Further use of Answer Key

There are two extra options that I highly recomend using with Answer Key. Firstly the use of Participant lists (see previous blog entry) is excellent since you get to see each student's name on each row. Secondly you can set it up so that students are working on different sets of questions.

Using Participant lists
The only difference to setup here is making sure that you select the participant list that you have created for you class in the setup:

Also ensure that you've checked the Require Login by ID box. Don't worry if the students can't remember their login ID because it will be shown on the next screen. There's no point in showing the login screen either. I tend to come round to each table in my classroom to remind them how to use the controllers rather than getting them all to start at once.

Once you've launched the session you will again get your Paper-Based Score Entry screen, except this time there will be a few extra details:

In the first column you will have the names of each member of your class, and in the second column their logins. When the students switch on their controllers it will ask them to enter their Participant ID, this is the number they have to enter for the comuter to know who they are. Of course you may wish to enter these ID numbers yourself without telling your class that you know who is who.


Multiple Presentations
If you have a mixed ability class you may wish to have them working on different question sheets simultaneously. You can do this provided that you have the latest edition of Answer Key (there was a bug with the previous version which prevented multiple presentation).

First of all you need to create the Answer Keys for each question sheet, and take note of their TestNumber, each Answer Key should have a seperate TestNumber. You must mke sure that these answer keys are put in the same folder on your computer.

For me I have created 'testa' with TestNumber 11562755 and 'testb' with TestNumber 1156280

Instead of presenting in the usual way you need to use the drop down box to select Present Multiple.

You will then be invited to select the folder on your computer that houses these answer keys. This will now prompt the Setup Menu to open:

 

The only change should be that instead of saying 'Self Paced Mode' it now says 'Multiple Self Paced Mode'.

You will need to write on the question sheets the TestNumber because the students will be asked to enter this when they switch on their remotes so that the computer knows which set of questions they are working on. As far as I'm aware it is not possible to assign students to a work sheet automatically.

The Paper-Based Score Entry sheet looks very similar to before. The only difference is that we can now see which work sheet each student is working on by looking at the number in the TestNumber column:

From the above I can see that Nick Adams is working on 'testa' (since it has TestNumber 11562755) and has got the first two questions correct.

Since the students are working on sets of questions you may wish to order the students by 'TestNumber' instead of the default 'Remote#'. To do this click on the TestNumber heading.

Using Answer Key

Teacher

Once you've launched an Answer Key you will be greeted with the Paper-Based Score Entry screen. As follows:

 

This window updates as students submit their answers. The numbers across the top are the question numbers, and if they get it correct they will get a green tick, and if they get them wrong they get a red cross. This allows you to see immediately who needs help, and which students perhaps need to be working on harder questions. You can also really quickly get an idea of which questions the class as a whole are struggling with.

If your screen is on full view in you classroom you may wish to put up the privacy screen. To do this check the box at the top, and the marks will be covered up. To end the session just click 'End Session' and you will be given the option to save the scores.

Students

Once a student has completed question one they can input this into their Qwizdom remote. They should notice that it says Q#1 or Q#001 on their remote. If not then they need to use the arrow buttonsto cycle through to the correct number question. They then type in their answer and submit to the computer in the usual way. 

If they are correct then they should go onto further questions by using the right arrow. If they get it wrong they can still carry on, but may wish to try again. To try again they can simply delete their previous answer by using the 'c/cancel' button or the 'Del' key. You do of course have to enable this option in the setup.

Launching an Answer Key

After a while using Action Point I deceded to explore the other uses of Qwizdom. In the package along with Action Point there is a simple programme called Answerkey. This has non of the fancy gam, but does allow students to work through questions at their own pace, and self mark them with the help of Answerkey.

In my class if I am working on a topic which requires them to practice a method several times I will hand out a work sheet with say 20-40 questions on it. Instead of hving a class full of students asking me if they are doing it correctly, or even doing them all wrong they can use the controllers to get immediate feedback.

once a student has finished a question, they input their answer into the controller and will be told if their answer is correct. If it is they can then tick it off in their book, if it's incorrect they can try again and iff necessary ask for help.

Load up Anskerkey and you will be greeted with this window:

I'm not entirely sure what te 'Assigned Standards' bit means yet, so feel free to close that bit since I won't be reffering to it here.

For this guide suppose I have handed out the following questions on a work sheet:

Q1) 2+4 =

Q2) 3+7 =

Q3) 13-4 =

Q4) 23+14 =

Q5) 23-6 =

Q6) 3x4 =

Q7) 31x4 =

Q8) 7x3 =

Q9) 3+9 =

Q10) 3-8 =

We now need to tell Answerkey what the answers are to these questions. Click on the Insert icon: 

An extra row should have been added to the answers grid:

The first column tells us hich question it is. The Question Type column lets you elect which type of question (numerical, text, multiple choice etc) and the third column is what the correct answer is. I haven't used the Points or Categories option yet, but it does have more use than it did with Action Point since you can weight harder questions with more points.

Simply click where it currently says 'None' to change the Question Type, a drop down menu should appear:

Do the same to change for the Answer column, but a pop up window will appear instead just like in Action Point (if you have the old version of the software you just type in the answer, there is no pop up window).

Here I have filled in the answer to my question 1:

For my question there is an exact answer, so I put that in as a Numeric answer rather than a Numeric Range answer. Notice how there are three seperate rows to put an answer in. This means that I can accept more than one correct answer. If your anwer is a fraction you can check the box that automatically converts fractions to decimals, so 1/2 is the same as 2/4 or 3/6.

If you are using the Q5 remotes then leave the top box blank. I have been borrowing a set of Q6 remotes so I can make the question can appear on the screens instead of having to hand out sheets.

The bottom box will allow all answers within a certain range, even to a specified number of decimal places. This is ideal if using more complex trig or mechanics questions that might use rounded values in the working out.

When you are ready to launch an answer key session (I usually already have the students working through the questions at this point) click on the Present icon in the menubar:

The presentation setup window will pop up, this should see very familiar:

If you use Participant Lists then they come in very handy for Answer Key (more on those later). You may like to save the results, but you must ensure that it is presented as 'Self-Paced Mode'. For the students to get the most out of Answer Key you will want the Feedback box to be checked, and so long as it isn't a multiple choice worksheet then you may wish students to be able to change their answers.

Finally check that the receiver info is displayed on the Login tab as below:

If this box is blank then you will have to remove the Qwizdom icon from the taskbar.