What are Written Answer Questions?
Written Answer Questions (WAQ) allow students to provide free-form text responses rather than selecting from multiple choice options.
Written Answer Questions are ideal for:
Short answers
Essay questions
Calculations
Fill-in-the-blank
Diagram Labelling
Written Answer Questions must appear at the bottom of the assessment. They cannot be interspersed with the Multiple Choice Questions.
Written Answer Questions must be graded manually outside of Akindi.
The hand-graded mark can be entered into Akindi to be combined with the Multiple Choice Grade.
Creating Written Answer Questions
Importing from a Word Document
Akindi will automatically recognize Written Answer Questions included in your Word Document (.docx) by looking for:
A numbered question
Without any multiple choice answers
Indicate question weight in Word Document
Akindi will automatically identify the question weight listed in the uploaded Word document (.docx).
To indicate the question weight in the Word document:
In parentheses '(' at the end of the question
State the number of points
Followed by 'points', 'pts', or 'marks'
Creating directly in Akindi
1. Click the '+' icon. Select 'Question'.
2. Click 'MCQ' button next to question to open the question marking menu.
4. Click 'Multiple Choice' dropdown menu. Change question type to 'Written Answer'.
5. Type the question text into Akindi.
Control Answer Space for Students
When creating Written Answer questions, you can control how much space students have to write their responses.
1. Click the 'WAQ' button to open the question marking menu.
2. Use the answer space slider to indicate how much blank space will be left below the question.
The selected amount of space will be added below the question when the test sheet PDF is generated.
Scramble Written Answer Questions
Written answer questions can be scrambled amongst themselves at the bottom of the assessment.
To scramble written answer questions.
1. Click the 'Scramble Written Questions' toggle.
2. Select the desired number of versions from the dropdown menu.
3. Preview the scramble mapping by clicking 'Show Mapping'.
💡 Written Answer Questions scramble only among other Written Answer Questions at the bottom of the assessment. They will always appear after all Multiple Choice Questions.
Where do students write their answers?
According the selected answer space, a designated space will be added below the question for the student to write their answers.
Students can write their answers directly on the printed test question sheet.
Grading Written Answer Questions
Written Answer questions must be graded manually outside of Akindi as they are not captured during Akindi's scanning process.
Best Practices for Written Answer Grading
Assign clear point values - Specify the points for each written answer question so students understand the weight
Create a rubric - Develop scoring criteria before grading to ensure consistency
Mark on the test - Write scores directly on students' test papers for transparency
Combine hand-graded marks with Akindi MCQ grades- Use Akindi to automatically grade multiple choice question, then add hand-entered grades into Akindi to get combined final grade.