Monday, December 10, 2012

Importing another teacher's test using the test code

QUESTION
I am having trouble importing a test - what exactly am I supposed to
put into the box asking to prove I'm authorized to import it?


ANSWER
The teacher who owns the test should provide you with the test code, and also the URL for the practice version of the test.  The practice test URL can be found by clicking on the test name in your "See Tests" list, then looking in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  You'll see a link that says "URL for a practice test". Click the link, and a page opens with a version of the test which is for practice only. It has a URL which looks like this:
http://www.thatquiz.org/tq/practicetest?1w3vrp6y3
The last part of this URL (1w3vrp6y3) will be different for every test. You can copy this small part, or the entire URL and paste it into the new "URL of the practice test" box.

Why can't I just use the test code to import tests?
Teachers who use test codes to test complained that students were creating their own teacher accounts and importing their assigned tests using the test code in order to see all of the answers before taking their test. This was a serious security flaw in the system.  By providing the practice test URL, in addition to the standard test code, it shows that the teacher who owns the test has shared this information with you, and that you are authorized to import the test for your own use.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Fine tuning a problem set

QUESTION
How do I get a set of subtraction problems which include numbers up to
20, but only subtracting single digits. For example, 14 - 7 or 15 - 9
but not 18 - 12 or 16 - 14.

ANSWER
You cannot fine tune the problem set to the degree that you have
described when you create the quiz.
To handpick problems which are most suitable for your students you can do this:
1. Create a large test of 100 questions.
2. Before students test, edit the test by clicking on its name in the list.
3. Check the questions you want removed from the test and click Delete.
4. Save the edited test containing only the problems you want.

Remember that once some students have tested, a quiz can no longer be edited.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Restore a deleted class

QUESTION
Yesterday I deleted a class out of my thatquiz account, and then
realized that all of the tests I had created for that class were
deleted as well. I was wondering if there was any way to restore the
quizzes online?

ANSWER
1. Click the "New class" link
2. Click the "Import" button
3. Choose the first option "I want to restore a class which I
previously deleted"
4. Choose the class to restore.
5. Click "Import"

Monday, September 17, 2012

On having to enter your password every time.

QUESTION
Is there an option to click where I don't have to enter my username
and password every single time I go to the site?

ANSWER
If you use the Firefox browser at home, the web browser can remember
the username and password for you:
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/password-manager-remember-delete-change-passwords
Be careful not to set this up on a school or other public computer.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Having slide questions appear in random order

QUESTION
I noticed that although multiple choice questions can be randomized so
that each student receives them in a different order, it appears that
questions made with Slides cannot be randomized. Can you please make
it possible to randomize questions created with Slides? For science
it is SO important to use slides for my questions because so many of
them need graphics attached to them.

ANSWER
You can change the questions to appear randomly AFTER assigning to a class.
When the test appears in the list of tests for a class, click on the
test name to edit the details.
Near the top of the page, the order of the test will be given as
"Fixed", but if you click on "Fixed" it will change to "Random".

Monday, June 25, 2012

Essay question answers

QUESTION
I'm wondering if there is a faster way to print out the answers to all essay questions so that it makes it easier for me to provide students feedback than what I am doing - opening up each answer, cutting and pasting and then responding to each student.


ANSWER
There isn't presently a good way to print all essay responses.  It is much easier for students to view their essay results electronically.

It is possible for students to see their own essay responses, with your comments, via the class home page.  The class home page is accessible from a link you'll see if you click "Edit Class".  Check the box "Students can review grades" and give the home page link to your students.

When you grade an essay response, you can mark up the text with your own comments.  Try typing your own comments in the answer area.  Then, if a student opens the grade for that test using the class home page (with results enabled), he can see the essay he wrote, the score he received on the essay, and all the comments you have given.

You can also email results for any test directly to the student.  The email includes a link in it which opens up the detailed grade report.  This is the same grade report which is available from the class home page.

On the student's grade report, each essay question appears as a link.  Clicking the link opens the student's text, with your comments, for viewing.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Pasting content into a slide quiz question


QUESTION
When I copy an image from a pdf file (of a math equation, expression, etc) and paste it in the Slide of the test design module, the preview window shows the image correctly, however the actual slide (as it will be displayed during the testing) does not display the graphic.  It shows a symbol <i>.  For some reason I can’t get it to display the correct image even though I see the correct image in the little window (where one inputs the text) to the right of the main slide display.  What am I doing wrong?  Are any of my setting incorrect (bitmap, etc)?

I also tried to upload and insert bitmap files of the math images that I want.  This is a very cumbersome process, requiring 20 or so individual bitmap files to be made and uploaded for just 1 test, instead of quickly copy-and-pasting individual images from the Windows Clipboard.  Also, another problem is, when an image file is uploaded, there’s a lot of white space (empty space) while the actual image is tiny and unreadable

ANSWER
The site does not support copying content from the clipboard and pasting into a slide.
You should successfully be able to copy and paste plain text, but not much else.
Before uploading images, you should edit the image with an editor.
There are many free editors available.  We can recommend two:
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/  (full featured - any OS)
http://www.xnview.com/en/download.html  (easier to use - Windows only)
Save the image as type png, jpg or gif, not as a bitmap.
In the image editor you choose, you should crop the image so that the interesting part of the image fills the entire space.  If you choose the gimp software and become adept with it, you can learn how to create images with a transparent background so that the image blends in perfectly with the background color of the test.

If you have rich content (an entire pdf file) that you want to include in a test, you can always link to a page on another website.  If you paste a link (like  http://www.gimp.org/downloads/  ) into the quiz, it should be navigable at test time.

We do not allow pasting in content from the clipboard for security reasons.  Most non-text content you paste is simply stripped out when the test is saved.