QUESTION ITEM BANK MAINTENANCE PROGRAM QUICK GUIDE & ILLUSTRATED HELP

Transcription

1 PROJECT PHOENIX EduTrax Instructional Management Solution Phoenix/EIM ItemPlus QUESTION ITEM BANK MAINTENANCE PROGRAM QUICK GUIDE & ILLUSTRATED HELP Version

2 The ItemPlus Windows PC program is used to enter and maintain questions in the item databank. This program contains advanced graphics and image processing features that allow for text and image manipulation, making the process of creating new questions or copying existing questions a straightforward and intuitive activity. Items purchased from outside vendors CANNOT be edited. QUICK GUIDE 1. Login to the Phoenix web site using Internet Explorer browser on a Windows computer. 2. Navigate to the ItemPlus option on the Assessment menu. 3. Click the Run ItemPlus button to launch the program. 4. Confirm your user ID is shown in the login dialog and click the Login button to proceed. 5. When the program opens, use either the Curriculum Explorer Tab or Test Explorer tab to navigate within the item database. 6. ADDING ITEMS: click on a standard in the Curriculum view to highlight or a test in the Test view to highlight. Right-click the mouse and select add question to create a new item. 7. EDITING ITEMS: navigate to an existing question in either the Curriculum or Test view and click to highlight. Right-click the mouse and select edit question to edit this item. 8. On the Question Item Setup tab, select the question type if it is a new item. This will provide the appropriate text boxes for the question and answers. 9. Select the appropriate options from the various dropdowns at the top right to define the item. 10. If adding an item in Test View, click the Search button to find the appropriate standard. 11. Check or uncheck the image and text boxes for the question and answers as needed. 12. Enter question or answer text in the text boxes as needed. 13. Upload or copy/paste question or answer images into the image boxes as needed. 14. Use the preview button to view completed question. 15. Fill in the Topic or Category text box if a novel, story, or other external source needs to be identified. 16. Click the Documents button if a document with a passage, poem, etc. is needed for the item. On the supplemental documents tab you can view, select, or upload a document and attach it to the question. 17. When entry or editing is complete, click the Save button (diskette) on the toolbar. 18. Continue adding or editing items as needed until complete. 19. If an item is not needed and not used on a test, it can be deleted by highlighting, right-clicking with the mouse and selecting Delete Question from the popup menu. 20. Use the X button at the top right or the Exit option on the File menu to close the program. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 1 -

3 ILLUSTRATED HELP GUIDE ItemPlus Question Item Bank Maintenance Program 1. Log in to the Phoenix web site with Internet Explorer. The technology used by the ItemPlus program is a Microsoft implementation that only works with the Internet Explorer browser. 2. Access the program by clicking the ItemPlus option from the Assessment menu on the Phoenix web site. NOTE if this option is not available, your login credentials may not have the necessary authority. Contact technical support if necessary. 3. This web page is the launch point for the program, including the requirements needed to run the Windows plug-in. NOTE this is a Windowsbased program and WILL NOT run on an Apple platform. Click the Run ItemPlus button to continue. 4. The program will download to your computer. The first time you run the program you may receive a notification and confirmation to continue. Click Yes or Run to complete the installation. Once the download completes, it will attempt to connect to the district database. If successful, the login dialog box below will appear. 5. If you receive any error messages at this point, your computer may not be connecting to the item bank database correctly. Click the OK button to close the dialog and try to launch the program again from the web site. If you continue to have connection issues contact support 6. Your APS login ID will appear in the User ID entry box. You cannot change this. Click the login button to proceed. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 2 -

4 7. When the login process completes, the screen at left should appear. There are two methods to access items within the program, Curriculum Explorer and Test Explorer. These tabs appear at the top of the left side of the page. Clicking on the Curriculum Explorer tab will allow you to navigate within the database by specific curriculum objectives. NOTE: For initial logins, the screen will appear as shown above, at the highest level. Once a user has accessed the system, the program remembers the place where the user was previously. Subsequent logins will bring the user back to the same place within the program the user was when previously upon exiting the program. 8. Navigation works like a typical windows folder structure. Clicking on a plus + sign or a minus sign to open or close the folders allows access to the standards. Once you have reached the level where you wish to view or add an item, the icons will change from folders to blue circles with questions marks to represent a question item. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 3 -

5 9. You will also be able to view the summary text for the question next to the icon. 10. Clicking on the Test Explorer tab allows access to items by test ID. Folders on this tab are arranged by school year, subject area, grade level and course. NOTE if the question icon is gray instead of blue, your authority will prevent you from maintaining the item. You can still preview it, but the edit option will be unavailable. Once you navigate to this level, a listing of folders representing each test currently in the database will be visible showing the test ID number and name. Expanding a test folder will list the questions identified by the blue circle/question mark icon. In the example below the navigation to a demonstration Fire Safety test with ID number NOTE ItemPlus does not currently support creating new tests. This must be done on the Phoenix web site. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 4 -

6 11. In either navigation method (Curriculum or Test) a complete preview of the question can be viewed in the right-side preview window. The correct answer is indicated above the question, along with other information related to the item. 12. The following functions are supported within the ItemPlus program related to questions: Adding questions to either a curriculum objective or test Editing existing questions. These tasks can be accomplished using either your right mouse click button, which will produce a popup menu, the tool bar at the top of the window, or the File menu. Hovering the mouse over the tool bar buttons will allow you to view their functions. ADDING NEW QUESTIONS 13. New questions can be added by navigating to either the desired objective within the Curriculum Explorer tab or the desired test within the Test Explorer tab. 14. Select the desired objective under the Curriculum objective tab. When selected it will have a dark blue background. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 5 -

7 15. At this point, you have 3 ways to add a new question: Right-click the desired standard and select New Question from the popup menu. OR Click the New Question button on the top tool bar. OR Select New Question from the File Menu. NOTE in most cases, the options available on the popup menus are replicated in all three places. 16. A new tab will appear which contains the Question Item Setup window. 17. This window is used to both enter new questions as well as maintain existing items. The window is divided into three parts. The left side of the window is where the specific questions and answer information will be entered, both text and graphics. Additional information or supplemental documents such as a reading passage can also be identified and attached to the question. The top right section of the window contains supplemental information that can be attached to an item. The lower right section contains a preview window that can be used to see what the finished question will look like when displayed. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 6 -

8 18. When adding new questions via the Test Explorer to an existing test, the test ID number and the next sequential question (item) number for the assessment will be indicated. 19. The first thing that must happen when adding a new question is to select the question type from the Type dropdown box at the top left. The options listed contain various multiple choice varieties with different lettering options, as well as True-False, Short Answer, and Constructed Response questions. The selection of this type value will trigger the program to refresh the entry panel. In this example the multiple choice with responses A,B,C was selected. The program displays the text entry boxes corresponding to the item type selected. Short Answer items will provide a single box to enter the answer. Constructed response questions will allow entry of the question only. Rubrics for constructed response items are maintained on the Phoenix web site. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 7 -

9 20. When navigating through the Curriculum Explorer tab, the curriculum objective will be identified based on the objective selected when the New Question option was selected under that specific objective. If navigating through the Test Explorer, it will be helpful to identify the curriculum objective at this point. Click the search button to browse the Curriculum Explorer to find the objective needed for the question, or use the up and down arrows next to the Alignment box to scroll through the curriculum. Once the desired objective is found, click the select button at the top of the list to return to the question maintenance page. 21. Each item in the database also contains several identifying values that further describe the question. These are selected using the dropdown boxes at the top right. 22. Usage. How the item is to be used and who controls the item. District: Item can only be viewed and used by district staff for district assessments Open for Use: Item is available for anyone to use on an assessment. District maintained. Local School: Items entered by school staff. Can be used by any school for assessments. Under Review: item is being reviewed by district staff and unavailable for use on a test. NOTE: based on your security level you may or may not see all of these options. 23. Difficulty. Assigned value of the question difficulty. N/A: unknown. Use this when entering an item and the difficulty level is not determined. Difficulty value: district-assigned values available for items. 24. DOK (Depth of Knowledge). Additional values to provide more in-depth classification of the item. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 8 -

10 25. Source. Where the item was obtained. This list may contain a variety of values from vendors, locally developed, state DOE, etc. 26. Click the copyright checkbox to indicate the item was obtained from a 3 rd party. You should also assign an expiration date in this case. 27. Date Created. This will be filled in automatically when the item is saved. 28. To create a new question, the actual text or graphics must be entered for both the question and each of the answer choices. The correct answer choice must be indicated. The question and each answer choice MUST have either an image, text, or both before the question can be saved to the database. 29. Each question MUST also have an abbreviated text. This is the text that is displayed in the folder listings used for navigating. You will be prompted for one prior to saving. 30. Each section contains two checkboxes which will turn off and turn on the text entry and image entry boxes. The default for a new question is to enable text entry only. The boxes can be checked or unchecked as needed based on the specific question and the answer choices. To use images, click the Question Image box or the Answer Image box and the entry box for the image will appear. 31. For text-based question and answers, the text can be entered by clicking on the entry box with the mouse and typing in the required text, or an item can be copied from an existing document by using the Windows copy and paste functions to copy text from the original document to the entry boxes. This program allows for the same functionality of right clicking the mouse to paste or using the toolbar for edit/paste function. 32. Once text is in place, formatting options are available by highlighting the text and using the edit options from the toolbar or popup menu using the right mouse button. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide - 9 -

11 33. For image entry, two methods for entry are available. First, the image box must be checked to allow image entry. The first option is to use the image import button that resides next to the image box. The second is to copy an image from an existing source and pasting it into the image box using the popup menu or Edit/Paste menu. NOTE: The program will not allow images to be pasted into the text boxes or text to be pasted into the image boxes. 34. Once the question and answer choices have been entered, the correct answer must be selected. To indicate the correct answer for the question, use the mouse and click on the large letter next to the correct answer. A green check mark will appear next to the letter indicating it is the correct answer. 35. To preview the question at any point during the setup process, click the preview button at the top of the right-side window. A web-based rendering of the question will appear to allow for changes or adjustments prior to saving. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide

12 36. Once all required information has been entered, the question can be saved. The Save button on the toolbar can be used or Save Question option from the File Menu can also be used. 37. Once the question is saved, return to either the Curriculum Explorer or Test Explorer based on your original navigation. The saved question should now be listed in the appropriate place. 38. Questions can continue to be added in the same manner. For subsequent new questions, the various descriptive items selected for the previous question using the drop down combination boxes will be saved and used again for new additions. Updating an Existing Question 39. An existing question can be updated in much the same manner as adding a new question. Navigation can be through either the Curriculum Explorer or the Test Explorer. Using the Curriculum Explorer allows for quick navigation to the standard and desired question. When using the Curriculum Explorer path, a Search for Question ID box is available for easy access to the desired question to update. Key in the 6-digit numeric question ID number and then the Go button to navigate directly to the item. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide

13 40. With either method, when the desired item is found, click to highlight the question to select it. 41. At this point you can right-click to show the popup menu and click Edit Question, or you can select the corresponding option from the toolbar or File Menu. 42. This action will cause the Question Item Setup tab to appear with the question as it currently appears in the database. At this point, changes can be made to the question as desired. The same steps used when adding a question should be followed. Once the changes have been made, use the Save Question from the File menu or toolbar to save the changes. Remove a Question from a Test NOTE you can also remove questions from a test using the Test Setup option on the Phoenix web site. NOTE you CANNOT remove a question from a test once it has been published. 43. To remove a question from an existing test, you must be on the Test Explorer tab. First, navigate to the test where the question resides, then highlight the question to be removed. 44. Right-click to bring display a drop down box and select Remove Question from Test. This will bring up a dialog box as shown. Clicking OK will remove the question from the selected test only, not from the database. Questions remaining below the question removed will be correctly renumbered Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide

14 Renumbering test questions In addition to deleting a question, an option is available that allows the user to renumber the order of the questions as they appear on the test. NOTE renumbering can also be done using the Phoenix web site. 45. To renumber a question, highlight the question and right click. 46. Select the Renumber Question option from the popup menu. 47. A dialog will appear. Select the new question number from the dropdown and click the OK button. All of the items will be re-numbered accordingly. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide

15 Supplemental descriptive information Questions will sometimes require additional descriptive information to allow the creator of the test to better identify a question for use in the future when retrieving it from the database. A good example of this is a question or set of questions about a novel. The field titled Topic or Category allows for this type of information to be attached to a question. 48. Key a descriptive term into the Topic or Category text box prior to saving the item. Attaching documents to a test question In addition to assigning an activity to a question, documents can be attached to a question. This would allow for a reading passage, poem, etc. to be stored separately from the item. The document will automatically be provided with the question during an online test, and can be viewed, downloaded and printed to hand out if using the irespond clickers. 49. Clicking on the Documents button will display all available documents currently stored and available for use for the corresponding subject area. The documents in the database MUST be stored as Adobe Acrobat PDF documents. 50. The 4 th tab, Supplemental Documents will be displayed. The left side of the window is a listing of any current documents stored for the current subject area. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide

16 51. The default value for a new document being added to a question is NONE. 52. To work with an existing document, click on the document in the list to highlight it. The document title will be filled into the Selected document from list box. You have several options at this point: To add attach the document to the current question, click the Assign this document to selected question button. To get a copy of the document (i.e. download it) click the Get a copy of this document button. You can save or print the document if needed. You can delete the document from the list by clicking the Delete this document from the list button. Finally, you can rename the document by clicking the Rename this document button. A dialog will be shown for you to provide a new name. Adding a new document to the list of available documents A document must first be saved to the database to be able to retrieve it and add it to a question. At this time, only PDF documents can be saved to the database. 53. To add a document to the database, click the button next to the field that is blank under the words add a new document to list. This is a search button that will allow you to browse your computer to select the PDF document you wish to add to the database. 54. In the search dialog, navigate to and select the desired PDF file from your computer. It will then be shown in the new document box. Click the Save this document to the list button to upload. Once it is saved, it will be added to the list and automatically selected. You can add it to the current question using the steps above. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide

17 55. When you have completed working with supplemental documents, click the Return to question setup button to close the documents tab and return to the Question Setup tab. Closing the Program When you have completed your question setup work, the program can be closed by either selecting Exit from the File menu, or clicking the window close button at the top right of the program. Other Items of Note Any changes made to question items will be immediately accessible through the Phoenix web site (and visa-versa). BOTH programs use the same question bank. The ItemPlus program is a plug-in style program, which means it doesn t permanently install on your computer. Navigating to the correct location within the Phoenix web site and downloading the program is the only method available to access ItemPlus (i.e. there is no Windows menu option or shortcut to access the program). This allows the program to use the same security that is attached to your Phoenix login ID. This approach also allows updates to be immediately available without re-installing the software. Assessment - ItemPlus Reference Guide