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Overview of the Question Database | Toolbar The Question Database allows the designer to define quiz questions which can then be added to any number of quizzes. The Question Database can be accessed in two ways: from the Quiz/Survey Management page, click Questions, or from the Quiz/Survey Editor, click either Add Question, Add Set, or Add Alternate. The initial database screen is divided into three frames (see Figure 1).  Figure 1 Symbolic representation of the Question Database main frames All questions must belong to a category. You have the ability to create any number of categories to organize the Question Database. The top left frame shows a listing of the category titles. Clicking on any category title will display the questions which belong to that particular category in the Questions frame (Figure 2).  Figure 2 Choosing the Anatomy Category will cause these questions to appear in the Question frame Clicking All Categories displays all the questions in the database. The Question frame shows a table with one question per row. Each question has a number of default columns which are defined by the quiz module (see Figure 2). These include:
In addition to these default columns, the designer may specify any number of additional columns to help in identifying and classifying a particular question. Examples of additional columns are Week, Author, or Difficulty. The Question frame can be sorted by any column that contains text or numeric values. Click the button containing the column title to sort the column in ascending order. The Question Database toolbar (see Figure 3) contains the designer options for the question database.  Figure 3 The Question Database toolbar
Creating a New Category | Toolbar | Top To create a new category in the question database, click Add Category on the Question Database toolbar. The top right frame will refresh to display the Category Addition frame (Figure 4).  Figure 4 Text box used to enter the new category name Enter the new category name in the text box and click Add. To cancel adding a new category, click Cancel. After clicking Add, the new category will be shown in the Category frame.
Deleting a Category | Toolbar | Top Note: Deleting a category will remove all the questions contained in that category. To delete a category, click Delete Category on the Question Database toolbar. The top right frame will then present a drop-down menu which allows you to choose the category you want to delete (see Figure 5).  Figure 5 Choosing a category to delete Click Continue to delete the selected category, or click Cancel to stop the command. Because deleting a category erases all of the questions (in that category), WebCT will ask you twice to confirm your command.
Adding a Question | Toolbar | Top To add a new question, click Add Question. The Question Database toolbar will refresh to the Add Question toolbar shown in Figure 6.  Figure 6 Available question types The available question types are described in more detail below. Be sure to read Information Common to All Question Types before proceeding to the desired question type.
Information Common to All Question Types | Toolbar | Top The fields in Figure 7 need to be completed for each question type.  Figure 7 Common question fields for all the question types Each question must be assigned to an existing category. If you click Add Question when you have a category opened in the Questions frame, then the default selection will be the current category opened. You may select a category from the Category drop-down menu. In addition to the category, each question must have a title for identification. Titles should only be long enough to provide a good description of the question. Next, each question must specify the actual question text that the student will see. The question text can either be displayed as unformatted text or as HTML, as this depends on which option button is selected to the right of Format. If the question makes use of graphical material, the Image text box can be used to display an image below the question text. If the filename is not known, pressing Browse opens the WebCT Browser window (refer to File Manger - Browsing for Files, for more information). The WebCT Browser allows you to pick an image from either the [WEBCT BUILT-IN FILES] directory or your [COURSE FILES] directory. Recall that you have to upload your file from File Manager first. In Figure 8, the file ankle.gif is selected. When you click Pick, the Image text box will contain the path to the file ankle.gif. In this case, the path will be imagesforquizzes/ankle.gif.  Figure 8 Choosing an image using WebCT Browser The next few fields will vary, depending on which question type was chosen. Each question type and associated fields are described in the sections that follow. Below the question specific-fields will be a listing of any additional fields which may have been added to the Question Database columns (see Column Editor below). Creating Multiple Choice Questions | Creating a New Question | Toolbar | Top Multiple choice questions can have one or more correct answers.  Figure 9 Options given for generating a multiple choice question You have two ways to designate the correct answer:
All values entered are percentages from 0 to 100. These values will then be multiplied by the actual value of a question in a quiz (see Quiz Editor for information about creating a quiz). When creating a multiple choice question, you have the option
of specifying whether your students are allowed to choose only one answer, or whether multiple answers can be selected. If
the latter option is used, the scores for all answers that the
student has selected will be added up to generate the final question
total. As with the question text, the text of each answer can be displayed either as text or as HTML. You can use HTML to incorporate images. To include an image, use the <img src=..> tag and specify the location of the image from the [COURSE FILES] directory. For example, if an image was located in the images directory, the image would be declared as follows: <img src="images/image.gif">. The Answer Layout option buttons allow the designer to specify whether the answers should be shown horizontally across the page (five answers per row), or vertically (in one column). Each answer also has an optional Feedback section associated with it. If feedback is enabled on a particular quiz, students will see the feedback text for the answer that they selected when they view their graded quiz. For new questions, five answer boxes are provided. If more answer boxes are needed, click More Answers. Each click of More Answers provides you with two additional answer boxes. If additional data fields have been defined in the Question Database (see Column Editor below about adding fields), a text box for each field is provided below the answers. Once all of the question text and answers have been entered correctly, the question can be saved into the database by clicking Save or Save As New. For new questions, you will only be able to choose Save. If an existing question is being edited, Save overrides the existing question with any changes that were just made, while Save As New creates a new question. Save As New is useful when creating a number of similar questions, since not all of the information may need to be reentered. A sample multiple choice question is shown in Figure 10.  Figure 10 A sample multiple choice question Creating Matching Questions | Creating a New Question | Toolbar | Top Matching questions ask the student to match up items from one column with items in a second column. The interface for creating matching questions is shown in Figure 11.  Figure 11 Sample interface for matching questions The designer must specify matching pairs for each row of possible answers. For each column, the designer has the option of using short or long answers. Short answers generally consist of a single word or short phrase. An example matching question using short answers for both columns is shown in Figure 12.  Figure 12 An example of a matching question using Short Answers for both columns The first column is displayed in the order that you specified. The second column is a list of drop-down menus your students can use to select the appropriate match. If you had chosen Long Answer instead of Short Answer, the possible answers would be identified by number for the first column, or by letter for the second column. Figure 13 shows the previous question with the second column using a Long Answer format.  Figure 13 An example of a matching question using the Long Answer format for the second column The drop-down menu now lets the student choose either a or b, instead of presenting the actual word answer. To switch from Short Answer to Long Answer, you must select Long Answer from the drop-down menu above the appropriate column (see Figure 11) and click Refresh. The question editor will then appear as in Figure 14.  Figure 14 With the Long Answer option selected You also have the option of using images for both the left and right columns. To include an image, use the <img src=..> tag and specify the location of the image from the [COURSE FILES] directory. For example, if an image was located in the images directory, the image would be declared as follows: <img src="images/image.gif">. If more than five choices are required for a particular matching question, pressing the More Answers button will increase the number of answer boxes by two each time. If you wish, you may change the number of matching questions in two ways:
Here, two extra choices in the right column do not have a match in the left column.
In this case, the student is asked to match each disease in the left column to one of the two choices in the right column. In matching questions, all choices are equally weighted. Thus, if a question has five matching choices, each choice is worth 20%. The designer can choose one of three grading schemes:
Creating Short Answer Questions | Creating a New Question | Toolbar | Top Short answer questions require the student to type in a word or short phrase, which is then compared against the possible answers that the designer has previously specified. Since these questions are automatically graded by the computer, answers given by the student must exactly match the answers specified by the designer. The short answer question interface is shown in Figure 17:  Figure 17 Short answer question creation interface You can specify the number of answer boxes that represent the correct answer. You can also specify whether the student has to observe case by selecting the Case Sensitive option button. Below the drop-down menu are text boxes for the possible answers. Each answer consists of five elements:
Here is an example: The first question allows the answers to be answered in any order. The question and the results are shown in Figure 18.  Figure 18 An example in which the answer does not need to be placed in a specific order; (a) is the question, and (b) is the resulting grade The next question asks for a specific order; if the correct answers are not placed in the right answer boxes, the student receives a score of 0 (see Figure 19).  Figure 19 An example where the responses must be in a particular order; (a) shows the questions, and (b) shows the resulting grade
Creating Paragraph Questions | Creating a New Question | Toolbar | Top Paragraph questions are intended for open-ended, essay type answers. These questions cannot be automatically graded by WebCT. Paragraph questions must be graded by the instructor or by a grader. In addition to the fields common to all questions, the interface for the paragraph question is shown in Figure 20.  Figure 20 Interface for creating a new paragraph question You can specify the width and height in pixels for the answer box by using the Answerbox Size drop-down menus. Although the size is determined by you, the student's answer box will scroll both vertically and horizontally when more text is entered. You have the option to type in text in the students' answer box by entering text in the Pre-fill Answerbox. This allows you to start the answer, or to give your students direction as to where to place their answer. You must enter the correct answer for the question. This answer will be displayed to students (if that option is enabled by the instructor) when the students view their graded quiz. The answer is also useful in guiding the grader of the question. Both the Pre-fill Answerbox and Correct Answer box can contain text or HTML.
Creating Calculated Questions | Creating a New Question | Toolbar | Top The Calculated Question type allows you to create a mathematical question with a random set of variables. Each calculated question consists of a formula containing one or more variables, as well as a range of values for each variable. The formula used to calculate the correct answer for the question must be entered into the Formula text box as shown in Figure 21.  Figure 21 Interface for creating a new calculated question Variables for which WebCT substitutes actual values must be specified
within curly braces. The formula used can be as complicated as you desire. You can use the following operators shown in Table 1: Table 1 A list of all the operators and their functions in Calculated Question Once the question title and formula have been entered, click Analyze Variables to specify the variable ranges. The screen will refresh to the display shown in Figure 22.  Figure 22 Text boxes used to specify variable ranges Each variable specified in the formula by the braces ({}) is listed. You must specify a minimum and maximum value for each variable. WebCT will then generate a random value within the specified range. To specify how many significant figures or decimal places you wish WebCT to calculate, use the Calculate Answer Sets to drop-down menus. To specify integer results, select 0 from the first Calculate Answer Sets to drop-down menu. The Decimal and Significant Figures operate as follows:
WebCT generates a set of finite answers that are used during the quiz. When a student takes the quiz, WebCT selects one of the sets of variables from the Answer Set. This provides you with control over the question sets. Once all of the ranges have been specified, click Generate Random Answer Set to generate the question set from which WebCT will choose when a student accesses the quiz. The Number/set drop-down menu allows you to choose the size of the question set. The screen will refresh, and a random set of generated answers will be displayed (see Figure 23).  Figure 23 A randomly generated answer set If some of the generated values are not acceptable, click Edit Answer Set to manually assign values to one or more of the generated variables (see Figure 24).  Figure 24 Manually editing the generated variables Below the set of answers, you can specify an answer tolerance so that rounding errors can be accounted for (see Figure 25). The tolerance can be specified either as an absolute value or as a percentage of the correct value. The tolerance value is subtracted or added to the correct answer to provide a range of values which are considered by WebCT to be correct. If no tolerance is specified, the student must give the exact answer to achieve a correct score.  Figure 25 The answer tolerance text box Finally, you may optionally specify units for the answer (see Figure 26). The units are entered by the student into a separate text box. The designer has the option to:
 Figure 26 Specifying units and how much of the mark is dependent on getting the correct answer A student view of a sample question is shown in Figure 27.  Figure 27 A sample question as shown to students
Deleting a Question | Toolbar | Top To delete questions from the list shown in the Questions frame, select the questions you wish to delete by selecting the check boxes to the left of the chosen questions. Then, click Delete Questions on the Question Database toolbar.  Figure 28 Selecting a question for deletion In Figure 28, the question Matching Test Question is selected for deletion. After pressing the Delete Question button, two confirmation windows will appear. Click OK in both windows to delete the question. Note: Once a question is deleted it cannot be recovered.
Column Editor | Toolbar | Top The Column Editor can be accessed by clicking Columns on the Question Database toolbar. The window refreshes to display two frames: the top frame contains a tabular view of the columns in the question database (see Figure 29), while the bottom frame displays the available options (see Figure 30).  Figure 29 The top frame with all the columns
 Figure 30 The Column Editor Toolbar located in the bottom frame The table shows each column type and whether a column is hidden from view. When your Question Database contains a large number of columns, hiding a column will help you to simplify the view of your questions. The available column types are:
Select a column by clicking its option button (located above the label). You can then click a button on the toolbar to do the following:
 Figure 31 Adding a column
If no column is selected before Add is pressed, the new column will be inserted at the rightmost position.
Listing Options | Toolbar | Top Click Listing on the Question Database toolbar to get the Listing toolbar (see Figure 32).  Figure 32 The Listing toolbar The toolbar buttons allow the designer to manipulate the questions listed in the top right Questions frame. Information regarding each of the buttons is provided below.
 Figure 35 The Query toolbar
You can define the scope of your Question Database search through a series of refined steps. The first drop-down menu (on the left), allows you to choose the attribute to search. The second drop-down menu contains the search criteria that, combined with your text box entry, will define your search. The search criteria for the second drop-down menu is outlined below: The text box is where you enter your search information (for example, a letter, word, or number). The final drop-down menu (on the right) allows you to either search through all your questions (All Questions) or through all the questions listed in the Questions frame (Listed Questions). Click Search to query your database with your search criteria. Click Back to return to the previous frame. If you wish to see all your questions again (in a particular category), you can select the appropriate hyperlinked name from the top-left Category frame.
Editing a Header | Toolbar | Top To edit the Question Database header, click Header on the Question Database toolbar. The top frame will refresh to display Figure 36. Enter the text you wish to have as the header, and click Update.  Figure 36 The header input box |
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