Creating an Interactive Online Test (FLOWmulti Assignment)

What is an Assignment?

Essentially, an assignment is a collection of items and is used to create a FLOWmulti test or exam. Each item can contain one or more questions, tools or text items and the test score for an item consists of the accumulated score of all the questions in that item.

You can access your assignments and content bank from the overview. The article Using the Content Bank goes into more detail on the functionalities of the content bank.

Creating a New Assignment and Adding Items

You can either create a new assignment directly from the overview (1) or by going to all of your assignments (2).

(1) New Assignment (2) Assignment List

To create a new assignment, you always need to enter a title. Adding a description and labels is optional and can still be done later on (see Assignment overview below for more information). Labels are for personal use only and cannot be shared with other authors.

You will then have three different options how the assignment should be created:

Without Initial Items

Per default, an assignment is always created without any items. That means after clicking Create, you will be lead to the assignment overview (see Assignment Overview below for more detailed information) where you can either add new items or add items from your Content Bank.

Manually Select Items

A second option is to manually select items that already exist in the content bank. After clicking Create, you will be forwarded to a subpage where you can select items one by one from your Content Bank that should be added to the assignment (1).

Once you have made your selection, click Add (2) to add the items to your asssignment. 

When adding items from the content bank, the relationship between the item and the content bank will, by default, be maintained. This means that if either version is updated, either the original in the content bank or the version used for the assignment, so too is any other instance where the item is used and the link remains. Whilst this has many advantages, users may wish to sever the link so that any locally-made changes made to the assignment version are not pushed out to all instances of the item.

You can either:

1. Maintain the link to the content bank and any changes made to the version you have within the assignment will be replicated to all instances of the item. In addition, you may choose to keep the original author group linked to the item so that editing rights are maintained;
   or
2. Choose to create a local copy for the assignment you are creating. The relationship to the original in the content bank will be removed and changes made within your assignment will not be reflected within the content bank.

Once you have made your choice and added items, you will automatically be brought to the assignment to which the item(s) have been added.

Automatically Suggested Items

As a third option, you can have the system automatically suggest items from your Content Bank that should be added to your assignment. The system suggests a list of items based on certain criteria defined by you.

After clicking Create you will be brought to a subpage where you need to define criteria for the system to suggest items from the Content Bank.

1. You can determine the amount of items that should be suggested and/or if only items with specific label(s) should be suggested. If your assignment already contains some items, you can exclude items from the search that are already part of the assignment.
2. You can add additional criteria:
• The score of suggested item(s) should have a specific value.
• The amount of questions per suggested item(s).
  
3. The system will show you how many items are available in your Content Bank, based on your criteria.
4. Once you have set all of your criteria, you can generate a list of suggested items.

You can deselect items from the suggested list, in case they should not be added to the assignment (1). If you would like to include different items based on the same criteria, you can regenerate the suggested list (2). Once you are happy with the selection, you can add the items to your assignment (3).

When adding item(s) from the content bank, the relationship between the item and the content bank will, by default, be maintained. This means that if either version is updated, either the original in the content bank or the version used for the assignment, so too is any other instance where the item is used and the link remains. Whilst this has many advantages, users may wish to sever the link so that any locally-made changes made to the assignment version are not pushed out to all instances of the item.

You can either:

1. Maintain the link to the content bank and any changes made to the version you have within the assignment will be replicated to all instances of the item. In addition, you may choose to keep the original author group linked to the item so that editing rights are maintained;
   or
2. Choose to create a local copy for the assignment you are creating. The relationship to the original in the content bank will be removed and changes made within your assignment will not be reflected within the content bank.

Once you have made your choice and added items, you will automatically be brought to the assignment to which the item(s) have been added.

From the assignment list you have the ability to open, edit and preview single assignments, as well as create new ones or manage your assignments in bulk.

1. Filter your assignment list to only show assignments within a specific author group.
2. Perform bulk actions for your assignments (see Managing Assignments and Items below for more information).
3. Create a new assignment (see (1) New assignment for more information).
4. Add or remove columns to adjust your list overview.
5. More options: preview the assignment, also from a participant's point of view, copy the assignment and edit the assignment title. A print option is available when previewing the assignment from a participant's point of view. 

   The preview will be disabled if the assignment has incomplete items.

   

6. Open and edit the assignment (see Assignment Overview below for more information).

Assignment Overview

Once an assignment has been created, you will be able to manage the assignment and add items.

1. Title and description of the assignment
2. Return to the list with all of your assignments
3. Total number of questions () and maximum score () in your assignment
4. Add or edit author group(s).
5. Date and time when the assignment was last updated
6. Create a current flow version of your assignment or view list of all flow versions

   Every item needs to contain at least one or more questions. Otherwise it will not be possible to create a flow version of the assignment

7. Edit the assignment title, description and labels (), edit the settings (), copy () or preview () the assignment
8. Labels that have been added by you or timestamps that have been added upon import. Labels are for personal use only and cannot be shared with other authors
9. Manage () and re order () your items
10. Add a new item or an item from the content bank to your assignment (see New Assignment under Creating a New Assignment and Adding Items for more information)
11. Add or remove columns to adjust your overview list
12. Remove (), copy (), enable () / disable () a connection to the content bank, preview () or edit () an item. Changes made in an item will be displayed by a warning triangle ()

Item Overview

Once an item as been created, you can manage the setup of the item as well as the question(s) and/or features it should contain.

1. Title and description of your assignment
2. If your item is part of the content bank, this warning message will appear. If you make changes to the item, these changes will be displayed everywhere the item is used.
3. Browse between items within your assignment
4. Navigate back to the assignment setup and to see all items in the assignment
5. Copy () or delete () item or edit the title, description or label () of the item. By clicking on the question mark, you will be brought to the article on available question types for FLOWmultis.
6. Total number of questions () and maximum score () in the item. The warning triangle indicates that this item contains question(s) where the correct answer has not been defined yet. 
7. Displays any author groups connected to the item.
8. Date and time of the last update
9. Labels for this item. Labels are for personal use only and cannot be shared with other authors.
10. Save changes that you have made to the item (changed the order of questions, added a different layout, etc.)
11. Change the layout of the item and add data tables
12. Switch between editing or previewing mode
13. Move, edit or delete an existing question
14. Add a new question or feature

An item needs to contain at least one or more questions. Otherwise, you will be met with a warning message upon save:

Managing Assignments and Items

When managing assignments and items, you are able add and remove data in bulk.

All Assignments Items in an Assignment Reorder Items

You can make bulk changes to all of your assignments. Go to your assignments and click on the cog wheel symbol at the top.

This will lead you to an overview page for bulk actions.

1. Select an author group to filter your overview so that only assignments attached to that author group will be displayed.
2. Import assignments and see the progression status of imported assignments from the past two weeks.
3. Delete selected assignments. It is possible to delete up to 500 assignments at once.
4. Add/remove author groups to/from selected assignments. It is possible to add/remove authors on up to 500 assignments.
5. Export selected assignments. It is only possible to export 20 assignments at once.
6. Add or remove columns to adjust your overview list.
7. Preview the assignment, also from a participant's point of view.
8. Select / deselect all or individual assignments in the list.

If you would like to perform bulk actions for items within one assignment, click on the assignment and then on the cog wheel symbol () above your item list.

This will lead you to an overview page for bulk actions.

1. Select an author group to filter your overview so that only those assignments attached to that author group will be displayed
2. Promote selected items to the content bank
3. Remove selected items from the assignment
4. Disabled connection to the content bank for selected items
5. Add or remove columns to adjust your overview list
6. Preview item
7. See other assigments where an item is also being used in

You can easily reorder your items within an assignment. Go to the assignment and click on the numbered list icon. If there is only one item in the assignment, the icon will be greyed out. 

You can drag and drop your items in the desired order. Clicking on the eye icon will give you a preview of an item. If the item does not contain any questions, you cannot preview the item.

Adding Tools and Features

When you create a new question, you can add various tool and features by clicking on Features instead of Questions. Learn more about their functionalities here.