficulty putting your * into the right spot.
This the format for fill-in questions. BlackBoard can automatically grade fill-in questions if you set up your parameters correctly, although you may wish to provide a few alternatives (designated by A,B,C here) so that you can account for differences in capitalization, spelling, or word choice.
Please check out these resources for help with Respondus.
Please contact us and visit http://centers.pnw.edu/teaching for all workshop notes, links, and training needs. Thank you!