Running a test with Stile

Running an online test with Stile is simple, stress-free, and has a lot of benefit.

Stile Education
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read

Running an online test with students can be a little daunting, especially if you haven’t done it before.

The good news is you’ll save loads of time by running a test in Stile, as:

  • All multiple choice questions are automatically marked for you.
  • You can quickly mark all non multiple choice questions.
  • You can quickly gain an understanding of student knowledge gaps.
Before class: Make sure the test isn’t visible to students.

Before class

Ensure the test isn’t visible to students (i.e. it needs to be below the release bar).

In the lesson: make it “assessed” and add marks to questions.

Set assessment mode to “Assessed”, if it isn’t already. When a Stile lesson is set to “Assessed” students cannot resubmit their work without the teacher’s permission.

Assign marks for each question. By default every question is assigned one mark. To change how many marks are assigned to a question, simply click “Edit” next to the question number.

In class: Release the test and make sure everyone’s started.

In class

Release the test in Stile as soon as students are ready.
Use Stile’s Class Insights to ensure that every student has started.

Monitor progress from the back of the room, with Class Insights in hand!

Monitor students as they work from the back of the classroom so that you can see their screens.
When time is up, ask students to click “Hand in for marking” at the bottom-right of their page. Monitor which students haven’t handed their test in from Class Insights.

Tip: if some students don’t hand their test in on time you can “collect all unfinished work” from the Markbook.

Quick Review: use hotkeys to quickly mark student work.

After class

Use Quick Review to mark every nonmultiple choice question. We suggest that you have the model answers open at the same time to help speed things up further.

Tip: Stile’s Quick Review has special hotkeys! Use the left and right arrows to move between student responses. Use ‘R’, ‘W’, and ‘C’ for ‘right’, ‘wrong’ and ‘comment’ respectively.

The Markbook: release feedback and answers to the whole class at once.

Once you’ve finished marking every question, you can release the marks and answers to the whole class in one click. Simply head to the Markbook, click on the arrowhead underneath the lesson name, then click “Release all feedback and answers.”

Reinforce learning the next day by reviewing model answers.

The next class

Go through the model answers of the test as a class. Use the per-question analysis in Class Insights to help decide what concepts you need to re-inforce and which you don’t.

Lab safety notes

The biggest risk of running any online test with your class is having your students Google the answer to questions, or share their answers with each other. To help minimise the risks around this:

  • Stile’s content writers work hard to ensure that the questions in our tests aren’t Googleable.
  • The order in which the options for multiple choice questions appear are randomised in Stile’s tests, making it more difficult for students to peer over each other’s shoulders and see the correct answer. You can do this, too.

We recommend that when running a test in Stile you drag the test to the top of your folder, and then drag the release bar right underneath it. This will hide the rest of the lessons that you’ve taught in Stile, making it a closed-book exam rather than an open-book one.


This article is an excerpt of the Stile Guide. View and download the full Guide here or read another excerpt:
- Teaching with Stile in the classroom: a beginner’s guide
-
Teaching with Stile in the classroom for experienced Stilists
- Conducting formative assessment with Stile
- Running a prac with Stile
- Setting Stile for homework

Would you like to be a Stile Luminary? Watch the webinar to find out more.

Stile Blog

We blog about education, science, shiny new tech and where these three meet.

Stile Education

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Interactive, relevant, and engaging online science lessons.

Stile Blog

We blog about education, science, shiny new tech and where these three meet.

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