Initial Publication Date: March 26, 2012

Interactive Assessments

Content authors have the ability to create simple, non-submitting questionnaires or assessments where users receive instant feedback based on the answers selected. No data is ever collected or submitted. The question, answers, and optional feedback to the answers are all plain-text encoded in HTML which is made interactive by client-side JavaScript. If a user's browser has JavaScript disabled, these assessments will not work.

There are a variety different tags that will be used to create the interactive form. They must be used in sequence otherwise the assessment may not function properly.

  1. [assessment] and [end assessment] -- declare the beginning and end of the assessment. These are overall wrapper tags that start and end the whole set of items (questions with choices)
     
  2. [item checkbox] and [end item] -- declare the beginning and end of the combination of a single question and choices presented to the user.
    If the checkbox flag is included in the item tag the user will receive the set of choices as checkboxes instead of radio buttons (default)

    The following tags must be used in between [item] and [end item]:
     
  3. [question] and [end question] -- declare the beginning and end of the question text
  4. [choice correct/incorrect] and [end choice] -- declare the beginning and end of a single choice
    A choice must be marked correct or incorrect otherwise it will not display properly. A choice cannot be correct and incorrect inside an interactive assessment. Please develop questions that will have answers that are generally correct or incorrect, but not both.

    The feedback tags are entirely optional. If it is used, it must be used in between [choice] and [end choice]:
  5. [feedback] and [end feedback] -- declare the beginning and end of feedback to a particular choice. When the user is provided with an answer, anything inside the feedback tags will also be displayed to the user. This will allow users to receive information about why the selected answer is wrong or more information about the selected answer. Regular Serckit tags may be used in this section to provide users with text, images, videos, links, or other content.

Other Serckit tags and features can be used with or alongside almost all of these tags. For example, it is possible bold or italicize the text inside of the question and choice tags as well as use file, image, and video tags here and in the feedback tags. It is also possible to number the questions by putting the each [item] ... [end item] block inside of a single list item (ordered or bullet list). Demo 2 makes use of numbered questions.
 

Generic Markup

[assessment]

[item]
[question] question text [end question]
[choice correct] choice text [end choice]
[choice incorrect] choice text [feedback] feedback text [end feedback] [end choice]
[end item]

[item checkbox]
[question] question text [end question]
[choice correct] choice text [feedback] feedback text [end feedback] [end choice]
[choice incorrect] choice text [feedback] feedback text [end feedback] [end choice]
[choice correct] choice text [end choice]
[end item]

... more [item] blocks ...

[end assessment]

What this generic markup looks/behaves like when it is rendered:

 

question text
[CORRECT]
[INCORRECT] feedback text

question text
[CORRECT] feedback text
[INCORRECT] feedback text
[CORRECT]

  

The Check Answers button

When an assessment has only radio button choices, the answer and feedback will displayed immediately and there will be no Check Answers button. Whenever a [item checkbox] is included in an assessment the Check Answers button will automatically be placed at the end of the assessment and no answer or feedback will be displayed immediately, only once the button has been pressed. The assumption behind using checkboxes is that there is more than one correct answer, so having immediate feedback is not ideal. Again, this does not submit or save any information. It is simple a JavaScript toggle to show or hide the answer and feedback associated with the answers currently selected. If there are no checkbox questions in the assessment, there will be no button (instant feedback instead, as in Demo 1).
 

Examples

 

Interactive Assessment Demo 1

Which one of these is a vegetable?
[CORRECT]
 
[INCORRECT] Apples are not vegetables
 
True or false: the United States of America has 50 states.
[CORRECT]
 
[INCORRECT] Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. It does not have full statehood.
 
 

 



Interactive Assessment Demo 2
 

Note that this demo has a mix of radio button answers and checkbox answers which means a Check Answers button has automatically been added and instant feedback disabled.  

  1. How many letters are in the English alphabet?
    [CORRECT]
    [INCORRECT]
    [INCORRECT]

  2. Please select the version(s) of Internet Explorer that are recommended for use in 2012 and beyond:
    [INCORRECT] This version was released with Windows 98 Second Edition in 1999
    [INCORRECT] Version 6 came out with Windows XP in 2001. It can still be found in use today. Do you use any other piece of software that is 11 years old?
    [INCORRECT] Originally included with Windows Vista, IE7 quickly became a popular upgrade when it was released in 2006.
    [INCORRECT] Getting closer...
    [CORRECT] Yes! Microsoft committed to supporting and advancing web standards with this release in 2011
  3. Which American state is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes"?
    [INCORRECT]
    [INCORRECT]
    [INCORRECT]
    [CORRECT]
     
    [INCORRECT]