Create Assessments

The Create Assessments screen is used to set up assessments, or as it is also called on this screen, activities. An activity is a group of items that are presented to the student as a single assessment. Individual items set up on the Create Questions screen are added to the activity.

Overview of Creating a New Activity and Adding Existing Items to the Activity

A new activity (assessment) can be set up using the Default Item Bank, which contains items created by you and items created by other users that were shared with you. You can include a welcome and exit screen on the activity, and select the items that display on those screens.

Depending on your district's setup and your profile's permissions, you may have access to the Standards bank. The Standards bank contains thousands of items that have already been set up and are ready to use on assessments.

When creating an answer key only assessment, only give the assessment a Title; do not add any items to the assessment. In the Answer Key tab of the District Assessments screen, the number of questions, answer range, and correct answers will be set, and the file of the assessment questions uploaded.

1. In the Assessment menu, click Create Assessments.

Create Assessments

This screen will be blank if you have not yet created any activities and no activities have been shared with you by other administrators and teachers.

Downloads

If you have previously created activities or activities have been shared with you, those activities will be listed on this screen.

Downloads

The search options along the top of the screen allow you to search for activities by title, reference, description, status, and tags. See Searching for an Activity for more information.

Downloads

2. To create a new activity, click Create at the top-right corner of the screen.

Create Assessments

On this screen, the activity will be set up. The activity will be given a title, items will be added to the activity, the activity can be previewed, and the player settings, details settings, tags, test options, sharing options, and print options can be set.

Downloads

3. To start, enter a Title for the activity.

Create Assessments

The Welcome screen and Exit screen options are automatically enabled. If you do not want to include a Welcome screen or Exit screen, deselect those options.

Create Assessments

4. To customize the Welcome screen or Exit screen, click the customize link next to the option. On the next screen, you will select an existing item or passage to use on the Welcome or Exit screen.

When the Welcome screen is enabled but not customized, the Welcome screen displays the default message "Please click Start when you are ready to begin the activity." When the Exit screen is enabled but not customized, the Exit screen displays the default message "Activity successfully submitted."

Create Assessments

After clicking customize, the available items are listed. This includes items you have previously created on the Create Questions screen and items other administrators and teachers have shared with you.

See Searching for an Item from the Default Item Bank or Standards Bank for more information on using the search features to find items to add to the activity.  

Create Assessments

5. To preview a item, click the Preview icon.

Create Assessments

The item is expanded to display a preview.

Create Assessments

6. Click the X to close the preview.

Create Assessments

7. Click Select next to the item to add to the Welcome or Exit screen.

Create Assessments

8. To reset the Welcome screen or Exit screen and remove the items added, click reset.

Create Assessments

9. Next, items will be added to the main part of the activity. To add an existing item to the activity, click Find items.

See Creating a New Item to Add to an Activity for information on creating a new item to add to the activity.

Create Assessments

The available items are listed, including items that you have created and items that were shared with you. If items were added to the Welcome and Exit screens, those items are automatically checked.

See Searching for an Item from the Default Item Bank or Standards Bank for more information on using the search features to find items to add to the activity.  

Create Assessments

10. To preview a item, click the Preview icon.

Create Assessments

The item is expanded to display a preview.

Create Assessments

11. Click the X to close the preview.

Create Assessments

12. Select the check box next to each item to add to the activity, or select the check box in the header to select all items in the list.

Create Assessments

13. Click Add X Items to add the selected item(s) to the activity.

Create Assessments

14. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Downloads

After clicking Save, the Save button turns green.

15. Click Back at the top-left of the screen to return to the activity screen.

The items that were added to the activity are listed.

Searching for an Item from the Default Item Bank or Standards Bank

You can search for items created by you or items created by other users that were shared with you in the Default Item Bank.  

Depending on your district's setup and your profile's permissions, you may also have access to the Standards bank, which provides thousands of preconfigured items that can be added to activities (assessments).

You can search for items by title, reference number, content, question/feature type, tags, or standards.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. If adding an item to the Welcome or Exit screen, click the appropriate customize link. If adding items to the activity, click Find items.

Create Assessments

3. In the Item Bank pull-down, select Default item bank or Standards.

Create Assessments

4.  To search by item title, enter the full or partial item title in the Find by title box and click Search.

Create Assessments

5. To search by title, reference number, content, and/or question/feature type, click the down arrow on the Find by title search box.

Create Assessments

6. Enter search criteria in the Title, Reference, Content, and/or Question/Feature Type field. These search fields can be used together or separately.

7. Click the Search icon.

Create Assessments

8. To search by tags, enter the full or partial tag title in the Find by tags search box.

Tag suggestions will pop-up.

Create Assessments

9. Click the tag and click Search.

Create Assessments

10. Click the down arrow on the Find by tags search box for more tag search options.

Create Assessments

11. To find items that match all tags entered, select multiple tags in the Match all tags search box.

Create Assessments

12. To find items that match at least one tag, select one or multiple tags in the Match at least one tag search box.

Create Assessments

13. Click the Search icon.

Create Assessments

14. To search by standards attached to an item, click Standards.

Create Assessments

In the pop-up window, the standards for all courses at all schools are listed.

Create Assessments

When searching the Default Item Bank, the number displayed next to the standard title indicates the number of items in the item bank that have been attached to this standard this school year. When searching the Standards Bank, the number indicates the number of predetermined items attached to this standard. The "Import Assessment Question Count" standard job determines how many items are attached to the standard.

Create Questions

15. If desired, click a course on the left side of the window to narrow down the list of standards.

Create Assessments

16. Begin entering the standard title or description in the Filter box to filter the list standards.

Create Assessments

17. Click the standard to search by.

Create Assessments

18. To remove a search criterion, click the X to the criterion.

Create Assessments

19. To clear all the search criteria and return to the full list of items, click Clear.

Create Assessments

When a search is conducted, items matching the search criteria are listed. Select the item(s) to add to the assessment.

Rearranging Items in an Activity

Items can be rearranged within an activity as needed.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click and drag an item using the icon to the left of the item.

Create Assessments

3. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Create Assessments
Previewing and Editing an Item in an Activity

Items included on the activity (assessment) can be previewed. If an item needs to be edited, edits can be made directly from this screen. Edits to an item will affect all activities it is included on. Edits cannot be made to items from the Standards bank.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click the Preview icon next to the item to view.

Create Assessments

The item is expanded to display the preview.

Create Assessments

3. Click the X to close the preview.

Create Assessments

4. To view the item on its own screen and make edits to the item, click the item title.

Create Assessments

The item is displayed, with all the options to edit, delete, rearrange, change settings, add features, etc. See Create Questions for more information on using these options. Any changes made to the item will affect all activities it is included on.

Create Assessments

5. After saving the changes to the item, click Back to return to the assessment.

Create Assessments
Removing Items from an Activity

Items can be removed from the activity (assessment) as needed.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Select the check box next to each item to remove, or select the check box in the header to select all items in the activity.

Create Assessments

3. Click Remove.

Create Assessments

4. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Creating a New Item in an Activity

A new item can be created for an activity (assessment) directly from the Create Assessments screen instead of returning to the Create Questions screen.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click Create Item.

Create Assessments

The screen displays to add a new item. Once saved, this item will be automatically added to the activity. See Create Questions for more information on creating a new item.

Create Assessments

3. After saving the item, click Back.

Create Assessments

The item is added to the activity.

Setting the Player Options

The Player tab allows you to select the activity (assessment) layout, select options to include on the activity (including annotation tools), customize the title and subtitle of the activity that displays to students, set the activity and reading times, among other options.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click the Player tab.

Create Assessments

3. Click a preconfigured template for the player, Standard, Long content, or Long content with sticky footer.

The selected template will display in blue font.

Create Assessments

Example of activity using the Standard template:

The Standard template lists the items in the activity along the right side of the screen. The student can click the item to jump to that item (or can click the Next and Previous buttons to navigate through items).

Example of activity using the Long content template:

The Long content template displays the item numbers along the bottom of the screen. The student can click the item to jump to that item (or can click the Next and Previous buttons).

The Long content with sticky footer template is the same as the Long content template, except students will have to scroll down to the bottom of the window to see the footer with the items numbers and Next/Previous buttons.

4. To select the options to include in the template, hover over the template and click Show options.

Create Assessments

5. Deselect any options you do not want to include.

Create Assessments

6. To include annotation tools, scroll down and select the Annotation tools check box.

Create Assessments

The annotation tools options become available.

7. Deselect the annotation options you do not want to include.

Create Assessments

8. When finished setting the template options, scroll up, hover over the template and click Hide options.

Create Assessments

9. To customize the labels of the buttons, icons, messages, and options that display on the activity, click Customize text labels.

Create Assessments

10. Click a category to view.

Create Assessments

11. To customize a label, delete the text and replace it with your custom text.

Create Assessments

12. When finished, click Apply at the bottom of the screen.

Create Assessments

13. Enter the Title of the activity that will display to students on the actual assessment. Leave blank to display no title on the assessment.

14. Enter a Subtitle for the activity that will display to students, if desired.

Create Assessments

15. To limit the amount of time the student has to take the activity, enter the Hours and Minutes under Activity time.

Create Assessments

16. To require students to read through the activity before answering questions, enter the Hours and Minutes under Reading time.

During the reading time, students will be able to view all the items included in the activity but will not be able to answer any of the questions.

Create Assessments

17. To force the activity to submit after the activity time expires, select Force submit after time expires.

18. To display a warning to the student when 60 seconds remains of the activity time, select Warn on 60 seconds remaining.

19. To shuffle the items on the activity each time the activity is accessed, select Shuffle Items.

Create Assessments

20. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Create Assessments

21. To preview the activity to review the player options you have set, click Preview at the top of the screen.

Create Assessments
Setting the Details Options

The Details tab allows you to view the reference ID code for the activity (assessment), edit the activity title, set the status, and enter a description of the activity.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click the Details tab.

Create Assessments

The Reference is automatically generated, and is a unique identifying code for the activity. Do not edit this code.

Create Assessments

3. Edit the Title, if needed.

Create Assessments

4. Select the Status for the activity.

Published means the activity is available for use.

Unpublished means the activity is not available for use.

Archived means a soft delete. The activity will still exist but will no longer be present in the activity list or in any searches unless archived activities have been searched for. There is no way to remove an activity completely.

If a shared activity is archived by a user, it becomes archived for all users.

5. If desired, enter a brief Description of the activity. This is useful when sharing the activity with other users.

Create Assessments

6. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Create Assessments
Tagging an Activity

The Tags tab allows you to tag the activity (assessment) for cognitive complexity, difficulty, and depth of knowledge. This helps when searching for activities.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click the Tags tab.

Create Assessments

3. Begin typing the name of the tag. Tags that are currently supported are cognitive complexity, difficulty, and depth of knowledge.

Tag suggestions will display.

4. Click the tag to add.

Create Assessments

5. Continue adding additional tags as needed.

7. To remove a tag, click the X.

Create Assessments

8. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Create Assessments
Viewing the Source

The Source tab displays the JSON from the player template.

This tab is for use by technical users. No changes should be made.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click the Source tab.

The JSON from the player template is displayed.

Create Assessments
Setting the Test Options

The Test Options allow you to designate an assessment as a "District Assessment." Only assessments marked as "District Assessment" are available on the District Assessments screen for teachers and administrators. The Test Options also allow you to set the retake options for the assessment, assign a password that students must enter to access the assessment, and enable the lockdown browser.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. At the bottom of the screen, click Test Options.

Create Assessments

3. Select District Assessment to designate the activity as a district assessment available to teachers and administrators on the District Assessments screen.

Create Assessments

4. To allow retakes, select Allow retakes of the activity.

5. Select whether to Insert Highest Activity Score into Gradebook or Average Activity Scores into Gradebook, or select None.

6. Enter the Retake Interval, in minutes. This is the number of minutes that must elapse between retakes. Entering the Retake Interval is required when "Allow retakes of the activity" is selected.

Create Assessments

7. If desired, enter the Password for the activity.

Create Assessments

8. To enable the lockdown browser, which prevents students from accessing other programs while taking the assessment, select Lockdown Browser.

The student will need to download the Lockdown Browser OEM when prompted the first time they access an assessment with the lockdown browser enabled. The lockdown browser will not allow the student to minimize or move the browser window. Other programs may need to be closed before the lockdown browser allows the student to begin the assessment.

Create Assessments

9. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Create Assessments
Setting Sharing Options

If your profile has the "Share Assessment" permission enabled for the Create Assessments screen, you can share an activity (assessment) you have created with other teachers, administrators, and specific users at your school.

When an activity is shared, any user who has access to the activity can make changes to that activity. These changes will affect the activity for all users.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. At the bottom of the screen, click Sharing Options.

Photos

3. Select All Admins to share the activity with all administrators at your school. Select All Teachers to share the activity with all teachers at your school.

4. To only share the activity with specific users, select Custom. Then, in the pull-down, select the user(s).

5. To share all the items within the activity with the selected profiles/users, click Mass Assign Items.

This option allows all the items within the activity to be shared with the selected profiles/users without having to individually share the items from the Create Questions screen.

Create Assessments

6. Click Save at the top of the screen.

Create Assessments
Setting Print Options

The Print Options allow you to print a paper version of the activity (assessment). There is also an option to print an answer key for the activity.

When printing an activity that has multiple questions tied to the same passage, the passage will only print once. If the questions are spread throughout the activity, the passage still only prints once. This does not apply for activities taken online (the passage will display on each page of the activity where the questions are present).

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. At the bottom of the screen, click Print Options, and then scroll down to view the Print options.

Photos

3. To print the activity, click Print Activity and follow your printer's prompts.

Photos

4. To print an answer key, click Print Answer Key and follow your printer's prompts.

Photos

On the answer key, the correct responses are indicated with a check mark.

Previewing an Activity

Previewing an activity (assessment) allows you to view the activity how students will experience it.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click Preview at the top-right corner of the screen.

Create Assessments

The Player tab is opened. This displays the activity using the player template that was selected.

Create Assessments

3. Click Start to begin the activity. Review the items and player template options.

Create Assessments

4. Click the List tab to just view the list of items included in the activity.

Create Assessments

5. Click Edit at the top-right corner of the screen to return to the edit mode.

Create Assessments
Searching for an Activity

You can search for activities (assessments) created by you or activities created by other users that were shared with you. You can search for activities by title, reference ID, description, status, or tags.

1. At the top of the Create Assessments screen, enter a full or partial activity title, reference ID, or description in the Find by content search box and click Search.

Create Assessments

2. To search by status, click the down arrow next to the Find by content search box.

Create Assessments

3. Select a Status and click the search icon.

You can also use the Status pull-down in conjunction with the Title/Reference/Description search box.

Create Assessments

4. To search by tags, enter the full or partial tag title in the Find by tags search box.

Tag suggestions will pop up.

Create Assessments

5. Click the tag and click Search.

Create Assessments

6. Click the down arrow on the Find by tags search box for more tag search options.

Create Assessments

7. To find items that match all tags entered, select multiple tags in the Match all tags search box.

Create Assessments

8. To find items that match at least one tag, select one or multiple tags in the Match at least one tag search box.

9. Click the Search icon.

Create Assessments

10. To remove a search criterion, click the X to the criterion.

Create Assessments

11. To clear all the search criteria and return to the full list of items, click Clear.

Create Assessments

When a search is conducted, activities matching the search criteria are listed. Click the desired activity to view the activity.

Create Assessments
Duplicating an Activity

An activity can be duplicated. The new activity can then be edited as needed.

1. On the Create Assessments screen, click the activity title if not already opened.

Create Assessments

2. Click the down arrow at the top-right corner of the screen and click Duplicate activity.

Create Assessments

3. Click Duplicate to confirm.

Create Assessments

The new activity is displayed. You can edit the activity as needed by updating settings and adding, moving, or removing items.

Completing an Online Assessment (Student Perspective)

See the Online Assessments article for information on how students complete an online assessment.