Sakai can appropriately deliver online tests, quizzes, and surveys for many situations at Notre Dame. The information provided here will help you avoid problems.
Encouraging academic honesty
- Use multiple versions - Create several versions of the assessment and assign them to separate groups.
- Deliver feedback afterwards - Do not provide answers immediately to individual students. The “specific date” feedback setting lets you display feedback after the “Late submission” date. In some cases, you will also want to delay releasing the grade in the gradebook.
- Show answers in random order - When creating questions, you can specify that answers be shown in random order. Don’t use this with answers like “all of the above” or “B and C”.
- Draw questions at random - If you create “question pools,” Sakai can use them to randomly draw and display a different set of items to each student and display them in random order.
Limit the number of random draws in simultaneous test delivery! One or two of these on an assessment will be fine, but you may have problems with 80 test questions where each is a random draw from a pool of 10 questions. |
- Randomize question order - When not randomly drawing from a pool, items in a “Part” can be randomized using the “Question ordering” setting for the part.
Live testing
Notre Dame does not have a dedicated testing facility with computers and proctors. As a result, some instructors ask students to bring laptops into the classroom to take a test or quiz with Sakai. It’s important to understand the limitations of that strategy.
- Power - there will not be enough outlets for everyone to plug in. Tell students to charge their batteries ahead of time AND have a backup plan in case they do not.
- Wireless Internet - there may not be enough Internet bandwidth to handle a hundred students trying to take a test at the same time in one room.
- Software - currently Sakai's Tests & Quizzes application becomes too slow for live testing when more than 100 students are taking a 100 question multiple choice test with every question randomized. A plug-in to Sakai called "Maple TA" has proven to be able to handle 350 students simultaneously. (Contact the Sakai Team if you're unsure: Sakai_Team-group@nd.edu )
High Security - this assessment setting allows you to require a secondary username and password which you give students face-to-face. There is also an IP address option, which is not likely to be useful with wireless laptops.
Preparation - A week or more before giving a test in a classroom, have students bring in laptops and take a brief practice test. This ensures that they (1) have the proper software, (2) understand battery issues and (3) can use the Sakai tools.
Help from the Kaneb Center - http://kaneb.nd.edu Creating effective assessments involves more than subject area expertise. It also requires understanding of test construction. Multiple choice questions are easy to grade but it’s hard to write good questions. The Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning can help. General tips:
The following document provides more detailed help in writing multiple choice questions (ND login required) - http://kaneb.nd.edu/assets/45429/writing_mc_questions.pdf |