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The following paragraphs describe what is contained in a quiz, how to use the procedure and how to get the most out of it. A review quiz is a short test intended to give students an assessment of one's progress in a course. If a student is enrolled with an instructor for a course, the test settings are those entered by the instructor. These test parameters cannot be changed by a student. Consequently, the page where the test parameters are otherwise changed by a user is skipped. A student can view instructor's settings in Grade composition. If a student does not have an instructor, the grade composition and test parameters are set by PEOI administration.

If a student takes a test in a course for which he/she is not enrolled or signed in, the student him/herself can modify the test parameters in several ways to fit one's needs and preferences. In that case the test does not count toward course grade. Nevertheless, such test can be useful for review purpose. Again, changing a test parameters for a course in which a student is enrolled can only be accomplished by the instructor.

Content of quiz

The number of questions included is normally 20 for a quiz and 50 for a comprehensive test. The test is seeded with questions taken randomly from a data bank of questions for the specified chapter(s). Only one question per concept is picked. This may cause the number of questions actually placed in the test to be less than the one initally requested. Test grades are calculated as number of correct answers divided by total number of questions viewed.

The material normally covers just one chapter but this can be changed. When several chapters are included the test procedure becomes that of a comprehensive test with no explanation for wrong answers and computation of grade on total number of questions in the test, not on the basis of number of viewed questions in as in a review quiz. Certain portions of a chapter can be excluded from a test if the chapter is broken down into sections (which is not the case for review courses).

A registered student can set a time parameter for a test. The time is expressed in seconds per question: 20, 40, 60, 90, 120 seconds or none.

The type of questions in the quiz can also be modified. The test bank consists of multiple choice, true/false, fill-in, calculation, graphics and essay type questions. Naturally, there are graphics questions only in chapters where graphs are present in the chapter itself; likewise for calculation questions. Essay questions do not allow answers and are not part of the grade calculation. They are offered as examples of questions that would be asked in a written test. Essay questions do not normally appear in quizzes except if specifically requested by the student. Fill-in questions require the exact spelling of the needed word. Pay special attention to whether the word is normally singular or plural. The use of capital letters is immaterial.

Procedure of quiz

First, a screen allows the student to change the parameters of the quiz. Next the quiz is constructed based on the parameters selected. If no questions are found for the chosen settings, a new selection is required. Otherwise, a question table appears with access to any and all questions. The student can start with any question and move from question to question at will, or return to the question table to view what is the grade so far, and which questions have been answered incorrectly.

When answering questions, the question appears in a box with the choice of possible answers or space for writing in a fill-in answer. Submitting an answer produces a correction immediately. If the answer is incorrect, a small window appears for ten seconds with the text on which the question is based. That window can be called back by clicking on the "See ..." box at the bottom of the screen. Only the first answer to a question counts. A student can read all the questions in the quiz by moving from question to question before answering any of them.

Ending the test requires returning to the table of questions and pressing the "END TEST" button in the upper right of the screen. No record of the quiz results will be made if the End Test button is not clicked. Moreover, the End Test procedure deletes the test questions to make room for a new test. No new test can be started by a student if a previously started quiz has not been ended properly. Again, as a matter of courtesy to other students and to free memory space on the server, you are asked:

After quiz

Any quiz can be retaken any number of times desired. Only the highest grade for that quiz is included in course grade. Note, that the test is seeded with different questions each time. It is not useful to memorize answers to questions. If an unsatisfactory grade is obtained, the recommended and most productive strategy is to read the chapter again and to answer all the review questions for that chapter, before returning to take the quiz anew.

After completing a quiz, a registered and enrolled student is asked to leave a feedback evaluation. Once again, the test results and the feedback are saved only if the student clicks on END TEST at the bottom of the feedback page. The feedback is used by faculty and administration to improve the material on the web site and adapt it better to users' needs. Comments are especially useful and can be left at that time or in an email message. A student can review his/her entries by clicking on Evaluation later, and can also modify them at that time. The feedback entries can only be viewed by the student him/herself, your instructor (if any) and the administration. Student overall feedback evaluation averages without details are part of statistics.

A registered, enrolled and signed in student can access his/her personal record by clicking on Grade Book to see how the course cumulative average has changed as a consequence of the test just taken. Naturally, this is possible only if the student is registered, enrolled in that course and has signed in. Remember that registration is free and confidential .

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