Creating Tests

Once an instructor has acquired and installed the Respondus Authoring Tool software, he or she can create secure and non secure exams directly from a local computer.

An important initial step when creating secure computer based Blackboard exams is to add a course content area called EXAMS within your Blackboard course.

The main steps to follow when creating tests within the Respondus Authoring Tool are:

1. Creating, Importing or Converting a test
2. Establishing the settings for secure exams
   1. Using the LockDown Browser
   2. Instructor Generated Passwords
3. Publishing an Exam to Blackboard

For assistance creating exams using the Respondus Authoring Tool, contact Jim Holzknecht at 223-8011, jholzkne@austincc.edu if you are an instructor at the PIN campus, or contact an Instructional Development Specialist at an ACC campus near you.

Training materials and guides are also available.

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The Respondus Authoring Tool main interface screen gives an instructor a variety of exam development options.

• Open enables you to open existing Respondus files.
• Create opens the Respondus question editor and allows you to create new test questions.
• Exam Wizard gives you the ability to quickly create exams from multiple Respondus files (e.g.: question files for different chapters, etc.),, to merge or append question files, create new exam question files, and to add new questions to an existing question file. View a demonstration of the Respondus Authoring Tool Exam Wizard.
• Import Questions allows you to import document files such as MS Word or text files into the Respondus Authoring Tool. Some of the options available with this feature are to import:
  • Instructor generated content from a document file (MS Word or text)
  • Text book publisher content files and test banks
• The Archive Wizard allows you to create a Respondus archive file (.RSA extension) so that questions, media, and equations can be stored as a single compressed file.

In addition to opening existing files and creating new exam files, instructors can also convert previously created Blackboard exams into secure computer based exams.

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Opening and modifying an existing test file



Select the Open icon from the Respondus Authoring Tool main screen and select the name of the Respondus file (.RSA) you want to modify. You can select files from your Respondus Projects folder, your Respondus Archive folder, or browse your system for the file.

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Creating a new test file

With the Respondus Authoring Tool Create option, an instructor can develop a new test file containing several different types of exam questions.

1. Select Create from the Respondus Authoring Tool's main menu
2. Type in the name of the file you want to create
3. Select OK and the Respondus Edit Questions screen will be launched
4. Type in the question title, wording answer choice(s), point value and other information (see below)
5. Select Add to End of List or Insert into List
6. If you want to randomize the answer choices, check the Randomize answers box.
7. Select the Preview option to see how the question will look and to verify that the questions is formatted correctly.
   
   
   
   There are a variety of question creation options available to an instructor:

• Multiple Choice
• True and False
• Essay
• Matching
• Ordering
• Fill in the Blank
• Multiple Answers
• Calculated questions

Note: It is recommended to use the Multiple Choice, True/False, and Multiple Answer type of questions when you are creating a secure exam to be uploaded into Blackboard.

For more information on creating a new test file using the Respondus edit tool, view the Flash movie.

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An instructor can create exam content in a variety of formats (e.g.: MS Word, text, etc.) and then import those files into the Respondus Authoring Tool.

Before importing content into the Respondus Authoring Tool, review the formatting requirements for exam questions. You can also view a sample plain text exam file.

When importing test questions, there are two primary steps which need to be done before the exam file can be uploaded to Blackboard:

1. Import an exam file into the Respondus Authoring Tool
2. Establish the settings for the exam

To import an exam file into the Respondus Authoring Tool, do the following:

1. Open the Respondus Authoring Tool
2. Select Import Questions
3. Browse to find the text or MS Word file containing the questions (Note: the file can either be a .TXT, a .DOC file or a comma delimited file .CSV). If the file uses images, browse to the location of the image file and select the image(s) as well.
4. You can either append the imported questions to an existing file or you can create a new file. If you select the create a new document named: option, type a name for the new exam document file in the text box provided
5. Select Exam
6. If you would like to add additional information to the question title, check the Use stem plus question number to create title checkbox and type in the stem you want (i.e. ch01-001 would be question one from chapter 1, ch01-002 would be question 2 from chapter 1, etc.)
7. Select Preview and Respondus will display the questions in the Preview Results area of the import screen. The question title is listed in blue and the question wording is in black. If there is a problem with a question (i.e. formatting errors, etc.), warning messages will be displayed in the Warnings and Notes text box. It is recommended to fix any problems or formatting issues within the .TXT or .DOC file before importing the questions in Respondus.
8. Select Finish and the test questions will appear in the test list.
9. Once the questions are imported, Respondus will open the Edit Questions screen. The edit questions area enables instructors to edit imported questions as well as create new questions and add them to the imported questions list.
   

Once the questions have been imported and edited, the settings for the exam need to be established before the exam file can be uploaded to Blackboard.

After the settings have been established, the exam is ready to be published to a Blackboard course.

For more information on how to import instructor generated content, view the online tutorial on Importing instructor generated content .

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Importing text book publisher generated content and test banks

Respondus has distribution agreements with several college textbook publishing companies. These companies have provided test banks from their course textbooks. Instructors using these textbooks in their courses, may access these test banks, import test questions into the Respondus Authoring Tool and upload exams into their Blackboard course.

If the publisher you are using for your course has a license agreement with Respondus, then you can have access to Test Bank files for course text books. After submitting some online information to the publisher, the publisher will send you the information you'll need to download the test bank files into your Respondus Authoring Tool.

Once you download the test bank file, you can add settings to the exam and then upload it to your Blackboard course.

Search for titles and participating text book publishers within the Respondus network and see additional information on Importing text book publisher generated content and test banks .

View an online Flash tutorial on how to use Respondus' Test Bank feature .

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Converting previously created Blackboard tests for secure delivery

Another exam development option available to faculty members is to convert previously developed Blackboard exams into secure exams.

To update an existing Blackboard exam, do the following:

1. Open the Respondus Authoring Tool
2. Select Preview and Publish
3. Select Update Settings
4. Choose the Blackboard server from the pull down list. (e.g.: My Blackboard Server, etc.)
5. Choose the course which contains the exam you wish to change from the Choose Course pull down menu
6. Select the exam which you want to make secure.
7. Select the Settings tab
8. Update the settings for your exam. To make an exam secure, check the Require Respondus LockDown Browser for this exam box. Notice the At the end of the exam title, display "Require Respondus LockDown Browser" box is checked automatically when the Require Respondus LockDown Browser for this exam option is checked. It is recommended to have this display after the exam title so the instructor and students know by the assessment title within Blackboard that the exam requires a LockDown browser.
   Note: When the Lockdown browser option is selected, Respondus will generate a system generated password. If this password is altered in any way within Blackbourd, the exam will no longer be secure.
9. Select the Publish New Settings opition .
10. In the Status box, it will state that the update was successful or if there was an issue during the updating process.

In addition to the LockDown browser, the instructor can also choose to create an instructor generated password by checking the Password protect box and typing the password in the text box provided. It is NOT recommended that an instructor create another password in addition to the Respondus system generated password.

If an instructor has created a password within Blackboard for a Blackboard test, it is recommended that the password be removed withiin the Modify Test Options feature of Blackboard prior to uploading new Respondus security and exam settings. Once you have uploaded the settings requiring the Respondus LockDown browser, do not modify the Respondus system generated password within Blackboard in any way or the exam will no longer be secure.

For more information on converting and updating an existing Blackboard exam for use with Respondus LockDown Browser view the online Flash movie.

After you have created, imported or converted your test questions you are ready to establish settings for your exam.