Main Login Page | Faculty Resources Main Page

QUIZ & SURVEY TOOL

Best Practices Tips and Tricks | Student Tutorial

With the Quiz Tool you can create quizzes and surveys for students to take through WebCT. Depending on the type of questions, quizzes may be automatically graded by WebCT or be graded by you or a teaching assistant. For example, questions such as multiple choice and matching may be graded automatically by WebCT, but questions requiring a subjective, written response may not be graded by WebCT. Quiz grades and statistics may be released to both you and to your students.

The Quiz Tool also has the capability to create Surveys, or anonymous quizzes that are not graded. Because of its anonymity, the Survey is an excellent venue to conduct course evaluations or canvass student opinions about a particular subject. All survey results are automatically tabulated and summarized.

To add the Quiz Tool to your WebCT course, click on [Control Panel], then [Add Page or Tool] and Quizzes/Surveys. Fill in the necessary information and click [Add].

You must follow two basic steps to create any quiz or survey. First, write a list of questions to store in a Question Database. Second, create the quiz or survey and insert questions into it. You may use any number of pre-written questions from the Question Database for any quiz or survey.

Specifically, to create or quiz or survey, you must:

Create the quiz/survey questions
Create the quiz/survey (i.e. assign a title to the quiz or survey).
Add questions to the quiz/survey
Edit the quiz/survey settings (e.g. dates of availability, time limits, etc.)

For assistance in grading quizzes or viewing quiz statistics, refer to the WebCT Help page.

top

Create the Quiz/Survey Questions

The questions you will create will be stored in a Question Database. Tip: Creating extra quiz questions for the database gives you the option of creating different versions of the same quiz.

To create questions to be used for your quizzes/surveys:

Ensure that the Designer Options tab is selected.
Click on your quiz icon. The Quizzes/Surveys screen appears.
Click (Located near the top of the screen). The Question Database screen appears.
On the right side of the screen you will see a section entitled Options: Category.

The Category option allows you to organize your questions into categories, which work like organizational folders. If you have a long list of questions, we recommend organizing your questions into categories. All categories will be displayed on the Quizzes/Surveys screen.
- To create a category, click [Create category]. Enter a name in the Category title box and click [Create].
- To view a category, select the category from the View drop-down list and click [Go].
To begin creating questions, under Options: Questions on the right side of the screen, first select type of question and click [Go].

Five different types of questions are available:
After clicking [Go], the Create Question screen for that particular question appears.

top

Multiple Choice Questions

With Multiple Choice Questions, students may select either one or several correct answers. Multiple Choice Questions may be graded by WebCT.

On the multiple choice Create Question screen, select the Category for the multiple choice question.
Enter a Title for the question. The Title does not appear to students, but acts as a label for your reference.
Enter the Question in the Question text box. This is the exact text of the question that students will read.
Enter an Equation, if desired, by using the [Equation Editor].
Under Format, if you wish for your entered text to appear to students exactly as you entered it, select Text. If you wish the text to be formatted with HTML tags, select HTML.
Before any image can be used in your quiz, the image file must first be uploaded from your computer to My Files. If you wish to display an image from My Files, enter the path and name of the image file in the Image text box, or click [Browse] to bring up the File Browser window. Select the image file and click [Add selected].
Under Settings you may allow students to choose one answer or multiple answers. If you allow multiple answers, you may then decide between a Cumulative scoring system or an All or nothing scoring system. Cumulative gives partial credit for any correct answers. All or nothing requires all correct answers to be selected to receive any credit. You may also select Allow negative score for a wrong answer to subtract points from the final score, and you may adjust the answer order, question layout, or whether numbers or letters mark possible answers.
Enter your answers in the Answers section. Place a check mark next to the correct answer(s). If you allow negative scores or if you allow multiple answers, you may adjust the percentage of the total question points lost or gained by entering a positive or negative percentage in the Value (%) box. For any answer, correct or incorrect, you may enter feedback for students to view after they select an answer. Releasing feedback may be adjusted from the Quiz Settings page.

You may also enter feedback for every student to receive under General Feedback. Releasing feedback may be adjusted from the Quiz Settings page.
To create more answers than the five default, click at the bottom of the screen.
When finished entering information, click [Save].

top

Paragraph Questions

Paragraph Questions require longer, essay-type answers which must be manually graded by you or a teaching assistant.

On the paragraph question Create Question screen, select the Category for the paragraph question.
Enter a Title for the question. The Title does not appear to students, but acts as a label for your reference.
Enter the Question in the Question text box. This is the exact text of the question that students will read.
Enter an Equation, if desired, by using the [Equation Editor].
Under Format, if you wish for your entered text to appear to students exactly as you entered it, select Text. If you wish the text to be formatted with HTML tags, select HTML.
Before any image can be used in your quiz, the image file must first be uploaded from your computer to My Files. If you wish to display an image from My Files, enter the path and name of the image file in the Image text box, or click [Browse] to bring up the File Browser window. Select the image file and click [Add selected].
Under Answerbox size, adjust the width and height of the answer box.
Under Answers, for the Pre-fill answerbox, you may enter introductory text and/or equations. Under Correct answer you may enter an answer that will display once the question has been graded.

When finished entering information, click [Save].

top

Matching Questions

Matching questions ask students to match items in two columns. Matching questions may be graded by WebCT.

On the matching question Create Question screen, select the Category for the matching question.
Enter a Title for the question. The Title does not appear to students, but acts as a label for your reference.
Enter the Question in the Question text box. This is the exact text of the question that students will read.
Enter an Equation, if desired, by using the [Equation Editor].
Under Format, if you wish for your entered text to appear to students exactly as you entered it, select Text. If you wish the text to be formatted with HTML tags, select HTML.
Before any image can be used in your quiz, the image file must first be uploaded from your computer to My Files. If you wish to display an image from My Files, enter the path and name of the image file in the Image text box, or click [Browse] to bring up the File Browser window. Select the image file and click [Add selected].
Under Settings you may adjust the grading scheme as either:
- Equally weighted - Each match is worth an equal amount, e.g. if the question is worth 20 points and there are four matches, each match is worth 5 points. There is no penalty for incorrect matches.
- All or nothing - The student must match every item correctly to get full credit, otherwise no credit is given.
- Right less wrong - Correct matches are given positive credit, incorrect matches are given a penalty, e.g. if 5 matches are worth 5 points, if a student matches 4 correct (+5, +5, +5, +5) and 1 incorrect (-5), the student earns a total of 15 points.
You may also select Preview columns to give students a preview of the two columns that they will match. The Preview columns option lists the Match column in the original order and the with column in random order. Since the matching will be done with a drop-down list, the Preview columns option may give students a more clear reference of what they will be matching. *You must select Yes for Preview columns if you select Long answer for Matching pairs.
Under Matching Pairs you will enter the matched items in their correct matched pairs.

WebCT will randomize the order of the with column when students view the question. In the Answer type drop-down list, you may select Short answer if your items are short words or phrases. Students will then match words and phrases with other words and phrases. You may also select Long answer if your items are longer sentences or paragraphs and each item will be assigned a letter or number. Students will then match the letter or number. After selecting Long answer, click [Refresh] to enlarge the Match and with text boxes. *If you select Long answer you must select Yes for Preview columns.
You may also enter feedback for every student to receive under General Feedback. Releasing feedback may be adjusted from the Quiz Settings page.
When finished entering information, click [Save].

top

Short Answer Questions

With Short Answer questions, students enter a word or short phrase that is compared to possible answers. Short Answer questions may be graded by WebCT.

On the short answer Create Question screen, select the Category for the question.
Enter a Title for the question. The Title does not appear to students, but acts as a label for your reference.
Enter the Question in the Question text box. This is the exact text of the question that students will read.
Enter an Equation, if desired, by using the [Equation Editor].
Under Format, if you wish for your entered text to appear to students exactly as you entered it, select Text. If you wish the text to be formatted with HTML tags, select HTML.
Before any image can be used in your quiz, the image file must first be uploaded from your computer to My Files. If you wish to display an image from My Files, enter the path and name of the image file in the Image text box, or click [Browse] to bring up the File Browser window. Select the image file and click [Add selected].
Under Settings, select the number of text boxes for students' answers. If you would like more answer boxes than the default number, click at the bottom of the screen. You may also select if the answers are Case sensitive.
Enter the question answers under Answers.

If there is only one correct answer, enter the answer the Answer 1 text box and enter 100 in the Value (%). If there is more than one correct answer, enter the percentage of the question points for each answer. You may also adjust:
- Width - select to adjust the width of the answer box.
- Grading option - select Equals if the students' responses must exactly match your answer, Contains if the students' responses must contain at least part of your answer, or Regular expression to use Perl regular expressions in your answer. WebCT uses the expressions you provide to evaluate students' responses. For more information, refer to www.perl.org.
- Allow in answerbox - select whether students' responses must be given in a specific order. If students' responses may appear in any order, select All. If students' responses must appear in a set order, select the number of the answer box containing the specific order.
- For tips on how to give bonus points for answers entered in a specific order, refer to the WebCT help page for short answer questions.
When finished entering information, click [Save].

top

Calculated Questions

With Calculated Questions, students answer a mathematical question. You specify the mathematical formula and the set of variables, along with a range of values for each variable. A set of answers is generated for a randomly selected set of variables.

On the calculated question Create Question screen, select the Category for the question.
Enter a Title for the question. The Title does not appear to students, but acts as a label for your reference.
Enter the Question in the Question text box. This is the exact text of the question that students will read. The formula that students use for the question must be written here. Students will not see the formula entered in the Formula box.
Enter an Equation, if desired, by using the [Equation Editor].
Under Format, if you wish for your entered text to appear to students exactly as you entered it, select Text. If you wish the text to be formatted with HTML tags, select HTML.
Before any image can be used in your quiz, the image file must first be uploaded from your computer to My Files. If you wish to display an image from My Files, enter the path and name of the image file in the Image text box, or click [Browse] to bring up the File Browser window. Select the image file and click [Add selected].
Enter the formula to solve the problem in the Formula text box. Variables for which WebCT substitutes actual values must be specified within curly braces { }. The same variable may be used more than once within a formula (e.g. {x}+{x}-{y}).
Click [Analyze variables] to specify the variable ranges. In the Variables area, choose a Minimum and Maximum for each variable, the number of decimal places represented, and the "round-off" place value. WebCT generates a set of finite answers that are used during the quiz. When a student takes the quiz, WebCT selects one of the sets of variables from the Answer set. This provides you with control over the question sets.
Once all of the ranges have been specified, click [Generate Random Answer Set] to generate the question set from which WebCT will choose when a student accesses the quiz. The Number/set drop-down menu allows you to choose the size of the question set. The screen will refresh, and a random set of generated answers will be displayed.
Under Units you may determine if units (e.g. mph mg/L) are required for a correct answer. Enter the unit type in the Units text box. Select if units are Required, if spaces or case should be ignored, and what Percentage of the question's total points will be allocated to the Units portion of the answer.
When finished entering information, click [Save].

top

Create the Quiz/Survey

As stated above, to create a quiz or survey, you will essentially be assigning a title to the quiz or survey. The questions will be added later. To create a quiz or survey:

From your home page, click on your Quizzes/Surveys icon, OR, from the Question Database page, click on Quizzes Surveys at the top of the page. The Quizzes/Surveys screen appears.
Under Options, on the right side of the screen, click Create quiz or Create survey.
Enter a title of the quiz or survey.
If other quizzes or surveys exist for your course, you will be asked whether you want to select another quiz or survey for a template for the new quiz or survey.

If you select a template, the new quiz or survey will be a copy of the selected template.
Click [Create]. You will be brought back to the Quizzes/Surveys page with the new quiz displayed.

top

Add Questions to the Quiz/Survey

To add questions to a quiz or survey:

On the Quizzes/Surveys page, click on the quiz or survey where you want to add questions. The Quiz Editor screen appears.
Under Options (on the right side of the screen), click on . The Question Browser window appears.
Select the questions or categories that you would like to add to your quiz. Selecting the check box next to a category selects all of the questions in that category.

Click [Add selected]. The Quiz Editor screen reappears with the questions added to the quiz.
Under the Points column, enter the number of points that each question will be worth and click [Update total].

Another option exists to add a Question Set, or a group of individual questions from which a random selection is presented to students. With a Question Set, each student will take a unique version of the quiz, preventing answer-sharing. To add a question set:

Under Options (on the right side of the screen), click on [Add question set]. The Question Browser window appears.
Select the questions or categories that you would like to add as a question set. Selecting the check box next to a category selects all of the questions in that category.
Click [Add selected]. The Quiz Editor screen reappears with the added questions grouped in the Questions column.

From the drop-down list under the Select column, select the number of questions that each quiz will contain.
Under the Points column, enter the number of points that each question will be worth and click [Update total].

You may also use a question set for one particular question by using the [Add question alternates]. Select the check box next to the question and click [Add question alternates]. Select the alternate questions from the Question Browser and click [Add selected].

Organize and Customize options are also available on the right to reorder questions and customize page colors, modify/add a background image, modify/add a banner image, and edit/add an upper or lower text block. Refer to the Help button on the top banner for more information.

top

Edit the quiz/survey settings

A variety of settings exist for each quiz. You may adjust time limits for the quiz, the number of attempts allowed, the dates the quiz is available, and the students the quiz will be released to. You may also create a password for the quiz, or limit the quiz to be taken on specific computers. These and more options are available by clicking on the name of the quiz from the Quizzes/Surveys page and clicking on the right side of the screen. Refer to the Help option on the top banner for information on editing quiz or survey settings.

top