Q1. When will it be available?
A1. There is talk of late spring – but, it’s most likely that we wouldn’t upgrade Campus until summer. I’ve learned over the years – there’s nothing worse than messing with your grade book during the months of April and May, so if the feature comes out then, we’ll hold until the summer.
Q2. What information is available about its features?
[The following information was provided by CIC, who handles support and implementations for Infinite Campus in Iowa and other area states] The Online Assessments module will provide teachers and district staff with the ability to create tests and deliver the assessments via the Campus Portal, and after the student completes the assessment, the grade book will be automatically updated with the students’ total scores.
Test Item Bank
The Test Item Bank can be created using several different options:
• Answers to the test items can be multiple choice both single and multiple answer, true /false, short answer and essay.
• Test items can be aligned to standards, assisting teachers and / or district staff in creating local standards‐based assessments.
• Should you choose to create a district‐wide assessment, you can create test items to be reserved for district use only, which could remain unseen by teachers.
• Items can also be deactivated if it is determined that they should no longer be used.
Assessment Creation
Once the Test Item Bank has been populated, assessments can be created with the following options:
- Assessments can be created by teachers or can be created by building / district‐level staff and can then be published for use.
- The sequencing of the questions can be controlled.
- Responses can be randomized.
- Access to specific assessments can be controlled with security rights (reserving district assessments for district use only)
- Details, such as the author, published date, audience and required materials are stored with the assessment
Delivery
- Once created, assessments will be delivered via the Campus Portal
- Assessments can be made available for only a certain testing window/date range.
- A timer can appear at the top of the assessment, indicating how much time is left to complete.
- Once the assessment is saved and submitted by the student, teachers can view the student’s responses via the gradebook.
Things that we’ll have to consider about this feature……..
* Will we use it for formative assessments, summative assessments or both?
* Will we use it for teacher based assessments only? or should we use it to help standardize course or grade level based assessments?