Options for Multiple Choice
With a multiple-choice question, you create options that students can choose from. You can designate multiple options as being correct, or just one.
Note that this form includes a few static options—All of the above and None of the above. You can select one or both of these to have them listed alongside the options you enter manually.
On the test, students will see each option listed next to a checkbox or radio button.
You also can do any of the following:
Configure items in the Options column to use images, equations, or rich text (or any combination of these).
If you plan to allow students to review their completed tests, you may want to set up automatic feedback that will display if a student chooses a specific option.
Configure the question to automatically give students partial credit in certain circumstances.
Set up the question so that it will tell students how many correct options exist.
Configure the question so the options will be presented randomly for each student.
If appropriate, you can make a multiple-choice option of an image, an equation, rich text, or some combination of the three.
Tip
If you follow these steps, and if you have already entered text in the Options field, your text will be lost. To make sure your text displays, enter it again using the Rich Text Option Editor (in step 3 below).
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, locate the option you want to work with.
Click the corresponding rich-text/camera icon.
The Rich Text Option Editor opens.
Do any of the following as appropriate:
Enter text in the text field.
You can drag and drop an image file in the text editor. You can also click the Insert/edit image button
in the text editor and follow the prompts to upload an image file. Use the Browse for an image button to select an image to upload. Images uploaded in this manner will appear below the text as a gallery of thumbnails that can be clicked to display the full-size image.Select the Add equation link to open the Equation Editor. Create your expression and click Save your equation to return to the Rich Text Option Editor.
In the Rich Text Option Editor, click Save.
The editor closes, and your new material is displayed in the Options column. However, note that your changes will not be saved until you save the question.
If you are done working with the question, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.
Use this procedure to modify or remove an option made up of images, equations, or rich text.
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, locate the option you want to change or remove.
Click the corresponding Edit this item link.
The Rich Text Option Editor opens.
Do one of the following:
To modify the option, make the appropriate changes and click Save.
To delete all of the material, click Clear this option.
The system again displays the main question-editing screen, with your changes reflected. However, your changes will not be saved until you save the question.
If you are done working with the question, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.
For each option, you can enter feedback that will be displayed for the students if they chose that item. Students will see this feedback only if you have set up the test so that they can review their completed work.
You can also set up a more general type of feedback linked to this question.
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, locate the option for which you want to create automatic feedback.
Click the corresponding Add feedback link.
The system displays a pop-up editor.
Enter the comments that you want to be displayed if the student selects this option. The editor allows you to enter both text and images. For more information on using the text editor.
Click Save.
The pop-up editor closes. The system updates the balloon icon to include an ellipsis, and the link now reads Edit feedback. However, your feedback will not be saved until you save the question.
If you are done working with the question, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, locate the option for which you want to modify feedback.
Click the Edit Feedback link.
The system displays a pop-up text editor showing the saved feedback.
Do one of the following:
If you want to modify the feedback, make the appropriate changes, then click Save. For more information on using the text editor.
If you want to delete the feedback, click Clear this feedback.
The system again displays your list of options. If you deleted feedback, note that the Edit feedback link has changed to an Add feedback link. However, your changes will not be saved until you save the question.
If you are done working with the question, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.
Use this procedure to remove a multiple-choice option. Note that when you do this, you also delete any feedback that you may have created for the option.
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, locate the option you want to delete.
Do one of the following:
If this is an option you created, click the red x to the right of the option.
If this is a static option, deselect the corresponding Include checkbox.
Save the question by clicking either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.
Note
An alternate way of deleting an option you manually added is to delete the text in the Option column and save the question.
By default, the system will display multiple-choice options in the same order that you list them in the Test Builder. However, you can have the system scramble the options for each student if desired.
Note that the two static options—All of the above and None of the above—will always be listed last, if you are using them.
To activate or deactivate the ‘randomize options’ feature:
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, scroll to the bottom of the screen and select or deselect the Randomize checkbox as appropriate.
If you are done working with the question, click either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.
For any multiple-choice question, you can activate partial credit, which lets the system automatically give students some points even if they don’t answer the question perfectly.
With this option, the system will award partial credit in the following situations:
If the student selects some but not all correct options. For example, a student who selects only one of two correct choices will get 50% credit.
If the student selects all (or some) correct options but also a distractor.
If the student selects a particular distractor that you have configured to be worth a specific amount of partial credit.
Essentially, if you do not set up partial credit, the student must select all correct options and no incorrect options to get any credit for the question through the system’s automatic scoring.
By contrast, with partial credit, the system will take the total number of correct responses the student made and divide it by the total number of selections the student made (unless the student made too few selections, in which case the system will divide by the total number of correct answers configured for the question). This value will be used to calculate the student’s partial credit.
For example, suppose there is one correct option, and the student selects one correct response and one distractor: one correct choice divided by two total choices is 1/2 or .5, so the student will get 50% credit. For more examples of how these values are calculated, click Help with Multiple Choice partial credit setting on the Design the Answer(s) section of the screen.
To activate partial credit for a multiple-choice question:
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the Partial Credit checkbox.
The screen updates to include a Partial Credit column. For each incorrect option, the Partial Credit column includes a field that you can use to enter a percentage.
If you want any particular distractor to be worth some amount of partial credit, enter the percentage in the field provided.
Note that these values will not be saved until you save the question.
If you are done working with the question, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.
To deactivate partial credit, simply deselect the Partial Credit checkbox, then save the question. Note that when you do this, any values you may have entered for distractors will be lost, so if you later decide to restore partial credit will have to manually add these back.
If desired, you can have the system spell out for students how many correct options exist. To do this, you select the Limit Selections option.
With this feature, if the student selects too few or too many options, the system will display a popup error and prevent the student from submitting the test. The only exception is if the student does not make any selections at all (that is, if the student just tries to skip the question)—this is allowed.
If the Limit Selections feature is not selected, the test offers no indication of the number of correct options, and the system will allow the student to make any number of selections.
If you intend to use this feature, make sure students are instructed to configure their browsers to allow pop-ups.
To activate or deactivate the Limit Selections feature:
In the Design the Answer(s) area of the screen, scroll to the bottom of the screen and select or deselect the Limit Selections checkbox as appropriate.
If you are done working with the question, click either Save and add another or Save and return to Test Builder.