Select text

Background

In this item type, participants have to select the correct answer(s) in a text using one or more predefined markers:

Procedure

Proceed as follows to create/edit a Select text item:

1. Go to Authoring > Items.
2. Go to the folder in which you want to add your item.
3. Click on to add an item.
4. Select the item type Select text. 
   Result: The content pane of the item is opened.
5. Enter the item name in the breadcrumb at the top.
6. Click in the content block and fill in the instruction. 
7. Click + Add block if you want to add additional content blocks.
8. Click in the interaction block and add your text.

   Note: Latex or Wiris input is not supported in Select text items.

9. Add a category:
   • Click +Category at the bottom of the interaction block.
     Result: A blank category is added above your text. On the right of the screen, you see that the Category tab is opened.  
     
   • Enter the name of the category. The name will be shown to the participants.
   • Optionally, change the colour of the category. The text marker used by the participants to select answers for this category will have the colour you select. 
10. Mark keywords in your text for the category:
    • Select the category.
      Result: The cursor changes to a pencil in the colour of the category marker indicating you can start highlighting text now. 
    • Mark the keywords in the text for the category you selected. 

      Tip: Hold the Ctrl button (or Cmd button in case you are working on a Mac) to select multiword keywords. 

      Result: The marked keywords are listed in the Keywords section in the Category tab.
    • In the keywords list for your category, you can optionally:
      • define whether the keywords are correct or incorrect. 
      • add feedback.
      • change the default scores for the keywords (only when the scoring mechanism Score per keyword is activated).
      
11. Repeat steps 8 to 9 until you have added all the categories and corresponding keywords you need. You can easily navigate from one category to another using the navigation buttons in the right bottom corner.

    Note: You can use a maximum of 10 categories in your item.

12. Click Preview to try out your item.

Scoring per category

Default scoring settings

The default scoring for Score per category is as follows:

• Participants can only receive the maximum or minimum score for a category, no partial scores. In other words, if participants make a single mistake for a certain category, they will receive the minimum score for this category.
• Default score per category = 1

Example

The participant correctly selected all adjectives, but made errors in the selection of the nouns. 

• Total for the category Noun = 0/1 (one incorrect keyword and one missing keyword).
• Total for the category Adjective = 1/1 (all keywords correct).

Changing the weight of a category

When the scoring mechanism Score per category is applied, all categories have by default the same maximum score of 1 point.

If you want to give more weight to a certain category, you can adjust the score for this category:

1. Click on the category of your choice. 
   Result: On the right of the screen, you see that the Category tab is opened. 
2. Change the category score. 
   

Scoring per keyword

Default scoring settings

The default scoring for Score per keyword is as follows:

• The participant receives 1 point for each correctly selected keyword and 0 points for each missing keyword, see answer 1 in the example below. The total item score = sum of the keyword scores. 
• Guess correction is turned on. As a result, 1 point is deducted for each selected word outside any keywords list. The point is deducted from the corresponding category score for which the user made an incorrect selection, see answer 2 in the example below. 
• The category score, however, never goes below the category minimum score, see answer 3 in the example below.

Example

In this example, there are 3 nouns and 2 adjectives.

• For the category Noun: min score = 0; max score = 3
• For the category Adjective: min score = 0; max score = 2

Answer 1:

The participant correctly marked the 3 nouns, but only 1 adjective. The other adjective is marked as a noun.

• Total for the category Noun = 3/3 (three correct keywords: +3).
• Total for the category Adjective = 1/2 (one correct keyword: +1; one missing keyword: 0).

Answer 2:

The participant correctly marked the 3 nouns, but only 1 adjective. The other adjective is marked as a noun. The participant additionally marked ‘yesterday’ as a noun and ‘read’ as an adjective.

• Total for the category Noun = 2/3 (three correct keywords: +3; guess correction for ‘yesterday’: -1).
• Total for the category Adjective  = 0/2 (one correct keyword: +1; one missing keyword: 0; guess correction for ‘read’: -1).

Answer 3: 

The participant correctly marked the 3 nouns and the 2 adjectives, but incorrectly marked ‘yesterday’, ‘read’ and ‘before’ as adjectives.

• Total for the category Noun  = 3/3 (three correct keywords: +3).
• Total for the category Adjective  = 0/2 (two correct keywords: +2; guess correction for 3 incorrect selections: -3, but limited at the minimum score for the category = 0).

Changing the weight of a category

When the scoring mechanism Score per keyword is applied, the maximum score of a category is the sum of the keyword scores for this category.  For example, a category with 3 keywords will have a maximum score of 3 points. 

If you want all categories in your item to have the same maximum score, you can recalculate the score per category:

1. Click on the category of your choice. 
   Result: On the right of the screen, you see that the Category tab is opened. 
2. Select Recalculate category score and set the maximum score for the category. 
   

Recalculating the item score

When the scoring mechanism Score per keyword is applied, the default maximum score of your item is the sum of all keyword scores.  For example, an item with 5 keywords will have a maximum score of 5 points. 

If you want this item to have the same weight as the other items you are using in your assignment, you can recalculate the maximum score of your item:

1. Open the Item tab of your item. 
2. Select Recalculate item score and set the maximum score for your item. 
   

Scoring and punctuation 

As an author, you can define whether or not the punctuation should be taken into account during the correction of the text selection.

By default, punctuation is not taken into account during correction.

In the sentence "Yesterday, he read his little daughter a short story before bed.", the participant can select 'bed.' or 'bed'. Both answers will receive the same score whether or not the full stop is included in the text selection.  

You find this option in the Block tab:

Additional options

Learn more about adding assets, adding feedback, selecting the correct scoring mechanism etc. in the section The assesmentQ item bank.