Multi-format Assessments
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      Question Type - Short answer

       

       

      Short answer questions enable you to create a question where students provide a short written response. Short answer questions are automatically marked against the correct short answer responses provided.

      Creating a short answer question

      There are two ways to add a short answer question.

      In a blank assessment:

      1. Click Select question type.
      2. Select Short answer from the list.

      Adding a new short answer question:

      1. On the Action bar, click on Add Question.
      2. Select Short answer from the list.

       

      Once complete, you will see an empty short answer question block and can begin constructing your question.

       

      Required fields

      To set up your short answer question, you will need to complete the required fields.

      To set the required fields:

      1. Click on Write your question here and enter your question. Note that the question must be at least 20 characters in length.
      2. Click on Points to set the number of points allocated to the question. Note that this cannot be zero.
      3. Click Accepted answers to set an answer option. Note that at least one answer option will need to be provided.
      4. Enter the Required similarity %. For more information about the similarity %, please refer to the "Similarity Score" section. 

      If any of these required fields are missing, you will see corresponding error messages.

       

       

      Similarity Score

      1. A similarity score is calculated by Cadmus to match a student response against accepted answers specified in the assessment.

      2. Cadmus calculates a percentage of similarity that indicates the close-ness of the student response to the accepted answer.

      3. Teachers can set a required similarity percentage for FITB and short answer questions. This is set to 80% by default.

      4. When the required similarity is higher, student responses would need to be more exact matches to accepted answers. The minimum value for this is 50%, as anything lower is not close enough for a student response to be marked "correct".

      5. All responses that match or exceed the required similarity are considered correct and auto-marked accordingly.

      6. This matching is not case sensitive and works effectively up to 100 characters for short answers.

       

      Setting the correct answers

      Once the required fields have been set, you must provide some accepted answers to the short answer question. Click the + button to mark the option as an accepted answer.These accepted answers are used for auto-marking.

      To set the correct answers:

      1. Click the Accepted answers input, and type in an accepted answer.
        1. If a correct answer is not set, you will see an error Please provide at least one accepted answer for the short-answer question.
      2. Once selected, you will see this option marked as a correct answer.

      3. To add another correct answer, click the + button and repeat Step 1.


       

      Removing accepted answers

      Once you have created your question and answer options, you may wish to remove an accepted answer from the options you have set.

      To remove an accepted answer:

      1. Hover over the X next to the option, which will turn red.
      2. Click on the X next to the option.