Author Assessment items

An Assessment Item is a single question and the interaction a learner responds to. Items live in the Offering’s item bank, where they can be reused across Assessments. You author them from the Assessments tab, in the Author an item card — no QTI XML required.

This guide walks two of the most common item kinds end to end. The authoring form supports many more (ordering, matching, sliders, image hotspots, audio and video, math entry, and others); the shared fields and the flow are the same for all of them.

Before you start

• Open the Offering and select the Assessments tab.
• You need manage access for the Offering.

Fields every item shares

At the top of the Author an item card:

• Item type — the interaction kind (see the two worked examples below).
• Item title — a short internal name, e.g. Capital of France.
• Prompt — the text the learner reads, e.g. Which city is the capital of France?
• Accessibility role and Accessible label (optional) — a WAI-ARIA role and spoken label for assistive technology.

Worked example: multiple choice

1. Set Item type to Multiple choice.

2. Fill in the Item title and the Prompt.

3. Under Answer type, choose One correct answer or Several correct answers.

4. Optionally tick Shuffle the order of choices so learners see them in a random order.

5. Add your Choices. Type each choice, and tick Correct on the one (or several) that are right. Use Add choice for more options and Remove to drop one — you need at least two.

6. Select Add to item bank. A confirmation shows the item was added, and the form clears for the next one.

Worked example: fill in the blank

1. Set Item type to Fill in the blank.

2. Fill in the Item title and the Prompt.

3. Enter the Correct answer — the exact text a learner must type, e.g. Paris.

4. Select Add to item bank.

Add feedback (optional)

For auto-scored kinds such as multiple choice and fill in the blank, you can attach feedback messages shown after scoring:

• Choose the condition — shown when the response is Correct or Incorrect.
• Choose the placement — a modal dialog (with a title) or inline text.
• Write the message.

Note

Some kinds are graded by you, not the engine. Extended response and File upload collect an open answer or a file and are scored manually later in the gradebook. You will see a short note to that effect when you pick them.

Other ways to add items

The Assessments tab also offers panels to paste QTI 3 XML for an item (ingested into the same bank) and to author shared stimuli — reusable passages or media an item can reference. Use the form-based authoring above for day-to-day work; reach for the XML path only when you already have QTI to bring in.

What you end up with

A set of reusable items in the Offering’s item bank, ready to be assembled into an Assessment.