First Week

These days, many teachers are blogging about their planned activities for the first days of school.

My plan is to have the students write exams in each of the subject areas.  Then, around Christmas and again at the end of the year, I will ask them to write similar versions of the same exams.  This way, I will have a measurement of their progress.

There are many states and provinces that have archived exams available online.  So, for example, students could write the 2006 California English exam in September, and then write the 2007 California English exam in December.

Edinformatics is a website indexing a list of state exams.

Additionally, Larry Ferlazzo has compiled a list of websites offering online exam practice.

Photo by yorgak.

ClassMarker

I use ClassMarker in all my classes. It is an excellent free resource.

ClassMarker allows educators to create online exams. Students are added to classroom accounts and their test scores are stored for the teacher.

ClassMarker allows teachers to embed photos and videos in their questions. So, one can create a question such as this:


ClassMarker has many customizable options. For example:

* Choose what learners will see after completion (score, score with answer, etc.)
* Give questions in random order
* Allow learners to go back
* Time limit
* Allow multiple attempts

ClassMarker

In an effort to reduce the usage of paper in my classes and to streamline the assessment process, I wanted to find a way to administer quizzes online.

The first site that I signed up with was ProProfs Quiz School.  This is a good site.  I wrote about it on this blog a month ago.

I have a couple of criticisms of ProProfs.

Firstly, students do not create accounts.  Therefore, the marks that a particular student receives on a series of tests are not centralized.  Therefore, finding the scores for a student requires examining the scores for each test one by one.

Secondly, students cannot go back and review their answers.  One of my students complained that he hated my online quizzes because he could not go back.  If a student accidently clicks the wrong button, then their mistake is irreversible.

I found a new website that has all of the features of ProProfs, plus it solves the two aforementioned problems.  Students must create an account; therefore, all their scores can be viewed on a single page.  And, there is an option to allow students to go back when they are taking a quiz.

The site is ClassMarker.

ProProfs Quiz School

One of my resolutions this year is to use as little paper in my classroom as possible.

To this end, I have started using an online quiz site called ProProfs Quiz School.  As you can see, ProProfs offers teachers many options when they create a quiz.

Create A Quiz / Quiz School - Create Free Quizzes via kwout

There is no registration required.  Students only need to enter their name to begin.

You can create multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions.

If I didn’t know any better, I would believe that my students actually enjoy taking exams online; more than on paper, anyways.