Creating Jumbled Sentence Questions

With Jumbled Sentence questions, students are presented with a portion of a sentence and a drop-down list from which they must select the missing words from the sentence and put the words in the correct order. This type of question can be used to assess students' conceptual and procedural knowledge in a fun and quick way.

Creating Jumbled Sentence Questions

Make sure you are on the Build tab and select Assessments under Course Tools. Then choose Go to Question Database.

On the Question Database screen, select Jumbled Sentence from the Create Questions drop-down menu.

There are several areas that must be filled in when creating this type of question. The following are the descriptions for these areas.

Title

In the Title textbox, enter a descriptive title for the question. Question titles should be descriptive so you can easily identify questions when searching the Question Database. When students view assessments, question titles may or may not show depending on the assessment settings.

Question Text

In the Question textbox, enter the question. For each word or phrase you want students to enter, enclose the text in square brackets. You can have as many sets of brackets as you want. You can also include as many words within the brackets; however, be warned that if there is more than one word it will be harder for Vista to grade the question.

If you want to use HTML coding but do not know the tags, you can use the HTML Creator by clicking On. If you want to use HTML coding, either through the creator or your own coding, make sure the Use HTML checkbox is selected.

You can also insert an equation by using the Equation Editor. The equation will be inserted within the question. In addition, you can also add an image by clicking Browse next to Image. The image will be shown below the question text. If the image is not listed under the File Manger area, you will need to upload the image from your local computer first. This can be done in one step by clicking Browse.

Answers

Select Generate Answer. The Answer section appears. If an answer does not appear as you expected and you want to change it, update the text and select Update Answer in the Question textbox.

  • In the Value (%) textbox, enter the percentage value students will receive for selecting the correct answer.

  • If you want to create an alternate answer using the same jumbled words, but accept it in a different order, click Create Alternate. You will be able to then create a different order of the jumbled answers. In this example, students need to select words in the exact order specified by the instructor to receive credit.

  • If you want to remove an alternate answer, click Remove Alternate under the answer you want to delete. The Answers section updates and the alternate answer is removed.

More Options
  • You can provide students with general feedback instead of or in addition to specific answer feedback. For example, you can give a chapter and/or page number where answers can be found. If you want to use HTML coding, click the Use HTML checkbox. General feedback displays when students view their graded assessment, if you choose to release it to them.

  • If you want to enter notes for all designers to use when grading the assessment, add the information in the Section Designer notes box. This will be displayed to students when they review their results, if you choose to release it to them.

All questions that are created are automatically stored in the Question Database. Since the Question Database could contain many questions, it is a good strategy to organize questions into categories.

  • To add questions to an existing category, click Specify an existing category, and from the drop-down list select the category. Note that Uncategorized Questions is the default category. If you do not specify a category, questions will be placed there automatically.

  • To add questions to a new category, select Create a category and in the textbox enter a category name.

Preview

If you prefer to preview questions to ensure they display and grade correctly, click Preview. The Preview Question pop-up window appears and individual questions are displayed as they will appear in the student view. If you want to check the grading scheme and feedback, type your answer and click Grade. The question will be graded and answers are displayed, including the grade and any feedback.

Previewing the question allows you to check that everything is correct. Now you can save the question by clicking Save. If you added a new category, you will find that it has been added (for example, “Online teaching,” as shown in the following figure). You may need to open a category by clicking the plus (+) sign. Once a category is open, you can view a list of all questions that have been added (for example, “Teaching online basics,” as shown in the following figure).

You can repeat the same procedure to create as many Jumbled Sentence questions as you wish.