The disruption due to hurricane Ida may be forcing you to rethink how you will administer tests and quizzes in your courses during the disruption. When classes resume this week, many faculty will move to meeting with their classes remotely at the regularly assigned class time or perhaps move to asynchronous class meetings.
One question we have been asked is about administering quizzes, tests, and exams in Brightspace. The Quizzes Tool in Brightspace enables you to create and manage points-measured assessments in your courses. We held two workshops on using the Quizzes Tool. ICYMI, you can watch a recording of the workshops:
Other workshop recordings that may be of interest:
For recommendations to improve the use of assessments in virtual environments and decrease concerns regarding cheating read my Assessments in a Virtual Environment blog post.
There are a number of how-to resources for the Quizzes tool on our Brightspace documents page.
I have posted many tips about the Quizzes tool. I’ve highlighted some of the tips that may be of particular interest to you:
There are many ways you can leverage the inherent features within Brightspace to encourage independent work during online exams. In a Faculty Focus article, Dr. Stephanie Smith Budhai suggests 14 simple strategies to use when setting up online exams that you may find helpful.
Respondus LockDown Browser (RLDB) and Respondus Monitor are integrated into our Brightspace system. If you are looking to use RLDB/Respondus Monitor to secure the testing environment, you will find information in the following tips that may help:
ICYMI, I recommend that you read my Rethinking Multiple-Choice Tests for Better Learning Assessment blog post for information on using higher-order multiple-choice questions for assessments.
Important: Don't assume your students know how to take an online test. If you plan to have your students take an online test, you should require your students take a practice quiz before they take the first online test that will count towards their final grade. Your practice quiz should have a few questions in it to simulate what the student would experience when taking an actual exam. Include the types of questions you will ask on an actual test or quiz (e.g., multiple choice, true/false, short answer, written response, etc.) Use settings similar to those you will use on an actual test or quiz (e.g., questions per page, no backtracking, etc.)
By taking the practice quiz students can ensure that their computers, webcam (if required), and internet are working properly. Allow unlimited attempts on the practice quiz, so students can take it whenever their device or networking environment changes.
Students should be given the opportunity to take the practice quiz well in advance of the first online test that will count towards their final grade so that they will have ample opportunity to correct any technical issues.
Require students to review this Guide to Taking Tests in Brightspace before they take the first online test that will count towards their final grade.
Offering a practice quiz with question types and settings like you plan to use in online tests that will count towards the final grade can help ensure students will be familiar with taking an online test in your course. Remember the purpose of the practice quiz is to simulate taking an online test so the questions you include in your practice quiz should be questions your students can easily answer.
Additionally, Release Conditions is an advanced feature you can consider using if you want Brightspace to automatically release the test the students will be graded on when the student has completed one attempt at the practice quiz. Your availability dates will restrict when your tests are available to the students. You can find more information about Release Conditions in Brightspace Tip #237: Release Conditions.
Want More Information?
View all the Brightspace training recaps
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Brightspace Known Issues
Continuous Delivery release notes
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You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay
