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Admin User Guide

Exams

Create Exams

Create and configure your exam questions & settings

Article Content

This article covers the following topics. Click on the topic to go to that section of the article.

Introduction to Creating Exams
Create & Manage Exam Folders
Create and Manage Exams

Introduction to Creating Exams

In the Exams section of the Exams module you must first create your folder system to organize your exams, then you can create your exams. To create an exam you can either first create questions in the question bank and then gather the questions together onto an exam or you can create the exam and then create the questions on the fly directly from the exam.

The exam can be configured to be scored or not scored, have multiple questions per page, one question per page, or use page breaks, randomize questions, randomize answers, and you can attach PDF resources to be available directly from the exam while taking it.

In Elentra you can deliver an exam multiple times to different sets of audiences and at different times through exam posts and learning events. The exam post has its own set of settings that you can configure differently for each exam post.

Create & Manage Exam Folders

In Elentra, exams must be organized by using a folder system. Before any exam can be created the folder system must be created.

Note: Only users with Admin roles (i.e., Medtech:Admin & Staff:Admin) can create exam folders. This is by design to limit the duplication of folders and promote consistent methods in storing exams. Note that non-Admin users will be able to add exams to existing folders. The Faculty:Director and Staff:Pcoordinator permission levels can be granted permission to manage an exam folder by an Admin user.

Creating a New Exam Folder

Step 1: As a Medtech:Admin or Staff:Admin navigate to Admin > Manage Exams and click Exams from the left sidebar. Click Add Folder to add a new folder to the Exams area.

Step 2: You will be brought to a page where you will need to complete the required information, noting the following:

Click the Select Parent Folder button if you want to create a subfolder within an existing folder otherwise leave it in the index if you want it to be at the top of the folder system. The permission settings of the subfolder will automatically match the permission settings of the parent folder. Click on the desired parent folder and click Move.
Folder Text: Provide the folder title here. This will display when you click 'Exams' and see a list of folders.
Folder Description: You will only see this if you open the folder to edit it.
Folder Color: The system requires you to select a color.

Add A New Folder

Step 3: Click Save to create the folder.

Copy, Edit, Delete & Manage Folder Authors

To manage folder authors, copy, edit, delete, or move a folder, click the gear icon to the right of the folder name. You will only have the ability to do this if you created the folder or are listed as a folder author.

Admin View vs Faculty:Director & Staff:PCoordinator View

Admin View: The following image is an example of the Admin view and the gear icon for a folder. Admins will have access to manage all folders in the folder system. They will be able to edit & manage authors, copy, edit, and move the folder.

Faculty:Director & Staff:PCoordinator View: The following image is an example of the Faculty:Director & Staff:PCoordinator view. In this example the user only has access to manage one exam folder in the folder system set up by the Admin user. This permission allows them to manage all exams in the exam folder. They will only have access to manage folders for which they have been given permission to manage by an Admin user. They will be able to see the entire folder system but not necessarily the content in it if they have not been granted permission to it by an Admin user.

Managing An Exam Folder Faculty Director View

Once a folder is created it will be listed in the Exams section at the top of the page in the Manage Exams module. You can hide the list of exam folders by clicking on the eye icon beside the Add Folder button. You can click on a folder to view its subfolders.

Edit Folders

Step 1: To edit the folder information click on the gear icon and select Edite & Manage Authors.

Step 2: You will be brought to a page where you can edit the parent folder, the folder name, folder description, folder image color, or folder author.

Step 3: Click Save when you are done editing and want to save your changes.

Manage Folder Authors

Step 1: To add permission for other users to access all folder content and manage the folder (i.e., copy, edit, delete, manage authors, or move the folder) click on the gear icon of the folder and select Edit & Manage Authors.

Step 2: Select the user type. You can choose from individual, organization, or course. Then begin to type in a name into the search field, and click on the name you want to assign to the folder. The selected user will appear in a list below the search box.

Note:

If you make a folder accessible to an organization, anyone in that organization with access to the Exams module will be able to access the content and manage the folder.
If you make a folder accessible to a course, any user that has access to the Exams section of the Exams module (Faculty:Director, Staff:Pcoordinator, or Staff:Admin) and listed in the course contacts section of the course setup page will be able to access the content of the folder.
You can also permission a Faculty:Directors and Staff:PCoordinators to only some of the exams in a folder instead of adding permission to the whole folder. This will make it so that person cannot see every exam in the folder and they will not be able to manage the folder.

To remove a permission from the exam folder, click the red x beside a name in the list below the search box.

Step 3: Click Save.

Copy & Delete a Folder

Step 1: To copy or delete a folder click on the gear icon next the folder name.

Click on Copy to make a copy of the folder. A popup will appear asking to confirm the copy and to choose a destination folder. Click submit after choosing a destination folder to confirm the copy. When you copy a folder you are copying the folder and everything inside of it. Your new copy along with everything inside of it will have the prefix "Copy of" affixed to the title.

Click on Delete to delete a folder. A popup will appear asking you to confirm the deletion of the folder. Click the Delete button to delete the folder.

Warning: You can only delete an empty folder. If your exam folder contains any exams then you must delete the exams first before you can delete the folder.

Create & Manage Exams

Create Exams

When you create an exam you first create an empty exam and then need to add questions to it. You can add existing questions from the question bank or create new questions and add then all in one go. The new questions you create directly on the exam will automatically get added to the Question bank in Elentra. Only Admin users, Staff:PCoordinators, and Faculty:Directors have the ability to create exam in Elentra. Staff:PCoordinators and Faculty:Directors can only store exams in the folders for which they have been given permission.

To create an exam do the following:

Step 1: Navigate to Admin > Manage Exams.

Step 2: Click on Exams in the Manage Exams section from the sidebar on the left side of the page.

Step 3: Click Add Exam to create a new exam.

Add an Exam

Step 4: Provide an Exam Name, select a folder and click Add Exam. You will then be directed to the exam question page where you will see an empty exam has been created. You can start adding questions and configuring the exam. From this view you will be able to set the exam settings, create and manage exam posts, adjust the scoring tab to be able to adjust the scoring after the exam has been taken, view exam reports, and see the the history of who has made changes to the exam.

Create a New Exam Popup

New Exam Options

Information and Settings

If you'd like to add permissions to the newly created exam, you can do so under the Information and Settings tab for the exam. Note that an exam will automatically inherit the permission settings of the folder in which it is stored.

Add Questions to an Exam

After creating an exam, you'll automatically be redirected to the Questions tab. If you've navigated away from Questions, click on the Questions tab to return.

To add existing questions, click 'Add Individual Question(s)'.

Step 1: Adjust the question folder settings as desired. You can quickly select all questions within a folder by clicking the checkbox between the eye icon and the Actions dropdown menu. Note that the Advanced Search function is also available to help you locate desired questions.

Step 2: Choose questions to add to the exam by clicking the checkbox beside each desired question and then clicking 'Attach Selected'. You should see the questions you chose show up in a list beneath the Exam Questions header. Also note that the Exam Data tracker in the bottom corner of the screen will reflect the total questions and points.

To create a new question while creating an exam, click 'Add Individual Question(s)', then click the down arrow beside 'Attach Selected' and choose 'Add and Attach New Question'.

- Create your question (see instructions for creating questions in another section) and save it. This will add the new question to the exam and create a new entry in the Questions folders.

Add Existing Grouped Questions

When working in the exam module as with an Admin role or PCoordinator role, you will be able to add an individual question that is part of a Grouped Q and then replace that question with the entire group.

You can identify a question that is part of a Grouped Q because it will have the small chain or link icon at the far right.

q1q

There are two ways to add a Grouped Q to an exam.

Click on the chain icon from the screen you see above and you'll be prompted to add the grouped item to the exam. If a question is part of two different groups you'll be able to preview the questions in each group and select the one you want

Click on the checkbox beside an individual question to add it to the exam as you normally would. After that individual question has been added to the exam, click on the chain icon and you will be prompted to either click the group title to view additional questions in the group, or click 'Replace with Group' to substitute the full group of questions for the single question already added.

Once a Grouped Q has been added to an exam remember that the questions will appear with a blue border around them.

q3 (1)

Add Free text or a page break

You can add free text space to an exam to provide instructions or additional details.

You can also add a page break to an exam and when you create the exam post you'll have choices about how to display questions. One of the display options relies on page breaks.

To add either option, click on the down arrow beside the ‘Add Individual Question(s)’ button.

Select the item you want to add by clicking on it.

Note that any text entered into a free text space must be saved by clicking the Save button within the free text card. Find the Save button in the top right of the free text item beside the eye icon.

Manage questions on an exam (group, reorder, delete and versioning)

When creating an exam, you can group questions which will always keep the items in the group together, even if the question order is randomized. (Note that you can also create Groups Qs when creating questions if you have admin role permissions. Any user can add a previously created grouped question to an exam.)

To create a grouped question from an exam, click the checkbox beside each question you wish to include in the group, and then click on 'Question Actions'. Select 'Group Questions' and provide a group name when prompted and click 'Save'. Note that you can click an additional button in the popup window to add the selected questions to an existing question group. If you choose to do so, select the existing group from the dropdown menu and then click 'Save'. The questions you group together need to be stored in the same folder to successfully group them on the exam.

On an Exam Question page, grouped items will appear together with a blue border. Grouped questions will remain together, and in order, when an exam is posted, even if the other exam questions are randomized.

There are two ways to reorder questions on an exam. In the list view of questions you can also type in the desired question order in the second column, then click ‘Reorder’ to save your choices. In the card view of questions, click on the crossed arrows beside each question to drag and drop it to the desired location. Remember you will have the option to randomize the order of questions when an exam is delivered.

To delete questions from an exam before it has been posted, click the checkbox beside each question you wish to delete and then click on 'Question Actions'. Select 'Delete Questions' and the question(s) will be removed from the list.

Note: A blue message bar may appear, alerting you to whether any questions have been updated and has new versions available. You can choose to Update All questions or look at individual questions via the table or list view and see which have their forward back arrow icon blue. If it is blue it means you are not using the most recent version of a question. Click on the forward back arrow for any question to change which question version you want to use on this exam.

Also note that when viewing a list of exam questions the options available will depend on the question permissions. Not every user will be able to edit every question. Users should be able to see a preview of the question, view any linked questions (e.g., those in a group), move questions and view versions if applicable.

Copy an Existing Exam

After an exam is posted and taken by learners it cannot be edited so copying it will be necessary if you want to edit and reuse the exam.

Step 1: Navigate to Admin>Manage Exams.

Step 2: Click on ‘Exams’ from the left sidebar Manage Exams section.

Step 3: Search for and click on the name of the exam you want to copy.

Step 4: Click on 'Exam Actions' and select Copy Exam.

Step 5: Confirm your choice by clicking 'Copy'.

Step 6: Adjust the exam questions as needed.

Step 7: Click on the Information and Settings tab to adjust the exam title as desired.

Preview, print, and export a Word version of an exam

Step 1: Navigate to Admin>Manage Exams.

Step 2: Click on ‘Exams’ from the left sidebar Manage Exams section.

Step 3: Search for and click on the name of the exam you want to preview, print, or export.

Step 4: Click on 'Exam Actions' and select the appropriate action.

Step 5: If you are previewing the exam you can choose to enable the calculator or self-timer to mimic the learner view.

Step 6: If you are printing the exam you can customize which fields you include in the printout. Use the selector menu in the left sidebar to select what you want to include and set some other parameters and then click 'Print'.