How do I create a blocking quiz with WP Courseware?

A blocking quiz allows you to prevent progress to further units until a student achieves a minimum grade for a quiz. The required passing score and a number of attempt limits can be set according to your needs. The quiz can be placed within any WP Courseware course unit and progress will be protected past that unit until the student has achieved the required passing score.

This WP Courseware help article contains four (4) main topics:

Creating a new blocking quiz
Adding and placing your quiz
Grading your quizzes
Accessing the grade book

1. CREATING A NEW BLOCKING QUIZ

To add a new WP Courseware blocking quiz, navigate to WP Courseware→Quizzes→Add New

General Settings Tab

In the General Settings tab, enter a Quiz Title (required), Quiz/Survey Description (optional), and the Quiz Type should be set to Quiz Mode - Blocking

Click the blue Save All Quiz Settings & Questions button as this opens new options when the blocking quiz mode is set

Quiz Behavior Settings Tab

Pass Mark

In the Pass Mark field (required), select the minimum passing grade you require before the student can progress to the next unit.

Number of Attempts

In the Number of Attempts allowed field, select the number of attempts you would like to allow the student. The number of attempts you select will allow them to retake failed quizzes until they reach the maximum limit. If they fail up to the maximum attempt limit, you can choose to either allow them to progress or require another retake by going to the grade book. The administrator will be notified by email when a student has exhausted all retakes while still failing the quiz and the email will include a link to the grade book page where that option can be selected by the instructor.

Paginate Questions

In the Paginate Questions field (required), select whether or not you want students to be presented with one quiz question at a time use Paging or all questions at once use No Paging.

Use Paging

If Use Paging is selected, three (3) sub-options are presented:

Choose whether or not you want to Allow Review Before Final Submission. If you choose this option, students will be presented with an editable list of their answers prior to quiz submission.

Choose whether or not you want to Allow Students to Answer Later as they move through the paginated quiz. If this option is selected, a student is presented with an Answer Later button on each question and can answer that question at the end of the quiz. All skipped questions are then displayed at the end of the quiz according to their initial order within the quiz.

Choose whether or not you want to Allow Navigation to Previous Questions. In all paginated quizzes, a Next Question button is presented, however, if this option is selected the student is also presented with a Previous Question button and they will be allowed to move backward through the questions.

Setting Quiz Time Limits

In the Set Time Limit for Quiz field, choose whether or not you want to require a time limit for the quiz. If you choose to Specify a Quiz Time Limit and you set a value, the student will be presented with a timer and when the specified time limit expires, their current quiz answers will be submitted regardless of whether or not they have answered all questions.

Result Settings Tab

Show Answers

In the Show Answers field (required), you are able to select whether or not you want to display quiz answers to students.

If Show Answers is selected, there are five (5) sub-options available

In the Show correct answer field, you can choose whether or not you want correct answers displayed in the quiz results.

In the Show user’s answer field, you can choose whether or not you want the student to be able to see the answer they chose for each question.

In the Show explanation field, you can choose whether or not you want question explanations to be displayed. Question explanations are available as an optional field when you create a question.

In the Mark Answers field, you can choose to place a green check mark next to correctly answered questions and a red “X” next to incorrectly answered questions.

If the Leave quiz results available for later viewing? field is selected, students will be able to return to previous quiz units and see past quiz results. If it is unchecked, they will be able to review quiz results while they are on the quiz unit page, but once they leave and come back they will only receive a message that the unit has been completed.

If No Answers is selected, the student will not receive any information on correctly or incorrectly answered questions or the details of those questions.

Show Results by Tag

If the Show Results by Tag? option is selected, students will not only be presented with a score for the overall quiz once the quiz has been graded, but they will also be presented with results associated with any question tags which are attached to questions which are included within the quiz.

Show Completion Time

If the instructor has chosen to include a time limit for the quiz in the Quiz Behavior Settings tab, selecting the Show Completion Time? option will include in the quiz results the amount of time the student took to complete the quiz as well as the maximum amount of time allowed.

Custom Feedback tab

The Custom Feedback tab allows you to provide automated feedback based on a student’s answers. The custom feedback messages use question tags, which can be added to individual questions or managed in bulk through the Question Pool menu within WP Courseware.

Click on the Add New Feedback Message tab.

Add a Message Description (required) for your reference. This will not be displayed to students.

Choose a particular question tag for which you would like this message to display to your students.

Choose whether or not you would like the custom feedback message to display above or below a particular percentage score for the question tag.

Insert your custom feedback message in the text entry field.

This custom feedback message will then display based on the student’s results for a particular tag, whether above or below the chosen score. For example, if you choose to display a message to students who achieve less than a 50% score for the question tag “Biology”, all questions tagged with “Biology” will be factored and if the student scores below 50% the message will be triggered in the results display, perhaps mentioning resources which they should study further.

Manage Questions Tab

The Manage Questions tab is where you will actually add questions to your quiz. There are several tools for adding questions to your quiz.

Adding Multiple Choice Questions

The Add Multiple Choice question option allows you to add a question which provides multiple answers for students to choose from. This question type can be automatically graded by WP Courseware based on the correct answer you choose. There are several settings when creating a multiple choice question type.

First, in the Question field, you will add the actual question.

The next field is the Question Image URL field. This field will allow you to add an image to the question itself by either selecting an image from your WordPress media library or by providing a URL to an image off-site.

Next is the Randomize Answers field (optional). This would be used in the case where you may want to create a large number of answers and have them randomly presented. If you select this option, you are required to choose the number of answers you would prefer to have displayed. For example, you may have 20 answers and you only want 5 of them randomly displayed.

You have the option to provide answers. By default, 3 answer fields are provided, but more can be added by using the “+” button next to each answer. Additionally, answers can be deleted by using the “-” button. Each answer allows you to provide text as well as an image, if required.

Finally, you will need to select a Correct Answer using the radio buttons. If you choose to randomize answers, the correct question will always be placed within the available choices regardless of the other randomized answers which are presented.

A Hint field is then available if you would like to provide a tip to your students on where to find the answer to the question. This will display on the front-end quiz UI.

An Explanation field is available and can be used to provide the reasoning behind the correct answer. To display this field, the Show Explanation setting should be activated in the Result Settings tab.

Question tags may be added to questions within the question as well. These can be used for custom feedback messages or for adding random questions from the question pool.

Adding True/False Questions

The Add True/False question option allows you to add a question which is answered strictly through a true selection or a false selection.

First, in the Question field, you will add the actual question.

The Correct Answer field should simply be marked with True or False based on your question.

A Hint field is then available if you would like to provide a tip to your students on where to find the answer to the question. This will display on the front-end quiz UI.

Question tags may be added to questions within the question as well. These can be used for custom feedback messages or for adding random questions from the question pool.

Adding Open Ended Questions

The Add Open Ended Question option allows you to create a question type which requires basic text entry from your student. This text entry is passed to the grade book and can be manually scored by the instructor.

First, in the Question field, you will add the actual question.

The Size of box for user to type answer? field allows you to choose a default size for the text entry box presented to the user. This field can be used as a guide to the student as to the amount of input you expect.

A Hint field is then available if you would like to provide a tip to your students on where to find the answer to the question. This will display on the front-end quiz UI.

Question tags may be added to questions within the question as well. These can be used for custom feedback messages or for adding random questions from the question pool.

Adding File Upload Questions

The Add File Upload Question option allows you to require that a student upload an assignment to answer the question. Required file types may be selected, as described below.

First, in the Question field, you will add the actual question

The Permitted file extensions? field is where you will select the file types you permit your students to upload. Simply include the file extension (ie. pdf) without the preceding dot “.” and if multiple file types are permitted, follow each with a comma “,”. The student will not be permitted to upload file types not included here.

A Hint field is then available if you would like to provide a tip to your students on where to find the answer to the question. This will display on the front-end quiz UI.

Question tags may be added to questions within the question as well. These can be used for custom feedback messages or for adding random questions from the question pool.

Adding Questions from the Question Pool

Choosing Add Questions from Pool opens a window which displays all currently saved questions within the question pool. Any time a question is created and saved, it is added to the quiz pool for easy use in other quizzes.

After clicking on Add Questions from Pool, a new window will open. Simply click Add to Quiz for any questions you would like to place from the question pool.

When finished adding questions, click the X button in the upper right-hand corner of the Insert Questions screen.

Adding Random Questions

Choosing Add Random Questions opens a window which allows you to choose from two separate randomized question selection options.

The first option is to Randomly Select from Entire Quiz Pool. This options allows you to select a specific number of questions from across the entire question pool, regardless of the question tag.

The second option is to Randomly Select using Question Tags. This options allows you to select a specific number of questions from each question tag. There is a Select option which allows you to choose the quantity from a tag and then a drop down tag field to choose the tag. Selecting the Add Another option allows you to create a new selection from a separate tag.

Finally, select Insert Random Question Selection once you have finalized your choices.

2. PLACING YOUR NEW QUIZ

Now that your quiz has been created, you need to place it within a course unit.

Navigate to WP Courseware→Courses and click on the course where you will be adding the quiz.

Expand your module and unit where the quiz will be placed and click + Add Quiz.

If you are adding a new quiz, you simply need to click + Add Quiz link. Once the modal pops open, enter a quiz title and description the click the Add Quiz button. Once the quiz is added, click on the quiz title. This will open the quiz in a separate window so that you can edit the quiz.

3. GRADING QUIZZES

If a quiz has been created using only multiple choice or true/false question types, questions will be scored automatically and the student will be presented with their results immediately upon submission.

If open-ended question or file upload question types have been included in the quiz, they will need to be manually graded.

As an administrator, you will receive an email at any point that a quiz including either of these two question types needs to be graded. A link to the quiz will be provided for access to grading options.

Alternatively, you can navigate to the WP Courseware→Courses and hover over a course and then click Grade Book.

Entering the Grade Book for any of these course will present the administrator with a red hyperlink which reads Manual Grade Required for any pending quizzes awaiting a score for an open-ended question or a file upload question.

Once in the quiz results for an individual student, you may choose from the scoring drop-down selector to assign a grade for either of these two question types.

4. ACCESSING THE GRADE BOOK

At any point, an administrator can access the grade book for any given course to review the current progress and results for a student.

Navigate to the WP Courseware→Courses menu and hover over the course and click Grade Book

From here, you are able to view the student’s user name, their overall course progress as a percentage of the total course, their cumulative grade, whether or not a final grade has been sent, whether or not a certificate is available (this is set in the “Course Settings” and dependent upon whether or not a student has completed all course units), and you can also access individual quiz results.

At the top of the Grade Book screen, there are two buttons. One is for exporting the grade book via CSV and the second is for emailing final grades.

Choosing Export Grade Book will download a CSV file to your local machine which includes all data currently retained within the grade book as mentioned above.

Choosing Email Final Grades will email a final cumulative course grade to any student who has completed all course units since the last point at which you emailed final grades. This option only emails final cumulative scores to students who have not yet received this email. It will not email students who have already received a final cumulative score. Settings for this email template can be found in the Course Settings.