Assessment Authoring

The Assessment Authoring Tool allows LMS Admin to create quizzes and surveys for their learners. LMS administrators can quickly build a simple quiz that asks a fixed number of questions, or something more sophisticated using question groups, randomization and Learner feedback.

Assessment Structure

Assessments are Learning Elements that can be added to any folder (course, etc.) just like you’d add a SCORM, Video or a PowerPoint presentation. Each Assessment allows you to add question groups to the quiz, questions to the groups, and answers to each question.
 

 

It’s important to have a basic understanding of each aspect of the assessment.
   

 

Question Groups

A question group is a way to manage a group of related questions. You can sequentially order groups and limit how many questions are taken from each group. You can also import a group of questions from one assessment into another allowing for easy reuse.  For a short quiz, you might create just a single Group.  For a long assessment, it might be helpful to organize the questions into topically related Groups.  Groups have the following properties:

• Group Name
• Number of Questions to Ask

Questions

Questions are added to groups.  Each Question features the question itself, a few settings, and a list of possible answers.  Questions have the following properties:

• Question
• Required
• Weight (how much does this question count towards the final score)
• Question Type
• Question Level Correct Feedback
• Question Level Incorrect Feedback
• Image (e.g. picture or diagram)

Answers

Each question can have a number of potential answers.  Depending on the question type, there may be one or more correct answers. Each answer has the following options:

• Answer
• Feedback
• Correct

In the example below, the Fire Extinguisher Familiarity question group has four questions.  The group has been limited to asking three randomly selected questions, out of the four available, each time this quiz is administered.

Building Out the Assessment

To better understand this concept, let’s look at an example of a larger quiz.  We will build out the assessment above to have a total of four question groups.
 

Question Group	Total Questions	Limited Number
Fire Extinguisher Familiarity	4	3
Types of Fires	10	5
Emergency Exits	10	5
Fire Drills	6	3

 
In this example, the learner would be presented sixteen questions drawn from four groups covering different aspects of the subject matter.  The quiz author can decide how many questions to use from each group.  She can also designate certain questions as required.  Required questions will always appear on the exam even when the number of questions are limited. Questions and their Answers can also be presented in a random order. 
 
Using these options, authors can create a quiz that asks different questions on each attempt with both the questions and the potential answers presented in a random order.
 

Taking the Assessment

Quizzes are used to assess the learner’s knowledge of a particular subject.  They are also powerful training tools.  If our goal is to teach our Learners, then we should take every effort to reinforce correct information and correct false impressions. 
 

Question and Answer Feedback

Feedback options provide additional guidance immediately when questions are answered.  Feedback is available at the question level or the answer level for correct or incorrect responses.  This immediate feedback allows the assessment itself to reinforce the ideas that were learned during the training and provide guidance with incorrect responses.  In a very real sense, the quiz becomes a tool to help the learner reach the learning objectives, not just a yardstick used  to measure success.
 

  

Survey Authoring

Getting feedback from learners is critical to continuous quality improvement.  While an Assessment can help us assess how the learner grasped the material being presented, a Survey can help us assess the Learner’s opinion about the material being presented.  How was the technical quality?  Was the content presented too fast or too slow?  Did the learner feel that the content was presented at the right level, not too basic, not too advanced?
 
The Survey authoring tool is similar the Assessment tool with the addition of a Likert Scale question type.  The key difference is that Assessments are used for evaluating responses whereas surveys are used for collecting responses - Surveys have no right or wrong answers.  Both Assessment and Survey data can be exported in PDF reports or CSV for further analysis.
 

Authoring Tool Features

• 6 Available Question Types
• Passing Score
• Time Limits
• Randomize Questions
• Randomize Answers
• Question Grouping
• Reusable Question Pools
• Embedded Image Support
• Question Feedback
• Answer Feedback
• Upload Quizzes from Excel

 

Question Types

The Accord Assessment and Survey authoring tools offer the following 6 question types:
 

• Multiple-Choice (single answer) – single answer (radio button) from multiple options
• Multiple Choice (multiple answer) - multiple answers (checkboxes) from multiple options
• Text – text answer (textbox)
• Yes / No - single answer (radio button) from Yes or No
• True / False - single answer (radio button) from True or False
• Likert Scale (rating) – single answer (radio button) from a range of values (Survey only)

 

Live Demonstration

If you’d like to see the Assessment authoring tool in action, you may watch a recorded webinar.