Free response questions present students with a question and a response object (or entry cell) in which to express their response. Upon grading, the student response is evaluated against the correct answer defined for the question.
The system provides many styles of automatically-graded free response question types that differ in terms of presentation, accepted response types, and the graders applied to student responses. The range of question types includes questions that accept and grade symbolic and numeric mathematics, chemistry expressions, and a variety of text-based responses.
There are three types of Text-based free response (or fill-in-the-blank) questions in the system. Each evaluates student responses by comparing the student response text string to that of the correct answer (as coded into the question).
list questions
blanks questions
short phrase questions
1. Inline Blanks
Both List and Blanks questions allow you to display free response entry cell blanks inside the HTML question statement. This method of presentation can provide inline student response cells anywhere within the question.
Both List questions and Blanks questions can be set to require students to enter text (textbox style presentation), or to select from a list of entries (menu-style presentation). Each style has its advantages.
Use textbook style presentation when you want to evaluate short or long text responses in true fill-in-the-blank style. You can set the grader to exact and enforce and exact match between the student response and the correct answer, or you can set it to relaxed, a more lenient grading style in which capitalization and punctuation are ignored.
Alternatively, you may want to constrain student input and test general knowledge by providing a longer excerpt with isolated phrases blanked out, but using the menu style presentation to require that a student select from a drop-down list of possible answers.
2. Traditional Blanks Presentation
Because you control the HTML formatting inside the question as well as the position of the blanks inside a List or Blanks question, you can also use those question types to present a response cell on a separate line by inserting paragraph or line breaks inside the question statement.
The List question offers the widest variety of response objects, the Short Phrase offers only the text style grader.
|
Question Mode |
Text - Exact Grading |
Text - Relaxed Grading |
Text - Menu |
Formula |
Numeric |
Multiple Choice |
Multiple Selection |
|
List Question |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Blanks Question |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
List and Blanks questions are very similar; however, List questions provide: a greater diversity of graders that can be applied, better control over the specification of multiple correct answers, and the ability to return partial credit for answers that are not 100% correct.
The easiest way to create Blanks free response questions is by using the Question Bank Editor, but you can also author List questions using the LaTeX authoring or plain-text scripting methods.
Although similar to these question types, key word or phrase questions use a different grading approach for evaluating student responses, in which student responses are evaluated for the presence of an identified word or phrase anywhere within the student response.
See Also:
Creating Fill-in-the-Blank Questions in the QBE
Fill-in-the-Blank Question Example Script
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions and Answers
Rules for Grading Free Response Questions
Using Scripts to Create Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
Text/String Free Response Question Types
Math Free Response Question Types
Discipline-specific Free Response Question Types