Creating Matching Questions

With Matching questions, students are asked to pair items from one column with items in another column. Vista displays the first terms as a fixed order list and the second terms as a randomly arranged drop-down menu. Matching questions can be used to assess students’ conceptual and procedural knowledge in areas like geography, history, mathematics, chemistry, and more.

Creating Matching Questions

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

On the Question Database screen, select Matching from the Create Questions drop-down menu. The Create Matching Question screen will appear.

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. 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.

Match Pairs

There are two columns, Column 1 and Column 2, under Matching pairs. The items you enter in Column 1 will display in the question in the order you enter them. The items you enter in Column 2 will display randomly in a drop-down list next to each answer in Column 1.

Under Column 1, enter the items to be matched.

  • If you want to hand-code the text in HTML, click the Use HTML checkbox.

  • Select the column format. Note that the default column format is Short Answer. To enter long answers in the column, click Long Answer. The screen updates and long answer textboxes appear. To determine the difference between long and short answers: if the text you enter extends beyond the length of the default box for a short answer, it should be converted to a long answer.
  • In the textboxes, enter the terms to be matched.

  • To create more matched pairs, click Create Additional Pairs. The screen updates and additional textboxes appear for Column 1 and Column 2.

  • Use the same procedure to enter answers in Column 2.

The following screenshot is an example of a matching question.

Settings

Select a Grading Scheme:

  • If you want each correct matching pair counted as an equal portion of the total question score, select the Equally weighted radio button. In the previous example, each pair is worth 20% of the total score. Therefore, if the question is worth 5 points, each pair is worth 1 point.

  • If you want your students to match all answers correctly to receive full values for the question, select the All or nothing radio button. Therefore, any incorrect match will cause 0% of the question score.

  • You can also develop answers in which all incorrect matches are subtracted from the value of all correct matches to arrive at the final score by selecting the Right minus wrong radio button. Therefore, if there are a total of six answers and students choose four correctly, the final score will be two (four correct minus two incorrect).

Column Preview: If you prefer to preview both columns of data, click Preview both columns. This is required if you use the long answer box. Previewing the columns will ensure the data in both columns are displayed correctly to students. If you have a long answer and you do not display it, you will not be able to view the answers to the question or any questions all the way through until the end.

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, select 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, enter 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, “World Geography -- Chapter 1,” as shown in the following figure. You may need to open the 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, “geography and capitals,” as shown in the following figure).

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