As described in the Test Taking section, there are 7 types of questions (see 2.4.2 Taking a Test). Of these, Multiple Choice, True/Fale, and Matching can be graded without the need for the teacher to review each question. However, because the correct answer for Short Response, Programming, Fill-in-the-blank, and Essay questions can vary the teacher must manually review the automatically graded scores for these type of questions. For this reason, the teacher should consider the score given by the automatic grader as only an estimation.
As mentioned above, Multiple Choice, True/False, and Matching questions each have answers that cannot and do not vary. The automatic grader grades these questions by simply comparing the student's answer to the correct answer from the question bank. For a matching question, each incorrect match will deduct 1/n of the total score, where n is the number of matches. For example, if the student correcctly matches 8 of 10, she will receive 80% credit on the question.
Fill-in-the-blank questions are graded by comparing the student's answer to a list of acceptable responses. If the student's answer matches one of acceptable responses, the answer is graded correct. Otherwise, the answer is graded incorrect. The teacher will need to review the student's response to make sure that the student did not misspell a word or use a synonym that was not in the list of acceptable answers.
Programming questions will be graded by compiling the program the student wrote, running it, and comparing the output to the correct output stored in the question bank. The automatic grader cannot give partial credit; it will only notify the teacher if the program compiled, executed, and matched outputs. Hence, the teacher will need to review the question manually.
Essay questions and Short Response Questions are automatically graded in the same way. The student's answer is scanned for a list of keywords. For each keyword that is missing a fraction of the grade will be deducted. The teacher will have to read the essay and manually grade it; the automatic grading score is to be used by the teacher as a very rough estimate for these types of questions.
| Up: 2.5. Test Grading |
Next: 2.5.2. Manual Grading |