Open answer

Open answer questions are ideal for essays and questions that rely on interpretation when teaching, for example, languages, history and social sciences. The teacher can add a length limitation on the answer to prevent answers from being too extensive.

Open answer questions are best suited for manual assessment, and if you want to use automatic assessment you must add keywords (see Keywords under The structure of open answer questions below). The weakness of automatic assessment on open answer questions is that it can be difficult for participants to hit the correct keywords. You can add alternatives to the keywords where you can take into account misspelling and synonyms. However, you can never be sure that an answer that is correct in principle will not be automatically assessed as wrong. 

It is not possible to use the scoring method with penalty on open answer questions.

Question

This question type is best suited for essay type questions that allow the participants to write lengthy answers. To add open questions, enter a test and click the Questions tab. Click Add and select Open answer from the drop-down list.

Answer key

The 'answer key' is the correct answer to the question. The answer key is only visible for the teacher, and can be used as a guide when correcting answers manually.

Keywords 

 Although automatic assessment is not recommended for this question type, keywords are necessary if you want to use automatic assessment. The answers are checked against the keywords, and that means that the participants’ answers have to contain the keywords to be correct. In addition to the keywords, you can add alternatives to the keywords. If the keyword is 'ship', typical alternatives might be 'boat', 'vessel', 'craft', etc. Participants score points if they include the keyword, or one of the alternatives to the keyword, in the assignment answer.

If your question is not intended to check participant spelling ability, you can also add different spelling suggestions. If, for example, the keyword is 'onomatopoetic', you may wish to add other spelling options, such as 'onomatopoeic', 'onimatopoetic', and 'onomateopoetic'.

Examples

1. Click on a test.
2. Click the Questions tab.
3. Click Add.
4. Click Open answer.
5. Enter the question in the first text field.
6. Enter the maximum number of allowed words in the answer.
7. Enter the answer key in the second text field.
8. If you want to add keywords, click Add keywords.
9. Check the box in front of Use automatic assessment if you want itslearning to automatically assess the answers. If this option is enabled you have to add keywords. Note: It is not recommended to use automatic assessment on open answer questions.

Preview
Before you save a question, itslearning allows you to preview it. To preview the question, click Preview. By clicking the preview link, you can see the question from the participants' perspective. Submit an answer to see how the feedback looks for a correct and incorrect answer. Click the Back link to continue editing the question.

1. Click on a test.
2. Click the Questions tab.
3. Click on the question you want to edit.
4. Make your changes.
5. Click Save.

1. Click on a test.
2. Click the Questions tab.
3. Select the question you want to delete by checking the box in front of the question.
4. Click Delete question.