What is a diagnostic test?
A diagnostic test is a form of pre-assessment that allows a teacher to determine students' individual strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills prior to instruction. It is primarily used to diagnose students' difficulties and to guide lesson and curriculum planning.
This article explains how to make your own diagnostic test as an Author. This is not the same diagnostic test that appears as a part of our adaptive mode setting. To learn more about the adaptive mode see our article here, and to see the differences between the Author made diagnostic test and the computer-generated diagnostic test, see the section on the bottom of this page: What is the difference between making your own diagnostic test, and using computer-generated diagnostic tests as a part of our adaptive mode?
How to make it?
Go to Author, Packages, and click on the New icon.
In the next window, under type, choose "Diagnostic test".
Choose the exercises that you want to have in your diagnostic test. All the exercises that you choose will be shown to the student.
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Then, edit the Chapter where the diagnostic test will be. Go to General, and choose Display- With diagnostic test.
Your new package will look like this in your course material:
And it will be shown like this on the home page:
The stethoscope symbol marks that there is a diagnostic test connected to the chapter, but the full contents of the chapter are already available for the student (they aren't hidden, which can be the case when you use the adaptivity in practice mode). The student doesn't have to do the diagnostic test before accessing the chapter.
What does it look like for students?
Students can click on the stethoscope symbol next to the chapter name, in order to start the diagnostic test. They will have to do all the exercises that you previously included in your chapter:
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Their results will be available under Report- Tests.
Students can do the test as many times as they want.
What is the difference between making your own diagnostic test, and using computer-generated diagnostic tests as a part of our adaptive mode?
| The Author made diagnostic tests | Computer-generated diagnostic tests | |
|---|---|---|
| Who chooses the exercises for the diagnostic test? | You (Author). | The computer chooses the exercises for you. |
| The rest of the chapter is hidden until the diagnostic test is done? | Depends on the settings, it can be hidden. | |
| Will the progress pie charts be pre-filled in? | ||
| Can the diagnostic test be repeated? |
(depending on the chosen settings) |
|
| Can you manually grade the diagnostic test? |
(graded by the computer) |
(graded by the computer) |
| Can you see the results of the diagnostic test? |
(in the Report tab) |
(in the Report tab) |