Intervention : On-line Tests

Online Interventions 

Tests can provide a means for students to self-assess their own knowledge/progress as well as provide you with an indication, both individually and as a cohort, of how well students understand the key themes of your module.

With student independent learning in mind you can provide feedback appropriate to performance and indicate to students what they might do to address deficits in understanding and where they might find supporting resources for example.

Accompanying this text you should see an embedded (56 seconds long) YouTube video that provides a walkthrough of how a test appears to students.

The VLE site shown is 'Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology'; a Department of Language and Linguistic Science module developed by Dr Sam Hellmuth and is targeted at Year 1 Undergraduates (with a typical cohort size of 100 to 120 students).

The video shows multiple choice questions and a hot-spot question. There are however, a number of other available question types including:True/False, Multiple Answer and Fill in Multiple Blanks. The test shown also notably includes questions that integrally use images.

There are 16 question types to choose from when creating a test.

Make sure students understand the relevance and purpose of deployed tests to their learning within the overall context of the module (and wider programme where relevant).

Link the tests to class based components of the course wherever possible to make sure they support and inform face-to-face activities.

Providing automated feedback in tests can be especially useful for large cohorts where good and regular feedback would not otherwise be individually possible.

Useful Guides
Creating Tests in Yorkshare Supporting Online Assessment - Tests (DOCX)
Question Types in Yorkshare Tests and Surveys Randomised Question Sets in Yorkshare Tests
Running Item Analysis on a Test Grade Centre, Viewing submission and test attempts

Useful Tips

Be aware that there can be a significant amount of work required in initially setting up tests; especially if you intend to create banks of questions to allow for random selection of questions when they are delivered.

Once tests are developed and integrated into a course, however, development work doesn't have to be repeated. The tests can be used with following cohorts and further questions added to existing banks.

Use Random Block questions to select a sub-set of questions from a Question Pool at the time the test is delivered to a student. The Random Block question type allows you to create tests that differ each time they are taken.

There are a number of places where you can set a random element for question delivery: In the order of multiple choice/answer options, in the order of the questions themselves and via Random Block questions. Don't use random ordering where questions follow on one from another as they can't be grouped to be asked in their logical sequence if randomisation is active.