PolyLearn Support

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Creating a quiz

Instructors can create a quiz that the students will complete on their accounts within PolyLearn. The questions can be created in PolyLearn after creating the quiz, or they can be created using the question bank.

1. Select Turn editing on.
2. Click on the Add an activity pull-down list.
   
   
3. Choose the Quiz tool.
4. Under the General section, type the Name (required) of the quiz into the text box.
   
   Options
   • Introduction can be the directions for the quiz or any other notes that you believe the student would need to complete the quiz.
   • Open the quiz is the date that the quiz will become available to the students. In order for this option to be available the instructor must click the Enabled check box.
   • Close the quiz is the date when the quiz will no longer be available. In order for this option to be available the instructor must click the Enabled check box.
   • Time limit adds a timer to the quiz. If the student has not completed the quiz when the timer expires they will only receive credit for the answers submitted before the time limit ran out.
   • Attempts allowed sets how many times the student will be allowed to complete the quiz.
     Note: This number is unlimited by default but can be reduced to a number ranging from one to ten if the instructor wishes.
   • Grading method determines how the student's grade for the quiz is determined if there are more than one allowed attempt.
     • Highest grade achieved.
     • Average grade of all attempts.
     • The grade of the First attempt submitted .
     • The grade of the Last attempt submitted
   • Question order sets how the questions appear within the quiz. This can add an element of randomness to make the quiz more difficult.
   • New page sets how many questions to display on a single page of the quiz.
     Note: This setting only inserts page breaks according to the instructors choice. The instructor will need to add questions to the new pages as they are added.
   • Shuffle within questions sets whether or not answers within a question are shuffled. This allows for multi-part questions, such as matching, and questions with multiple answers to vary from attempt to attempt.
   • How questions behave is a display/grading option that affects how the questions behave while the student is taking the quiz.
     • Adaptive mode: This mode allows for the student to retry the questions within the same quiz attempt for diminished credit. A penalty will be applied for each incorrect response.
     • Adaptive mode (No penalties): This mode is similar to adaptive mode except that in this mode penalties are not applied for incorrect answers.
     • Deferred feedback: This mode saves the feedback for each question until after the attempt has been finalized. When the student reviews their attempt they can see the feedback that the instructor left for them.
     • Deferred feedback with CBM: This mode shows the feedback at the end of the quiz, as well as certainty based markings. CBM is a tool where the students tell how certain they are of their answer and this certainty will affect the score that they receive for answers.
     

     Immediate Feedback

     Students may check their answer and assume that it allows them to change to the correct answer before submitting their quiz. Immediate feedback doesn't allow students to change their answers unless the instructor allows multiple attempts for this quiz. For more information.

     • Immediate feedback: This mode shows the feedback that the instructor has supplied immediately after the student submits their answer.
     • Immediate feedback with CBM: This mode shows the feedback that the instructor has supplied immediately after the student submits his answer, as well as certainty based markings. CBM is a tool where the students tell how certain they are of their answer and this certainty will affect the score that they receive for answers.
     • Interactive with multiple tries: This mode displays feedback immediately and displays the correct answer for each missed question.
     • Manually graded: This mode requires that the instructor go through the quiz and grade the questions.
   • Set Review options in order to customize what the student can see within the quiz. The instructor has the ability to control whether the student can view The attempt, Whether correct, Marks (which is the score they receive on the question), Specific feedback, General feedback, the Right answer, and Overall feedback. The instructor may disable any of these features by unchecking the boxes next to the options that the instructor wishes to remove from the students display.
   • Show the user's picture enables the users profile picture to be displayed while the student is taking the quiz.
     Note: Use this option to ensure the student is using their account, as their picture will be displayed.
   • Decimal places in grades sets how many decimal places are displayed within the quiz's score.
   • Decimal places in question grades sets how many decimal places are displayed. By default this value is set to be the same as what is set for overall grades.
   • Show blocks during quiz attempts will display the course's blocks on the page.
   • Require a password will force the students to enter a password in order to attempt the quiz.
     Note: Unmask the password in order to verify it by checking the Unmask box next to the text box.
   • Require a network address to take the quiz.
     Note: This may be used to limit the students from taking the quiz while only on the school's network, or any other specific network that the instructor chooses.
   • Enforced delay between 1st and 2nd attempts sets a timer that makes the student wait after completing their first attempt.
   • Enforced delay between later attempts sets a timer that makes the student wait after completing any attempts following their second attempt.
     
   • Overall feedback will be displayed at the end of the quiz.
     Note: The feedback can be divided into various grade ranges. If the instructor wishes, multiple feedbacks may be added that will only display to students who score within certain ranges.
     Note: The Grade boundary that needs to be input for additional feedback is the upper bound of the grade range.
   • Group mode allows the groups that have been created in the course to complete the quiz together.
   • If the instructor clicks the Show advanced button, they have the option to enable Grouping which further combines the groups into larger sets, which allows the collections of groups to all complete the quiz collaboratively.
   • Visible allows the groups to see one another.
   • An ID number can be set which allows for easy reference of the assignment in the gradebook.
   • Restrict access allows the instructor to set a condition on the assignment until other assignment(s) are completed:
     • Allow access from and Allow access until determine when students can access the activity via a link on the course page.
       Note: The difference between access from/to dates and availability settings for the activity is that outside the set dates the latter allows students to view the activity description, whereas access from/to dates prevent access completely.
     • Grade condition determines any grade conditions which must be met in order to access the activity.
       Note: Multiple grade conditions may be set if desired. If so, the activity will only allow access when ALL grade conditions are met.
     • Show activity greyed-out, with restriction information / Hide activity entirely determines how the activity displays before conditions have been met.
       
5. Choose either Save and return to course or Save and display.

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Adding a question

There are numerous question types enabled within the PolyLearn system. The instructor has the option to use the included templates of question types in order to generate a new question for the quiz.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Click the Editing quiz tab at the top.
4. Click the Add a question button.
5. A pop up screen titled Choose a question type to add will appear. Choose the desired question type.
   
   Note: See the Question types page for full details on adding the question.
6. Click Save changes when all necessary information for the question has been added.

 

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Adding a specific premade question

Instructors may add specific questions that they have previously made. This allows for the reuse of questions in different quizzes. This feature uses the features of the Question bank within PolyLearn.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. On the right side of the screen will be a column of Question bank contents.
   Note: If this column is hidden, click Show in order to reveal the contents of the question bank.
4. From the pull-down menu, Select a category in which to take a question from.


5. Click the check box next to the question that is going to be added.
   Note: Click more than one check box in order to add multiple questions at the same time.
6. Click Add to quiz in order to add the question(s) to the quiz.
   Note: The questions being added will add pages according to the quiz's setting.

 

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Adding a random premade question

Instructors can add questions randomly to make their quizzes more diverse from person to person. This feature requires the use of the Question bank within PolyLearn.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Click the Editing quiz tab at the top.
4. Click the Add a random question button.
5. A screen titled Add a random question to quiz <name> will pop up. Choose to add a:
• Random question from an existing category
  • Choose an existing Category from the pull-down menu. These will be all of the categories that exist in your course already.
  • Choose to Include questions from sub-categories too.
  • Click Add random question.
• Random question using a new category
  • Input a Name for their new category.
  • Choose the category that their new category will be stored within from the Parent category pull-down menu.
  • Click Create category and add random question.
    Note: The instructor will need to add questions to this category using the Question bank since it will be empty when first added
  
  Warning: It is possible to add more random questions from a category than exist in your category. When this occurs there will be an error when the quiz is attempted. Therefore, make sure that there are not more random questions being taken from a category than the category contains.

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Previewing a quiz

The instructor has the ability to preview the quiz in order to check that it works. Previewing can help the instructor to ensure that the questions were entered correctly, such as checking that the answer formula for the calculated question was entered correctly.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Answer the questions as they appear as though you are a student taking the quiz. Press Next to progress through the questions.

Options
• Finish attempt, in the Quiz navigation block in the top left corner, can be clicked at any time to be taken to the summary page.
• Start a new preview clears responses and starts again at the beginning.
4. A summary page will appear after the final question is answered. Click submit all and finish.
5. After the summary page is a review page. Click Finish review.

 

Managing a quiz

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Fill out the desired information as described above.
4. When finished editing the quiz, click either Save and return to course, or Save and display.

 

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Removing a question

It is possible for the instructor to remove questions after they have been added to the quiz.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Click the 'X' on the right side of the question to remove from the quiz.

 

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Editing the layout of the quiz

It is possible for the instructor to change the way that the quiz looks if they choose. The instructor can reorder the questions or redesign the layout for the questions.

Adding new pages

It is possible for the instructor to add more spacing to their quiz by adding pages to it.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Click the Editing quiz tab at the top.
4. Click Add page here where the new page is to be inserted.

Note: The quiz module will automatically add a page to the end of the quiz when the last page reaches the maximum number of questions allowed per page. The setting of how many questions appear per page automatically is set within the quiz settings.

 

Moving questions between pages

it is possible for the instructor to rearrange the order in which the questions appear in the quiz.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Click the Order and paging tab at the top.
4. Use the arrows on the right side of the question in order to move the question up and down in the quiz.

Alternately:

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Click the Order and paging tab at the top.
4. Mark the check box next to the question that is going to be moved.
5. Input the page number where the question will be moved to into the bottom text box.
   Note: Only page numbers input in the bottom text box will work.
   
6. Click the Move button.

 

Repaginate

The repaginate feature allows the instructor to quickly affect the number of questions on each page.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
   
2. In the Settings block, click on Edit quiz.
3. Click the Order and paging tab at the top.
4. Click Repaginate.
5. Choose the number of questions per page from the pull-down menu and then click Go.

 

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Giving DRC rights to students

The instructor can give DRC rights to students so that when the student takes the quiz, they will not be held to the same restrictions as others. An example of this is allowing a DRC student more time to take the quiz.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
2. In the Settings block, click on Locally assigned roles.
   
3. Click DRC Student in the list of roles.
4. Click the student's name in the list of Potential users.
5. Click Add.

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Quiz permissions

The quiz permissions are established by the system's administrator. The permissions are given to the various roles in order to grant them the ability to perform actions within the activity. The instructor can view these permissions with these steps:

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
2. In the Settings block, click the Permissions to view all possible capabilities pertaining to a quiz, and which roles have access to each capability. Alternatively, click the Check permissions button specifically view an a list of all enrolled individuals in the course.
3. Click on the user's name to check and then click Show this user's permissions.
   Note: Type the user's name into the search box in order to refine the display and more easily locate the intended user.
4. This page lists all of the various actions that are capable within the activity. The list will tell whether or not the user is capable of each action.

Quiz Results

The instructor can get a detailed view of how the students scored on the quiz. This includes the overall score, the course average, and the score that each student got on particular questions.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
2. Click Attempts. Next to attempts will be a number. This number is the amount of attempts that have been submitted for grading.
   Note: If students have yet to submit any attempts, the link will not appear on the page.

Alternately:

1. Click Grades within the Settings block.
2. Click the name of the quiz in which to see scores from.
   Note: This method will still display the grading page regardless of submitted attempts.

 

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Manually setting a grade

Although most of the grading inside of PolyLearn occurs automatically, there are still aspects where the Instructor can affect the grading.

Note: These steps work for both manually grading questions and overwriting previously graded problems.

1. Click on the Quiz activity.
2. Click Attempts. Next to attempts will be a number. This number is the amount of attempts that have been submitted for grading.
3. When viewing the list of quiz grades, click the grade to overwrite. This will open a pop up window.
4. Within the pop up window, click Make comment or override mark. A new pop up window will appear.
5. Within the new pop up window, the green region that had contained the button in the last window has expanded. In the text box next to where it says Mark, input the new score.
   Warning: If a new score that is greater than the total points for the question is input, PolyLearn will not save the score.
   
   Options
   • Comment so that the student will understand the grade received.
6. Click Save.

 

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Removing an attempt

The instructor has the ability to remove attempts at the quiz. This can be used to allow additional attempts at the quiz if the student has completed all of the allowed attempts.

1. Click on the name of the quiz activity that the instructor has previously added.
2. Click Attempts. Next to attempts will be a number. This number is the amount of attempts that have been submitted for grading.
3. When viewing the list of quiz grades, click the attempt(s) to remove.
4. Click the Delete selected attempts button.