2.5.2 Test Grading

RAINBOW provides several tools to help automate the grading of tests.

2.5.2.1 Automatic Grading

RAINBOW automatically grades the following types of questions:

• True/False - Student receives either 0% or 100% credit. Figure displaying test grading screen - Results of True/False Grading
• Multiple Choice - Student receives either 0% or 100% credit. Figure displaying test grading screen - Results of Multiple Choice Grading
• Multiple Selection
• Student receives 1/(total number of options) for each correct answer, and 1/2/(total number of options) is deducted for each incorrect answer and each missed answer. The minimum score is a 0%. Figure displaying test grading screen - Results of Multiple Selection Grading
• Fill-In-The-Blank - Student receives either 0% or 100% credit. A basic string comparison is applied to determine if the strings match. Misspelled words receive 0%, but capitalization and punctuation is ignored. Figure displaying test grading screen - Results of Fill In The Blank Grading

2.5.2.2 Manual Grading

Short Answer/Essay

For short answer/Essay questions RAINBOW provides the test grader with a few clever features:

• Grade-by-question - RAINBOW allows the test grader to grade on a question-by-question basis, rather than a test-by-test basis.
• Sample Answer - The test grader can quickly determine if the provided answer is similar to the sample answer provided provided from the question bank.
• Annotations - The test grader can quickly add comments to the student's response.

The test grader adds annotations by clicking and highlighting on words in the Student Response. A textbox expands in the Comments section on the right, allowing the user to enter comments. When the user presses "Enter", the comment collapses. If the user clicks on a collapsed comment, the comment expands, and the user is free to edit or delete the content. If the user clicks on empty space in the comments section, a new comment for the entire response is created.

The user enters in a score in the text box in the bottom right. When the user clicks Next Student he/she is taken to the next un-graded student. Previous Student takes the user to the last graded student. When the user has graded the last student, Next Student becomes Done. and the user returns to the Test Review dialog.

Code Snippets

For code-based questions RAINBOW downloads all student submissions to a single directory on the test grader's local machine. The test grader then grades all submissions and provides RAINBOW with the final scores.