3. Activity Settings Details

The Activity Settings consist of the following information: Activity name, What is the name of this activity (i.e., test, quiz, survey, evaluation)? Required field. Identifies a particular test, quiz, homework, evaluation, or survey. You can use any characters, digits, dashes and underscores. Do not include any other punctuation marks. The activity name is case sensitive. The section number, Which sections will participate, or will all sections? Required field. Permits students in the specified section to see the test. The word "all" (case insensitive) can be used to include students in all sections of a multi-section course. Disclosure settings, Will students be permitted to view the answer key for the activity? Optional field. If you do not want students to see the answer key, then place two hyphens (--) in this field as you see in the example above for the activity named "quiz1." To enable students to view the correct answers to past activities (questions on previous tests), enter d=n . The integer n indicates when students will be able to view the correct answers. For example, if you were to enter d=5 this means students will be able to view the correct answers for 5 days after the activity ends. Assembly of individual questions into a test or quiz. How should individual items be assembled into a test or quiz? Assembly is required. QuizSite permits items to be assembled for a test/quiz/survey in several different ways: All questions that contain a particular topic. This is illustrated in the assembly field in the preceding example list (see "quiz1"). In this example ALL(Chapter1) means that all questions that have Chapter1 listed as a topic will appear on the activity named "quiz1." If you use SHUFFLE instead of ALL, students will see all questions for the topic, but the questions will be in a different random order each time the quiz is taken. This method is useful to make it more difficult for students to copy each other's answers. Note that this method does not work for activities that use CONTAINERs. A random selection of questions that contain a particular topic or topics. Two kinds of randomization are possible: Using the first method (RAND), the student sees a different set of randomly selected questions each time the student logs on to QuizSite. In the example list, the assembly field for activity "quiz_3" shows how to do this: RAND(5=nutrition). Let us assume that 50 questions in this course account have "nutrition" listed as a topic. The RAND(5=nutrition) means that for each student 5 randomly selected questions will be drawn and presented. The instructor could enter RAND(10=nutrition). Each student would see 10 questions that are randomly selected from all questions in the course account that have "nutrition" listed as a topic. Note: If you use RAND be aware that each time the student clicks the Netscape "Reload" button, the student receives another set of randomly selected questions. So by clicking Reload many times it is possible that the student will see all questions with a particular topic, not just a randomly selected subset. In addition, if students are permitted more than one attempt, then each time a student logs on, the student will see a different set of randomly drawn questions. To prevent this, use STICKY which is described next. Using the second method (STICKY), the student sees a randomly drawn set of questions the first time the student logs on for a particular activity (test), and the same set of randomly drawn questions appears for that student on each subsequent logon. Quiz_4 in the preceding list of examples shows STICKY(12=history). This means that the first time a student logs on for activity "quiz_4," twelve questions will be randomly drawn from all questions in the course account that have "history" as a topic. Each subsequent time the student logs on and selects this activity, the same twelve questions will be presented to the student. Each student still receives a different set of randomly drawn questions. Note these considerations when you use random selection (either RAND or STICKY ). The number of questions drawn is based on the following rules: RADIO counts as one SELECT counts as one ESSAY counts as one OPEN counts as one NUMERIC counts as one CHECK varies depending on the number of alternatives. For example, if a CHECK question has 5 check boxes, it would count as 5 when the questions are drawn randomly. If you entered RAND(5=topic_1) where topic_1 is listed in a CHECK question with 6 alternatives and just happens to be the first question selected, it would be the only question to appear. On the other hand, suppose four RADIO questions were randomly selected and the fifth question were the CHECK question. The student would see the four RADIO questions plus the CHECK question, with all of its check boxes. (In the unlikely event that you choose to randomly select survey questions, which are not scored, the CHECK display type counts as one). MATCH. See the comments for CHECK. When questions are randomly drawn, the MATCH question count depends on the number of statements listed. Do not use MATCH questions in surveys. Instead, use a series of SELECT questions to achieve MATCH functionality in surveys. CONTAINER. Counts as the sum of each of its encapsulated questions. Note that if a CHECK or MATCH is included in CONTAINER, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the number of questions and the question count. See the preceding explanations for how to count CHECK and MATCH. Attempts and Score method How many times should students be permitted to submit their answers for this activity? Which scoring method should be used for this activity? Both number of attempts and scoring method are required. The number of attempts n must be an integer greater than or equal to one. For one attempt, all scoring methods are equivalent to first . Each of the available scoring methods is discussed below. nof means "no feedback." The student will get only one attempt for the activity. The student will not see whether his or her answers were correct or incorrect. He or she can only see the score for that activity. Use this setting for tests so that students cannot share correct answers. Note that students can still print the questions before submitting the test. nos means "no score." This setting is identical to nof except the score is not shown. Students will not know their scores unless the instructor provides them. This setting is the maximum security that QuizSite provides. n=first The score recorded in Quizsite for this activity is based soley on the student's performance for the first (and perhaps, only) attempt. Attempts with a score of zero are not counted as the first attempt, since new users sometimes mistakenly submit activities before completing them. (For example, pressing Enter in Internet Explorer may submit the activity.) n=average The score recorded for this activity is the average of the number of attempts the student made. Suppose an instructor permits up to 5 attempts. The score for a student who takes the test 5 times is the average of all 5 attempts. If a student takes the test only 3 times, the score is the average of three attempts. If a student takes the test only once, then the score is based only on that one attempt. n=max The score recorded is the highest score of all attempts. n=avfm The score recored is the average of the student's first attempt and the maximum of all subsequent attempts. Begin_time-End_time . When should the activity begin and end? Required field. Instructors "turn on" an activity by specifying the month, day and hour when it should begin, and specify when it ends by using the same convention. Students can access the activity during this interval. An example from the example list is reproduced below:

	Activity	,	Section	,	Disclosure	,	Assembly	,	Attempts/Score	,	Begin_time-End_time
	quiz1	,	9999	,	--	,	ALL(Chapter1)	,	4=first	,	01.14.16:00-01.17.17:00

Case Sensitivity

The following are case insensitive. All other characters that you enter in the activity settings file are case sensitive.

Activity

,

Section

,

Disclosure

,

Assembly

,

Attempts/Score

,

Begin_time-End_time

,

all

,

d= --

,

all rand sticky

,

first average max avfm

,

4. Summary of Activity Settings	Each row of the Activity Settings file consists of six fields, separated by commas. In the following example the field names are listed along with two activities, each on a separate row. Note that in this example the settings in each field are padded with blanks. However, you do not need to pad fields with blanks in the files you upload:

	Activity	,	Section	,	Disclosure	,	Assembly	,	Attempts/Score	,	Begin_time-End_time
	quiz1	,	9999	,	--	,	ALL(Chapter1)	,	4=avfm	,	01.14.16:00-01.17.17:00
	quiz2	,	ALL	,	d=30	,	ALL(Review)	,	3=max	,	10.12.09:00-10.19.17:00

Field	Values	Comments
Activity	quiz_1	Any combination of characters and digits. No embedded blanks. Case sensitive.
Section	ALL 9999	"ALL" means all sections in the roster can participate. "ALL" can be upper or lower case. A four digit section number like 9999 restricts participation to students in the section.
Disclosure	d=n --	d=n specifies the number of days n after the activity ends that students may continue to view the answer key. -- specifies that students cannot view the answer key.
Assembly	ALL(topic) RAND(n=topic) STICKY(n=topic)	Use ALL(topic) to include all items with the specified topic in the test. Use RAND(n=topic) to randomly select a subset of n questions for presentation. A new subset is randomly selected each time the student logs on or clicks the browser's "Reload" button. Use sticky(n=topic) to randomly select a subset of n questions the first time a student logs on, and to preserve this same subset so that the student sees the same questions for all subsequent logons.
Attempts/ Score	nof 1=first 2=first 3=average 4=max 5=avfm	nof means "no feedback," and automatically sets the number of attempts to one. 1=first means each student is permitted one attempt and the score recorded for them is what they earn on the single attempt. When the number of attempts is greater than one, the first scoring method can be used but so can other scoring methods. average means that the score recorded for the student is the average of all attempts. max means the student's best score is recorded. avfm means the score recorded is the average of the students first attempt and the maximum of subsequent attempts.
Begin_time- End_time	mm.dd.hh:mm- mm.dd.hh:mm	Specify the start month and day (mm.dd) and time (hh:mm). Use the 24 hour clock. The hypen separates the beginning time from the ending time.