ContentProducer. Reference Guide. Release 10. Contents. Page 1 of 184

Transcription

1 ContentProducer Reference Guide Release 10 Contents Version Page 1 of 184

2 Disclaimer Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information and content within this user manual is accurate, up-to-date and reliable, the information provided is on an as is basis. BTL shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this manual or from the use of the software accompanying it. Please note that screenshots may differ slightly in graphical style from those in your system. This is because graphics have been customised for the client by BTL. The layout and functionality of the screens in this manual will be consistent with your system. Extracts from this guide may be reproduced for client purposes but references and acknowledgements must be made to BTL. Page 2 of 184

3 Contents Contents... 3 About this Guide... 4 Launching ContentProducer... 5 Getting Started... 8 The Working Environment Solution Explorer Different Types of Content in ContentProducer Creating On-screen Content Workflow and Checking- Out/In Working with Toolbox Standard Tools Questions Special Page Types Scenes Scene Stacking Creating an On-Screen Page Template Marking Creating Paper-Based Content References Audio Accessibility Considerations Appendix 1: Common Project Settings for SuperAdministrator and ProjectAdmin users Appendix 2: Project Settings for On-Screen Projects Appendix 3: Paper-Based Project Level Activities Appendix 4: Further Technical detail on creating hotspots, including necessary code for.swfs Document Change Record Page 3 of 184

4 About this Guide Welcome to BTL s ContentProducer product. Use ContentProducer to create question items to be used in on-screen and paper-based assessments. This ContentProducer Reference Guide will help you to understand and use ContentProducer. You should make sure that you read all chapters that are relevant to you and your role in using ContentProducer. There may also be contextualised documentation available, specific to your organisation. You should check this before using the ContentProducer system. Page 4 of 184

5 Launching ContentProducer To start ContentProducer, locate and click the ContentProducer shortcut on the Start Menu. Note: If an update is available then ContentProducer will automatically detect it, asking you to confirm and install it if one is available. Once installed, you can then run ContentProducer in the same way again. The login screen will be displayed. Enter your username and password and then either press Enter or click the Login button. Paper-Based Authoring or On-Screen Authoring If your account is configured for accessing only on-screen items or only paper-based items then, provided that your login credentials are in order and you have internet connectivity, the ContentProducer application will launch fully. If your ContentProducer account is enabled for both paper-based and on-screen exam content then there will be an extra step; you ll be presented with a pop-up where you must choose whether you ll be working in paper-based or on-screen mode for this session: Click either Paper or On-screen depending on your requirements. You cannot switch between on-screen and paper-based modes whilst ContentProducer is running. If you do want to work in the other mode to the one you have loaded, exit ContentProducer and restart it, selecting the appropriate option from the pop-up detailed above when you ve logged in again and the application launches. Page 5 of 184

6 Once you ve chosen your content format, you will only be presented with options, projects, content, etc. that is of the same format type you selected. Offline Mode If you start ContentProducer without an internet connection present, or with a proxy server in place that ContentProducer isn t aware of yet, then a dialogue will be displayed instead of the login screen. This dialogue is the Internet Connection Settings screen: If you do use a proxy server to connect to the internet then enter the details of the proxy in the fields provided. If you don t know these details then contact your systems administrator. Once you ve entered the details of any proxy server, click Test Connection to test the settings you ve entered. If all is fine, click OK. ContentProducer will then attempt to connect using the specified proxy server. If ContentProducer cannot connect then an error will be displayed informing you that the connection has failed (this is also the screen shown if you click Cancel on the previous step, which you should use if you don t have a proxy server and just want to start ContentProducer in Offline Mode). Page 6 of 184

7 You must then click Yes to start ContentProducer in Offline Mode. Alternatively, click No to exit. If you choose to start ContentProducer in Offline Mode then you will see the login screen appear like in the image below. The login screen contains a warning, showing that ContentProducer will connect using Offline authentication. Note: You cannot login to ContentProducer using Offline Mode when you are logging in for the first time on that computer. Enter your username and password and click Login. Once you ve logged in, ContentProducer will start and display as normal. You will now be able to view and work on pages that you already have checked out. Towards the bottom right corner of the ContentProducer application window, a notification will show that you are working in Offline Mode. You will only be able to check pages (along with your changes) back into the server once you re-establish a connection to the server. Page 7 of 184

8 Getting Started Edit Account Details From the Menu options under the title bar, select View > Edit Account Details. You will be able to edit information associated with your ContentProducer account, namely your: Forename Surname Job Title Phone When you are satisfied with the information displayed, select Update Details to save the information and close the dialogue box. Your Username can only be changed by a member of the BTL Service Desk. Change Password From the Menu options under the title bar, select View > Change Password. Enter your new desired password, then re-enter it so we can make sure it s the password you definitely want. When you are finished, select Change Password to confirm the change. Next time you login to ContentProducer, you will have to do so with your new password. Open Project From the Menu options under the title bar, select File > Open > Open Project. You will be presented with a list of the projects that you have access to. Select the project you wish to work on, and then select Open. You can also access projects from the ContentProducer Start Page. If you have previously opened a project it will be displayed in the top left portion of the Start Page and clicking it will cause it to open immediately in the Solution Explorer panel. Page 8 of 184

9 Alternatively, you can also click the Open Project button in the Recent Projects part of the Start Page; this has the same outcome as selecting File > Open > Open Project from the Menu options. Only projects you have accessed recently will be displayed in this area though. Recent Projects, part of the Start Page. Note: you ll only see either on-screen or paper-based projects, depending on the content format mode you re working in. Page 9 of 184

10 The Working Environment On-screen Content Mode The following image provides an overview of the standard layout in ContentProducer when working with on-screen content. A B C D E F G I J H K A. Menu bar B. Toolbox C. Text Formatting Tools D. Alignment Tools E. Page working area F. Scene navigation and marking tools (only visible in Preview Mode) G. Project structure in Solution Explorer H. Editor/Preview buttons I. Properties panel J. Reveal Advanced Properties tick-box K. Reference View Tab Page 10 of 184

11 Paper-Based Content Mode The following image provides an overview of the standard layout in ContentProducer when working with paper-based content. Note that there are fewer features and options available in paper-based mode than for on-screen content. A B C A. Menu Bar B. Solution Explorer C. Reference View tab Page 11 of 184

12 Common Environment Features The title bar, at the top of the application window, shows the Page ID and name of the page you currently have open. Below the title bar are the menu options, with options listed under the main headings of File, View and Help. Beneath the Menu options are buttons that allow you to align components and items on a page, and also buttons allowing you to format text on pages. In the centre of the application window is displayed the page working area. In the Standard Layout, there are panels displayed on the right and left hand sides of the working area. Also, above the working area are tabs showing different page scenes. Beneath the working area are tabs, labelled Editor and Preview, allowing you to change your page viewing mode. Customising the Workspace Panels in the workspace (Toolbox, Output, Solution Explorer, Reference View, Properties) can all be customised in terms of visibility, size and position. Each panel has 3 icons in the top-right corner: A B C A. Maximise B. Un-pin C. Close Maximising a panel will make it fill the area where it is positioned. If you select a panel s un-pin button, that panel will disappear to the edge of the ContentProducer window, leaving only a tab displaying the name of that panel. To access a panel in this state, hover the mouse cursor over the tab for a second and the panel will slide out fully so you can use it. If you click the pin symbol again, on a panel that has been unpinned, then that panel will anchor to its original position. Clicking the close button, the x, will close that panel. You can open a panel again by selecting it from the View menu. One of the best ways to get used to the working environment and its panels is to just have a play around with the layout; drag panels into different positions, unpin them, etc. If you want to return to the default layout at any time, then just select Standard Layout from the View menu. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L. Page 12 of 184

13 When you move a panel outside the ContentProducer window, it can be dragged anywhere on the Desktop or around the ContentProducer window. This helps to free up more room for working on your page. To the left you can see a floating panel that has been moved outside of the ContentProducer application window, being dragged onto and around the Desktop. Page 13 of 184

14 On-screen Content Mode Environment These features of ContentProducer are specific to on-screen content mode. Customising the Toolbox It is possible to collapse and expand elements in the Toolbox to customise your workspace. Click the upward-pointing double arrows in the top-right corner of the different Toolbox components to collapse them. Click the downward-pointing double arrows to expand the component again. Again, this can help you to manage your space in ContentProducer, reducing clutter and allowing you to display only the features that you need to use. Page 14 of 184

15 Standard and Advanced Properties The Properties panel will default to a list of Standard properties. This list will be slightly different for each tool or question type. If you wish to see all of the properties for a particular tool or question type, check the Advanced Properties tick-box; this will reveal all of the available properties for the tool or question type. See below for an example of the Standard and Advanced properties for Multiple Choice Question type: Advanced Properties revealed Dragging ContentProducer uses a WYSIWYG system for producing content, thus you can use the mouse to resize and position items on a page as you would want them to appear in the final delivery. In this guide, if you are instructed to drag something (this could be an object from the Toolbox, a resizing handle, or an item on a page), it means you should select it by holding down the left mouse button with the pointer over it, and move the object to the desired location, releasing the mouse button when you are happy with the new position. Note: WYSIWYG means What you see is what you get. ContentProducer is designed so that as you create and design content, you position items on screen as you want them to look when they are delivered in an assessment. Hence, what you see as you re developing the question item is what you ll get when it s delivered in an assessment. Page 15 of 184

16 Location There are two different ways to change the location of an item or page component. You can select and drag the item around the page using the left mouse button or, alternatively, you can position an item by selecting it and changing its Location properties in the Properties panel. To do this, leftclick once on the item you wish to reposition, then find the Location property in the Properties panel. The two numbers displayed, separated by a comma, correspond to the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) coordinates of the top-left corner of the item on the page, in relation to the top left hand corner of the Page Working Area. Picture shows Location property. If you like, you can expand the property by left-clicking the plus sign on the left-hand side of the Location property. This will give you specific guidance on which value relates to which coordinate: Picture shows expanded Location property. Size There are two different methods for changing the size of an item or component on a page. Using the left mouse button, you can move the handles on the border of an item (which are displayed when it is selected using the left mouse button) to resize it by eye. If you use the handles in the corners of an item, the item will be resized proportionally. If you use the handles at the middle top/bottom or middle left/right, then you will only be resizing the item s height or width, respectively. Secondly, you can resize an item by selecting it and changing the Size properties in the Properties panel. To do this, left-click once on the item you wish to resize, then find the Location property in the Property panel. The two numbers displayed, separated by a comma, correspond to the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) coordinates of the top-left corner of the item on the page. Picture shows Size property. Page 16 of 184

17 If you like, you can expand the property by left-clicking the plus sign on the left-hand side of the Location property. This will give you specific guidance on which value related to which coordinate: Picture shows expanded Size property. A note on pixel co-ordinates A page is made up of pixels. If pages in your project are, for example, 800 x 600, this refers to 800 pixels horizontally, and 600 pixels vertically; that is 600 rows of 800 pixels. Pixels are counted from left to right, from top to bottom. Imagine each pixel is numbered, with its horizontal position first and then its vertical position. For example, the pixel in the very top left corner, the one in the first row and first column, will be 1,1. It works in much the same way as map co-ordinates. Pixels and The Grid When setting up page properties, there is a property for setting pixel distance on pages. This relates to the distance between dots on the grid that you can use to align content and guide your layout. You can turn the grid on/off by selecting View > Snapping > Snap to Grid on the Menu Bar (or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + G). If the grid is turned off then you will be able to freely drag items around the page without them locking onto the visible dots of the grid. When setting the page properties for a project, the pixel distance can be set as 0 (no grid), 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30. As default, each page would be set as having a 10 pixel distance, but the choice is up to each organisation. Common Properties Property Values Description TabEnabled True, False If set to True then the item will be accessible using the keyboard s Tab button in the delivery engine. If set to False, the item will not be accessible by using tabbing. Tab ordering is automatically determined by the delivery engine. Page 17 of 184

18 Location 2 Numbers separated by a comma (x,y) This property defines, in pixels, the horizontal and vertical position of an item. Size Number, Number (x,y) This property defines, in pixels, the horizontal and vertical size of an item. Marking Method Absolute, Cumulative, Not Marked See the Marking chapter for more information. Weighting Numerical value (whole number) See the Marking chapter for more information. Border Colour # followed by Hexadecimal colour code (e.g. #FFFFFF) This controls the colour of a component s border. Background Colour # followed by Hexadecimal colour code (e.g. #FFFFFF) This controls the colour of a component s background or its fill colour. Border Width Numerical value (whole number) Width, in pixels, of the border to surround an item. Font Name of font The name of the font to be used for an item/component. Particularly used for Question Extensions and Tables and certain question types such as Gapfill. MaxSelections Numerical value (whole number) This property relates directly to multiple choice question types. Style Numerical value (whole number of 0 upwards) This relates to styles that are setup in ContentProducer. Page 18 of 184

19 Solution Explorer To view the Solution Explorer you need to select View > Solution Explorer from the Menu bar. Solution Explorer will then be displayed in a panel on the right-hand side of ContentProducer. Solution Explorer allows you to navigate between projects and around a project s folders and pages. Please note that some of the screenshots may differ between paper-based and on-screen content modes, but the common options detailed in this guide will be available from the menus in both modes. Projects Projects are usually used as content silos for specific subject areas. They serve as a way of managing content more easily. Then, within projects, folders can be used to further break down content into categories such as level or learning outcome. Adding a Project Adding more than one project to a solution allows users to copy pages across to other projects. This can eliminate unnecessary repetition of pages or page templates. To add a project to a solution, right-click the solution and select Add Existing Project and a dialogue will be displayed allowing you to select a project to add to the solution you have open. Once you have selected a project, select the Open button and the new project will be displayed in the Solution Explorer. Picture shows Solution Explorer folder tree. Remove If you right-click a project and select Remove then its association with a solution will be removed. This means that the project will not be displayed under the solution you have open. When selecting Remove, you will be asked to confirm your intentions via a dialogue box. Page 19 of 184

20 Project Structure Projects, when displayed in Solution Explorer, are displayed as pages or folders. Pages can be in the root Project folder, or they can be created in or moved into folders. Within folders you can have sub-folders and folders in these sub-folders and so on. Also in the structure of a project, there will be a recycle bin. This allows you to restore any pages that are deleted in error. A B F G C D E A: Solution, B: Project, C: Recycle Bin, D: Page, E: Folder, F: Collapsible structure, G: Expandable structure Creating and Using Folders Folders help you to manage your pages and put similar types of pages together. For example, you could group them by subject, learning outcome, level, etc. To add a folder to a project, that is to make it a top-level folder, right-click the project in Solution Explorer then select Add New Folder from the menu. Note that you must right-click the project, and not the Solution, as you cannot create a folder directly in a Solution. A Solution is made up of Projects. A Project is made up of Folders and Pages. A page is made up of scenes, components and items. Picture shows Solution Explorer dialogue menu. Create a new folder in a parent folder To create a folder within another folder, right-click the folder in which you want to create a new folder. Select Add New Folder from the menu. A dialogue box will be displayed so you can name the new folder. When you have entered a name for the folder, select OK and the folder will appear in the structure, shown in the structure beneath its parent folder. You can then rename the folder if you choose. Page 20 of 184

21 Find PageID Selecting Find PageID will display a search box, allowing you to enter a page s unique ID and select OK. You will then be taken to the location of that page in the project structure displayed in Solution Explorer, with the appropriate page highlighted. Picture shows Find ID search box. The project structure will expand folders and sub-folders accordingly, if necessary, to display the page you are searching for. About PageIDs Each page, like every scene, item and component in ContentProducer, has its own unique ID number. This number can be used to search for the page within a project; it also helps when dealing with construction devices such as layering. The first page created in a project will have a PageID that is the ProjectID + 1. For example, the first page created in a project with ProjectID 279 will have the PageID 280 assigned to it. Then the second page created in the same project will have a PageID of 281, and so on in increments of 1. This is the ID that is used when searching for a page; it is displayed in the metadata seen when you hover the mouse pointer over a page in Solution Explorer: Picture shows the PageID in a page s metadata Page 21 of 184

22 There is no limit to the number of pages that can be created in a project (apart from storage space!). A full PageID is made up of the ProjectID the page is in and the PageID. These two values are separated by the letter P. Each project has its own unique ID number. Every time a project is created, it will be assigned an ID number that is 1 greater than the last project created. Full PageID example A page whose PageID is 3124, and which is in a project that has a ProjectID of 279, will have a full PageID that is: 279P3124. The P stands for page. Knowledge of how full PageIDs are made up can help you when identifying SceneIDs and ComponentIDs. Rename, Copy and Delete In the Solution Explorer, right-clicking pages, folders and projects will display a context menu. This means you will be presented with different options according to what you have clicked, and what status the affected pages have. Rename You can rename folders and pages by right-clicking them and selecting Rename. This will display a dialogue box for you to enter the new name and select OK. Copy You can copy a page or folder and then paste them to a different location. Copying a folder will copy all of its contents as well. Delete Deleting a page or folder will move it to the Recycle Bin of its project. This means that the folder/pages aren t permanently lost yet; they can be restored by accessing them from the Recycle Bin. Page 22 of 184

23 Project Options Right-clicking a project will present the following menu options (these are the options displayed for Super Administrator Users Standard Users and Project Admins will see fewer options): Picture shows project options dialogue menu. About Checking In and Checking Out ContentProducer pages are stored on a central server; this allows users in different locations to work on the same content without having to scripts to one another, etc. When you want to edit a page, you must check-out that page. This means that the latest version of that page will be downloaded to, and temporarily stored on, your computer. Pages that you have checked out will only be available for you to work on until you check them back in. When you have finished editing a page and check it back in, the new version is transferred back up to the ContentProducer server, ready for access by other users. This process is managed through the Solution Explorer, so there is no need to save pages in a separate folder. When another user has a page checked-out, you will not be able to edit it but you can still view the latest version of the page, either by double-clicking it with the left mouse button or right-clicking and selecting Get Latest Version in the Solution Explorer. Note: Having too many pages checked-out to your computer at one time causes high memory usage which may trigger an error message. It is recommended that you don t have more than 10 pages checked out at one time. Working with pages offline ContentProducer allows you to work on pages even when you don t have internet connectivity. This can be particularly useful, for example, if you are going to be travelling or in a wireless blackspot. While you do have an internet connection, you should check out all pages you wish to work on; you can then disconnect from the internet and work on the pages whilst offline. When you reconnect to the internet, you can check Page 23 of 184

24 the pages back in, and the changes you have made while offline will be uploaded with the pages back to the central server. Check Out... (Recursive) Selecting a recursive check-out will cause all pages in a folder, including within any sub-folders, to be checked out to you. The check-out will happen immediately unless there are more than 10 pages affected, in which case you will be asked to confirm the check-out. Picture shows Recursive Checkout warning. Selecting Yes will confirm the recursive check-out and the pages within the selected folder will all be checked-out to you. You can abort the recursive check-out by selecting No at this stage. The pages checked out will be shown as such by the green tick icon next to the pages in Solution Explorer. However, the latest versions will not be downloaded to your computer until you right-click a checked-out page and select to Get Latest Version.... This helps prevent large recursive check-outs from slowing your computer to a halt or littering your ContentProducer with an overwhelming number of pages. Note: It is not recommended that you close ContentProducer without checking pages back in, but if you do, you will receive a pop-up warning you that you still have pages checked out. Click No to cancel your decision to close ContentProducer. Click Yes to continue closing ContentProducer. Page 24 of 184

25 Check In... (Recursive) Selecting a recursive check-in will cause all pages that are checked-out to you, within that folder, to be checked back in to the server. Remember that pages in any subfolders within the selected folder will also be affected. Note: If mandatory references have been defined in the project settings, but they have not been set for the page, you will see a warning message when you attempt a recursive check-in (you will receive this message even if some of the pages that you are trying to check-in have had their mandatory references set): Click OK to close the message, then return to the pages that have not had their mandatory references set. Once you have set the mandatory references, you will be able to perform a recursive check-in. If no mandatory references have been set, you will be able to do a recursive check-in regardless of which references have or haven t been set. Undo Checkout... (Recursive) Selecting a recursive Undo Checkout will cause all pages that are checked out to you, within that folder, to be checked back in to the server with any changes made since their last check-out to be disregarded. Remember that pages in any subfolders within the selected folder will also be affected. The recursive Check In and Undo Checkout options will only be displayed if you have pages checked-out in that project. Get Latest Version Selecting this will download the latest version of that page, but without checking it out. This is useful for when you just wish to review pages without necessarily changing anything. Another way of downloading the latest version of a page is to double-click it in the Solution Explorer file structure. Page 25 of 184

26 Folder Options in On-screen Content Mode Right-clicking a folder will present the following menu options: Picture shows Folder options dialogue menu. You can use this menu to add Folders and Pages to a project. When you create a Folder or Page at this level, it will be created in the root location of the Project, so it wouldn t be within another existing folder. Folder Options in Paper-based Content Mode When working in paper-based content mode in ContentProducer, there are is a slight difference in the options and features available at this level. The right-click menu in Solution Explorer when working in paper-based content mode provides, as well as the option to create folders and pages, the options to add a new Word template or to create a Source Booklet item. Page 26 of 184

27 Page Options in On-screen Content Mode Right-clicking a page will present the following menu options: Picture shows Page options dialogue menu in On-screen content mode. Page Options in Paper-Based Content Mode The differences from on-screen content mode again are that in paper-based content mode, you can add Word templates and Source Book Items. Picture shows Page Options context menu in Paper-based content Mode Page 27 of 184

28 Group View The Group View panel offers a different way of accessing pages. You apply filters in Group View to sort pages into different groups, rather than just the project structure folders that they appear in when viewed in the Solution Explorer. The filters you can apply relate to metadata on the pages. This means any metadata that can be added to pages can be used to filter pages, and then the pages will be displayed in folders according to their values for that metadata. On top of the metadata filters, the default filter applied to pages is their check-in status. Folders can be expanded and collapsed to display/hide pages, as with the Solution Explorer. To apply a different filter, you must select the select filter button at the top-left of the Group View panel (shown above the funnel/lightning bolt icon). When you click this button, a dialogue box will be displayed. You can click the downward arrow to view a list of properties which you can filter pages by. Select the one you want to use as a filter by clicking it, and then select OK. Pictures show Reference Filter Page 28 of 184

29 Once you have OK d your new filter, the Group View panel will display pages that have values specified for that property. You can change a page s reference values by selecting the property you want to sort pages by, then holding the shift key and dragging a page into a different folder. The page will then inherit the value of that folder as a new reference. Note: You cannot do this when using the Checked Out list filter. Page 29 of 184

30 Reference View In the Reference View, you will see an information table containing all the items in the project that you are currently in, along with each item s metadata. The content of the Reference View table is configurable, allowing you to construct customised tables that are fit for purpose. Once you have all the information that you need contained within the table, you can export the data to a CSV file. These tables of data that you create make it easier for users to author reports about items within a specific project and allow for greater analysis of items within ContentProducer. Note. All metadata is a page level only, not project level. Picture shows Reference View panel Editing the Reference View table Columns The default table will be made up of the Page ID and Name columns only; you will see these columns, already populated, when you initially open the Reference View. Add and delete columns by selecting the Edit Columns option at the top of the table. All the metadata defined for the project will then be listed above the table. Use the tick-boxes to add columns to the table. Simply uncheck a tick-box to remove the column. Page 30 of 184

31 If you wish to change the order in which the columns appear, click the top cell of the column that you wish to move (i.e. the column heading cell) and drag it to a new location. You can also adjust the width of columns and the height of rows by hovering the cursor over a cell boundary and dragging it to a new size. All columns can be sorted into ascending or descending order. To sort a column, click on the column heading and you will see a small, dark grey arrow appear to indicate the sorting order. Set a Filter To filter the data in your table, click the Set Filter button. This will open up the Reference View Filter dialogue, enabling you to filter down the information in the table. You can filter information by selecting a filter type from the dropdown menu. The next step you need to take will depend on the filter type that you have selected. See the table below for the possible outcomes. Filter Type Select Reference Select Value Fixed Reference Choose from a list of the available fixed references, e.g. PageType. Now choose a value for this fixed reference, such as Intro. Free Text Reference Choose from a list of the available free text references, e.g. Keywords. Enter a value for this free text reference into the Select Value field and click Search. Item Name Search by item name by entering a value into the Select Value field and click Search. - Page 31 of 184

32 Question Type Choose a question type from the list of those available, e.g. Gapfill. - Single Flag Select a flag from the list of available flags. Use the radio buttons to select to filter information by Flagged or Unflagged items. Group Flag Select a group flag from the list of available group flags. Select one of the available values for the group flag that you ve chosen. Date Reference Select a date from the list of available date references. Select a specific date using the date picker. The date that you select will automatically appear in the Select Value field. Integer Reference Select one of the available integer references. Enter a specific integer value into the Select Value field. Decimal Reference Select one of the available decimal references. Enter a specific decimal value into the Select Value field. By folder Select a specific folder from the project folder tree using the tick-boxes. Select the Include Subfolders tick-box to select a folder and its subfolder contents. - Once you have set a filter, click the OK button to apply it or Cancel to close the dialogue without applying the filter. If no items can be found in your search, you will see this popup: To edit an existing filter, click the Edit Filter button to open up the Reference View filter dialogue again. Alternatively, you can clear the filter altogether using the Clear Filter button. Page 32 of 184

33 See below for an example of using filters: Currently, the table is displaying the Page ID, Name and Status of 471 items. To narrow this data down, it is being filtered by Folder in this example, the Art and Literature folder. The number of items found in a search will always be shown at the bottom of the dialogue. Now, the table shows the Page ID, Name and Status of items in the Art and Literature folder. Page 33 of 184

34 Item History Double-click on an item in the table to view its Item History. If no Item History is found, you will see a warning message. Included in the item s history is: The author Time and Date of the last modification Any comments The workflow status of the item Changed references You can sort each column by clicking on the column heading. Item Relationships Edit the relationships between items to define whether or not they can appear in the same exam together. Items can be defined as either Friend or Enemy items; when an item is selected in ItemBank, any Friend Items will automatically be chosen with it, any Enemy Items will not be available for use in the same exam. Friend Items In ContentProducer, you can link question items together to create sets of items that will appear in the same exam; these are known as Friend items. The relationships between question items that you define here will be carried through to ItemBank so that Friend Items appear together when creating Exams. Once you have created links between items, you will also be able to fix the order that they will appear in. Creating Links to Friend Items Right-click on the page you wish to create Friend Items for and select Edit Relationships from the menu. Note: The page must be checked-out in order to edit the relationships, otherwise the option won t be visible in the right-click menu. Once you have opened the Edit Relationships dialogue, select the Friend Items radio button. In the lefthand panel of the dialogue, you will see a list of all the items in the current project this tree will look the same as the project tree in the Solution Explorer. You will see that the Parent Item the item whose relationships you are editing will be greyed out so that you can t select it. Use the tick-boxes to select an item that you wish to create a Friend link to when you do this, you ll see that the Friend Item will automatically appear in the selected items list. When you have selected a Friend Item, you ll see the Parent Item appear at the top of the Selected Friend Items list. So, in ItemBank, this Page 34 of 184

35 Friend Item will automatically be selected for any exam that the Parent Item is used in (but not vice-versa, i.e. if the Friend Item is chosen in ItemBank, the Parent Item won t automatically be selected along with it). If you do wish both items (Parent and selected) to be dependent on one another, you are also able to create a link from the selected item back to the Parent Item. This would mean that when either item is chosen for an exam, the other would automatically be selected also. Creating Sets of Friend Items As well as being able to link two items together as Friends, you can also create sets of Friend Items. This is a practical and efficient way to ensure that question items that may be dependent upon others for example, if 3 separate question items are required together to form one section of an exam only ever appear with these associated items when selected for an exam, rather than on their own. Select each item that you wish to be included in the set in the same way as before, using the tick-boxes. The selected Friend Items will be listed under the Parent Item in the right-hand panel. You will see that each item is aligned with green arrow buttons use these to change the order of the items in the list. Important: This is the order that the question items will appear in the exam so it is important for you to ensure that this order is correct. Next, check the tick-box at the bottom of the Selected Friend Items panel (the tick-box will be checked by default). Once you click OK with this tick-box checked, the metadata for each of the selected items will be updated so that all of the items contain the same friend metadata i.e. all of the items are friends. You will need to check the Parent Item back in for the changes to be made to the associated items. Since this requires a behind the scenes check-in/check-out operation for each of the selected items, it means that you will need the sufficient workflow status rights for checking pages in and out. For example, you may have access to Draft status pages only, but one of the selected pages may be at a higher status, meaning that you wouldn t be able to check it out. If you don t have the required permissions, you will receive a warning when you check-in the page on which you are editing the relationships. For more information on workflow status access, see the Workflow section of Appendix 1 in this guide. Note: When you check the Parent Item back in, you may need to wait for a few seconds while ContentProducer checks each associated item out and back in again. Note: The Help icon at the top of the screen will display the following message when clicked: Page 35 of 184

36 A note on item statuses: It may be possible that not all of the items within a set of friends are at the same status. This will not affect your ability to include them here, but Friend Items will not be published along with the Parent Item if they are not at the relevant status level. ItemBank users will be warned when selected a question item that has existing Friend Items that are not yet published. Enemy Items In addition to linking items together as Friends, you can associate Enemy Items with a selected (parent) item as well; Enemy Items are those items that should never be in the same exam as the item that they are tagged. An example scenario might be that a question item contains the answer to another question item, so you wouldn t want them to appear in the same exam together. When a question item with associated enemy question items is selected for an exam, ItemBank will ensure that none of these Enemy Items appears in the same exam. Creating Links to Enemy Items In the Edit Relationships dialogue, select the Enemy Items radio button. In the left-hand panel of the dialogue, you will see a list of all the items in the current project this tree will look the same as the project tree in the Solution Explorer. You will see that the Parent Item the item whose relationships you are editing will be greyed out so that you can t select it. You may also see other question items greyed-out these will be any Friend Items that have already been tagged to the Parent Item, preventing you from selecting the same item as a friend and an enemy. Use the tick-boxes to select the items that you wish to be Enemy Items. As you do this, you ll see your selected items appear in the right-hand panel. To delete any of your selected Enemy Items from the list, click the red X button. Note: The Help icon at the top of the screen will display a message similar to that which you see when selecting Friend Items. Source Items Source Items are relevant for paper-based exams only. All items listed in the tree will be greyed-out when authoring in on-screen mode, so you will not be able to select anything to be a Source Item when creating on-screen content. Page 36 of 184

37 Different Types of Content in ContentProducer There are different types of items/pages that exist in ContentProducer; here is an overview: On-screen Content Mode Type Description Question (marked) A question page where a mark is assigned. Question (non-marked) A question page where no mark is assigned. Mark Scheme A page that has a Word document attached that can be used by examiners when marking the question it is attached to. Tool A non-marked page that contains an exam tool or datasheet. This can be made on a page-by-page basis when the exam is assembled. Examples of tools include: calculator, datasheet. Information page A non-marked page that includes information for the candidate, for example an introduction to the next section of the exam. Paper-Based Content Mode Type Description Question A page with a Word document attached that contains the question. Mark Scheme A page with a Word document attached that can be used by examiners to mark the question it is associated with. Word Template A page that has a Word document attached to it. This can be used to apply styles and settings to questions. Page 37 of 184

38 Source Booklet Item A page with a Word document attached to it. This can contain data or information that the candidate has to refer to in order to answer a question. For example, this might contain newspaper articles or details of a science experiment. Page 38 of 184

39 Creating On-screen Content A page on its own is just a blank area, its size dictated by the properties of the project it belongs to. It is the items and components that are put onto that page which make it come alive and function as a piece of content. See Building a Page for further information on creating assessment content. Checking Out a Page When you have opened a project, you can checkout pages and begin creating content. To check out a page, right-click it in the Solution Explorer panel and select Check Out... from the resulting menu. You can t check out a page if someone else has it checked out. A B C A. This page can be checked out, B. This page is checked out to someone else, C. This page is checked out to you. Checking out a Page for Review When a page has been set to a workflow status that is higher than your own, it will appear red: This will mean that you can only check the page out for review this option will be available to you when you right-click on the page. However, check-out for review will only be possible for pages that are not yet within the publish range (the option will be hidden from the menu if the page is within the publish range). When you have checked a page out for review, you will only have access to the page in Preview mode. When you check the page back in, you will only be able to add a comment. You won t be able to set item flags or change the page status. Page 39 of 184

40 Building a page A page is most commonly made up of question text, answer options and other optional visual elements, like autoshapes and images. A question may sometimes require an image in order for the candidate to answer it; likewise it may require an animation or video. Here is a simple page containing a text box, with the question text in it, and an answer area in this case, a multiple choice question type. Answer area/ question component Question text Picture shows a simple page containing two components: a text box, a multiple choice question type. Page 40 of 184

41 Here is the same page displayed in Preview mode: To change the look and feel of the page content, you could add autoshapes or images. On the following page of this guide is an example of how this could be done for the page of content shown above, without changing its existing components. About Items and Components An item is a single object on a page, for example a text box, an image, a multiple choice option. Components are made up of items. A multiple choice question type is a component made up of items. For example, a multiple choice question with four options is made up of four items; but it still comprises one component as a whole. Page 41 of 184

42 Here is the page with autoshapes added behind the question text and answer area, and an illustrative image. I also changed the colour of the text on this page, so it contrasts with the blue of the autoshapes: Autoshape Image Autoshape Page 42 of 184

43 ...and here is the page in Preview mode, as the candidate would see it. I m sure you ll be able to find some colours much less garish than those presented here but, from these illustrations, you can get a feel for how images and autoshapes can add value to your pages and help bring focus to the text and answer areas. Adding a component Left-click and drag the component onto the page. Or, left-click and release on a component from the Toolbox, and then left-click and drag on the page; the second technique allows you to specify the size of a component, before it is created. This process is the same, whether you re adding a question type, an autoshape, or a textbox to a page. Selecting a Component and Multiple Components You can select a single component on a page by clicking on it with the left mouse button. To select more than one component, first you should click and hold the left mouse button on an empty spot on the page (not on top of any components) and drag the pointer over any items you want to select, and then release the mouse button. Alternatively, you can left-click on a component, release the mouse button, hold the shift key and left-click another item. You can carry on doing this, holding the shift key, to select as many items at you like. Page 43 of 184

44 If you have more than one item selected, you can also deselect items one by one, by holding shift and leftclicking the item you want to deselect. This can be repeated to deselect further items. Player Version This setting refers to the Player version used to deliver on-screen content; the ContentProducer player uses ActionScript 3.0 as standard, so you need to ensure that the Player Version is set correctly. The setting will automatically set to Default. The Default player will determine which player to use (Legacy or Standard see below). The Player Version setting is defined at Page level using the right-click option. If you wish to select the Player Version yourself, right-click the page in Solution Explorer (note: the page must be checked out) and select one of the following options: Legacy ActionScript 2.0 only Standard ActionScript 3.0 and most ActionScript 2.0 files. It is likely that the Player version will only need to be changed if you have a page containing a BTLOffice question type or an Advanced Question Type on the same page as a Standard Question Type. If this is the case, the Player Version should be set to Legacy because BTLOffice (and certain Advanced Question Types) currently only runs in ActionScript 2.0. Note: This setting will be available to SuperAdmin or ProjectAdmin users only. Lock/Unlock Objects This feature provides you with the ability to lock objects in place as you are building a page. This will help to avoid objects being shifted around by accident, even if they appear to have been selected. You will be able to lock objects within a page in two ways: Right-click on an individual item on a page a select Lock (you can then unlock an item in the same way, selecting Unlock from the right-click menu). OR Select one of the following options from Lock Objects in the Edit menu. Lock Selected Unlock Selected Lock All Unlock All Locks any selected items on the page. Unlocks any selected items on the page. Locks all items on a page. Unlocks all items on a page. Page 44 of 184

45 With either of these methods, the Item Lock properties for an item will update automatically, informing you of the locked/unlocked state of the item. Note for Super Admin or Project Admin users: If you are a SuperAdmin or ProjectAdmin user then you will also be able to lock and unlock whole pages so that no new objects can be added to the page. The properties of existing objects will still be editable however. Undo/Redo Whilst editing page content in Editor mode, you can undo and redo your changes to the page content or the properties. You won t be able to undo any changes to the page s metadata. To do this, select Edit > Undo or Redo. Alternatively, you can use the following shortcuts: Undo CTRL + Z Redo CTRL + Y Note: You will be able to undo up to 20 changes. When editing advanced question types, such as the Table or Graph question types, then changes will be undone/redone with respect to one editing session. For example, if you were editing a Table in the Tool Editor and made 6 changes then closed the editor and selected Undo, all 6 changes would be reversed in one go. Spell Checker Use the spell checker tool to ensure that no pieces of text contain any spelling mistakes. You can use the spell checker to check pieces of text in the following question types: Textbox Multiple Choice Gapfill Picklist Drag and drop Page 45 of 184

46 To check all pieces of text on a page (from the above question types), make sure that no components on the page are selected. If you do wish to spell check specific components, select to highlight them before starting the check. To use the spell checker, click the Edit on the toolbar and select Spell Check from the menu. If more than one dictionary is available, a popup will be displayed first, allowing you to select a language to use for checking the spelling. Click OK and the Spell Check dialogue box will open. Piece of text being checked the incorrect words will be shown in red. Replacement word select one from the Suggestions list below, or type in your own, and click the Replace button. Action buttons: use these buttons to select an action for the incorrect word see below for descriptions of what each option does. Cancel click to exit the Spell Checker. This count keeps track of how many words are being checked and tells you which word is currently being checked. Page 46 of 184

47 Action Buttons Ignore Once click this button to ignore the incorrect word once. This may be required if words need to be incorrect on purpose. Ignore All click this button to ignore all instances of this incorrect word. Add to Dictionary click this button to add the incorrect word to your dictionary. This means that the word won t be seen as incorrect in the future. Replace once you have selected a replacement word, either by clicking on one from the Suggestions list or by typing in your own word, click this button to replace the incorrect word with the new word. Replace All click this button to replace all instances of the incorrect word with your chosen replacement. Options Clicking the Options button will open the Options popup. In the General tab, you can use the tick boxes to define certain things to ignore: Words with digits Words in all UPPER CASE HTML tags. You can also enter a value for the maximum number of suggestions in the Suggestions list. Once you have finished defining these settings, click the OK button, or Cancel to exit without saving your changes. The subsequent tabs in the Options popup are for information purposes only. Once the Spell Checker has finished checking the piece(s) of text, you will see this popup: Click the OK button to close the popup. You will then be able to see your corrected text. Page 47 of 184

48 Preview control buttons When a page is previewed, more control buttons are displayed in the ContentProducer interface. These give you more power to see how your page will behave when it is delivered in a live engine. In editor mode: In preview mode: Previous scene Next scene Show answers Mark responses Marker panel Previous Scene This feature allows you to move on to the previous scene of a page (the previous scene sequentially) without the need for navigational hotspots or scene conditions. Next Scene This feature, conversely to the Previous Scene button, allows you to move on to the next scene of a page (the next scene sequentially) without the need for navigational hotspots or scene conditions. Show Answers This feature, when selected, will display the correct answers to any question components on a page, automatically selecting correct multiple choice options, filling gapfills with the correct text and so on. Page 48 of 184

49 Mark Responses Mark responses will automatically mark any attempted questions on the page and show if the answer given is correct or not. Marker Panel Selecting the Marker Panel button will open a dialog box that will allow you to review the more intricate details of how questions on your page will function and award marks to the candidate. More detail is provided on this in the Marking section. Page 49 of 184

50 Workflow and Checking- Out/In Workflow is built into ContentProducer to help manage different stages of content production. ContentProducer s workflow system helps control which pages a User has access to. This works by assigning Users a specific status level. This is recognised when they login and restricts the User so that they are only able to check-out and check-in pages at the status to which they have been assigned (and any status lower). The names of different page statuses are decided at the outset of a project, although, technically, they can be altered during a project. Status levels are set by someone with high-level/board-level access, and cannot be changed by lower levels of status. When you come to check-in a page, you will be greeted by a pop-up dialogue: This pop-up shows the current Page Status ( Draft in this case) and the current comment for the page. If you click on the Previous Comments tab, you will be shown a comment history - please note that the Comment History cannot be amended by any user. The Comment History enables you to track all of the comments that have been added to that page, giving you a better overview of the page s progress through Page 50 of 184

51 the workflow. Comments are visible when someone checks-in a page or, more readily, when they hover the mouse cursor over the page in Solution Explorer. Aside from comments, you may need to change the status of a page when checking it in; it may be ready for proofreading or for someone to insert an image, for example. To change the status of a page when you check it in, select the Page Status drop down menu and select the new Page Status: When you have selected the new Page Status, you can click OK to confirm the status and check the page in along with any changes you have made to it. Note: Certain Metadata (or references) for a page may have been set as mandatory: if so, and you try to check a page in without having set the metadata, you will be prompted to do so before being taken to the Page Advisor dialogue box. Please see the References chapter for more information on Mandatory References. Setting an Item Flag Depending on the Project s settings, Item Flags may be available for setting on a page upon check-in. Item Flags are additional pieces of information, regarding the status of an item. For example, a flag might be required to indicate the Copyright clearance of an item. You will see any available flags in the Item Flag panel (see right). Use the radio buttons to select the Item Flag value you wish to add. Note: A ProjectAdmin or SuperAdmin user will need to have associated your user with a specific flag, otherwise this panel will be empty or greyed out. Important: Once you have set a flag and you check the page in, you will not be able to unset the flag. Use the Reset button before checking the page in if you accidentally select a flag. Page 51 of 184

52 Checking-in, Status and Publishing to ItemBank The second-highest status that a page can be set to in the process will be the status that publishes the question item to the item bank, so that it can be used in assessments. The publishing process automatically happens when the page is set to this publish status. Note: The status won t necessarily be called Published : this depends on your configuration. Note: If you set a page to the publish status, ContentProducer will attempt to publish to the ItemBank periodically (e.g. every 20 minutes). If the item cannot be published for any reason, the page s status will revert to one level below the publish status. If this is the case, you will have to return to ContentProducer and manually set the item to the publish status again. Status Values Status values, or names, differ between organisations using ContentProducer, so it is impossible to predict here what the name of that final publish status will be. By default the name of it is Released but, as with a lot of details in ContentProducer, these status levels are completely configurable to suit your demands. Picture shows Page Check In with Page Status drop-down menu. Page 52 of 184

53 Retired/Withdrawn Pages Sometimes items will need to be retired from use in assessments. To allow for this, there will be an extra status level above the Publish status. When a page is checked in as this status, it will no longer be published to the item bank. Picture shows Withdrawn status in the Page Status drop-down menu. Page 53 of 184

54 The Page Advisor The ContentProducer Page Advisor tab will be displayed below the Status level menu and comments box. A message will be displayed, showing you how many common errors were identified on the page and how many warnings were identified that you may wish to consider. Picture shows the Page Advisor. The Page Advisor will help you to create properly functioning content by identifying some of the common errors made when authoring in ContentProducer. Any warnings or errors will be identified by an x and will include information on where the offending component is on the page. If a component passes a Page Advisor check, a tick will be displayed next to that check. If a particular component does not exist on the page then N/A will be displayed next to that check. You should not rely solely on the Page Advisor to catch errors in the content; it should not replace your organisation s user checking processes. Page 54 of 184

55 Comments You can view comments that have been added by different users, upon check-in at each status, in several ways. When Checking-In When you come to check a page in, click on the Previous Comments tab to display all comments that have been added to that page. The newest comment will be displayed at the top, the oldest at the bottom. You will also be able to see any references that have been changed upon each check-in. In Solution Explorer If you hover the mouse pointer over a page in Solution Explorer, it will display a tooltip showing you all references set on that page. Comments are carried as references on a page, so any comments will be displayed along with the other references here. Only the latest comment will be visible. Page 55 of 184

56 Using the Previous Comments Panel You can get the latest version of a page (no need to check it out) and look in the Previous Comments panel to view all comments that have been made on a page. To display the Previous Comments panel, select from the View Menu. You can then manipulate the size and position of this panel as you can with others (e.g. Solution Explorer). Page 56 of 184

57 Layering In Standard Layout, the Layering panel is accessed through a tab at the foot of the Properties panel: The Layering panel allows you to view the information for the entire content within a page; this is broken down to the number of scenes, components on a scene and items within a component. Each scene, component and item is given a unique code. Here is an example of a code 123P456S7C8T9, and this is how it is created: 123 is the projects number P456 is the ContentProducer Page ID S7 is the scene number C8 is the component number and T9 is the item number You can also change the order in which scenes/components/items appear by dragging the ID of it to a different position in the Layering panel. This does not change the order in which the scenes have been created and should only be used to layer the components and items within a scene. The higher a scene s/component s/item s ID on the list in the Layering panel, the nearer to the top of the screen it will we when displayed. For example, if a black autoshape is higher on the list than the textbox it is supposed to be behind, then, in Preview Mode, the text will not be displayed as the autoshape will be on top of it. Clicking on items in the Layering panel will also select them on the page, allowing you to more easily identify and move them. This is particularly useful if you have a rogue component on the page that you cannot identify by eye alone, or if an item has disappeared from view due to an error when typing new location coordinates, for example. Page 57 of 184

58 Above you can see that when a component ID is selected, that component is highlighted on the page. If the autoshape needs to be above or beneath any other components, then it can be dragged to a new position in the Layering panel. You can switch between layered views for Scenes, Components and Items: Page 58 of 184

59 Alignment tools Alignment tools in ContentProducer allow you to more easily and consistently position items and components on a page. To apply any of these alignment options, you should make sure that the two or more components you wish to align with each other are all selected. When all the components you want to align are selected, you can then click one of the following alignment buttons: Line up the left edges of selected components. Line up the top edges of selected components. Line up the centres of selected components, according to a vertical line. Apply an equal horizontal distance between selected components. Line up the right edges of selected components. Line up the bottom edges of selected components. Line up the centres of selected components, according to a horizontal line. Apply an equal vertical distance between selected components. Locking Items As you build a page in ContentProducer and it becomes fuller as more components are added, you may find it useful to lock the components in place to avoid accidentally shifting them, which can be easily done if you are layering or overlapping components. To lock individual items as you construct a page, simply rightclick on a component and select Lock from the menu. Alternatively, you can lock all components by going to Lock Objects in the Edit menu in the toolbar and selecting Lock All. (Note that you will also be able to lock individual components and objects in this way too). Page 59 of 184

60 Items can be unlocked again for both individual and all components by either right-clicking the component or selecting Lock Objects from the Edit menu again. Note: For those users with the Project Admin permission, there is also the option to prevent anymore components from being added to the page, although properties can still be changed for existing components. If you wish to do this, simply right click on the relevant item in Solution Explorer and select Lock. Page 60 of 184

61 Copying and Pasting components and items When working with a page in ContentProducer, you can right-click items and components to view the context menu. This is where you access the copy and paste functionality. Select any items that you wish to produce copies of and then right-click on one of the selected items: the context menu will be displayed. Select Copy from the menu. The components selected will now be copied to the computer s memory. You can now right-click on an area of the page where there isn t an item or component; this will display a context menu with one option: Paste. Selecting paste will make a reproduction of the copied components appear on the page. To the left you can see that the Gapfill component has been copied and pasted successfully. Even though one Gapfill from the original component group was selected and copied, copying means that the whole component is copied. So, instead of pasting just the item from the component, the whole component (i.e. with all its items) will be pasted. You can see this copy and paste functionality, reproducing all items from a question component, in the following example for a multiple choice question component. Page 61 of 184

62 An item from the multiple choice component is right-clicked and Copy is selected. Now, you can right-click on a clear part of the page and select Paste. The new component will be produced on the page. You can see from the colour of the triangles in the top-left of each question option that the four new Multiple Choice options are all part of the same, separate component. Components and items can also be copied across from one page to another. To do this, you must check-out both the source and the target pages. You can then select and copy the components on the source page, switch to the target page, and then right click the working area, in Preview Mode, and select Paste. The copies of the components will then appear on the page. Duplicate You can use the Duplicate function to either quickly reproduce standard items like textboxes or autoshapes, or you can use it to add new items to an existing component group, for example in a multiple choice question component. Duplicate differs from Copy & Paste functionality. Duplicate allows you to identify and replicate specific items in a component group, or to quickly create a copy of an item on the same page/scene. Duplicate does not allow you to create copies of items on different scenes or pages to the one where the original items are. Page 62 of 184

63 To duplicate an item on a scene, right-click the item and then select Duplicate from the displayed menu. In this case, a single multiple choice option is selected and is being chosen for duplication. Once Duplicate is selected, a single new option is created: it becomes a new item in the same group, is assigned a new option letter ( E, since it is the 5 th option) and inherits the same contents as the item it is a duplication of (Option A). In this example, the option being duplicated contains no text. It is important to note that duplicating items in a question group causes the duplicate to become part of the same associated group. The same function renders the same effect for other components: e.g. a grouped set of Gapfills. As well as question components, you can use the duplicate function to create copies of standard items like textboxes, autoshapes and video components. You can duplicate more than one item at the same time by selecting multiple items and then using the duplicate feature in the normal way. Page 63 of 184

64 Marking Schemes for both On-Screen and Paper-Based Items The ability to create MS Word Marking Schemes is available for both on-screen and paper-based items. These Mark Schemes can then be accessed by users in SecureAssess. When you create a Mark Scheme for a question, it will be associated with that item. It will be carried through to ItemBank along with the question only when its own published status reaches the appropriate level. That is to say, the question and marking scheme each have their own separate status value. So, a question can be published to ItemBank without its marking scheme if the mark scheme s status is not yet at the published status. To create a Mark Scheme, right-click on the page that you wish to attach a Mark Scheme to and select Create Mark Scheme from the menu options. When you do this, you will see this pop-up. Select the tick-box to check the page out straight away (this is the default option). Then, click OK to create the Mark Scheme (or Cancel to exit the dialogue without creating a mark scheme). When you click OK, a MS Word document will open in a separate window. The Marking Scheme will also appear as a sub-item beneath the item that it has been created for. Creating a MS Word Mark Scheme for On-Screen Items MS Word document Mark Schemes can easily be attached to existing on-screen items. Any existing mark scheme text defined in the item s markingcriteria reference will automatically appear in the newly created Mark Scheme document, as a starting point. You can then edit the document as you wish. You will be able to use MS Word in the same way as you would when creating and editing any other Word document. Note: Changes you make to the MS Word document will not be copied back to the markingcriteria reference. For more information on references, please see the References chapter in this guide. Save and Check-In When you have finished creating/editing the mark scheme document, return to ContentProducer, right-click on the appropriate Marking Scheme and select Check-in from the menu options. Page 64 of 184

65 Notes on Marking Schemes There are a couple of things to note on the Mark Scheme when performing certain operations in the Solution Explorer. Copying a page with a Marking Scheme When a page item is copied and pasted the user will be asked to confirm if the Mark Scheme should also be copied. Deleting a page that has a Marking Scheme When a page item is deleted, its associated Mark Scheme (if it exists) is deleted along with it. Publishing If a page is not at the published status but its marking scheme is at the published status, the mark scheme will not be published. It will only be published when the page it is attached to/associated with is set to the published status. Page 65 of 184

66 Working with Toolbox The Toolbox in ContentProducer offers different Toolkits for constructing learning and assessment content. Below are images of the current available toolkits. Page 66 of 184

67 Standard Tools Picture shows Standard Tools section of the Toolbox. Textbox Select the textbox item from the Toolbox. Click and hold the left mouse button, then drag the cursor to choose what size you want the textbox to be. Alternatively, select and drag the textbox item onto your page. Doing this will create a default-sized textbox. Don t worry, you can resize things as you want once they are on the page. Editing and Formatting To edit the contents of a textbox right-click it and select Edit. Alternatively, double-click inside the textbox. A text cursor will appear, allowing you to select inside the textbox and add/edit text as you would in a word processor. Textboxes will appear transparent in preview mode, unless you alter their BorderColor or BackgroundColor properties. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N A: Font, B: Font Size, C: Bold, D: Italic, E: Underline, F: Left-align, G: Centre-align, H: Right-align, I: Superscript, J: Subscript, K: Symbol, L: Insert halfspace, M: Insert hyperlink, N: Change font colour. Page 67 of 184

68 Font Allows you to select the font. Also changes any selected text to this font. Font Size Allows you to select the font size. Also changes any selected text to this size. Bold Changes any selected text to bold. Italic Makes any selected text italicised. Underline Underlines selected text. Left-Align Aligns selected text to the left of the textbox. Centre Align Aligns selected text to the centre of the textbox. Right-align Aligns selected text to the right of the text box. Superscript Makes selected text superscript. Subscript Makes selected text subscript. Symbol Allows you to insert a symbol. Selecting this option will present a dialogue box for you to select a symbol of your choice. Insert half space Inserts a half space where the cursor is positioned. Insert hyperlink Inserts a hyperlink for the selected text. Selecting this displays a dialogue box where you can enter the location of the hyperlink. Change font colour Displays a dialogue box allowing you to change the font type of the selected text. Page 68 of 184

69 Textbox Properties BorderColor This property controls the colour of the border of a textbox. You can change the value of this property either manually, by entering a hexadecimal code for the colour you wish the border to be, or you can use the colour picker which is accessed by selecting the BorderColor property, then selecting the... icon. Background Color This property controls the colour of the background of a textbox. You can change the value of this property either manually, by entering a hexadecimal code for the colour you wish the border to be, or you can use the colour picker which is accessed by selecting the BackgroundColor property, then selecting the... icon. Audio Properties See the section on Audio. Cut, Copy and Paste You can Cut, Copy and Paste text, both from other applications to ContentProducer, and within ContentProducer. To use this functionality within ContentProducer, select the text in a textbox that you wish to Cut or Copy, then right-click the selected text to access this functionality: Picture shows textbox dialogue menu. To paste text into a textbox, first right-click the textbox where you want the text to go, and select Edit Text. Next, left-click inside the textbox this will display a flashing cursor. Finally, right-click inside the textbox and select Paste ; the text should now appear in the textbox. Page 69 of 184

70 View HTML If you wish to access and edit the text through HTML then you can do this by right-clicking the textbox, and select View HTML. Picture shows textbox dialogue menu. Note: You shouldn t use the HTML option unless you re conversant in HTML. You should be able to do everything you want with the text (font, size, colour, etc.) through the text formatting options. The HTML that you can use is a limited subset of HTML that is supported by Adobe Flash. Page 70 of 184

71 Graphics Adding Graphics: Method 1 You can simply drag images onto a ContentProducer page from Windows Explorer or whichever file explorer you are using. Select and drag the image of your choice onto the page/scene where you want it, and release the mouse button. The image will then be displayed on that page and you can then resize it and reposition it to your satisfaction. Adding Graphics: Method 2 You can drag an image placeholder onto a page using the Graphic function from the Toolbox. To insert an image in its place, right-click the placeholder and select Replace SWF file. Note: Method 2 can be useful for workflow. For example, an author can write a question and add the graphic placeholder, position it, and make it the desired size (adjusting the size can only be done through the Properties panel for Graphic placeholders). Then, checking the page in while setting the page to the appropriate status will prompt someone with the relevant role to create/find an appropriate image and insert it. Graphic placeholders can only be replaced with SWF files. However, if you want to put another type of image onto a page, you can just delete the placeholder and drag your image onto the page. File types that can be imported to a ContentProducer page include: JPEG SWF BMP TIF GIF PNG When a graphic is dragged onto a page, unless the source file is a.swf, ContentProducer will automatically compress the file and convert it to a JPEG upon page check-in. This helps with loading times and lowers the size of stored data. ActionScript If you are using ActionScript in your SWF files, bear in mind that ActionScript 3.0 is now used as standard in ContentProducer. This means that if you use ActionScript 2.0, you will need to change the Player Version setting for the particular page using the SWF file; otherwise your SWF files may behave peculiarly. To change the Player Version setting, right-click on the page you are adding the graphic to and select Player Version from the context menu. You will have 3 options: Page 71 of 184

72 Default ContentProducer will decide which player version to use and attempt to show both types. Standard ActionScript 3.0 files and most ActionScript 2.0 files will play. Legacy Only ActionScript 2.0 files will play. The setting will initially be set to Default. The Shared Library To view the shared library for a project, you must have that project open in Solution Explorer. If you do have the desired project open, select View > Shared Library from the title menus. The keyboard shortcut for this is Ctrl + F8. The Shared Library panel will be displayed. The shared library is a great way for people working on a project to share animations, videos and images. Shared libraries are specific to projects, thus each project may have different items in its shared library. Items in the shared library are available to anyone with access to that project. Page 72 of 184

73 Once an item has been added to the shared library by a User, any other User can access it to include it in their content. This can help to standardise content, improve aesthetics through collaboration on content selection and so on. To add an item to the shared library, drag the file you want to add from a windows file explorer window directly into the Shared Library panel. It is important that, when adding a SWF file to the Shared Library, its corresponding FLA file is not open in Flash. You cannot add a SWF file to the Shared Library unless its source FLA file is in the same location; if the FLA is open in Flash then it won t be possible for it to be successfully copied to the Shared Library. The SWF and FLA are both uploaded to the Shared Library, though you will only be able to see the SWF. However, if a user downloads the SWF from the Shared Library, they will also download the FLA to the same location. To use an item from the shared library on a page, simply drag it onto the page from the Shared Library panel. If you select an item by clicking it once with the left mouse button, a preview of that item will be displayed in the lower part of the panel. This will help you be sure that you are choosing the item you want to use. Shared Library Folder Structure The Shared Library supports the use of a folder structure, like the one in the Solution Explorer, allowing you to organise your files effectively. You can add and delete folders at any time as well as being able to drag items between folders easily. Add a Folder: When you open the Shared Library, you will see the associated project name at the top of the panel to add a folder, right-click on the project name. Click Add Folder. A popup will open asking you to provide a name for the folder; this could be anything from the name of a specific exam paper or simply a subject area. Once you ve entered a name, click OK and you will see the new folder in the Shared Library panel. Now, you can either create a sub-folder within the folder that you ve just created, or you can populate it with Shared Library items by dragging them in, either from another location in the Shared Library or from a windows file explorer window. Note: If an item is dragged into a place with an existing item of the same name, this will result in multiple items with the same name within the folder. Page 73 of 184

74 Move a Folder: You can quickly and easily move folders around within the Shared Library by dragging and dropping them to a new location. Note: if you drag a folder into a place with an existing folder of the same name then the contents of the two folders will be merged. Delete a Folder: To delete a folder, right-click it and select Delete Folder. Important: When you delete a folder, all its contents will be deleted as well. An Are you sure? prompt will appear to remind you of this. Please also note that deleted files will be permanently deleted and not sent to a Recycle Bin. The Shared Library also has other features which will be of use. If you right-click an item in the Shared Library panel, you will be given several options (see right). Replace file This option allows you to change the version of an image stored in the shared library. That is, you can replace a file with a new one, without changing the filename of it in the shared library. Depending on workflow, you can only update an item if all pages that include that item match your status level; that is your level of access. Once updated, all instances of this file found within the pages of your project will be automatically updated. If this appears not to have occurred immediately on a page you are viewing, right-click on the page in Solution Explorer and select Get Latest Version. Find File in Pages This lists the PageIDs of all the pages where a Shared Library item appears. Delete File You can delete an image from the Shared Library. However, you will be told which PageIDs it appears on before you confirm you want to delete it. Page 74 of 184

75 Download File This allows you to download an image from the Shared Library so that you can change it. Note : if the FLA was open in Flash when you originally uploaded the SWF, there will be no FLA, therefore you won t be able to edit or change it. Allow use with hotspots and tools Refer to chapter on Hotspots which follows on from this one. Note : If you are using the Shared Library custom questions or question extensions, you will need to hold down the Shift key when dragging them onto the page for them to be recognised as such. Page 75 of 184

76 Hotspots Hotspots can be used to trigger events inside a page such as going to another scene or page, showing marking and revealing answers. These events are attached to either the Hotspot or the scene conditions within that page. Hotspots are shown in green unless there is a Style set for them, or unless an image is used from the Shared Library for them. Hotspots can be resized and repositioned in the same way as other items on a page; by using the handles or by manually typing in size values for the hotspot s properties. Picture shows an example of a Hotspot in ContentProducer authoring mode. Hotspot Properties Picture shows Maximum Clicks and HotspotFunction properties. Page 76 of 184

77 MaximumClicks This property controls how many times the hotspot can be clicked on before it becomes inactive and won t perform its function anymore. The default value for this is 0, so that there is no limit to the number of times a hotspot can be clicked. If there is any reason why you want to limit this, enter the number of times you want it to be clicked by the candidate before it becomes inactive. HotspotFunction This property controls what the hotspot actually does when clicked. There are pre-defined functions for hotspots and they can be selected from the dropdown list in the HotspotFunction property window. RaiseEvent This function works in conjunction with Scene Conditions and, when clicked, will prompt an action from the ContentProducer player. RaiseEvent allows you to trigger actions on a page by telling ContentProducer that it needs to check the Scene Conditions and act according to any relevant conditions. RaiseEvent can be used to give feedback within a page by checking a candidate s response to a question then directing to a particular scene according to whether it is correct/incorrect/not attempted. GoToScene This property can be used for allowing the candidate to move between scenes. If a hotspot is set for GoToScene functionality, it must also have a value set in the Parameters field. The value for the Parameters field should be the ID number of the scene that is to be displayed when the hotspot is clicked. So, if you need a hotspot to redirect to Scene 2, you should set the HotspotFunction to GoToScene, and then set the Parameters value to 2. You can check the ID number of a scene by switching to that scene in Editor Mode, and locating the number after the S (standing for Scene ) in its ID in the Properties Panel. In this example, Scene 2 has a scene number of 2. GoToPage This property can be used for allowing the candidate to move to another page. If a hotspot is set for GoToPage functionality, it must also have a value set in the Parameters field. The value for the Parameters field should be the full ID number of the page that is to be accessed when the hotspot is clicked. Page 77 of 184

78 You can view a page s ID by hovering the mouse cursor over a page in the Solution Explorer panel. Custom The Custom function will only work if your organisation has had custom functionalities built into its rendering engine. If you have this, then you can set the HotspotFunction as Custom, and then enter the name of the custom function in the Parameters property. PlayAudio Setting a hotspot to PlayAudio will allow it to play an audio file when clicked. You will need to attach a WAV file to the hotspot so that it has some audio to actually play. To do this, right-click the hotspot and select Attach Wav, you will then be able to locate and select an audio file from your computer, using the displayed dialog box. StopAllAudio This property will cause the hotspot, when clicked, to stop all audio being played at the time it is clicked. OpenTool The OpenTool property for HotspotFunction will pop up a tool or application, stored on another ContentProducer page, when clicked. The tool should be put on a separate page. After setting the HotspotFunction property as OpenTool, you also need to set a value for the Parameters property of the hotspot. This value should match the name of the tool assigned in ItemBank in order for it to be called and displayed properly. Hotspots and Tools are detailed later in this section. Page 78 of 184

79 Using Graphics as Hotspots in ContentProducer In ContentProducer you can make any graphic into a hotspot. Support is also built in to allow custom button effects on user generated hotspots; in order to do this, knowledge of Adobe ActionScript is required. Adding Graphics for use as Hotspots To use a graphic as a hotspot, you first need to add the graphic to the Shared Library. To do this, left-click, hold and drag the desired graphic from your File Explorer (most likely Windows Explorer) to the Shared Library panel and then release the mouse button. You will be asked to confirm the filename (you may also rename it at this point if you wish), select OK. You will then be asked if you would like to use this image in ContentProducer Hotspots, if you do want the graphic to be used as a hotspot select Yes. The graphic will now be added to the Shared Library and is ready to be used with Hotspots. Page 79 of 184

80 Making Existing Graphics into Hotspots If a graphic has already been added to the Shared Library and you wish to enable it for use as a hotspot, you will need to right-click on the filename of the graphic in the Shared Library, then select Allow use with Hotspots from the drop down list. Picture shows Shared Library dialogue menu. This will make the selected graphic available for use as a hotspot. Using Graphics as Hotspots To use a graphic as a Hotspot you will need to add a Hotspot from the Toolbox in the usual way (left-click and drag a hotspot item from the Toolbox onto the page you have checked-out and open), then right-click the hotspot and select Select Image from the drop-down list of options. Page 80 of 184

81 A dialogue box will appear, displaying all graphics that have been enabled in the Shared Library for use as hotspots. Note that there may be a slight time delay if the Shared Library is large and the hotspot dialogue is being run for the first time. Picture shows Hotspot Selector dialogue box. The thumbnail versions of the available graphics will be displayed along the bottom of the dialogue box. By single left-clicking a thumbnail version of a graphic, a larger preview will be displayed in the space at the top-centre of the dialogue box. Directly below this preview, the graphic s filename and dimensions in pixels will be displayed. Note: The size of a graphic used as a hotspot in ContentProducer cannot be changed. The size, in pixels, displayed in the Hotspot Selector dialogue will be the size of the hotspot on the page. If you require a different size, you will have to update the image in the Shared Library with one of your preferred size. If you are happy that you wish to use the selected image as a hotspot, select Select Image to confirm. Page 81 of 184

82 The hotspot will then be replaced with the graphic you selected. To indicate that this graphic will function as a hotspot, it will carry an icon in the top-left corner. To remove a graphic from the hotspot, reverting to the original semi-transparent green style of hotspot, right click the hotspot and select Remove Image from the menu. Picture shows graphic hotspot dialogue menu. Note: When a graphic is used as a hotspot, it still offers the same functionality as a normal hotspot. Therefore it can be set to various hotspot functions and manipulated in the same way as it can without a graphic being used. Further Information on Using Graphics as Hotspots If you have opted to select an image to use for a hotspot, there are a few things to be aware of. You can still set styles on the hotspot. However, any style parameter will only come into effect if the graphic is removed from the hotspot. The hotspot can still be alt tagged. You can use Flash buttons that incorporate different button states, e.g. normal, pressed, rollover, etc. Knowledge of ActionScript is required for this. Any graphic that can be added to the Shared Library can be made available for use as a hotspot. Formats accepted by the Shared Library are JPG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, PNG, SWF. Any.swf file used must adhere to certain conditions, detailed in Appendix 1. Page 82 of 184

83 Video You can drag a video placeholder onto a page using the Video function on the Toolbox. To add your video to the page, you can either: Drag the video straight onto the page from a file browser, when in Editor mode, and it will automatically appear on the page, embedded in a ContentProducer video player. Or You can replace a video placeholder by right-clicking the placeholder and selecting Replace Video File. A dialogue box will be displayed, allowing you to browse to the video s location and select it. When you have selected the video file, click Open to insert the video on the page. Upon doing this, the video placeholder will be replaced by your chosen video. You will be asked, by a prompt, Do you wish to replace the current initial image? Selecting No will leave the first frame of the previous sample video as the image that will be presented to the candidate before they play the video. Selecting Yes will cause the first frame of the newly-inserted video to be displayed as the initial image the candidate will see before playing the video. Initial Image You can use the Initial Image property to attach an image that will be displayed when a video is loaded onscreen, but before the video is played. To do this, right-click the video then select Replace Initial Image. You will be presented with a dialogue menu, allowing you to locate and insert a SWF file to be the new Initial Image. Video Style The style of the video player can be altered by changing the Style property, selecting any one of 4 styles from a dropdown list. This will change the start/pause buttons and video frame. Note: In order to play in ContentProducer, FLV files need to be encoded using the Sorenson Spark video codec, which works in Flash Player 6 and higher. AutostartVideo If this property is set to True then the video will begin playing as soon as the page is loaded. Setting this property to false will ensure that the candidate has to select Play in order for the video to begin playing. Page 83 of 184

84 Table The purpose of the Table tool is to allow authors to create a static table that candidates do not interact with but can be used to present additional information or data, for example. Note: The table will also function as a question type that the candidate can interact with and can be set up for marking. For more information on how to use the Table as a question type, please refer to the ContentProducer Question Reference Guide. In Preview mode, the Table tool may look something like this: Candidate Editing and Printing Both of these properties found in the right-hand panel of the Tool Editor will default to FALSE for the static Table tool. The Candidate Editing property should only be set to True when using the Table as a question type please refer to the ContentProducer Question Reference Guide for more information. The Printing property will allow the candidate to print out the table. If you do still wish the candidate to be able to print the table, even when used as a tool, set the property to True. Table Formatting Right-click on the Table tool in Editor mode to open the Tool Editor. In the Tool Editor, a toolbar will allow you to set the Table tool up as you wish it to be presented to the candidate. Picture shows the Table tool in the Tool Editor. Page 84 of 184

85 Adding, Resizing and Deleting Rows and Columns Use the Layout menu options to insert additional rows and columns as well as delete existing ones. You can also adjust the row height and column width. Alternatively, use the shortcut buttons from the toolbar. When you select Row Height or Column Width from the Layout menu, you will see a dialogue prompting you to enter a new height/width value (in pixels). Check the tick-box to apply the same height/width to all rows/columns, otherwise only the selected row/column will be updated. Other Formatting Options Alignment Cell Options Table Options Cell Fill Colour Border Style Select an option to align any text within the selected cells. Select Merge Cells to merge the selected cells or Split Cells to split a merged cell. Select Border Colour to open a colour picker and define a colour for all cell borders. Use the Fill Colour button in the toolbar to select a fill colour. A colour picker will open allowing you to select and apply a colour. Use the Border Style button to apply a border style to selected cells. Formatting and Editing Text To enter text into a cell, simply click inside a cell and you will see a flashing text editor cursor. Use the text editing buttons in the toolbar to edit your chosen text. Font Size Italics Font Colour Insert symbol Bold Underline Decrease and Increase Indent To edit the font, double-click on existing text to highlight it then select a font from the Font menu. When you click the Insert Symbol button, a symbol picker will open. Select the symbol(s) that you wish to insert and click Apply. Click OK when you have finished. Defining Cell Types Cell Types cannot be defined unless the Table is available for candidate editing, so it is unlikely that you will need to define Cell Types when using the Table as a tool. For more information on defining cell types, please refer to the ContentProducer Question Reference Guide. Page 85 of 184

86 Re-Sizing Tools The Video, Table and Equation Editor tools each have a property that will allow you to define whether or not the candidate can resize the tool during the exam. The property will default to False i.e. the candidate won t be able to resize the tool. To allow resizing, set the AllowResizeAsTool property (found under Behavior) to True using the drop-down list. Note: If tool resizing has been enabled then it can also be resized in Secure Assess during marking and viewing responses. Equation The Equation standard extension makes it easier to format mathematical equations, formulae and symbols. Add an Equation to the page To create an equation, drag and position the equation in the normal way. The default option will contain the equation X = 1. To change this, right click and select Edit Standard Extension Parameters. Add a symbol To add a symbol: make sure that the cursor is correctly placed. Note that characters will be added to the right of the cursor. Select the Pi button to access a selection of Greek symbols, use the mouse to hover over each one to find out the name of each symbol. Then, select the symbol you wish to add to the equation by clicking on it. Select the infinity symbol to access mathematical symbols such as Greater than or equal to or approximately equal to. Again use the mouse to hover over each one to find out the name of each symbol. Then click on the symbol you want to add to the equation. If you need to delete a symbol, select the DEL button to the right of the options. Page 86 of 184

87 Add a pre-set equation format The pre-set format lets you create equations containing elements such as fractions, brackets, square roots and summations. Making sure that the cursor is in the correct place, hover over each of the buttons to find the required one. Enter the appropriate numbers in the boxes provided. This process can be used for Roots, Brackets, Summations, Integrals and Angles. Format subscripts and power (superscripts) consistently, without having to resize any text, by making sure that the cursor is in the correct place. Select the subscript button (5th button from the right). Enter the appropriate numbers in the boxes within the equation. Follow the same process for Power. Create matrices with customised dimensions by making sure the cursor is in the correct place. Select the Matrices button (4th button from the left). Select the appropriate dimensions from the sub menu. Enter the appropriate numbers in the boxes provided. Equation Application Properties Font_Size Re-size the equation by altering the font size. To so this, right-click and select Edit Standard Extension Parameters. Next, enter the appropriate size in the Font_size property within the list on the right-hand side. Font Change the font used for an equation by changing the value for the Font property. To do this right-click and select Edit Standard Extension Parameters. Next, select the font you desire from the drop-down list. Page 87 of 184

88 Questions Please see the separate ContentProducer Question Reference Guide. Page 88 of 184

89 Special Page Types As well as question and learning screens, you can create other types of pages to be used in exams. Introduction/Finish Pages You can create Introduction and Finish pages to be inserted in assessments. These pages can contain all the same components that are also found in question items, but it is more likely that you would use these pages to give the candidates information required before and after the exam, like the duration of the exam or what the implications of the exam are for the qualification, for example. These pages will not be marked and can be inserted manually when assembling assessments in ItemBank. If you want dynamically generated information to appear in an introduction page, you can use any of the following parameter placeholders in a textbox. Remember to put any necessary spaces or punctuation marks before and after. Placeholder Text Description $[EXAM_NAME]$ This parameter will check and insert the name of the Exam as defined in ItemBank. Remember to put any necessary spaces or punctuation marks before and after. Example: This is the $[EXAM_NAME]$ assessment. Displayed as: This is the Trigonometry Part 1 assessment. $[TOTAL_TIME]$ This parameter will check and insert the duration of the exam in minutes. Example: You have $[TOTAL_TIME]$ minutes to complete the assessment. Displayed as: You have 120 minutes to complete the assessment. $[PASS_MARK]$ This parameter will check and insert the pass mark for the exam. Whether the number displayed here is the percentage number or the mark number depends on how the rules for passing the exam are defined in ItemBank. Example 1: In order to successfully pass this exam you will need to achieve at least $[PASS_MARK]$%. Displayed as: In order to successfully pass this exam you will need to achieve Page 89 of 184

90 at least 70%. Example 2: To pass this exam you will need to score $[PASS_MARK]$ or higher. Displayed as: To pass this exam you will need to score 65 or higher. Using these placeholders will make the page check ItemBank to find the relevant information for the exam that the introduction page is being used in. This means that you can use a standard introduction page across many exams without having to change the information on the page it dynamically draws the information from the exam information contained in ItemBank. Page 90 of 184

91 Information Pages You can create information pages to go in assessments. These pages aren t marked, but can be used to give the candidate information during an exam. For example, you could use an information page to give the candidate information about the following section of questions. These information pages are displayed to the candidate with an i next to them in the exam. For more information on this, see the SecureAssess Reference Guide. To make a page into an information page, construct it in whichever way you like, including whatever components you want. However, there is something important you must do to ensure that the SecureAssess system recognises that this is an information page: 1. Check-out the page 2. Right-click it in the Solution Explorer, and then select Edit References/Metadata. 3. Edit the TotalMark Reference, changing it to Click OK to save the changes. 5. Check the page back in. This page will now be recognised by ItemBank and SecureAssess as an information page. Page 91 of 184

92 Tools/Datasheets There may be times when you want candidates to have access to certain tools in an assessment or for a particular question. For example: calculator, periodic table, stopwatch. This can be facilitated through ContentProducer. Note: Tools/Datasheets can only be an external file, such as a SWF or JPEG. You cannot use anything in the ContentProducer Toolbox as a tool or datasheet. Select a hotspot on the page and then use the dropdown list under the Design heading in the Property panel to change the HotspotFunction property to opentool. In the parameter field you should put the name of the tool (e.g. Calculator ) in accordance with your project s agreed naming convention. In order to find out the naming conventions for tools in the project you are working on, consult the project s authoring specification. If you don t have access to this information, request it from the Project Administrators. In ContentProducer s page preview mode, clicking on the opentool hotspot will display a popup with the text Opening Tool and display the tool name. This is just to simulate the functionality as the tool opening is not rendered properly until the content is delivered through an assessment engine. The Tool The actual tool should be created on its own page in ContentProducer. For example, you can drag a SWF calculator straight onto its own page and use it as a Tool. It may help to put all tools for a project in their own folder, as it will then be easier to locate them when creating exams. Also, naming the pages as something relating to their function will ease this process. In the Exam When the exam is delivered to the candidate, clicking on a tool hotspot will open up the tool page in a separate, draggable window, allowing the candidate to access both the tool and the question at the same time. Page 92 of 184

93 Psychometric Assessment Questions Psychometric questions do not have correct or incorrect answers. Instead, the User s response affects a point score within a category, or categories. This functionality is achieved through the use of References (metadata) in ContentProducer. Psychometric questions are authored with one per page and used as a modified form of the Multiple Choice question type. Create the question component To create a psychometric question, first drag a Multiple Choice component onto a page. This will create a multiple choice question with four options. If you want to have a scale with more options, then drag another multiple choice component onto the page. You will be asked whether you want to create a new group or add options to the existing one. Click Yes to add new options to the existing one. Psychometric questions won t work if you have separate multiple choice components on the page (see image, right). You will then be able to enter how many additional options you would like to create. Enter the desired number and click OK. Page 93 of 184

94 The new options will be added to the page. Now align the options as you require (usually in a horizontal line). You will also want to add text boxes and insert text to show what the spectrum of options means and a statement or question for the candidate to respond to. Note: there is no need to set any of the options as a correct option. When you ve finished preparing the page it may look something like the example below. You can now edit the References for the page to assign values and properties to each option. Creating the Psychometric Reference within a Project If the project you re working on doesn t have the psychometric reference set up for it then you ll need to create it (if you have the appropriate permission), or ask someone who has sufficient permissions to create it. If you need to create the psychometric reference for a project, right-click the project in Solution Explorer and select Edit Project Properties from the context menu. In the References tab, create a new Free Text reference called psychometric - it is important that you spell this correctly. To do this, click the Add Freetext Reference button, enter psychometric into the name field, then click OK. Picture shows psychometric reference being added. Page 94 of 184

95 Setting the references for the psychometric question To do this on a page you have checked-out, right-click the page in Solution Explorer and select Edit References/Metadata from the context menu. The Set Reference dialogue will be displayed. Click the psychometric reference field in the left-hand panel of the dialogue. This will display the free text field in the area on the right of the dialogue. You can now add the references in that space. Picture shows Set Reference dialogue. Page 95 of 184

96 References should take the form of: OPTION=VALUE,TYPE; This is where: OPTION is the letter of the multiple choice item (i.e. A, B, C...). VALUE is the score given for the psychometric category (e.g. 1 for a low score, 5 for a high score). TYPE is the psychometric category (e.g. adaptability). You can set the references for all multiple choice options on the page by using this field. Each answer option should have at least one value assigned to it. Note: There should be no carriage return or spaces. You can assign more than category to an option, or options. For example, you could have the following free text reference set for a multiple choice component with 5 options (A-E): A=1,assertive;A=3,passive;B=2,assertive;B=2,passive;C=3,assertive;D=4,assertive;D=2,aggressive;E=5,ass ertive;e=3,aggressive. Page 96 of 184

97 This would return information on candidates responses for this question giving an assertive score, whichever option they d responded with, and then a plus score for either aggressive or passive dependent on their selection. You can build up psychometric question components in this way so that they are tailored to your requirements. When you have finished entering reference information, click Update to confirm the data you have entered. Then you can click Close to close the Set Reference dialogue. Check the page in to save and upload the changes. The psychometric reference information is viewable readily by hovering the mouse pointer over a page in Solution Explorer. Page 97 of 184

98 Scenes A page can be comprised of more than just the main scene. You can add as many extra scenes to a page as you like. Each scene has the same properties until you begin editing it and making your changes. You can use scenes to give feedback and present extra materials as well as many other possibilities. Adding Scenes To add an extra scene to a page, right-click on the tab for the Main Scene (located above the working area window), and select Add Scene from the context menu. Removing Scenes To remove a scene, right-click the tab for that scene (located above the working area window) and select Remove Scene from the context menu. You can repeat this for any scene, apart from the Main Scene. Secondary Scenes By having a page that consists of more than one scene, you can set a scene to be a background scene, or secondary scene. This means that when the main scene is loaded, any of its secondary scenes will also be loaded, allowing the candidate access to the functionality of that scene too. To set a scene to have a secondary scene, use the tab navigation on a page to locate the scene that is to have a secondary scene attached to it. Then, in the Properties panel, locate the SecondaryScenes property Page 98 of 184

99 and enter the ID number of the scene you want to be the secondary. You can have more than one scene as a secondary scene; just separate the scene IDs with commas when entering the values for the SecondaryScene property. Identifying a Scene ID/number To check what ID or number a scene is on a page, select that scene then locate the ID property in the Properties panel, under the Design heading: You can see at the end of the ID, there is a number given after the S this is the number of the scene on this page. In the above example, it is scene 2. Scene Layering When working with secondary scenes, you ll want to make sure that the secondary scene appears behind/underneath the scene which it is secondary to. To control which scene is displayed on top, you can use the Layering panel to position scenes in a particular order of which scene will appear above the other. Left-click and drag the scene you want to be displayed on top so that it is above the other one in the layering window. Release the mouse button, and the scene should move into place above the other(s). Page 99 of 184

100 SceneType The SceneType property is particularly relevant for feedback, i.e. in formative assessments. If you want feedback for question items to be determined (shown/hidden) by the delivery engine, rather than a manual authoring process using hotspots, then you can use the SceneType property. By using Scene Types, the exam delivery engine can display feedback for correct/incorrect/partially correct candidate responses according to whether the assessment is for formative or summative purposes. You can define what type a scene is by altering its SceneType property. As a default, scenes can be defined as: Normal General Feedback Correct Incorrect Partially correct To set a scene up as one of these types, you should switch to the scene you want to make changes to, and then make sure none of the items/components on that scene are selected. In the Properties panel, locate the SceneType property in the Behaviour section. Select the dropdown list and then select the type of scene that you want it to be classed as. You should make sure that the feedback for correct/incorrect/partially correct responses has the appropriate SceneType property, i.e. double-check that the correct feedback is on a scene with the corresponding SceneType. Note: Upon checking-in an item, the page advisor will display an error if inline feedback scenes (for multiple choice question types) and feedback scenes have been created on the same item. Note: Feedback scenes that are determined by the delivery engine, rather than a manual authoring process using hotspots, will only be available for the candidates if defined as such in ItemBank. Page 100 of 184

101 Copying and Pasting Scenes You can quickly reproduce scenes on the same page, or reproduce a scene from one page on another page. This helps save time and effort if you want to use templates of scenes or if you wish to duplicate a scene you ve already spent time setting up. To copy a scene, check out the page which has the scene you want to make a copy of. The scenes for that page will be displayed at the top of the page window. You should right-click the scene to be copied and then select Copy Scene. Once you ve copied the scene, you can right-click on the scene tabs again and select Paste Scene from the displayed context menu. When you ve clicked Paste Scene, the copied scene will be duplicated on the page. This will include copies of all the components and items on the original scene. You may want to change the name of the pasted scene. This can be done in the normal way: by using the Properties panel for the scene. Page 101 of 184

102 Copying and pasting scenes to different pages You can also copy scenes from one page to another. To do this, check-out both the page with the scene you wish to copy, and the page that you want to paste a copy of that scene to. Right-click the tab of the scene to be copied at the top of the original page, and then select Copy Scene from the menu displayed. Picture shows scene to be copied. Now, switch to the other page, where you want to paste the scene, right-click the scene tabs area of the page (at the top) and then select Paste Scene from the displayed menu. Picture shows second scene where the scene is to be pasted. Page 102 of 184

103 A copy of the scene will be pasted and appear in the tabs at the top of the page. The scene will also remain on the original page, and will not be affected in any way by this process. Page 103 of 184

104 Scene Conditions With scene conditions, you can make events happen automatically, or when a candidate clicks a hotspot. To access the Scene Conditions panel, switch to the scene you want to add conditions to, then locate and click the SceneConditions property in the Properties panel and then click the button with three dots. The Scene Conditions Settings panel will be displayed. Unless there have already been some conditions set on the scene, it will look like the panel shown below. If there are existing conditions for the scene, they will be listed in the panel s window. You can add a new condition by clicking the Add New Condition button, situated in the bottom left corner of the panel. Upon clicking this button, a new blank condition will appear in the panel s window, though it will appear far from blank at first, it is ready to be properly setup by you. The condition is composed of a series of dropdown lists and text input dialogs, as shown in the next image. Page 104 of 184

105 Picture shows a new, blank condition. You are then free to select options from the lists and input values to make your conditions work. Scene conditions can be used in different combinations to achieve different results. Picture shows the drop-down options available when setting a new condition. The OK button saves the current conditions and closes the pop up; to exit without saving, click the x button in the top right of the panel. Note: As some of the Scene Conditions settings are due to be reviewed and removed, only the common and most useful ones are detailed here. Page 105 of 184

106 Event Source These are the elements that will be checked by the condition. Scene Audio Finished Transitions Complete Timer Complete Question Interaction Hotspot On Video Complete Event is triggered when the scene audio has finished playing. All components are loaded and appear onscreen at the end of any set transitions. Event is triggered when the timer on a scene has reached its limit, as defined by the content author. You can set timers up separately by setting a value (in seconds) for the Scene Timer property in the Scene Properties. Event is triggered when the candidate interacts with (i.e. attempts) a question. Event is triggered when a hotspot is clicked. The hotspot must be configured with its HotspotFunction set as RaiseEvent. Event is triggered when any video components on the scene have finished playing. Source This is the type of location of the elements that will be checked by the condition. Scene Make sure this is selected and not Page. Source ID This is the specific scene number/location of the element to be checked by the condition. Input the number of the scene that you want to check the Event Source on. For example, if you want to check if a question is correct you must input the ID number of the scene with the question on it. Check Condition This is the state that the element must be in, in order for any actions to be executed. None Scene Audio Complete Transitions Complete Timer Complete Not Attempted Correct Partially Correct Don t check any conditions. Check that the scene audio has completed then execute action. Check that all transitions are complete then execute action. Check that the timer is complete then execute action. If question is NOT attempted then execute action. If question is correct then execute action. If question is partially correct then execute action. Page 106 of 184

107 Wrong If question is completely incorrect then execute action. Action This is what will happen when the scene condition is true, that is when the specified element is in the specified state. GoTo Reveal Show Inline Feedback Show marking Remove Incorrect Answers Reveal and Remove Incorrect Answers This will make the candidate go somewhere, like another scene or a page. This causes the correct answer to be selected, thus revealing it to the candidate. This action means that inline feedback will be displayed. That is, feedback will be displayed according with whether the candidate answered the question correctly, incorrectly, partially correctly or if they haven t attempted it. This will cause the candidate s responses to be marked on screen, showing ticks or crosses next to the answers they gave, accordingly with whether they were correct of incorrect. This action causes the incorrect answers to be removed. This action combines both the remove and reveal actions above. Target Type This is the type of destination for the candidate, i.e. a page or a scene on the current page. Scene Page The condition will take the candidate to another scene. The condition will take the candidate to another page. Target This is the specific value of the destination page or scene. You can enter a value for the Target field using free text, or you can use one of the presets on the dropdown list. If you enter a value, it should be the ID number of the page or scene that will be displayed when the condition is true. Next Page Previous Page This is dependent on the engine being used to render the content. This is dependent on the engine being used to render the content. Page 107 of 184

108 Conditions are checked in the order they appear in the Scene Conditions Settings panel, i.e. top condition first. If you have more than one set of conditions, and want to move a condition up or down the list, you can click the condition then select either the black up or down arrow on the right of the panel. Selecting the black next to a condition will delete it. Scene Conditions: Example 1 Details of above scene conditions: Event Source: Timer Complete Source: Scene Source ID: 1 Check Condition: Timer Complete Condition Param: N/A Action: Goto Target Type: Scene Target: 2 The above scene conditions stipulate that when the Timer is complete on Scene 1, an action will be carried out. The action is that the player should go to Scene 2 when the condition is met, i.e. the timer is complete. To make the condition function, you would also need to ensure that you d set up a timer on Scene 1. You can do this by setting a value (in seconds) for the Scene Timer property in the Scene Properties. Page 108 of 184

109 Scene Conditions: Example 2 Details of above scene conditions: Event Source: Question Interaction Source: Scene Source ID: 1 Check Condition: Correct or wrong Condition Param: N/A Action: Goto Target Type: Scene Target: 2 or 3 In the example above, there are 2 scene conditions set. Between the two conditions, they mean that the candidate will be taken to Scene 2 if they respond correctly to the question on Scene 1, or taken to Scene 3 if they give an incorrect response to the same question. This is done by having the Check Condition set to Correct for one condition, and Wrong for the second condition, each prompting the action of going to a scene and then the scene number inserted accordingly. This is just one example of how you can introduce feedback in your question items. Page 109 of 184

110 Scene Stacking You can use Scene Stacking in ContentProducer for occasions when you need more space than is offered by a single scene. Using scene stacking means you can use extra scenes to create a scrollable single page that includes as much content as required. Scrolling using scene stacking is vertical only. Scene Stacking is turned on or off at Project level or at Page level but can also be configured at page level. To use scene stacking, you should build up your first scene until you are running out of vertical space. At this point you should create a new scene. Right-click on the scenes tab area and select to create a new scene. Page 110 of 184

111 On the new scene, create the content that you want to add to the bottom of the main scene. If you run out of vertical space and still want to add more to this question then add another scene and so on. Note: Bear in mind the practical use of your questions when they are actually delivered on-screen and always try to create content that will be engaging and effective. Once you ve created all scenes that are to be stacked, you need to select the Main Scene and then edit its SecondaryScenes property. In this field you should put the number of the first scene to appear below the Main Scene. If you are stacking more than one scene on the Main Scene then you need to put the numbers of all scenes to be stacked, in the order that they will appear, delimited by commas. If scene stacking is set as on at project level, for the project you re working within, then all pages will be set for scene stacking by default. Conversely, if scene stacking is set off at project level then all pages will have scene stacking set as off. However, you can change the scene stacking settings for individual pages by altering the Page Properties. To access the Page Properties, you need to left-click the vertical grey strip to the left of the current page. To show this grey strip you may need to unpin the Toolbox. Page 111 of 184

112 Now you can see and click the grey strip. The Page Properties will be displayed in the Properties panel. Page 112 of 184

113 You can now select the SceneStacking field and choose between three options: Default (whatever the project default setting is for Scene Stacking) Off (No Scene Stacking on this page) On (Scene Stacking enabled on this page) This serves to override the project default, so you only need to set this page reference if you want the scene stacking setting to be different from the project default setting. Scene stacking means that the main scene will end effectively at the bottom of the lowest on-screen component and then continue with the upper most component of the next scene stacked under it. There is a project property that controls the space applied between the last component of the former scene and the first component of the latter scene, and then between each scene thereafter; this is referred to as a buffer. For more information on setting Scene Stacking properties for a project, refer to the Project Properties section of Appendix 1; the Advanced tab contains the Scene Stacking settings. If you construct a page using scene stacking then you ll be able to see how the page behaves and scrolls by using the Preview mode in ContentProducer. Page 113 of 184

114 Creating an On-Screen Page Template You can create templates of how particular types of page should look/be created in a project. Do this by setting up each of the page types you want to be created using a template style in their own folder. It s useful to create a new folder in the project (I d suggest calling it templates or something that content creators will be able to quickly identify). So, for example, create a page with a multiple choice question type on it. Position the text box and answer options exactly where you want them to be for all pages like that one. Setup the colours, font types and sizes and so on, just as you want them to be for multiple choice question pages in the project. When you re finished, check the page in. Picture shows Checked in pages. Now, if anyone wants to follow the template for that type of page, they can locate the templates folder in Solution Explorer, right-click the relevant page in the project structure and select copy. Now, in the location where they want to create a new page they can right-click and select Paste. This will create a duplicate of the template page in the new location. You can then enter the question text, answer options, etc., into the existing components on the page, thus adhering to the same styles and layout of the template page. You can do this as many times as you want, and you can create as many page templates as you like. Page 114 of 184

115 Marking Marking is firstly defined at page level within ContentProducer using the TotalMark page reference. Using a page which you have checked out for editing, right click on the page and choose the Edit References/Metadata menu option, as shown below: Picture shows Solution Explorer dialogue menu. This will open the Set Reference dialog. Click on TotalMark. The value for the reference shown on the right is the total mark awarded if that page is answered correctly. In the example below, 4 marks will be awarded if the page is answered correctly. If no mark is specified then a default value of 1 mark will be used by ItemBank and SecureAssess. Page 115 of 184

116 It is important to remember that this mark is set at the page level. A page can have multiple question types potentially spread across several scenes. The TotalMark is the mark awarded if all questions on the page and all of its scenes are answered correctly. Absolute and Cumulative Marking For pages which contain more than 1 question item, all question items are cumulatively marked. For more information on how the question items are cumulatively marked, please refer to the Mark Weighting section. Within each question item, the User has the ability to define the marking type using the following 3 methods: Cumulative Marking Absolute Marking Not Marked The choice of which marking method to use is set for each item in the item properties. In the example below, the marking method for the current item is set to Cumulative. Not Marked This option is used where the question type should not contribute to the overall page mark. Page 116 of 184

117 Absolute Marking Absolute marking means that the learner can only ever get either full marks or no marks for the question type. For example, if there are 6 multiple choice options and two correct answers then the learner must select both options to be awarded the mark for the question type, otherwise they will score zero. Cumulative Marking Cumulative marking means that part marks are awarded for each correct answer within a question type. For example, if there are 6 multiple choice options and two correct answers and the learner only selects 1 correct option, then they will be awarded half a mark for that question type. Mark Weighting The default weighting for multiple items on a page is 1 and this will split the TotalMark equally by the number of items. So, for example, a page containing 2 multiple choice items with a weighting of 1 would give half marks to each question. This weighting can be changed manually by altering the value for the item s weighting property as shown below: So, with two multiple choice items on a page, with the first having a weighting of 1 and the second question having a weighting of 2, this would award twice as much of the TotalMark for question 2 as for question 1. Or, in other words, question 1 would be allocated 33% of the TotalMark and question 2 would be allocated 67% of the TotalMark. Page 117 of 184

118 Avoiding Fractional Marking If an exam is required to avoid awarding fractional marks for questions then care must be taken to choose the correct combination of options and weighting. This can be checked by use of the Preview tab in ContentProducer and checking the marking awarded shown in the properties item properties as shown below: Answer each question correctly independently and check that the percentage awarded when applied to the TotalMark gives a whole number of marks. Automatic and Human Marking Pages can be flagged so to be marked automatically, human marked, a mixture of these or not marked. Typically, free text responses are set to be human marked and other question types are to be automatically marked. By default pages are flagged as automatically marked. To change the method for marking, use the same technique as described for setting the TotalMark. In the page references there is a reference called MarkingType. For further information on this, look at the Mandatory References section found in this guide. It is important to note that since MarkingType is set at the page level, it applies to all questions on that page. For example, if a page contains both a multiple choice question and a free text response question then the page must be set for human marking in order to allow the free text question to be marked. Page 118 of 184

119 Using the Marker Panel in Preview Mode In Preview Mode you can make use of two feature buttons to check how your marking is functioning on a page. Mark Responses This feature shows whether or not the answers you have given are correct or not. A tick or cross will be displayed next to any question components you have attempted, indicating if your response was correct or not. Marker Panel When you select the Marker Panel button, a dialogue box will be displayed that gives information on any question components on that page. All question components will be displayed in the Marker Panel table along with their component ID, the scene they are on, the question weighting and the question type. A B I C D E F G H A: Total Page Mark, B: Mark Currently Awarded, C: SceneID, D: Weighting for the question, E: Attempted, F: Mark achieved for the question, G: ComponentID, H: Type of question, I: Component on active scene. Page 119 of 184

120 A Total Page Mark This is the total number of marks that can be awarded by answering all question components correctly on that page. B Mark Currently Awarded This value tallies what the total awarded mark achieved is as you respond to the question components in Preview mode. C SceneID The Scene number that a particular question component is on, allowing you to keep track of components on different scenes on the same page. D Weighting for the question The number of marks apportioned to a question component when answered correctly. E Attempted 0 means the question component hasn t been attempted, conversely, 1 means it has been attempted. F Mark achieved for the The current mark that has been awarded for a question component. question G ComponentID The unique ID of a question component. H Type of question Information on what type of question a component is. I Component on active scene This shows whether the question component is on the current scene. If it is on the current scene then it will be highlighted on the page by a red box when selected in the Marker Panel. If it isn t on the active scene, it won t. True means it is on the active scene, false means it isn t. Selecting question components in the table will cause them to be identified onscreen by a red dashed border. It is only possible to select one question component at a time. This helps you to identify question components visually while simultaneously viewing information on the marking. Page 120 of 184

121 You can attempt the questions in preview and observe how they interact with marks awarded and the other information you don t necessarily see. For example, on the page below, you can see that: There are 3 question components on the page (1 multiple choice, 1 gapfill, 1 picklist) 2 Question types have been attempted (the multiple choice and the gapfill question components) A mark of 1 has been awarded for the Multiple Choice question component and a mark of 1 has been awarded for the gapfill question component. The total Page Mark is 1. So far, a mark of 0.6 (out of 1) for the questions on the page has been awarded. The picklist question component has yet to be attempted. Page 121 of 184

122 Creating Paper-Based Content Creating paper-based content differs completely from on-screen content as it uses the Microsoft Word application, as opposed to using the Toolbox and Properties features of ContentProducer. However, ContentProducer manages the production and plugs into Word. Create a New Paper-Based Page When you create a new page, you will be presented with the option to also create an associated mark scheme for the page. Tick the appropriate box if you want to simultaneously create a mark scheme for this page (you can always add a mark scheme to the page later if you don t create one now). Leave the Check Out Immediately option ticked so you can immediately begin to work on creating this question. Click OK to create the page (and the mark scheme if you enabled that option). The page will be created and will appear within the folder that you created it within. You can see from the green ticks, like in on-screen content, that these pages are checked out to you. Page 122 of 184

123 Since you also get the latest versions of these pages when you check them out, Word pages will be opened for both the page and, in this example, the associated mark scheme. You can tell which is which from the document names in the title bar of each. Creating a mark scheme for an existing item If you want to add a mark scheme to an item that doesn t currently have one, right-click it in the Solution Explorer panel and select Create Mark Scheme. If you want to check out the mark scheme at this point, tick the option to do so. Click Ok to create the mark scheme. Note that an item can only have one mark scheme associated with it. Page 123 of 184

124 Adding content to a Paper-Based Item Within the work document for a Paper-Based content item, you can enter text as you would if you were using a word processor in everyday life. Save and Check In a Paper-Based Item The check-in process is almost the same for paper-based items as for on-screen ones. However, you need to save your changes to the document before checking it in. Be sure to save your Word document through the Word interface; either click Save from the File menu or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S. Once you ve saved the document you can close it. Now right-click the page in ContentProducer, in the Solution Explorer panel, and select Check In.... Page 124 of 184

125 The Check In dialogue will be displayed: As with on-screen items, select the new item status, add any relevant comments and click OK to check in the page with your changes saved. There is no Page Advisor on check-in for paper-based items. In Solution Explorer the check-in status icon of the page will change to padlock to show that the page is now checked in to the server. Notes on creating Paper-Based Questions You should be aware when you create paper-based questions of whether you need to include the space for answers in the item itself, or if the candidate will be using a separate answer booklet. If the candidate will be answering the question in the same booklet then you should leave dotted lines for their answer after your stem text for example. When the exam is compiled in ItemBank, blank space is stripped out of the Word documents. So you must be sure to manually accommodate space for the candidate s response unless they ll be using a separate answer book. Page 125 of 184

126 Creating a Word Booklet Templates for Paper-Based Content Word Templates are the style templates that questions or source booklets will conform to when used in an exam. To create a Word Template in a Project, right-click the folder where you want to put it (or right-click the project if you want to create it in the root folder) and select Add New Word Template from the context menu. It is recommended that you put all templates in a folder together so that it s easy to locate them later in ItemBank. Give your template a name and leave the Check Out Immediately if you want to work on it straight away. Click OK to create the template. You should use informative names that will enable ItemBank users to identify what that template is intended for. Otherwise it will create anguish in ItemBank and could result in the incorrect template being applied to questions/source material. Note: You cannot create a marking scheme for a template. Save and check in the item when you re finished, as you would for a question item. Document Properties You can use custom document properties to insert information about the particular question or exam version into your exam. Assigning these document properties to fields on your templates will cause the Surpass system to automatically insert the appropriate information into the field when generating resources. To add a Custom Document Property go to: File >Info>Properties>Advanced Properties> Custom You can then add custom document properties based on the information in the below table. See the below table for a list of the Document Properties that are supported by the Surpass system. Page 126 of 184

127 Document Property Description SURPASS_SECTIONNAME Inserts the text of the current section name (as defined in ItemBank). SURPASS_EXAMVERSION Inserts the text of the Exam Version Reference (as defined in ItemBank). SURPASS_QUESTIONNUMBER Inserts the question number of the current question. This is usually defined with a value of 1 in the Item Template so that it is available to the author when a new item is created. For example, in the twelfth question of an exam paper this field would appear as 12. SURPASS_QUESTIONNUMBER_TENS As above, except this property inserts only the units value for the question number. For example, in the 12 th question of an exam paper this field would appear as 1. This is particularly useful when, for example, the question number needs to be split into different cells of a table: 1 2 SURPASS_QUESTIONNUMBER_UNITS As above, except this property inserts only the tens value for the question number. For example, in the 12 th question of an exam paper this field would appear as 2. To insert a field, position the cursor where you want to insert information for that field and then choose Field from the Quickparts menu on the Insert menu. These supported properties will be in the DocProperty section. Page 127 of 184

128 Uploading Item Templates for Paper-Based Content You can upload Word documents to use as a template for each of the following items: Page (Question) Items Mark Scheme Items Source Items. Once uploaded, the templates are then recreated every time a new item of the relevant Item type is created. You should ensure that the formatting for your Item Templates is consistent with that of booklet templates, so that authors can see how their content will appear in the final exam booklets produced in ItemBank. To upload a template, create a Word document with the styles, layout and formatting that you require. Save this document to your desired location. Important: Your templates must be saved in Microsoft Word document (.docx) format, rather than as a Word Template (.dotx) file. Open the Edit Project Properties window by right-clicking the project in Solution Explorer and selecting Edit Project Properties. In the Paper tab, upload your templates by clicking the button next to the relevant template, and browsing for your saved template. Once you have found your saved template, click Open to select the template and then select OK to upload. Page 128 of 184

129 Creating a Source Booklet for Paper-Based Content Source booklets allow you to provide supporting information that candidates may require in order to answer particular questions. As well as creating the source material itself, source items should be associated with their appropriate questions so that, when the questions are used in an exam, the source material will be presented too. This ensures that the candidate has everything they need to answer the question. To create a new Source Booklet, right-click the folder where you want to put it (or right-click the project if you want to create it in the root folder) and select Add Source Booklet Item from the context menu. Give your Source Item a name and leave the Check Out Immediately if you want to work on it straight away. Click OK to create the item. Now you can add the relevant information to your source item. Save and check in the item when you re finished, as you would for a question item. Associating the Source Item with Relevant Question Items Source Items will usually only be relevant to specific questions, so you ll need to construct these relationships in ContentProducer so that when an exam uses a particular question, it knows that the correct source item must also be generated to go along with it. To create this relationship, right-click a question that requires a source item and select Edit Relationships from the context menu. The Edit Relationships dialogue will be displayed. Click the Source Items radio button. Page 129 of 184

130 The available source items in the project will be shown. Any items that aren t source items will be greyed out and unavailable. Click the box next to the source item you wish to link to the question; a tick will appear in the box. The name of the associated source item will appear in the list of selected sources for this question. You can add more source items to this question if required. Click OK to confirm the link and exit the dialogue. Page 130 of 184

131 References References can be used for both on-screen and paper-based content. You can attach pieces of metadata to your pages; these are called references. When you hover the mouse pointer over a page in the Solution Explorer, existing references will be displayed. Some information is automatically created and displayed, e.g. PageID, Status, Page Name, and any question types on that page. Assign References to a Page To set references for a page, you must first check the page out. Once you have checked out the page, rightclick it to display the context menu: Edit References/Metadata option on right-click context menu. Upon clicking the Edit References/Metadata option, you ll be presented with the references menu. Page 131 of 184

132 To enter a reference, click one of the reference field names in the table on the left of the Set Reference dialogue box. If the type of reference is a Text one, a free-text box will appear on the right; you should click the pointer in this box and you can then enter any text you like. If the type of reference is Decimal or Integer, a field will appear on the right; you should click the pointer in this field and enter a number or decimal. If the type of reference is shown as Date, a value field and a date picker will appear on the right. Click on the calendar symbol to open the date picker; you should use the arrows to select a month then click on the appropriate date. Your chosen date will appear in the value field you will not be able to enter a date in manually. Click the Clear button to delete an existing date (this button will be greyed-out if no date has been selected). Page 132 of 184

133 If the Type of reference is shown as List, when you click the name of the reference, a dropdown menu will be displayed with a preset list of references that you may choose from. When you have set a reference on a page, you should click OK to confirm the reference. You will be shown a message informing you that references will be attached when you next check the page in. You can just click OK to close this message box. Changing a page s references using the Group View If you switch to Group View from Solution Explorer, you can apply filters to sort the pages in a project/solution by their references (see Group View chapter). You can change a page s value for each reference by applying the filter for that reference, and then dragging a page (whilst holding down shift) into the folder with the reference value you want it to inherit. This is also useful if you want to change the page status without checking-out and then checking-in to change page s statuses. A Note on Reference Naming Conventions Please be aware that references you create should not contain spaces or non-alphabetical or numerical characters. Page 133 of 184

134 Mandatory references References are set up when the project is set up, and are configured according to the needs of each individual organisation. However, ContentProducer does include the following as default references: TotalMark MarkingType TotalMark This reference controls the total mark of the page. This should be the maximum number of marks the candidate can attain for this page in the exam. This reference is a Text reference, so you will have to type in a value. MarkingType This reference is a List reference you can choose: 0 Computer Mark (Default) 1 Human Mark 2 Do Not Mark 3 Smart Mark Further information on MarkingType Here follows an explanation of what the different MarkingType settings do: 0 Computer Mark This is the value set as default on a page and it remains so unless manually changed by the user. This means that the question will be automatically marked by the marking engine after a candidate s exam has been submitted. Page 134 of 184

135 1 Human Mark This value means that the question will not be computer marked and will be flagged automatically for human marking. 2 Do Not Mark This value means that the question will not be computer marked, nor will it be flagged for human marking. 3 Smart Mark If the page has this MarkingType set on it then the marking engine will attempt to automatically mark the question. If the question is marked as correct (full marks) then no human input is needed in the marking stage. However, if full marks aren t achieved for the question then it is automatically flagged for human marking. System References Some references always exist in a project and are important elsewhere in the Surpass platform. You can add information to these references to improve things like the reports in SecureAssess. These system references are detailed here. Unit The Unit reference is used when reports are generated in SecureAssess. Whatever is stored in this free text reference will be displayed in the overview of data for reports run on individual or multiple candidates for selected exams. This feedback enables SecureAssess users to assess in more detail the candidates performance in certain areas. LO Similar to the Unit reference, LO metadata forms part of reports run by SecureAssess users, to identify strengths and weaknesses in a candidate s performance for question items covering particular areas. LO is also used to provide instant summary feedback to candidates, directly related to the questions they answered correctly or incorrectly during the assessment delivery. This feedback can be enabled or disabled by the feedback settings in ItemBank. Page 135 of 184

136 BTLOffice Reference for BTLOffice Reporting The BTLOffice reference does not always exist in a project (so it will need creating by a ProjectAdmin or SuperAdmin user) but should be used to identify BTLOffice question items. This reference will be used by SecureAssess to run a breakdown report specific to the BTLOffice question type. Set the reference value to 1 to define the page as a BTLOffice question type. The value of 0 will indicate that the page does not contain a BTLOffice question type. Note: The BTLOffice breakdown report can be run for exams containing the BTLOffice question type only, therefore this reference should not be set for pages containing any other question types. Tracking JAWS-compatible questions through the use of References ContentProducer allows authors to create content that is accessible to the JAWS screen reader. This then means that whole accessible exams can be created from these questions. However, some projects in ContentProducer may contain a mixture of JAWS compatible and non-compatible content. Therefore, it is recommended that you might want to consider using a reference to specifically track compatible and noncompatible content. The way you could implement this is by creating a (possibly mandatory) fixed reference; it would be called JAWS_status, for example. You would then create three values that this fixed reference could be: Accessible NonAccessible Unknown Authors would then have to set the status of whether the content could or couldn t use JAWS, or if they are unsure at present they could set it to unknown. Setting this reference then means that in ItemBank, a filter can be used to search for only questions that have their JAWS_status reference set as Accessible, which would allow exams to select only JAWS compliant questions. Note: The ability to create new references is restricted to ProjectAdmin users and SuperAdministrator users only. Page 136 of 184

137 Audio Scene/Page Audio To add scene audio to a page/scene (audio that will automatically play when the page or scene is loaded) you should check-out the page you want to work on. Select the scene you want to add audio to, using the tabs at the top of the page working area. In the Properties panel, locate the SceneAudio property. Click where it says (Collection) and then click the button with three dots. You will be presented with a dialogue box where you can attach a wav file of your choice. Clicking Attach Wav will display a dialogue menu, from which you can select the audio file you want to attach to the scene. Select OK to complete the procedure. You can then repeat this for other scenes on the same page. Alternatively, you can type a script to be recorded and then set the audio To be Recorded, using the dropdown menu. This functionality isn t covered in this product guide as this feature is only for use in conjunction with BTL s audio recorder software. If you require this audio functionality, please notify your project administrator. Page 137 of 184

138 Attaching Audio to Hotspots As a prerequisite, it should be noted that audio in ContentProducer has to be in.wav format. The properties of WAV files supported by ContentProducer are as follows: Bit Rate: 705kbps Audio sample size: 16 bit Channels: 1 (mono) Audio sample rate: 44kHz Audio format: PCM Check-out and open the page you wish to work on. Right-click the hotspot that you wish to add audio to and, from the resulting menu, select Attach Wav. When you select Attach Wav, a dialogue box will appear, allowing you to locate the appropriate.wav file. This is a standard windows Open dialogue, and therefore allows you to navigate files on your computer, on your network, etc. When you have located the file you wish to attach to the hotspot, select it, then select Open. The HotspotFunction property for the hotspot will automatically be set to PlayAudio once you have attached a.wav file to it. Note: When WAV files have been attached to hotspots on a page, the process of checking-in will take longer. This will only happen the first time the page is checked-in as the.wav files will be uploaded to the server. After this, there won t be a delay in checking-in the page (unless more.wav files are added). Page 138 of 184

139 Accessibility Considerations ContentProducer itself is not accessible, but the content that it creates can be. You can do this by implementing several features. ContentProducer authors can: Write alt tags for any on-screen elements. This is extremely important for images or videos that are essential in order for the candidate to give an informed response to a question. Write alt tags for question elements, including information such as that telling the candidate whether they have selected a multiple choice option, or what their response to a free text question is. Enable tabbing for onscreen elements, and assign tabbing order. Write audio scripts for onscreen text. This can be automatically generated as a computersimulated voice, or it can be automatically queued to be recorded by a voiceover artist at BTL s in-house recording suite. Wav files can also be uploaded to hotspots to provide extra audio support. With the increasing pressures to produce content with accessibility features, ContentProducer facilitates the insertion of colour contrast options, alt tags, tabbing, and screen reader compliance. About accessibility The word accessible can be used when describing a website or content in terms of the range of users who have access to the information within it. For example, for a website to be accessible to learners with low literacy levels it would have to be written using very basic and clear language. The word accessibility had been used much more specifically since the introduction of The Disability Discrimination Act in 1995 and especially in response to part three of the act which targets goods and service providers. You will notice it is a key consideration in the planning, designing and creation of all projects within BTL. Alt Tags Alt tags are used to apply a text description to a non-text element of the screen. It means that a visually impaired learner is still able to access information held within a photo or graphic. The learner would also need to know what was contained in a text box. Page 139 of 184

140 Audio Recording & Studio Audio can be recorded for pages/scenes in ContentProducer, it can also be attached to hotspots to play when clicked on. Audio can comprise narration of onscreen text or any sound. BTL keeps a directory of voiceover artists to meet the diverse requirements of different organisations. This directory includes provision for languages other than English. Recording can be done at any location with a PC and a microphone, but it can be specially facilitated at BTL s offices in West Yorkshire if required, where there is a recording facility. Tabbing To set an item up so that it can be accessed by candidates using the tab button to navigate, first select the item. Then, in the Properties window, make sure that the TabEnabled property is set to True. This will enable the item to be tabbed to. Colour contrast options Because ContentProducer content is Flash-based, the engine used to deliver it can be built to incorporate colour contrast options. This increases accessibility through preference settings which the candidate could access before they begin an assessment. Zooming It is possible to enable zooming on images or animations. This is useful for making images more accessible for those with visual impairments. Zooming for images also requires the appropriate implementation of interface design. BTL develops engines, and interfaces, that fully take advantage of the possibilities for accessibility in Flashbased content. Candidates can select from a range of preference options to suit their requirements; this can be done before they begin an assessment or at any point during it. As a minimum, ContentProducer content delivered on BTL s SecureAssess assessment delivery platform supports: Zooming for images and animations/videos. Colour contrast options for fonts and backgrounds. Tab navigation Page 140 of 184

141 Colour Preferences for Images Also see: Tutorial Setting Up Colour Preferences for Images found on the Surpass Platform site. This tutorial will provide you with information on how to make your images compliant with colour preference settings in SecureAssess. Page 141 of 184

142 Appendix 1: Common Project Settings for SuperAdministrator and ProjectAdmin users Appendix 1 provides details of the operations that SuperAdministrator and ProjectAdmin level users can perform. StandardUser level users will not have access to these operations. This Appendix specifically deals with project settings common to both paper-based and on-screen projects. There are further appendices that deal with the project settings available to you that are specific to onscreen and paper-based projects. Edit Project Properties You can change a project s properties by opening it in ContentProducer, right-clicking it in Solution Explorer and selecting Edit Project Properties from the context menu: This will display the Project Properties dialogue menu where you can edit the same details as are configurable when you create a new project. Different tabs and options will be available to you depending on whether you are editing a paper-based or on-screen project. For more information on what each of the tabs and features does and how they work, refer to the Create a New Project chapter. Page 142 of 184

143 Manage Users You can perform several functions here on existing Users accounts. Select User Management from the File menu in ContentProducer to display this dialogue. There are three tabs you can access in the User Management dialogue: Manage Users, Create New User, Add User to Project. From the User Management dialogue menu, select the Manage Users tab. To perform actions on a particular User, you first need to select the user from the dropdown list. You can then use the three buttons in the bottom-right corner of the menu to change the User s account. The following information is displayed for the currently selected user: Field Description Select Username This field will show the currently selected user. Any changes you re making here will only affect that user s account. Usernames cannot be amended. User ID The unique system ID within ContentProducer for that user. This is a locked field and cannot be changed. User Role The overarching role of this user s account in ContentProducer. This is set at Page 143 of 184

144 system level here, not at Project level (that is done for each project through the Project Properties settings detailed elsewhere in this guide). Once this has been set, when the user is created, it cannot be changed through this dialogue. Forename The user s forename. Surname The user s surname. Job Title The job title of this user at their organisation. Organisation The name of the organisation that this user is employed by. Once this has been set at the user creation stage, it cannot be changed through this dialogue. The address of the user. Phone The telephone number of the user. Content Format This is the type of content the user has permission to work with in ContentProducer. Users can be set to work only with on-screen content, only with paper-based content, or they may be given permission to work with both. As well as the above information, contained under the User Details heading, there is further non-editable information about the user and their account. This is contained beneath the Tracking Information heading: Field Description Current CP version This is the version of ContentProducer that the user last used. Date of last password change The date that the user last changed their password in ContentProducer. Last computer used The system name of the computer the user was using when last logged in to ContentProducer. Page 144 of 184

145 Delete User If you delete a user s account, they will no longer be able to log in to ContentProducer. To delete a user, select their user name from the dropdown list presented in the Select Username field. Now click the Delete User button. You will be asked to confirm that you wish to delete the User by clicking the Yes Button. Clicking No will abort the delete procedure. When you click Yes, the User will be deleted and a confirmation will be displayed informing you of the successful operation. Click OK to close the pop-up. The user will no longer be visible in any user lists and their permissions against any projects will have been removed. Reset Password You can reset a user s password through the User Management dialogue. When you reset a User s password, a new password will be automatically generated by the system and sent to the address stored on that User s profile. To reset a User s password, on the Manage Users screen, select a user from the dropdown list and then click the Reset Password button. A confirmation of the operation will be displayed: When the User receives the containing their new password, they ll be able to log in to ContentProducer with the new credentials. Upon successfully logging in, the User will be asked to change their password. Update Details You can update a user s details by selecting the user whose details you want to amend from the dropdown list and then amending the information fields in the User Management tab. Change the information in any fields that need updating and then click Update Details to confirm the changes. Page 145 of 184

146 Create a New User To create a new user, first click on the Create New User tab in the User Management dialogue. Enter the details for the new user in the fields provided on the left-hand side of the dialogue. Enter as much information as you require, bear in mind that some fields are mandatory. Ensure that you have selected the appropriate Role for the user from the dropdown menu, and that you ve set the correct Content Format option. For more information on each of these fields, refer to section of this appendix that explains about editing existing user information. Tick the boxes next to any projects (listed beneath the Project Access heading) that you want to give the new user access to. Bear in mind that this will give them read-only access to these projects and any further access you want to configure will have to be done through the Project Properties settings for each project. Once you ve completed the form with the new user s data, click the Create User button. If there are any mandatory fields that you ve not completed, pop-ups will be displayed requesting this additional information. Once everything is in order, the user will be created and an will be automatically sent to the address you entered when creating their account. This will include the download link for ContentProducer and the user s account details (username & password). Page 146 of 184

147 Add User to Project You can use the Add Users to Project tab to give ContentProducer project access to Users. First, you should select the User whose project access you want to change (select them from the dropdown list). When you ve selected a User, their current project access will be displayed in the window below. Ticks will appear next to projects to which they have access: no ticks will be shown next to projects that they don t have access to. You can tick/un-tick the boxes, by clicking them, to give/remove project access to that project for the selected User. Once you re happy with changes you ve made, you can click the Update Project Access button to confirm the changes. You are then free to select another User and perform more project access changes. If you wish to cancel any changes you ve begun to make, you can switch to another tab and then switch back. Page 147 of 184

148 Publish a Project If you are using an item bank, such as BTL s ItemBank, then publishing content can be done through setting the status of a page during check-in. Alternatively, Super Administrator users will be able to publish whole projects at a time. This can be done by right-clicking the Project that you wish to publish and select Publish Project Now. Whenever you select to publish a whole project, you will see the following warning pop-up: Select Yes to continue to publish the project, or No to cancel. Note: This option will not be visible in the right-click menu to Standard or Project Administrator users. Page 148 of 184

149 Create a New Project If you have Super Administrator or Project Admin permissions, you can create and edit projects. If you don t have these levels of access then you won t be able to create or edit projects. Create a new project by: Clicking on the New Project button from the Start Page Or you can... Go to File > Create New Project. Or you can... Right-click on a Solution in Solution Explorer and select Add New Project. Any one of these three procedures will present you with the New Project dialogue. Select a Project Type Before configuring the settings for your new project, you need to choose a project type using the dropdown options. You will need to select one of the following: Empty Project This is a brand new project that you create from scratch. Once you select this option, click Next to open the New Project wizard where you will be able to define the project s settings. Page 149 of 184

150 Based on Existing Project Selecting this option will allow you to choose a template project on which to base your new project. When you select this option, the Available Projects option will become live, providing you with a list of available template projects projects can be defined as templates in the General tab of the Project Properties wizard (see the New Project Wizard: General section below). Select the project template required then use the tick-boxes to define which Users will be allowed project access (note: you will be able to edit user access at a later stage). Use the Copy Contents tick-box to copy all the contents from the template project into the new project. Note: If there is a large amount of items in the template, you will see a warning stating the number of items to be copied when you have finished using the New Project wizard. It may take several minutes to copy a large number of items across. When you click next, the New Project wizard will open with the same settings as the template project. You will be able to edit these properties as required. Important: Once a new project has been created based on an existing project, the relationship between the two projects will end and no changes that you make to the new project will impact the template project. Page 150 of 184

151 New Project: General The first screen of the New Project dialogue allows you to give the new project a name and then to add users to the project so that they can create/edit/review content in that project. You should enter the project name (when naming your project, don t use a name of more than 28 characters). Now you can add Users to the project by selecting their names in the left User Access panel and clicking the > button. You can move all Users from the left window over by clicking the >> button. Picture shows New Project wizard. Project Templates: Setting the project to be used as a template. Projects can be defined as templates so that new projects can be based on them in the future; the various project properties of the template project will be copied across to the new project and there is an option to copy all contents from the template project as well. This way you can create basic template projects with your choice of standard settings and folder structure in order to make the process of setting up projects quicker and easier. To define a project as a template, select the Can be used as project template tick-box, displayed beneath the User Access area. Important: Project templates should only be used to contain your standard project settings and a small number of template pages, perhaps providing a best practice folder structure for your authors. The project template functionality is not intended for creating large amounts of pages to be copied across. When a page is copied from the template project to the clone project, Page ID won t be copied across; the copied page will have a new ID. This will mean that any tools/datasheets, friend/enemy items or mark schemes attached to a page copied from a project template into a project clone will not be supported. Page 151 of 184

152 General Settings for On-screen Projects only On the General tab, for on-screen content projects, you can configure: Project default background Project font settings. If you are creating or editing a paper-based content project then this part of the General tab screen will be greyed-out and inactive. These settings do not apply to paper-based content projects in ContentProducer. Select a Default background for the project here by clicking the... button and browsing to a JPEG you wish to use. You can set up the default Font and Font Size from the dropdown menus. These will be used as the default for textboxes, gapfills, picklists, etc. Font sizes can still be changed by content authors, within the limits you set in the Toolbar Font Range parameters here. You can make particular fonts available in the project by ticking the box next to any fonts you wish to be available, in the Fonts Allowed panel. When you re satisfied with the project settings click OK to create the project with the settings applied. However, you may wish to configure the settings on the other tabs before you create the project. Page 152 of 184

153 Roles The Roles tab allows you to create roles for groups of users, rather than having to set them up for individuals. This means that whole groups of users can later be assigned to workflow statuses. To create a new role, select the Roles tab at the top of the New Project wizard. Picture shows Roles screen of the New Project wizard. Select the Add Role button. You will see a pop-up requiring you to give the new role a name, for example, Author. Click OK to confirm your chosen name. The new role will then appear in the Roles panel on the left-hand side of the screen. Page 153 of 184

154 Once you have added a Role, the Users panel on the left-hand side of the screen will become populated with your project users. First select a Role, then use the tick-boxes down the right-hand side of the Users panel to associate them with that role. To remove a user from a role, simply click on the tick-box again to uncheck it. You can use the radio button at the top of the Users panel to select whether to Show All users or just the ones that you have Associated with a particular role. To edit an existing role at any point, click the Edit button next to role that you wish to change. This will reopen the Add Role pop-up allowing you to edit the name of the role. If you wish to delete a role, simply click on the red x that correlates to the role you wish to delete. When you do this, you will see a pop-up asking you to confirm the deletion. Page 154 of 184

155 Workflow The Workflow tab enables users (with high enough access) to manage the available workflow statuses in a project. Picture shows Workflow screen in the New Project wizard. Workflow statuses are created at the outset of the project, but more can be added and existing ones can be edited at any time by a user with high-level/board-level access. All users will be able to see the workflow statuses in the Workflows panel of the screen. To add a new status level to a project, click the Add Workflow Status button. You will then be able to give the new status a name. When you ve entered a name, click OK to confirm and create the new status. Click Cancel if you want to exit the menu without creating a new status. To rename a status at any point, select the status that you wish to edit and select the Edit button. You will see a pop-up allowing you to rename the status click OK when you are happy with the new name, or Cancel to exit the pop-up. Page 155 of 184

156 To delete a status, click on the red x button that correlates to the status that you wish to delete. Doing this will raise a warning pop-up to inform you that deleting the status will remove it from any associated roles. If you still want to delete the status, click OK or, if not, click Cancel. The Workflow screen will also allow users to change the order of workflow statuses. To do this, you should use the green up and down arrow buttons. Use these buttons to move statuses up and down the workflow order. For example, if I wanted Ready for Review to come after Proof read, then you would use the green down button next to it to shift it down the order to its new position. Workflow Associations The Workflow Associations tab enables users (with high enough access) to associate users with the different workflow statuses. Picture shows Workflow Associations tab in the New Project wizard. Page 156 of 184

157 Once a workflow status has been created in the previous tab, you can move Users into that permission group. You can assign Roles (i.e. groups of users) or Users to a workflow status. To do this, you first need to highlight the status you wish to add users to and then select either the Roles or Users tab at the top of the right-hand panel. Users Tab Roles Tab Both tabs will work in the same way, so to select whichever Roles or Users you wish to assign, you should select the Associated tick-boxes down the right-hand side. To remove either a Role or a User, simply uncheck the tick boxes. Note that you can also choose to see either all users or just the users that you have associated with a specific work status by using the radio buttons above the panel. You will notice that as you associate a Role or a User with a status, the Inherit tick-box will default to checked. This means that the Role or User will inherit the permissions for those statuses that are lower down in the workflow. For example, if you associate a User with the Proof read workflow status (see example, left) and the Inherit tick box is checked, then that User will also gain the permissions to the Ready for Review, Draft and Guest statuses. If you don t wish to allow the User to inherit these lower roles, simply uncheck the Inherit box. Note: Users will be able to check out pages that are in a higher workflow status than the one they are associated with, as long as the status is not in the publish range, however the User will only have access to Preview mode. Page 157 of 184

158 Item Flags Item Flags are pieces of additional information, regarding the status of a page item. Once created, flags can be added to any item before they are checked-in. An example of this might be to have a Copyright Clearance flag which could be set for a page item with content that needed to obtain copyright (i.e. for an image). In this way, flags can be used to benefit the quality assurance of pages. Flags will be stored and seen as references (metadata). The information will, therefore, be visible when you hover your mouse-pointer over an item. You will also be able to use the flags as filter criteria in the reference view i.e. a user could use the reference view to see only items that have a certain flag attached. Picture shows Item Flags screen in the New Project wizard. To add a new flag, select the Add Flag button. This pop-up will then appear, requiring you to name the new flag. The new flag will then appear in the Item Flags panel. You also have the option to add Grouped Flags. Grouped flags enable you to have stages within a flag (similar to the workflow stages). For example, you could have a group named Illustrations and within that group there could be 3 flags regarding illustrations within an item, i.e. Needed, Ready and Approved. Page 158 of 184

159 Note: When using Grouped flags in ContentProducer, you can only select one flag at a time, i.e. with regards to the example above, you would not be able to select Ready and Approved at the same time. This will help to avoid any confusion regarding the status of the item. To add a Grouped flag, click the Add Grouped Flag button. You will then see this pop-up shown on the right : Here, you will need to name the group, then provide a minimum of 2 flag options. You can add flag options by clicking on the blue bar then typing in your chosen flag name. When you have finished adding flags, click OK to confirm the changes, or click Cancel to exit the dialogue box without the group being created. Note: The red x buttons will allow you to delete any flags you wish to before confirming the group. To delete either a Flag or a Grouped Flag, select the one that you wish to delete and then click the Delete button at the top of the panel. You will be asked to confirm you decision to delete the Flag/Grouped Flag by a confirmation pop-up. If you wish to edit a Grouped Flag, select the one that you wish to edit and then click the Edit button at the top of the panel. This will re-open the Add Grouped Flag dialogue, allowing you to make the required changes. As with Workflow Statuses, you can associate both Roles and Users to Flags and Grouped Flags. This will give those selected users access to the flags you associate them with. To associate a Role or a User, you can use the Roles and Users tabs in the right-hand panel. Like before, select the Flag that you wish to assign Users or Roles to then use the tick-boxes to select those Users or Role that you wish to associate. As before, to remove a role or user s association, just uncheck the tick box. Again, you can choose view either all users/roles or just those users/roles associated with the flag/grouped flags. Note: When associating Roles or Users to a grouped flag, you must associate them with each grouped flag option. Page 159 of 184

160 Project References (Metadata) This tab in the New Project dialogue menu allows you to manage a project s metadata (also referred to as references). You can create references for a project so that the users of that project can add values to them, building up profiles of metadata for the content. References can be added to folders or pages, and can be Free Text or List references. Date, Integer and Decimal references can be added to pages only: Free Text Reference: The content author can type anything into the reference field. List Reference: The content author can only select a reference from a pre-defined list of values. Date Reference: The content author can specify a date for the reference using a date picker. Integer Reference: The content author can enter a number with no spaces into the reference field. Decimal Reference: The content author can enter a decimal number with no spaces to one decimal place. Page References To add a new page reference, click the Add Reference button underneath the Edit Project Properties tabs: On the References tab, when creating a new project, you can create, remove and edit references: this is done by using the buttons underneath the tabs. As you can see, there are two further tabs available within the References tab: Page References and Folder References. Page 160 of 184

161 An Add Reference popup will open, allowing you to select a reference type: Click to select the type of reference that you wish to add to the project. When you select a Reference type, you will be prompted to enter a name for the new reference. When you have entered a name, select OK to confirm it. If you have chosen to add a new List Reference, then you will also be required to add at least one List Value to populate the list so that authors can select the appropriate value when configuring the reference in their content. To add List Values, click on the first line in the dialogue box and then begin typing your chosen Display Name. You will also need to enter a corresponding Data Value for the Display Name. This value is used by the system when exam rules are used in ItemBank and so they will only ever be visible here. You will be able to change the Display Name at any time, without affecting any exam rules using this reference; however, it is important that, once an item using this reference is used in an exam version, the Data Value stays the same. If the Data Value is changed, any exam version rules relying on this reference may be disrupted. The advantage here is that the Display Name can be changed at any time you may require. To delete a value, simply click the small red x that correlates to the value that you wish to delete. The OK button will be greyed out until you have entered at least one List Value. When you have finished entering your List Values, click the OK button to confirm your changes. Page 161 of 184

162 If, at any point, you wish to go back and edit your List reference, then you should highlight it in the table and click the Edit button (if you do not choose a List reference to edit, the Edit button will be greyed out). This will re-open the Add List Reference dialogue, allowing you to make your changes. To delete an existing reference, use the small red x correlating to the reference that you wish to delete. When you click the delete button, you will see a warning pop-up asking you to confirm or cancel the deletion. For information on defining mandatory references, please refer to the Mandatory References section of this user guide. Folder References To add a folder reference, select the Folder References tab. Here, you will be able to add either Freetext or List References that will be applied on a folder by folder basis, not just individual pages. You can use the same process as described above to add Freetext or List References to a folder. Note: Folder References cannot be defined as mandatory. Page 162 of 184

163 Defining Mandatory References Mandatory references can be defined and later edited in a ContentProducer project at anytime, but only by users with Content Producer SuperAdministrator or ProjectAdmin roles. Specifying mandatory metadata means authors are not able to check-in an item without giving a value for the mandatory references. To define the mandatory metadata, you should right-click on the project title and select Edit Project Properties. This will open up the Edit Project Properties dialogue box click on the References tab along the top of the dialogue box. To define whether or not a status is mandatory, you can you the tick-boxes beneath the Mandatory column. If these boxes are ticked, then an author will not be able to check a page back in unless all of the mandatory references are complete an error message will be shown if the mandatory metadata is not complete. Page 163 of 184

164 Project Publish Settings In the New Project dialogue, you can click the Publish Settings tab to configure properties which affect the way items are published from ContentProducer. Publish Settings: ItemBank Address Status Range to Publish Disable Publisher Publish Defaults: Default Item Usage Count Seed Default Item Facility Value Seed Custom Publish Automatic Progress State Publish Settings Under the Publish Settings heading, you can choose the address of the ItemBank to publish to and what status range the content will be published at. Page 164 of 184

165 ItemBank Address Enter the ItemBank address here that content is to be published to. This should include the prefix: Status Range to Publish From the dropdown lists, you should select the status ranges between which you want content to be published. When you click the dropdown lists, all the status levels will be displayed for the project, with the first status level at the top and the final status level at the bottom. It is usual to just have one status level at which content is published, so the From and To will most likely have the same status level selected, e.g. both will be set to Released or Published or something similar. This publish range may not be the final status level, as there is usually a level above for retired items. Disable Publisher Ticking this box will cause ContentProducer not to publish any content to ItemBank. Unticking it will cause content to be published when within the publish status range defined by the Status Range to Publish options. Publish Defaults Under the Publish Defaults heading, you can specify seed values for published items metadata for Usage Count and Facility Value. You can click the value fields and enter your own values. Then, when items from this ContentProducer project are published to ItemBank, they ll inherit these default values for Usage Count and Facility Value. Page 165 of 184

166 Automatic Progress State The Automatic Progress State allows you to configure a project so that when items are used in an exam, they are auto-progressed to a higher workflow status. This means that access to the item could be limited to senior users only, for example, so that minimal changes are made to the item once it has been used in a live exam. Use the dropdown menu to select the status that you wish items to automatically progress to once used in a live exam. (The setting will default to Not Enabled). Important: The status that you choose must be within the publish range (see above for details on the publish range). So, for example, if your status range was Released to Released and Used in Live Exam, you would select Released and Used in Live Exam for the automatic progress state. This workflow status could then be associated with senior authors only so that there is limited access to the item once it has started being used in live exams. Custom Publish Parameters The Custom Publish Parameters options allow you to specify the ItemBank bank that the project will feed content into. You should leave the Name field alone and only change the Value field next to it. This value will usually be your organisation s name. Important: If you are in doubt over any of these settings, you should contact the BTL Service Desk. Page 166 of 184

167 Recycle Bin The Recycle Bin is where any deleted folders and pages are stored until they are either restored to the project, or permanently deleted. There are two methods of working with items in the Recycle Bin for a project. You can either deal with all the folders/pages in the Recycle Bin at once, or individually, one at a time. You can control all the items in the Recycle bin by right-clicking on the Recycle Bin icon: This will display the following menu options: Empty Recycle Bin will permanently delete all the folders and pages in the Recycle Bin. Restore All will undelete everything in the Recycle Bin and restore each folder and page to the place on the project structure where they were when they were deleted. If the location where a page or folder used to exist is no longer present, those restored items will be placed in the root of the project on the Solution Explorer structure. By right-clicking a folder or page in the Recycle Bin, you can deal with it, and, if applicable, its contents, on its own. Right-clicking a folder or page will display the following menu options: Page 167 of 184

168 Project Alerts If you are a Super Admin or Project Admin user, you can set automatic alerts for a Project so that you receive alerts when certain changes are made to Project content. This feature is particularly pertinent for keeping track of the progress of items and overseeing the workflow process. Right-click on the Project in the Solution Explorer and select Edit Project Alerts from the menu. The Project Alerts dialogue will open, allowing you to add, edit and delete alerts. The dialogue will also list all existing alerts. Create a New Alert To create a new alert for a Project, click the Add button. This will open the Edit Alert dialogue. Using the Edit Alert dialogue, you can: Define an alert name Select the Content Type and State Set the frequency of the alert Set the alert type. Page 168 of 184

169 Alert Name Content Type Content State Alert Frequency Alert Type Enter a name for your alert. Choose the type of page content that you wish to set the alert for. You will be able to choose from: Mark Scheme Question Item Source Item Booklet Templates. Choose the current workflow state of the content that you wish to set the alert for. Choose how frequently you would like to receive alerts via . You will have two choices: When Anything Changes You will receive an alert immediately when the change takes place. Daily When setting a daily alert, you will also be able to define a specific time to receive this alert. The alert will provide you with a summary of all changes that have taken place between the time of the last summary and this one. Select the type of alert that you wish to set for your chosen content. You will be able to choose from the following: State Changes a sub-menu listing the possible states for the content to change to will appear. Use the tick-boxes to select the states you wish to be alerted about. Flag Changes. Comment Changes. Reference Changes. Depending on the frequency of alert that you have chosen, when you choose one of these states, you will be alerted when a change has taken place, e.g. if a new comment is added to a question item. Page 169 of 184

170 Content Producer Welcome Page If you wish to be able to edit the news contents of the Content Producer welcome page, you can request to have the HTML content loaded from a server that you have control over. This means that a user with Super Admin status can edit the news content. The Super Admin (or another user who has been given permission to edit the news section) will see a grey panel with an Edit button along the top of the welcome page. Picture shows ContentProducer welcome page. Picture shows ContentProducer welcome page in editor mode. In editor mode, you can enter your chosen text into the news section of the welcome page. You can also use the toolbar to format text: the toolbar gives you the following format options: Font & Font Size Bold, Italic or Underlined Text Font Colour Text alignment (left, centre, right and justified) Bullet points Adding a Hyperlink To add a hyperlink, select the text that you wish to form the link with and click the Add Hyperlink button. Page 170 of 184

171 A dialogue box will now open, allowing you to create a link to a webpage or an Using this dialogue box, you can edit the hyperlink text that you highlighted in the main screen. To add a link to a webpage, enter the address that you wish the link to open. (The field will already contain by default). Click OK to save your changes and close the dialogue box. Click on the button to create a hyperlink to an . Again, you can edit the hyperlink text to display. Next, enter the address that the will be sent to and, if you wish, a subject for the . When the hyperlink is clicked on, a default provider will open with the To and Subject fields already populated. Click on the OK to save your changes and close the dialogue box. When you return to the main screen, the text for the hyperlink(s) you create will appear in blue and will be underlined, like this: If you wish to remove a hyperlink, simply highlight the hyperlink text and click the Remove hyperlink button, found in the Edit toolbar. When you have finished editing the text, click Save to confirm the changes, or Cancel to exit the editor mode without any changes being saved. Page 171 of 184

172 Appendix 2: Project Settings for On-Screen Projects In the Project Properties dialogue, there are some tabs and options that are only available when you are working in on-screen content mode. Attachment Settings You will need to configure the attachments settings if you will be using Attach File question content. The supported file types must be defined in Attachment Settings. Here, you can populate the Supported File Types field with the file types you wish to be able to use in a specific project. Click the Add File Type button to add a new file type. A pop-up will open allowing you to input your desired file extension, e.g. zip. To delete a file type, select the one that you wish to delete (by clicking on it it will become highlighted) and then click the Delete File Type button. Doing this will return a pop-up message asking you to confirm your decision click OK to confirm the deletion, or Cancel to return to the Attachment Settings tab without deleting. Note: This list of supported file types is used for both uploaded and downloaded files. Page 172 of 184

173 Advanced Settings The Advanced Settings tab offers control over the content size and dimension settings. You should be acutely aware that any changes you make here could have significant repercussions for all content in a project. Therefore, you should make absolutely certain of what you are doing before changing anything here. Once you ve made any changes, you ll have to close and re-open the project in order to view the changes in effect. Grid Size This value is selected from a dropdown menu and controls the distance between the points on the grid used in Editor Mode in ContentProducer. This also affects snapping of content when the grid is turned on. Embedded Fonts Embedded fonts are selected as either on or off by the ticking or un-ticking of a box. Choosing to embed fonts will apply this functionality to the whole project. Scroll Content/Scene Stacking This option turns Scene Stacking on or off, depending on whether it is ticked or un-ticked. Scene Stacking is turned on or off here on a project basis, but you can override this setting for individual pages by configuring their references. Scene stacking is also affected by the Scene Padding settings on the Advanced Settings tab. Page 173 of 184

174 Export QTI This option controls whether, during packaging a project, the user can export QTI. Tick this option to allow it, or un-tick it to deny it. Here is the option, shown on the Advanced menu during packaging, that will be shown or hidden according to this Advanced Setting. Canvas Size Canvas size settings control the size of the viewable ContentProducer scene. The values are given in pixels and Width controls the horizontal size while Height controls the vertical size. This can effectively correspond to the size of any template image you are using as the background for the project i.e. an image showing the delivery interface. Working Content Area The working content area defines how the content will be treated in Preview, so in the delivery engine. The X and Y settings control where the top left corner of the content will be shifted when in Preview. Setting zeroes for these will mean that the content will appear in the same place in Preview as in Editor. Width and Height control the size of the viewable area for the content in Preview. So, if you set dimensions that are smaller than the content you have created, then scroll bars will come into effect to accommodate all page content. Scene Padding Scene Padding relates specifically to content that uses Scene Stacking. Each of these three settings is a buffer of blank space, measured in pixels. Between this is the size of the vertical buffer that will be applied between the header and the footer buffers of stacked scenes. Page 174 of 184

175 Header this is the size of the buffer that will be applied above the first (uppermost) component on a stacked scene. Footer this is the size of the buffer that will be applied below the last (bottom most) component of a stacked scene. Page Sizing The Page Sizing options are quick standard settings that each have the appropriate standard dimensions for each delivery interface i.e. Standard Left Navigation, Standard Horizontal Navigation, Standard Psychometric Navigation. Click to select whichever option matches the delivery interface for content in this project. When you select one of the standard options, the rest of the values in this menu will be automatically populated, except for the Scene Padding ones which must be configured individually. If the content is to use a bespoke delivery engine size then you can select the Custom Size option and configure each of the individual options (Canvas Size, Working Content Area) as appropriate. Page 175 of 184

176 Project Backgrounds You can setup project backgrounds: when creating a project by editing project preferences. Adding a Default Background When Creating a Project When creating a project, under the General tab, you can select a Default Background by clicking the... button next to the Default Background field. This will pop up a dialogue box, allowing you to locate a JPEG file to use as the default for pages in this project: When you find the JPEG file you wish to use, click it once to highlight it and then click OK. The file s path will then be displayed in the Default Background field. Picture shows New Project wizard and the Default Background setting. Page 176 of 184

177 Adding/Changing Backgrounds by Editing Project Preferences On an existing project, you can right-click the project in Solution Explorer and select Edit Project Properties to edit the background settings for pages in the project. In the Edit Project Properties dialogue menu, you can then click the Advanced Settings button, under the General tab: The Background Manager dialogue will be displayed: Folders and pages in the project Editor/Preview tabs List of available background files Background preview File selection and uploading Delete Background Page 177 of 184

178 To add a background, select the... button and navigate to the background you require. Backgrounds must be in JPEG format. If you wish to use a background that is being used on another project, then you will need to navigate to the following place: Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files > [CP3 Folder]> Userfiles > projectfiles > Then select the project ID folder which uses the background you require. Next, select the shared folder > select the backgrounds folder > Open. The selected jpeg will now be visible in the File Name field. Select the locations where the background needs to be: Editor Background Preview Background Or both Then select the Upload File button. The background file name should now appear in the window to the right of the background image. You then need to select and highlight the required background image in the Editor tab window. Page 178 of 184

179 Use the tick-boxes on the Solution structure to indicate where you want the background image to appear. Generally, the second tick box from the top, in the structure, is the one used to make all the backgrounds the same (i.e. the project tickbox). Note: It is possible to have a different background for each folder or page if you wish. Now repeat this process for the required background in the Preview tab window. When you have set up the Editor and Preview background, close the Background Manager dialogue box by selecting the close button. Check that the backgrounds have been set up correctly by double clicking a page in the structure and switching between the Editor and Preview Modes. Delete a Background Select and highlight the required background image in the Editor or Preview tab window and then select the Delete Background button. Note: Background Manager can also be accessed by a Project Administrator user. Page 179 of 184

180 Packaging a Project When your content is ready to be used by an end-user, the way you go about making it available for use depends on the system you are using to deliver the content. If you are using an item bank such as BTL s ItemBank then publishing content will be done through setting the status of a page during check-in. However, you can also package up content to a local machine. Package a Project You can package up a ContentProducer project as an IMS package. To package a project, right-click on the project name within the Solution Explorer and then select Package Project. The Package Project dialogue box will appear. Use the Browse button to locate on your computer where you wish to package the project to and select OK. Package a Folder Packaging a folder allows you to export smaller amounts of content. This is helpful if you re checking how a few pages or even a single page will function, especially in an LMS or delivery engine. To package a folder, right-click on the folder within the Solution Explorer then select Package Folder from the displayed menu. The Package Project dialogue box will appear. Use the Browse button to locate on your computer where you wish to package the folder to and select OK. Note: Package Project can also be accessed by a Project Administrator user role. Running the Tree Structure To run the project Tree Structure on your local machine, you need to run the Launcher.exe file from the packaged project or folder. Note: To run the project Tree Structure on a web server, you will need to copy your packaged project to the web server and navigate to tree-structure.html. Page 180 of 184

181 Appendix 3: Paper-Based Project Level Activities Project Properties: Paper The Paper tab in the Project Properties offers settings specific to paper-based projects in ContentProducer. There are three fields on this screen, each allowing you to upload a Word template for different types of items in this project. Question Template Mark Scheme Template Source Item Template For each of these fields, click the... button next to them and then browse to a file you want to use as a template for each. Select the correct file and click OK to attach the template to the project for that type of item. Page 181 of 184