Question Library: Multi-Short Answer Questions

Multi-short Answer questions allow instructors to create a question such as, "Name 3 state capitals" and create 3 input boxes and 51 potential answers so that the student can enter any 3 answers in any answer box and receive full marks.

Multi-Short Answer differs from the Short Answer Question in that the short answer question supports multiple answer boxes, but requires distinct answer lists for each answer box. The answers provided by a respondent for a Multi-Short Answer question are checked against each answer box.

Although multi-short answer questions can be auto-graded, unless care is taken in entering all possible correct answers you will probably need to correct the auto-graded score. For information about text pattern-matching options for auto-grading, see Using Regular Expressions.

To set up Multi-Short Answer questions:

1. Access Quizzes and click Question Library.

2. Choose Multip-Short Answer Question from the Create New drop-down menu, then click Go.

3. Enter a Title to easily distinguish one question from another when building new quizzes, re-using questions, and/or grading. (Titles will not appear in the final quiz.)

4. If you wish, set the Point Value and Difficulty Level of the question. (This is optional, as it does not effect how Carmen grades question.)

5. Enter the Question Text in the box provided.

6. If desired, Add a File to associate an image with the question. You can either use an image currently in your course, or upload a new image from your computer.

7. Enter possible answers:

Set the size of the Input Box in the drop-down menus to choose how large or small you want the answer area to appear; this setting controls the size of the box, not the number of characters that can be typed. A small box could indicate a shorter answer; a larger box might indicate that the answer is several sentences.

When creating a survey, adding answers is not required.

Enter Answer options to be used when autograding by typing the answer in the text field and choosing the weight. Continue adding all accepted answers and weights.

Set the weight of correct answers to 100%. If partial credit is to be given for any answer, assign its weight appropriately. The total weight may exceed 100%, but no single answer may exceed 100%.

Under Evaluation, retain the default of Case Insensitive so that an answer choice will be auto-graded as correct regardless of whether a respondent uses capitalization, etc. For further latitude in auto-grading correct answers, choose Regular Expression, and refer to Using Regular Expressions for more information.
If you have more answer options than the number of spaces provided, click the Blank icon to add more boxes. Click the Remove icon to remove extra answer boxes.

If autograding quizzes, take care to list all possible correct answers -- and remember that answers are case-sensitive. The Check Answers button is used to validate any regular expression you include in the answer fields. For information about text pattern-matching options and autograding, see Using Regular Expressions.

8. If desired, add hints or feedback to a question by expanding the Question Hint and Question Feedback menus.

You must enable Hints when setting up quiz properties in order for hints to appear to students. If hints are enabled, students can click a link to receive them. (See Setting Up Quiz Properties to enable hints for a quiz.)

9. Click Preview to view your question as it will appear during use and grading. Click Save to save the question and return to the main page, Save and Copy to save the question and create a new question of the same type and that retains the copied properties, or click Save and New to continue creating questions of the same type.