1 Respondus: Instructions for Faculty (631) 632-2777 Teaching, Learning + Technology Stony Brook University In this document: 1. What is Respondus? 2. Downloading and installing Respondus 3. Changing where Respondus projects are stored on your computer 4. Creating and adding questions to an assessment 5. Modifying questions once they ve been added to an assessment 6. Creating a random block of questions 7. Availability settings for your assessment 8. Other settings 9. Printing, previewing, and publishing to Blackboard 10. Retrieving summary reports from Blackboard assessments 11. Retrieving assessments from Blackboard for use in Respondus What is Respondus? blackboard@stonybrook.edu http://it.stonybrook.edu/ Respondus is a Windows-only assessment creation program. Tests, surveys, and question pools are created offline and can then either be printed to paper or published directly to Blackboard. Assessments already in Blackboard can be downloaded to Respondus for offline editing. Downloading and installing Respondus: NOTE: Respondus is a Windows-only program! There is no Mac version at this time. 1. Log into Softweb (http://softweb.cc.stonybrook.edu). Your username is your NetID, and your password is your NetID password. Note: Use the same credentials you use to log into Blackboard. 2. Under Faculty & Staff Applications, select Respondus. 3. Select the version of Respondus for your operating system. 4. Right-click the Direct Download link to save to your computer s Desktop. Internet Explorer: Select Save Target As.
Firefox: Select Save Link As. 2 5. If the File name does not display as [filename].exe, add.exe to the end of the File name, then click Save. 6. Double-click the file on your Desktop. 7. If prompted with a Security Warning, click Run.
8. Follow the steps in the InstallShield Wizard. Click Finish when installation has completed. 3 9. Respondus s Equation Editor is a separate installation. If you wish to install it, you may be prompted for the Microsoft Office CD because the Equation Editor depends on certain Office files. If your computer is on campus and was installed by Client Support, call (631) 632-9800 for assistance. 10. Launch Respondus, either from: The shortcut on the Desktop,, or from the Start Menu. 11. When asked to Choose CMS Personality, select Blackboard 6.3-9.x. 12. If prompted for the Installation Password, please contact Teaching, Learning + Technology at blackboard@stonybrook.edu. 13. Enter the password, then click License. Changing where Respondus projects are stored on your computer 1. In Respondus, select File, then Preferences. 2. Under the General tab, the default location where projects are stored will display. If you want to change it, click Update. 3. Select the desired folder on your computer, then click OK. 4. Check the box to have Respondus automatically check for updates for Blackboard 6.3-9.x. 5. Click OK.
4 Creating and adding questions to an assessment 1. In Respondus, click the Create button. 2. Enter a name for your assessment and an optional description. Example: Midterm Exam; Covers chapters 1-10. 3. Select either Exam or Survey. 4. Click OK. 5. On the left side of the screen, select the type of question you wish to insert into your assessment. Question types include: Click More to see the rest: - Multiple Choice (default) - True and False - Essay/Short Answer - Matching - Ordering - Fill in the Blank - Multiple Answers - Calculated - Jumbled Sentence - Either/Or - File Response - Opinion Scale - Numeric - Quiz Bowl - Fill in Multiple Blanks 6. Regardless of which question type you choose, fields for Title and Question Wording will appear. Title: Blackboard does not use titles, but they are still helpful in Respondus. Titles help to more easily search question banks if you want to recycle old questions in future assessments.
Question Wording: The question itself goes here. 5 7. To add a picture or movie clip to your question, select the Insert Picture or File button. 8. To create a hyperlink to an external website in your question, select the Web Link button. 9. Enter all potential answers (if applicable) in the boxes provided. 10. Check the box next to Randomize answers if you want the order of the potential answers to be different for every student. Example: Student 1 sees A,B,C,D; Student 2 sees D,B,C,A; etc.
11. Click the General Feedback button if you want students to receive feedback upon completion of the test (tests only). 6 Correct Answer Reply: Type what you want the student to see when they answer correctly. Incorrect Answer Reply: Type what you want the student to see when they answer incorrectly. Click OK when finished. 12. Click the Favorite Answer List button to select commonly used answer scales (surveys only). Example: Agree-Disagree, Outstanding-Below Average, etc. 13. Select the correct answer (tests only) from the drop-down list.
14. Point Value (tests only): Enter how many points the question is worth. 7 15. Click Preview to see how your question will look in Blackboard. 16. Make sure the question, answers, and feedback are correct. Click OK when finished. 17. Click Add to End of List to place the question in your assessment. 18. The Title, Format, and Question Wording will appear in a table at the bottom of the screen. 19. Repeat steps 5-16 until all questions have been inserted into your assessment. 20. Select File, then Save to save your assessment.
Modifying questions once they ve been added to an assessment 8 1. To edit a question after it s been inserted into the list, click on its Title at the bottom of the screen. 2. In the Properties window, click the Modify button. 3. Make any necessary changes, then click Save Changes. Creating a random block of questions NOTE: Random blocks are only available for tests. A random block is a predetermined number of questions selected at random from a larger list (or bank ) of questions. Random blocks are to be applied after all questions have been entered into Respondus. Example: Professor Smith has created a list of 50 questions in Respondus. Her test will contain 5 questions. Creating more questions and applying a random block means that each student will receive a different set of 5 questions pulled from the larger list of 50. 1. After all questions have been entered into Respondus, select the Settings tab at the top of the screen.
2. Select the Random Blocks button. 9 3. Select Add New Set. If you want the random block to pull from all questions in your list, enter 1 for the number of the first question, then the number of your last question. Example: Professor Smith has 50 questions in her list, so she would enter 1, then 50. If your test will contain as many questions as there are in your list, select All. If the number of questions in the test is smaller than the number in the list, select Select Number, then type the smaller number in the box. Example: Professor Smith would enter 5. Enter a point value for each question in your test. Click the Add New Set button. A s will appear in the Set column between the first and last question selected above. Click OK.
10 Availability settings for your assessment 1. Under the Settings tab, select Availability on the left side of the screen. 2. Type in any instructions you wish to give to your students in the box provided. 3. Check boxes next to all desired settings. Make exam visible to students: Makes the test or survey available to students immediately upon publishing to Blackboard. Allow multiple attempts: Check the box to allow students to take the test or survey more than once. Enter a number to limit their attempts. Force Completion: Test or survey must be completed once opened. Set time limit: Enter the number of hours and minutes you wish to give students to complete the test or survey. o NOTE: If a student goes over the designated time limit, they will not be kicked out, but Blackboard will record how long it took them to finish. Display (make visible) After: Enter a future date and time in which the assessment will automatically become visible to students (must be in MM/DD/YYYY and HH:MM format). o NOTE: If you select this, you must also check the Make exam visible to students box. Display Until: Enter a future date in which the assessment will automatically become invisible to students (must be in MM/DD/YYYY and HH:MM format). Password protect: Unnecessary, because Blackboard is already password-protected. Respondus LockDown Browser: DO NOT check this box, as we do not have this software installed on our public computers at this time.
11 Other settings 1. Under the Settings tab, select Other Settings on the left side of the screen. 2. Check boxes next to desired Self-Assessment options. Include this test in Gradebook score calculations: Will incorporate assessment score into the student s overall grade in the Gradebook. Hide the score of this test from the Gradebook (tests only): Students can see their scores upon completion of the test, but instructors cannot. Instead, a checkmark will appear in the Gradebook denoting that a student has completed the test. Do not select this if this is a graded test. 3. Check boxes next to desired Feedback Options, which will display to the student upon completion of assessment. You may select any combination of the four feedback options. Score: Numeric grade Submitted answers: What the student answered Correct answers (tests only) Feedback (tests only): Anything you typed in the feedback boxes while creating the questions. 4. Select desired Question Presentation. All at once: All questions appear on the same page. One at a time: o Prohibit backtracking: Does not allow students to change their answers to previously submitted questions. This feature is only available if One at a time is selected. 5. Select whether to Randomize Questions. Doing so changes the order of questions for each student. This can help to deter cheating. 6. Answer Numbering: For Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, and several other question types, you may select how potential answers are numbered (Example: A,B,C,D; 1,2,3,4; a,b,c,d; etc.). The default is A,B,C,D.
12 Printing, previewing, and publishing to Blackboard 1. Select the Preview & Publish tab at the top of the screen. 2. To print, select Print Options on the left side of the screen. 3. Select from the options provided, then select Print Preview. 4. Once you ve previewed the assessment, select Send to Printer. 5. To see how your assessment will look in Blackboard, select Preview on the left side of the screen, then Preview the File. 6. The Preview will open in a new window, and will display: The question Answer choices Correct and incorrect replies (if included) The correct answer 7. To navigate to other questions, you may either type its number in the box provided and click Go To, or click the Prev and Next buttons. To edit a question, click the Modify Item button.
To exit the Preview, click Close. 13 8. Select Publish to Blackboard on the left side of the screen. 9. Click the Publish Wizard button. 10. The Publish Wizard will open. Select where to publish your assessment. Publish to single course: Publishes to one course in Blackboard Batch Publish to multiple courses: Publish to several courses in Blackboard Save pool to local file for manual uploading: Saves as a ZIP file that you can upload to Blackboard yourself. 11. Enter server information for Blackboard. Blackboard Server: If nothing appears in this box, select add new server. If you ve already entered server information, skip to Step 12. Select Yes, check for preconfigured server settings and click Next. Respondus will automatically enter all server settings for you. 12. A message stating Success! The server settings have been downloaded for: SUNY Stony Brook will appear. Enter a name for your settings, so you may easily refer to it later. Enter your NetID and password under login information. You may save this information on your computer so you don t have to enter it every time you use Respondus. NOTE: Please remember that you have to change your NetID password every six months. This information will need to be updated in Respondus! Select Run connection test, then click Next.
13. A status window will appear. After a few moments, a message stating that the connection test was either successful or unsuccessful will appear at the bottom of the status window. If it was successful, click Next. 14 14. Click Finish. 15. Select your Blackboard Server from the list, then click Next. 16. If you elected not to store your login information, type your NetID and password into the prompt and click OK. 17. Select the course you wish to publish to from the drop-down menu. 18. Select whether to: Create a new test or survey Replace existing test or survey Create new pool Replace existing pool 19. Check the boxes next to any desired additional options. Apply Random Blocks to Exam (tests only): If you created any random blocks, check this box. Apply Settings to Exam: If you applied any settings like availability dates and timers (See page 15, Availability settings for your test or survey), check this box. Link Exam to Content Area and make available: If you want the test deployed to your course immediately, check this box. NOTE: If you don t check this box, the test will publish to your Test Manager, or the survey will publish to your Survey Manager in Blackboard. You will have to place it in a content area and make it available to students. Click Next. 20. If you selected Link [assessment] to Content Area and make available, select the area or folder in your course to place the test in, then click Next.
15 21. The status window will update after each step in the publishing process. When it says, Completed successfully, click Finish. 22. Log into Blackboard and make sure your assessment is there. Click Modify to check its options. Retrieving summary reports from Blackboard assessments 1. Select the Retrieval & Reports tab at the top of the screen. 2. Select Retrieve Reports on the left side of the screen.
3. Select your server name from the list. 16 4. When prompted to edit your server settings, select Use current settings and click Next. 5. If you elected not to store your login information, type your NetID and password into the prompt and click OK. 6. Select your course from the list provided. 7. A list of all assessments (tests and surveys) will appear. Check the box or boxes next to the ones you wish to download reports for. You can do as many as you wish. 8. Check the boxes if you would like to also download: Your course s Gradebook An extra page that just lists student scores Question statistics, which show what percentage of the class answered A, B, C, etc. 9. If you are downloading reports for multiple assessments, select whether to: display all reports on one page, or display each assessment s report on a separate page. 10. Click Retrieve. When the Status box says Completed successfully, your reports are ready. 11. The reports and gradebooks (if selected) will all open on one long page in your internet browser. NOTE: If the report does not open automatically, find the Reports folder, located in the Respondus Projects folder on your computer. The report will be timestamped in its title, Report MM-DD-YYYY HH-MM.htm. Double-click it to open in your browser. 12. The report looks similar to what you would see in Blackboard, but none of the buttons or links will work. Retrieving assessments from Blackboard for use in Respondus Assessments may be downloaded for use in Respondus, even if they weren t originally created with Respondus! This may be helpful if you want to edit an assessment given in Blackboard in a previous semester.
1. Under the Retrieval & Reports tab, select Retrieve Questions on the left side of the screen. 17 2. Select your server name from the list. 3. When prompted to edit your server settings, select Use current settings and click Next. 4. If you elected not to store your login information, type your NetID and password into the prompt and click OK. 5. Select your course from the list provided. 6. Select either an Exam, Survey, or Pool from your course to import into Respondus. 7. Enter a name for your imported file. 8. Click Retrieve. When the Status box says Completed successfully, a File Saved prompt will appear. Click OK. 9. Select the Edit tab at the top of the screen. Your imported questions will appear in a list at the bottom of the screen. Select any question Title, then click the Modify button to edit it.