So I gave my first WebAssign quiz today and am happy with the set of options I chose. Maybe you’d like to see what I did?

Content

The questions are a mix of ones I wrote and ones from the textbook. Below are screenshots of one randomization of the quiz. All questions are pooled to allow different versions AND make retakes easier.

I’m really proud of the animated GIF of a ticking grandfather clock. There’s another one in the deck of a transverse wave being drawn out.

Quiz Settings

Here are settings I chose:

• Submissions Allowed: 2 (during the quiz, in class — every kid gets a free redo on every question but I do take points off)
• Submitting Answers: Question Parts (if I have a three-part question, I want kids to be able to check their answer on each part as they go along)
• Feedback: Scores Assignment: Off (turn off students’ ability to see their numeric grade, though individual answer scores are shown — helps relieve anxiety over a grade that I haven’t finalized yet because I haven’t looked at the work)
• Automatic Point Adjustments: Deduct 75% for each submission used beyond 1 (this didn’t do quite what I want, so I’m switching to “assign penalty for an incorrect answer” next time)

Quiz Taking Rules in My Class

This is my first year using WebAssign but I have a few routines I like that I’m figuring out how to do: 1) kids need more than one attempt at quizzes because they’re developing their knowledge, 2) kids should get immediate feedback on quizzes so as to not delay that learning cycle, and 3) retakes shouldn’t require me to write another quiz.

#1 is the biggest change from last year. I need more time to think on this one. Here’s how I’ve run quizzes the last few years:

1. quiz day: open notes, get immediate feedback because quiz is computer-scored, and make corrections to anything you got wrong and are able to correct.
2. overnight: I look at the papers students turned in. There were several ways to earn partial credit, but it all came down to showing work. Typically, students earned 1/4 to 3/4 credit based on the paper.
3. next day: first opportunity for a quiz retake. On Moodle, the questions were sorted into categories and randomly selected, so a retake quiz was no extra effort. I’ve done similar in WebAssign using question pools. One retake per quiz AND it must be used by the unit test.

I have a few details to work out but the quiz experience was excellent from my POV. I’ll get student feedback tomorrow.