How do I publish an Assessment (i.e. Test or Quiz)?

After you have created an assessment, you must publish it before students can view and submit it.  This lesson will walk you through the assessment settings and publishing your test or quiz.

Go to the Tests  Quizzes Tool.

Go to the Tests  Quizzes Tool.

Select the Tests & Quizzes tool from the Tool Menu of your course.

Go to the Settings for the quiz you would like to publish.

Go to the Settings for the quiz you would like to publish.

From the Tests & Quizzes tool home screen, choose the Settings option in the drop-down menu for the quiz you would like to publish.

Be sure that you are in the Working Copies tab, otherwise, you won't see your unpublished items.

Alternately, you can access Settings from the edit assessment screen.

Alternately, you can access Settings from the edit assessment screen.

If you are currently editing the quiz in question, click the Settings link at the top of the assessment editing screen.

Settings options.

Settings options.

This is a list of all the options available in the assessment settings.  Click on the small triangle next to each section to expand/collapse that section.

Assessment Introduction.

Assessment Introduction.

The first section is the Assessment Introduction.  

  1. This is where you can change the title of your assessment if desired,  
  2. Optionally, you may also add a description.  Anything you enter into the description field will be visible to students before they begin the assessment.  Notice that the right text editor is available in the description field.
  3. You can attach a file if you like.  The file could be a reference the students need to use during the test, or more detailed instructions on test taking requirements.
  4. You may add an honor pledge to the assessment.  If you add an honor pledge, students must accept a message that says "I will neither give nor receive aid on this assessment" before they can begin the test.

Delivery Dates.

Delivery Dates.

The delivery dates let you specify the availability window for your assessment.  You may enter the dates into the fields provided, or use the date-picker to select a date and time.

  1. The Available Date is the start date of the exam window.  Students will not be able to see the assessment before this date.
  2. The Due Date is the end date for the exam window.  Students will not be able to submit after this date unless you allow late submissions.  If late submissions are allowed, any submissions after the due date will be marked as late.
  3. The Retract Date is the closing date for the assessment.  Students will not be able to see the assessment after this date.  If you accept late submissions, this would be the cut-off for any late exams.

Tip: If you want an assessment to always be open, you may leave the date fields blank.

Assessment Released to.

Assessment Released to.

By default, the assessment will be released to the current course.  If you would like the assessment to be released to Anonymous Users (i.e. users outside the current course) or Selected Groups within your course, select the appropriate radio button.

Note: If you release an assessment to anonymous users, you must distribute its URL to participants; it will not be accessible from within your site's Tests & Quizzes tool.  The URL will be provided when you publish the assessment.

High Security.

High Security.

For high stakes testing, you may want to provide additional security for your assessment.

  1. You may restrict the assessment so that only connections from certain IP addresses are allowed, such as the testing center on campus.  Enter one IP per line.  Asterisks may be used to stand for any single subnet.
  2. You may also specify an additional username and password for the assessment.  This information is typically provided to a proctor who enters the information for the student at the testing center.  

Note: The username and password here are for this specific assessment, and NOT the instructor's or the student's login information.

Timed assessment.

Timed assessment.

If you would like your assessment to be timed, select the check box for Timed Assessment and select a Time Limit from the drop-down menus.

Assessment organization.

Assessment organization.

The Assessment Organization section lets you organize the way in which your assessment is displayed to students when taking the test.

  1. Navigation controls how students proceed through the test.  The default is Random access where students can navigate through the test with Next and Previous buttons, as well as a Table of Contents.  You may change this to Linear access if you prefer, where students can only go forward using the Next button and cannot revisit earlier questions or access a Table of Contents to jump to a question.
  2. Question layout is the way your questions show up on the page.  The default setting of Each Question on a separate web page is strongly recommended.  This setting forces students to save their answers as they proceed through the test, and can help to avoid loss of data if studenta lose their connection or encounter a problem before saving.  If you have multiple parts to your quiz, you could choose to display each part on a separate page.  Questions may also be displayed all on a single page.
  3. Numbering can be either Continuous throughout the test, or can Restart for each part.  (For example, if you have multiple parts in the exam and the second part is for essay questions, you could have the numbering go back to 1 for the first essay question.)
  4. Question Scores allow you to either Show or Hide the point value of the questions during the assessment.  

Mark for review.

Mark for review.

If you want to allow students to mark questions to go back to, check the box for this item.  Students may use this option to mark questions that they aren't sure about, and then jump back to them via the Table of Contents to review before submitting.  

Note: You cannot use this feature if Linear access navigation is selected.

Submissions.

Submissions.

You may choose how student submissions are handled in this section.

  1. Enter the number of times students are allowed to submit the assessment, or choose Unlimited to let them submit as many times as they like.  Tip: Unlimited submissions are often used for practice tests or drills.
  2. Choose whether or not you will accept late submissions.  If you do allow late submissions, they will be marked as late if they come in after the due date.

Note: Even if you allow multiple submissions, only one late submission is allowed after the due date, and it only applies to students who have not submitted at all.

Submission message.

Submission message.
  1. If you would like to enter a message that students see upon submitting their assessment, you may do so here.  The rich-text editor is available if desired.
  2. You may include a URL if you like.  The URL link for this page will be displayed after the student submits the test.

Feedback.

Feedback.
  1. For Feedback Authoring, the default option is Question-Level Feedback.  This allows the instructor to author feedback at the question level.  You may also choose to display Selection-Level Feedback (i.e. feedback per answer choice), or Both.  
  2. Feedback Delivery controls if and when students are able see their submission results.  
    1. Immediate feedback is recommended for self-tests only, as it will display the answers immediately - PRIOR to the student submitting the assessment.
    2. Feedback on submission displays feedback to students as soon as they submit the assessment.
    3. No Feedback (the default setting) does not display any feedback to the student.
    4. Feedback on a specific date releases assessment feedback upon the date and time specified.
  3. You can also decide how much feedback you want to release to students.  
    1. You can choose to Only Release Student's Assessment Scores so that they only see their grade on the assessment, not individual questions.  
    2. Or, you can choose to Release Question and the following and then select the items that you want students to see from the list below.  Check the box next to any items you want students to see.  

Tip:  If you are concerned about students sharing their exam results with one another, you should choose either No Feedback or Feedback on a specific date.  Selecting a date after the closing date for the assessment will prevent students from sharing feedback with other students who have not yet taken the test.

Grading

Grading
  1. The default setting here is Student identities can be seen by graders.  In most cases, you want to keep this setting, since there is no way to revert to student names once they have submitted the assessment anonymously.  However, if you are using the Tests & Quizzes tool to deliver a survey in your course, you may want to make the survey submissions anonymous by selecting Anonymous grading only.
  2. Gradebook Options include None (the default) or Grades sent to Gradebook.  Select to send grades to gradebook if you want to be able to calculate them as part of the course grade.
  3. Recorded Score options include highest, last, or average score.  If you allow multiple attempts, select the type of score that you want to be recorded in the gradebook for that assessment.

Graphics.

Graphics.

You may customize the background color for the assessment, or specify a background image.  However, it is important to keep accessibility and screen readability in mind if you choose to modify the background.  Background color and screen text should always provide good contrast for easy reading.  In most cases, these items are left blank.

Metadata.

Metadata.
  1. If you would like to add metadata to your assessment, you may specify keywords, objectives, and rubrics to facilitate searching and categorization.
  2. You can also record metadata for questions that are included in the assessment.

Save settings and publish.

Save settings and publish.

Once you have completed all of your settings selections, click the Save Settings and Publish button at the bottom.

Review and confirm publishing of assessment.

Review and confirm publishing of assessment.

Your setting choices will be summarized for you on the confirmation screen.  Review all of the information to make sure it is correct.  (If you need to make changes, you can go back by clicking Edit Settings.)

You have the option to notify students when you publish the assessment.  The default setting is without notification.  Notifying students sends and email to their external email address to let them know the assessment has been published.  It sends the message at the time of publication, NOT on the start date of the assessment.

If your assessment has an end date, you may select to Display due date on Schedule.  This will post an event on the Schedule/Calendar for the course on the date the assessment is due.

Click on Publish to make the assessment available to students.

View published assessment.

View published assessment.

Once you have published your assessment, it will be displayed in the list of published assessments, along with the status, submission and release information, and who last modified the item.

Notice that the assessment now appears on the Published tab, as opposed to the Working Copies tab.