Adapt Learning Community: New assessment functionality and a request for a community steer

Hello all,

In anticipation of the upcoming release of version 2.0 of the framework we thought it would be a good idea to talk a little bit about the improved assessment functionality, along with asking the community what they would like to see next and sharing a few ideas the Adapt team have had.

We know that the elementary assessment in version 1.0 wasn’t as fully featured as we’d have liked so the big ticket news items for version 2 are:

Configurable question banks with randomisation
Improved results screen that allows for presentation of a score and feedback related to a given band of performance. Also, providing the ability to present question specific feedback on the results screen (probably most likely used for quiz type treatments rather than multiple attempt final assessments)

However, we know we can do more on assessment and conversations have already started on what’s next. xAPI support is already on the radar, but what do the community think about the following as potential assessment related plugins and are we missing anything you’d like to see?

Ideas so far:

Diffuse assessments which measures performance of a learner answering questions in a course which is then used to configure the final assessment – subject matter failed more often lead to greater scrutiny in the final assessment as these questions are tested more thoroughly than those were performance has been high
Multiple assessment articles were it’s possible to present several distinct assessments in which performance is averaged to calculate a score
A guided revision feature which keeps track of what questions are failed in an assessment and then creates a tailored revision plan (each failed question would be linked to one or more components of content to make this possible)
Smart diagnostic which flips guided revision on its head to use the same functionality to flag required content and tailor learner journey based on a pre (rather than post) assessment
An over-arching dashboard that allowed the learner to interpret and understand the data if one or more of these approaches outlined above were being used

Let us know what you think of the above and what’s important to you/your organisations needs so we can factor it into the roadmap.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

Hey Paul,

I think there are a few core elements that are missing in the current framework that should be focused on (correct me if i'm missing any that exist).

Upon answering all of the questions in an assessment article, pop-up the feedback screen, and present the user with retry buttons to allow another attempt at the assessment (depending on number of attempts allowed). This should put all components back to reset state, re-enabling trickle if active, in order to allow a clean 2nd attempt.
Randomisation of blocks would be a very beneficial, when we tend to create assessments in the current framework where have 1 block with a question and a graphic.
Pooling (e.g. 10 questions and show 5 from this pool) again in my opinion would be block specific rather than component randomisation.

I think your other ideas are great suggestions!

Regards

Alan

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Hi Alan,

Thanks for the comments.

Your first point should be addressed with an update to V2.0.

I'll check with the the programmer who coded the randomisation functionality, but from memory I believe point 2 is also be covered in V2.0.

Pooling is definitely addressed in the upcoming release but again I'd need to check if it happens down to component level or if its at the block level.

Watch this space and I'll report back with a clarification/plans to add to roadmap.

On a related note, we'll also be correcting what I think is certainly my biggest oversight with the framework - the ability to return to previously attempted questions and reopen the feedback pop-up so you can read the feedback again/review model answer. I'll post up an example of how this is achieved with a new button cluster over the next few days.

Cheers,

Paul

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Hi Alan,

Got the update:

Point 1: the core reset functionality is in as I thought. Were in the process of updating the results screen/spoor to allow the reset from results screen/keep track of attempts across sessions and will try to get this in for V2.0

Good news on points 2 and 3 - both already in and work at the block level.

Thanks,

Paul

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Brilliant news. Thanks for the update Paul.

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Great to see the video posted up here recently on the upcoming Guided Revision feature that will enable students to be taken back to the relevant area of the learning module / course that deals with the topic they got wrong in an assessment question.

You've mentioned as a possibility including a Smart Diagnostic feature. I think this is a great idea. So often people get fed up having to do a (compliance) course that covers subject matter they're already familiar with. They see it as a waste of their precious time (and it probably is). It would make much more sense to allow a student to take a pre-course test that includes questions covering the subject matter of the course and flags up the areas of the course for questions they got wrong so they get a tailored learning journey.

Additionally, I'd love Adapt Builder (ie the front end for non-techies) to have the functionality of retrievable text inputs outside the scope of the component they've been entered in (ie the ability for course developers, through the use of variables, to be able to retrieve and use text entered by a student earlier in a course further on in the course, perhaps in another component). This is the missing bit of the jigsaw that would enable me to redevelop a course in Adapt that I previously developed in Adobe Captivate.

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Hi Tracy,

Yes, that’s the thinking behind using this functionality first as a diagnostic – get people to what they need quickly. To support this approach we’re also working on accompanying diffuse assessments which will allow you to add mini quizzes throughout the course, rather than just the classic final assessment. To help the learner make sense of these multiple assessments/revision paths we’re also looking to develop the learner dashboard further. This will be an improved version of the panel shown in the video but it can be invoked at any time to see what’s flagged for review, how you’re doing on the diffuse assessments and so on. We'll be reaching out to the community with some initial designs to see if you think our ideas are of interest and get your opinions on how we can improve the designs.

Good idea to be able to submit data and reuse it later. We’ve explored similar ideas around linked confidence sliders where you enter a value at the start of a course and then retrieve and compare this against a later confidence score at the end of a course providing tailored feedback on the difference in score. I don’t see why we couldn't do more of this as per your suggestion. I'm sure we could look to develop a plugin in the framework and integrate with the authoring tool if it was of interest.

Thanks,

Paul

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