Important: Pearson enables Administrators and Teachers to customize courses in many ways. While this is one of the more powerful features of this next-generation platform, there is the potential that making customizations in some courses could compromise the functionality, alignment, or efficacy of your virtual program. For more information, please contact Pearson Support. Phone: 844-597-3224 Email: pcxsupport@pearson.com Creating and modifying assessment questions is an advanced feature. Refer to articles contained in the Editor Section of Pearson Support if you have questions on how to access or use these features.
With the assessment Text editor you can use a simple, text-based format to create questions. You can assign properties, like question type, by entering them above the question number. You can also use optional special codes that indicate question structures and advanced formatting.
In the following example:
MC: Indicates question type (multiple-choice) assigned as a property.*c: Indicates the correct answer (c) with a code.
You can preview your questions by switching to the Visual editor for individual questions or the Preview for the entire assessment. Preview mode may function differently depending on course type.
Building questions with the Text editor
The question Text editor format consists of five basic parts:
- Question type (required)
- General and type-specific question properties
- Question body (required)
- Feedback blocks
- Type-specific interaction and answer details (required for most questions)
Question types
Pearson offers eight question types; each type has a specific interaction and specific answer details, and there are some properties that can only be applied to specific question types.
When creating a question in the Text editor, you enter the question type code property first, like this:
This table outlines the eight available question types and their corresponding codes.
| Question type name | Type code |
|---|---|
| Custom | C |
| Essay | E |
| Fill in the Blank | F |
| Matching | MT |
| Multiple Answer | MA |
| Multiple Choice | MC |
| Ordering | O |
| Passage | P |
Question properties
General and type-specific question properties manage things like display preferences, the height of entry fields, ordering preferences, etc. All questions may have one or more properties in addition to their question type.
This section outlines some of the type-specific properties for each question type; the table at the end outlines all available properties.
Custom question properties
Custom questions must have the Custom property set (type: C). They can also include variables and question data.
Essay question properties
Essay questions may specify Height, a Rubric, and an example answer to aid the grader.
Fill in the Blank question properties
Create the blank for fill in the blank questions by adding 3 or more underscore characters (`___`). Use about as many characters as you expect the longest answer to be.
You can specify a sub-type for the question to change how it is scored. This question uses the Match subtype to allow for ordering variations in the answer.
Questions can contain multiple blanks, and a blank may have multiple correct answers, with some answers scoring different points.
By default, each blank is worth the same amount. For this question we award 6 points (.6 * 10) for the first blank, and 4 points for the second. In addition we award 5 points if the user uses the Swedish spelling for Helsinki.
Matching question properties
The matching question matches items from the left side to the right side. You can include additional distractors by leaving the left side empty.
You can use the Inline option to display the right side as a dropdown menu. Note that HTML option tag does not allow formatting. Use Inline only with content without formatting.
In addition you can put the drop down boxes inside the body of the question by typing [----]. In that mode, the left side of the match is the order of the answer.
Multiple Answer question properties
Multiple answer questions look very much like multiple choice questions, except the user can choose more than one correct answer. Therefore multiple answer questions may have a Partial score, but may not be displayed Inline.
Multiple Choice question properties
Multiple choice questions are the most common question type. Simple specify the correct choice with an asterisk (`*`). This questions uses the Label a to display the choices as a, b, c, etc. The x. in front of the last choice indicates that choice should stay in that position if the other choices are randomized. You can fix all choices by using the MaintainOrder` option.
You can easily create choice specific feedback by using @ on the row below the choice. This question displays the choices as a dropdown menu by using the Inline option and placing the box inside the question body with [----].
Ordering question properties
To specify the answer of an ordering question, put the correct position in front of the answer label.
Passage properties
A passage is different than all other questions, as it does not have a point value, interaction, answer, or feedback.
Passages may use the Side options to display the passage to the side of the question. Use Single options to display one associated question at a time.
Table of question properties
Question body
The question body makes up the content of the question and any answer choices. Property indicators, formatting preferences, and other codes can be used throughout.
Formatting
[**!!] All questions, choices, match, and feedback bodies, except when used in Inline mode, may consist of rich formatted text. In many cases you can use simple text. All text segments may exist of multiple lines, which are interpreted as <br /> tags for plain text. You do not need to encode <, >, or & symbols when using plain text.
Indent subsequent lines with three leading spaces. For example the question body:
Would generate this HTML:
<div>You can create multi-line text segments.<br />The characters <, >, and & do not need to be encoded.</div>
Feedback blocks
Feedback can be added to any of the interactive question types. To add general question feedback to a question, start a new line with the @ sign immediately following the question body, like in this fill in the blank example:
Feedback conditions
Feedback can be displayed only if a condition is established and met. Conditions are set up using a bracket-enclosed expression that can contain question variables, literals, and the pre-defined variables named score, teacher, answer, and answer# (for multiple-answer questions). When multiple feedback lines exist, only feedback from the first satisfied condition is displayed.