1.5.2 Fain & Company Test Generator Review

The Test Generator created by Fain & Company has been around since 1999. During its 11 years, it has had time to mature and become an excellent product with a wide array of useful features. However, given the large number of options, they must be implemented in an easy to use interface that makes sense. This is where the Test Generator falls short. The Test Generator GUI is fairly cluttered and common actions such as adding single questions to a database are not immediately apparent. The Test Generator makes an attempt to ease the frustration of the user by constantly having blank info panels filled with tutorial information, but this is insufficient. Overall, this tool feels very powerful, but it’s complicated UI often hinders timely completion of simple tasks.

• Course properties contain all pertinent information such as class name, start time, instructor, students enrolled, and any administrators or test creators for the particular class
• Score/Grade data is retained from given exams
• All deleted tests are archived for possible retrieval or analysis
• In addition to tests, study guides can also be created
• Secure login to the program
• 80+ default question criteria
• Creation, distribution, and grading of tests in the same application
• Visually displays all users and properties of those users such as type (Admin, Instructor, Student), location, classes enrolled or teaching, and past performance. It should be noted that permissions are required to view this information
• Allows for the easy removal of duplicate questions in a question bank
• Email notifications can be enabled
• Common formatting options such as bold, italics, and justification are available for use on tests

• Complicated, counter-intuitive UI
• Question types are limited to the default types

• The ability to have coding questions is not available
• Execution of scripts or other applications is not supported
• Unable to organize or sort questions in the question banks
• Questions can not be assigned a difficulty level