Editing the look and feel of an assessment is broken down into three areas which may be chosen using the pop-up menu located at the top of the screen. These areas include:
- Edit Headers, Footers and Other Messages - this allows you to edit the title, heading, instructions, attribution, and footer messages shown on web pages generated by Test Pilot for the assessment participants.
- Edit Layout and Presentation Options - this allows you to control how your questions are presented on web pages generated by Test Pilot. This includes features such as:
- offering all questions at once versus one-at-a-time or a group-at-a-time
- should questions be numbered
- should Test Pilot branch to another question based on the participant's response
- what color and size should be used for question text
- and many more such features...
- Edit Default Settings - this allows you to set up some default values for use when editing questions. This includes features such as:
- default question type
- default question group membership
- default text box size for essay questions
- and other such features...
Editing Look and Feel - Layout and Presentation Options
anonymity - when checked, no information on who participated in the assessment, or from what workstations submissions were made is kept.
| Powerful Feature - anonymity |
| When a test is designated as anonymous, accessing its URL will bypass the login dialog. There are times where you may wish to offer a survey yet still control access to it. If, using the security features of Test Pilot, you designate a list of authorized participants, a login dialog will be shown even if the assessment is marked as anonymous. While the access ids are checked for validity to admit participants to the assessment, any submissions made will not be associated with the id in any way, thus ensuring the participant's anonymity. Even if this option is turned off at a later time, the id's associated with previous submissions to the assessment are not recoverable. |
presentation - the assessment's questions may be offered all together on a single web page, or one-at-a-time requiring the user to click a next button to access the next question or a group-at-a-time, showing a custom number of questions on each web page generated by Test Pilot. Groups of questions are defined in step 3 of assessment authoring, choosing questions.
feedback between questions - this option requires that the assessment be offered, one question-at-a-time or a group-at-a-time. When enabled, each time a user clicks the next button to advance to the next question(s), they will be shown a web page with an evaluation of the question(s) they just answered. Whether the participant is shown the correct answer or the question's custom feedback or both is controlled by the settings on the step #4 - submit actions page.
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Powerful Feature - feedback between questions
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| This feature allows for the creation of powerful online tutorials where you can ask a question, and give immediate feedback, perhaps even offering links to click upon to access remedial material when a question is answered incorrectly. |
one way - this option requires that the assessment be offered, one question-at-a-time or a group-at-a-time. When enabled, the previous question button is not offered so as to prevent participants from changing their answer to a previously answered question.
| Expert Feature - penalize use of browser back button |
| In expert editing mode, you may choose to penalize the participant's use of their browser's back button. That is, if the assessment is offered as one way and the user attempts to circumvent the removal of the previous question button by using their browser's back button, the assessment will be immediately submitted for evaluation with all succeeding questions receiving no credit.
The resumable feature, below, must also be enabled in order for this option to function.
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sequencing - these options requires that the assessment be offered, one question-at-a-time or a group-at-a-time.
- selecting permit participants to mark questions for review will result in a checkbox appearing at the top of each question's web page. If the participant checks this box, the question is added to a pop-up menu shown alongside the checkbox for the remainder of the assessment.
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Powerful Feature - marking questions for review
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| This feature allows participants to mark questions to which they may later return. Returning to a particular question is as easy as selecting the question from the popup menu shown at the top of the web page and clicking the go button. |
- selecting permit participants to jump to any question causes a popup menu listing all questions to be presented at the top of each web page. This allows participants to skip between questions at will.
resumable -
| Expert Feature - resumable |
| In expert editing mode, you may choose to make an assessment resumable. This option requires that the assessment be offered, one question-at-a-time or a group-at-a-time AND that there be a list of authorized participants defined in the security options.
When an assessment is resumable, participants may quit their browsers and the assessment at any time. Their intermediate submissions are stored on the server for a period not exceeding 7 days. If, during that time, a participant attempts to access the assessment again, they will return to the location from which they left off with all former responses intact.
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branching - this option requires that the assessment be offered, one question-at-a-time. When enabled, participants are offered questions based upon their response to previous questions. That is, an adaptive selection of questions is presented to the user. You may establish the order of question progression as you author questions. Each possible question response can result in a potential branch to a new question.
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Powerful Feature - branching
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| Branching allows for the creation of powerful surveys where prequalification questions empower Test Pilot to automatically screen survey participants and choose the most appropriate questions for a given demographic. |
numbering - have Test Pilot automatically number questions. Please note, that since Test Pilot has the ability to present questions in a random order, a given question number may not necessarily be associated with the same question on each participant's assessment.
erase button - when enabled on an assessment whose questions are presented all together, this will hide the erase button normally generated at the bottom of the web page. Some participants may not read the button, clicking upon it, expecting their responses to be submitted. Removing the button prevents the disastrous results of such a mistake.
warnings - when enabled, Test Pilot will issue a warning before submitting the participant's responses for evaluation. Some browsers, particularly Internet Explorer, attempt submission upon typing enter. Many participants type enter upon completing a text entry. If that happens before the participant has completed an assessment, unanswered questions could be inadvertently submitted. This option provides a warning to circumvent the potential for problems.
background color - allows you to set the background color of the web pages generated by Test Pilot. Care should be made that the question text color is not the same as the background color.
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Powerful Feature - Independent Text Styles
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| You may adjust the color, style, size and font of the question text, the reponse text, the correct answer (when shown) text, the point award (when shown) and the question's custom feedback (when shown). |
color - allows you to set the color of the text on web pages generated by Test Pilot. Care should be made that the question text color is not the same as the background color.
style - allows you to set the style (bold, italic, etc.) of the text on web pages generated by Test Pilot.
size - allows you to set the size of the text on web pages generated by Test Pilot. The scale used is that of web page design ranging from 1 to 8 with 3 approximating normal sized text. More precise control is not universally available using web browser-based applications.
font - allows you to set the font or type face of the text on web pages generated by Test Pilot. The font list is limited to those fonts typically available to most browsers operating under multiple operating systems.
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Powerful Feature - Custom Fonts
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| You may enter a custom font name in the space provided, however, the participant's computer must have that font installed or the text will not necessarily appear as intended. That is, if the participant's computer does not have your font selection, their browser will unpredictably choose another font to use in its place. This can be a particular problem when using symbolic (non-alphabetic) fonts or foreign language (non-roman) fonts. |
sample - after updating, this will show a sample of your selections for text size, color, face and background color.
background graphic - instead of a background color, you can use a background graphic for the web pages generated for the assessment. The entry should be the simple filename of a .gif or .jpg graphic file located in the same web server directory as your assessment's .tp3 file. You can type the filename or use the browse button to look at all such graphic files in the current directory to choose one.
Help is Available!
Please note that, at any time while you are editing an assessment, you can click upon the titles of the fields listed for your entries. If you do so, a pop-up window with an explanation of the items use and features will be shown.
Saving your Changes - Don't Forget to Update
It should be noted that on the editing panels, you will see one or more Update buttons. Whenever you adjust a setting or make changes to any item, you must click an update button to record the changes. You may make multiple changes and then click Update, but if you fail to click the update button, your changes may not be recorded.
The mode popup menu allows you to adjust access to Test Pilot features and trim the detail of the automatically provided assistance for authoring.
- for beginners - several of Test Pilot's more complicated options are hidden or preset to default values and pop-up assistance windows automatically appear to aid the user in the assessment authoring process.
- with assistance - most of Test Pilot's features are shown as controls which may be adjusted. Pop-up help windows must be manually requested for viewing by clicking upon any feature title.
- for experts - all of Test Pilot's features are shown as controls which may be adjusted. Help messages are minimized to maximize the number of controls that can be shown in a limited area. Pop-up help windows may still be manually requested for viewing by clicking upon any feature title.
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