Adaptive assessments enable you to build branching or multiple activity-based assessments using existing course activities. Before using adaptive assessments, define activities from existing assessments or create new ones in the Content Manager.
Why Use Adaptive Assessments?
Adaptive assessments are particularly useful in personalized learning environments and for diagnostic testing. For example, in a language course, an adaptive assessment can direct students to different difficulty levels based on their performance in an initial diagnostic test. A student scoring high in basic vocabulary may skip foundational exercises and proceed directly to more advanced grammar sections.
Key components of adaptive assessments include:
- Sections: The main grouping units within the assessment
- Activities: Individual learning tasks within sections
- Branching Logic (optional): Rules for branching based on activity scores
- Adaptive Reporting
Authoring an Adaptive Assessment
- Click on the New Assessment dropdown menu and select New Adaptive Assessment.
- Enter a name for the assessment, then click Next to begin building.
Step 1: Add Sections
Sections group activities. Each adaptive assessment requires at least one section.
- Section Scoring
- Points Possible: By default, section scores will reflect the total points possible across all activities within it. You can override this by specifying a different point value for the section, which will scale across activities without needing to change the individual activity points.
- Section Weight: Allows weighting each section as a percentage of the total score instead of using point values.
- Confirmation Prompt: Enable a prompt for students before leaving each step, adding a confirmation message at the end of each activity.
- Allow Instructors to Omit Sections: Grant instructors the option to exclude specific sections from the assessment. Instructors can set this in the Adaptive Options under the assessment level settings gear.
Step 2: Add Activities
- Click the Add Content button to open a menu of your course’s activities.
- Select an activity to add it to the section. When an activity is added the following information is displayed under the activity title, including:
- Activity Reference ID: Use this ID to locate and edit the activity in the Content Manager.
- Number of Questions: Shows the total number of questions in the activity.
- Total Points Possible: Displays the total points available for the activity.
For each activity added, you can:
- Set a time limit.
- Choose the number of questions to include (defaults to all).
- By default, questions are shown in the order they appear in the activity. If you specify showing only a subset (e.g., 5 out of 25 questions), the questions will be used in activity order unless you enable Randomize Question Order.
- Define the next step for students after completing the activity.
You can continue to add additional activities to the section or you can add branching logic.
Step 3: Add Branching Logic (Optional)
To define branching based on cut scores, click Add Branching Logic under the desired activity. Branching logic can be configured individually for each activity, allowing flexibility across activities.
Branching conditions are based on:
- Score Comparison: Greater than or equal to, less than, or equal to specified scores
- Score Type: Use either percentage or points as the score metric
- Go to: Specify where students go next based on their score:
- Next Section
- End Assessment
- Another Section
- Another Activity within the current section
Editing adaptive assessments
Adaptive assessments are marked with a unique icon in the assessment list for easy identification.
- Editing an Adaptive Assessment: Click Edit Adaptive Configuration within the adaptive assessment.
- Reordering Sections and Activities: Click the Re-order button to change the sequence of sections and activities within the assessment.
- Editing Sections and Activities: Use the Edit (pencil) icon to modify section settings or replace an activity. To remove an activity from the assessment, click the X icon.
- Editing Activity Content: Activity content cannot be edited directly in the adaptive configuration settings. To change questions or other activity content, go to Content Manager.