Freeform Text Entry Questions

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AppCobra Freeform Text Entry Assessment Questions

Freeform Text Entry Assessment Questions

Freeform Text Entry questions are those where the user is expected to enter some text to answera question. These can take one of several forms - some examples include:

Example 1 - Simple

Example 2 Fill In the Blanks

Example 3 - Labeling

As you can see, this sort of event can be used to answer questions, enter missing words insentences, label diagrams or photographs anything where the user must enter some text toanswer the question.

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Note that you can also have a number of freeform text entry events on the same step. When this isthe case, the user has to get each one right to pass this objective. If you want to score the userindividually for each question, you should split the questions up over several steps. Note: Usingthe Objectives feature of AppCobra, you can set up each of a number of freeform text entryevents on the same step to be scored individually.

Freeform text entry assessment questions are easy to create. Lets start with the easiest exampleabove, Example 1.

Simple Freeform Text Entry

Our first step in this example is simply to set the screen up enter the user directions, and in thiscase, create a normal text object that contains the text you want the user to answer. Below, wevecreated a text box with the text AppCobra in it.

For this text object, we gave it a background color, and single solid black border. This makes itlook more like a normal text entry object. We have also left-aligned the text as well. In practise, youcan align the text however you wish, and use whatever fonts, colors, borders, styles and

background colors that you wish.

Whichever way you decide to add your freeform text entry object, we can now either create orcomplete the event we must assign to this object. Select the object, and select the Freeform TextEntry/Label command from the Interact button on the main toolbar.

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It will immediately look like this:

To set some more detailed options relating to this question type, you can select the All Eventscommand from the Interact menu.

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Here are the elements of this dialog box you need to select.

Select Freeform text entry from the When listbox.

The Perform This Action listbox will be set to Check Answer, and cannot be changed.

If you want to the user to be able to enter carriage returns, then ensure that the Allow User toEnterCarriage Returns checkbox is selected. This allows the user to create multiple lineanswers. In most cases, this is not recommended for this sort of assessment question.

In the Max Characters User Can Enterlistbox, select the maximum number of characters

that the user can enter when answering this question. If the user reaches this limit, they willnot be able to enter any more characters, and must press the backspace key to delete some.

If you want the text to be entered as a password (i.e. using the character instead of the

character typed by the user), select the Enter as Password option.

Ensure that the Score this object check box is checked if you want this freeform text entry to

be a part of the assessment question. If this is not checked, the freeform text object will still

operate correctly, but the results will not form a part of the assessment.

Finally, if you want this text object to be invisible until the user presses the first key, ensure

that the Hide object until first key pressed option is selected.

Thats all you need to do. This freeform text object is now complete! Your screen will now looksomething like this:

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If you want to have multiple freeform text entry objects on the same step, just repeat these stepsfor each text object you create.

Setting the Text Entry Type

When you click in an editable text area on iPhone, iPad and other mobile devices, normally thedevice keyboard appears on screen, and you can start adding text.

You can customize how this appears.

When you set an event to Freeform Text Entry, note that there is always a box entitledHint/Comment for this action.

In this text area, you can enter one of three strings. If you enternumeric, then when theiPhone/iPad keyboard appears, it defaults to numbers. Entering url will force the keyboard into a

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url entering mode, and email will optimize the keyboard for entering email addresses. Just leavethis area blank for normal, alphanumeric keyboard.

You are now done see the section called The Final Step to see how to complete this event.

Fill in the Blanks

Using a Fill in the Blanks event, you simply create a paragraph of text, underline the text youwant the user to enter, and the rest is done for you.

Example 2 Fill In the Blanks

First, we create the main text box. In this text box, we underline the words we want the user toenter:

Above, you can see the main text area, in blue, with some words underlined. This uses simpleformatting buttons in the text editing window.

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Next, all you need to do is to tell KP that this object is a Fill in the Blanks object. To do this, selectthe text object, and select Interact / All Events. In the dialog box that appears below, select Fill in

the Blanks from the Interact button on the main toolbar. That is all you have to do.

The object will look something like this:

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You are now done see the section called The Final Step to see how to complete this event.

Labelling

A labeling question is basically the same as the instructions for the Simple Freeform Text Entry,except that you can create multiple freeform text entry objects, place them wherever you like on astep its that simple.

The Final Step

Finally, when creating an assessment question of this type, you need to add a button or someother object that allows the user to submit their answer. This is because when the user enters thetext to answer this question, the text is entered in the text object, but the step will not change.

When you create the button or other object, your screen will then look something like this:

In the screen above, we added a button which we called Submit Answerto the bottom of thescreen. The user must select this button to submit their answer. There are two main events oractions we can assign to this button:

Go to Next Step. AppCobra keeps a track of user selections, scores appropriately, but

provides no feedback.

Check Answer. Using this event, you get to determine what happens when the user gets the

answer right or wrong. This may be to display appropriate feedback, go to different steps ora combination of both. Again, AppCobra will always keep a track of what the user answered.

Below you can see the event for this button (select the button, and select Interact / All Events).

Note that Check answeris selected in the Action listbox.

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Above, you can see the many options available when you select the Check Answeroption fromthe Perform This Action listbox (note that this selection is only a valid one fortrue/false, multiplechoice, sequencing, freeform text entry, target, and drag and drop questions the types ofquestions where a submit button is required).

As you can see, you get to decide:

Whether to display a message if the user does not make any selection before submitting an

answer (Warning to display if no option selected option). This is optional. If this is leftempty, and the user submits before selecting an option, or entering text, they are assumed tohave got this incorrect.

What to do if the user gets the answer incorrect (If user answer is incorrect option).

What to do if the user gets the answer correct (If user answer is incorrect option).

Display some feedback if the user gets the question incorrect (Feedback for incorrect

answer option). This is optional.

Display some feedback if the user gets the question correct (Feedback for correct answer

option). This is optional.

You can also determine whether to display cancel buttons on the message box (if feedback is

used), so that the user can select to skip the question, or try it again.

You can select a number ofIncorrect Attempts Allowed. If the user reaches this limit, the

lesson will move to the next step after this message below is displayed.

You can enter a message that will appear should the user reach the maximum number of

attempts allowed (Feedback for incorrect attempts limit). If the user reaches this limit, thelesson will move to the next step after this message is displayed.

Using the above options, in a variety of combinations, you can perform almost any action, or

provide any feedback based on an incorrect or correct answer. What you do is up to you!

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What about Multiple Correct Answers?

If you want the user to be able to enter multiple answers that are correct, then simply enter theseanswers in the freeform text entry object, separated by the pipe symbol on your keyboard(normally above the backslash key). So, if you entered AppCobra into this object, the user wouldhave to enter this to get the answer correct. If you entered AppCobra|KP, then the user could

answerAppCobra, orKP, and get the answer correct. You can have as many correct answers asyou like.

Note that all answers are case insensitive.

What about Case Sensitivity?

A new feature now allows for case sensitivity in answers. To do this, you must add an extraparameter (|checkcase) to what is checked. So, if the text object contains the text AppCobra|checkcase, then the user must enter the answer AppCobra in the correct case to get this questioncorrect. If you enterAppCobra|KP|checkcase, then the user must enter AppCobra, or KP as thecorrect answer in exactly this case, to get this question correct.

Using Keywords

You can create a freeform text entry object where the user has to enter a number of keywords intheir answer. Other text they enter is ignored. This allows the user to enter a freeform answer, andstill get it correct.

Keywords where all must be entered.

To do this, surround the correct text for the freeform text entry object with a double quote. Forexample, if the correct text is marked as George|Bush, then the user must enter the wordsGeorge and Bush in their answer. So the following answers would be marked as correct:

George Bush The President is called George Bush

George W Bush

George Bush Junior

Keywords where any can be entered.

In a similar way to above, if you surround the correct answer with a single quote for exampleGeorge|Bush, then the user can enter either the word George, orBush in their answer to getthis correct. So, the following answers would be marked as correct:

George Bush

Bush Junior

George W Bush

The Presidents name is Bush

Password Entry

If you want the user to see the password characters instead of the character they enter, use theEnter as Password option in the Events dialog box when setting up the freeform text entry object.

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Marking Any Answer as Correct

If you set the correct answer as kpall (i.e. enter the text kpall into a freeform text entry object), anyanswer the student enters will be marked as correct. Using KP Learner Manager Enterprise v7,you can review user answers, and set lessons scores and status, and leave comments for the useras appropriate.

Partially Correct Answers

Using the techniques in this paper, there have been several examples where there are severalquestions on a single step. In the Fill in the Blanks example, there was, for example, two areaswhere the user had to enter an answer and in the Labelling example, there was even more.

You can ask KP to operate in one of two ways regarding this. These are:

Award no points unless the user completes every part of the question correctly, or

Award points for the parts of the answer that are correct.

The default operation is that no points are awarded unless the answer is completed totally

correctly. To allow partial points to be awarded, ensure the Allow Partial Scoring command fromthe Assessments menu has been selected before exporting.

Reporting for Freeform Text Entry Assessment Questions

AppCobra, when reporting on freeform text entry assessment questions, keeps a track of what thecorrect answer was, and what the user entered. So a report may look something like this:

Objective:______ is great for elearning and assessments.

User Response: Microsoft Word

Correct Response: AppCobra

Score: 0%

Where there are multiple freeform text entry events, the results make look like this:

Objective: Label these diagrams.

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User Response: Emu, Kookaburra, Crocodile

Correct Response: Emu, Kookaburra, Crocodile

Score: 100%

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