Add a new question: Essay
This article describes how you can add a new question of essay type, to your biz:Examiner authoring environment.
The first steps
Adding a new question is common across all question types. See Add a new question for details.
Add new essay type question
In the essay type questions, the participants can answer a question using free-form text.
To add a new essay type question, follow the steps below.
- Select ‘Essay as the question type. The ‘New question’ dialog box opens that shows the question type as ‘Essay’.
- In ‘Title’, write the title of this question. This title appears in the list of topics.
- In ‘Language’, select a language that you want to use in the question.
- In ‘Tags’, write one or more tags for this question. These tags can be the keywords for this question that you can use to search a question anytime.
- Click on ‘Create’ to save this new question. You can click on ‘Back’ to select another type of question to get started.
When a new question is added to the list of topics, a yellow color icon shows in the topic title. It means that the question is not activated.
Complete the question details and advanced settings
The ‘Question text’ tab
The ‘Question text’ tab is selected by default. Write the question text here.
Text editor for formatting
A text editor is available to format the question content for styling options. Please see Common reference to add a new question: Using text editor, for the detailed instructions.
The menu options
The text editor shows a menu bar where a set of menus show you the basic text editor options, and a few additional and advanced actions to set up the right structure of the questions’ text as required. Please see Common reference to add a new question: Using menus, for the detailed instructions.
Instruction
You have an option to add an instruction for this question.
- Click on the ‘Edit’ icon and the ‘Edit instructions’ dialog box opens.
- Click on ‘Add instruction’.
- In ‘Language’, select a language for the instruction text.
- In ‘Instruction text’ write the content for the instruction.
- Click on ‘Save’ to save this instruction.
Follow the same steps to add more instructions and you can select any one instruction, anytime when you edit this question.
The ‘Essay settings’ tab
Select the ‘Essay settings’ tab to set up the essay writing experience and options for the participants.
Editor settings
In ‘Show rich text editor for answer’, select ‘Yes’ to show the rich text editor to the participants, and select ‘No’ if you do not want to show the rich text editor.
- Select “Full screen switch’ if the participants can see an option to switch to the full screen view of the question.
- Select ‘Print button’ to show the print button to the participants. It enables them to print the question depending on the printing options available on their own systems.
- Select ‘Spell checker’ to show the text spell checker to the participants when they answer this question.
In ‘Pre-filled answer’, write an answer that supports this question. For example, an outline or some instructions for the participants to help them write the essay.
In ‘Assessment criteria’, write the criteria for how the question might be graded by a manual marker.
The other tabs
For the instructions on the ‘Options’ tab, the ‘Feedback’ tab, the ‘Media/Resources’ tab, the ‘Information’ tab, the ‘Topics’ tab, and the ‘Preview’ tab, please see Add a new question for details.
Save options
- Click on ‘Save’ to save these details in the question. When you use the ‘Save’ option, the question does not impact the exam if it is added to an exam. In a way, the question is saved as a draft and you can add it to an exam, anytime.
Click on ‘Save and activate’ to save the question, and to activate it. This means that the question is ready to be added to an exam. If you make any changes in the question or its settings after you use ‘Save and activate’, the question is saved as the next revision for an exam. Please see Questions – Common Reference to Add New Question: Revisions and Exams for more details.