This article is a supplement to the Implementation Guide and provides tips on how to make the best use of Inspera Assessment.
Content
Author: Questions and question sets
Naming questions ('question titles') and question sets
Establishing some guidelines for naming your questions and question sets early on in the implementation process can be really beneficial. The advantage of this is that it is easier to find questions and question sets at a later point, especially if the question bank and/or the question set bank has grown over time.
For example, this could be deciding whether you will ever make question titles visible to candidates or not. If you decide you want question titles to be visible to candidates, you will want to use 'candidate friendly' titles when authoring your content. By making these decision early, you avoid the need to go back through and rename your content at a later date.
Creating and re-using questions
When you are authoring questions, it is also worth considering how and when you might want to re-use questions. Whilst it is possible to author questions with multiple interactions, having each interaction as a separate question gives you greater control over which question elements you might want to reuse across your assessments.
The above also applies if you want to run analytics on a question. Analysing a question with one interaction element will allow you to pinpoint exactly how that question has performed, whereas a complex question with multiple interactions/questions will give you an overview of how those interactions performed as a collective.
For more information about question analytics, see the article Analytics.
Accessible questions
If you have candidates who have visual impairments, you may want to think about accessibility when creating the questions.
Some examples of visual impairments are:
- Low-level vision
- Colour blindness
- Blindness
The article Authoring accessible questions addresses some best practice methods on authoring accessible questions.
Add labels to your questions
Labels can be used on questions and question sets to quickly and easily group and sort questions within the question banks. We recommend establishing some guidelines on the use of labels early on in the implementation process.
For example, you could begin by creating a label 'Training' and use this to easily group together all of the questions you are creating as part of the training process. Another example is labelling the questions with subject code (eg BIO145), subject name (eg Biology) and/or theme (eg Animal cells).
Visit the article Add labels to questions for more information about using labels.
Planner: Creating tests
Naming tests
In the same way that it is beneficial to agree upon naming guidelines for questions early on in the implementation process, the same can be said for naming tests. As your test bank grows over time, it will be helpful to have established a naming convention to easily search for old tests, for example, using subject codes in the test name.
Test templates
Test templates are a really useful tool in speeding up the process of creating new test. As you begin to run more assessments in Inspera, you will find there are some settings that you want to enable on every test. A test template allows you to define which settings you would like to have enabled/disabled, and also allows you to include a candidate list as part of a template if you have several tests being taken by the same group of candidates. Every time you create a new test using a template, all those settings will then be automatically applied to your new test, allowing you to create new tests in just a few clicks.
Visit the article Create test templates to learn more about managing and sharing test templates.
Demo tests
A demo test can be a useful tool for candidates to prepare for tests in Inspera Assessment. A demo test will behave exactly as a regular test for the candidate, except the candidates cannot submit, and their answers are not stored.
Demo tests can be set up with public access which means anyone with the link can access the demo without having to log in to Inspera first. It can be useful to create a public access demo test and publish the link on candidate-facing webpages with other relevant information about Inspera.
If candidates are going to be taking closed book examinations with Safe Exam Browser (SEB) or Inspera Exam Portal (IEP) then it is also advisable to set up Demo tests that have these closed-book features enabled. This is to ensure that the candidate has the correct version of SEB or IEP installed and so that they can make sure that their system is compatible with Inspera closed-book assessments.
For more information about demo tests, how to set them up, and the candidate experience please refer to our Help Center articles Create a demo test and Take a demo test - for candidates
Tests with lockdown browser
Inspera Assessment offers two types of lockdown browsers; Inspera Exam Portal (IEP) and Safe Exam Browser (SEB). Both of these require candidates to enter a password to gain access to the test.
Some institutions find it useful to include the password in the test information when setting up the test in Deliver - this means it will be visible to the candidate before the test is activated and ensures they have everything they need to start their test.
As the image above shows, candidates also have the possibility to download Safe Exam Browser prior to the test. For more information, see Tests with lockdown browser.
Are you wondering if you should use lockdown browser on home exams? See our article Same day home exams - tips and information.
Invigilator: Monitoring test takers
Create views
In the Monitor module, users have access to a range of columns with information on candidate progress in a test. Not all columns are visible by default, so it can be helpful to create views for yourself which include the columns that you will regularly use, meaning you don't have to edit the columns and filters every time you go into the Monitor module.
Example
Tests with Inspera Exam Portal (IEP) and Inspera Smarter Proctoring (ISP)
To proctor tests with IEP and ISP you must add the columns "Device Security Flags" and "Confidence level (Events)". By creating a view with these columns and filtering by the test status, e.g. active, you can easily proctor ongoing tests using the same view for all tests with IEP and ISP.
