Welcome to Akindi!
This guide will walk you through how to run an online assessment with Akindi in which students will complete the assessment in-person with a paper and writing utensil.
If you wish to create a Paper Assessment or use Akindi’s Question Importer, please see the relevant article.
1. Create your Akindi Account
💡 Does your school have the Akindi LMS integration? Most Akindi customer schools have Akindi integrated into their Learning Management System.
Select the LMS that your school uses for specific instructions about accessing Akindi.
If your school does not have the Akindi LMS integration, you can create your Akindi account here.
2. Creating a Course & Uploading a Course Roster
This step will be done automatically when using the LMS Integration. You can skip to step 3.
Before creating an assessment in Akindi, you have to create a course and upload a class roster.
a) To create a course in Akindi:
Click 'Create Course' on the left-hand menu.
Confirm that you will be creating an ‘Akindi-only course’ - this means that it won’t be connected to an LMS course shell.
Enter the Assessment Name, Click ‘Create’.
The course will be added to the left-hand menu.
b) To upload a class roster to Akindi:
Select the course from the left-hand menu.
Click 'Upload Roster'.
Click 'Upload Student Roster' and select an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV (.csv) that contains the Student IDs and Student Name. Akindi will automatically recognize the students' names, ID numbers, section numbers, and emails but you can double check this by clicking 'Preview Changes'.
Click 'Upload Roster'.
For a more in-depth guide to uploading a class roster, check out this guide.
3. Create Assessment & Customize Online Assessment
To get started, click the ‘Create Assessment’ button in the upper-right corner.
and select 'Online Assessment' from the pop-up menu.
Customize your Online Assessment by completing the fields on the left-hand side.
a) Select the course name, enter an assessment name, set the assessment type to ‘online’. If you wish to run a paper online assessment, click here.
b) Set the Assessment Delivery.
'Deliver via LMS' means the student will access the assessment through the 'Launch Akindi' link if your course shell. This is the recommended delivery method.
'Delivery via Email' means the student will be emailed a secure link to access the assessment.
c) Select how you'd like your test questions displayed.
'One question at a time' will display the questions one-at-a-time to students and will offer the ability to randomize the question order and prevent back-tracking. This is the recommended question display and the focus of this guide.
'Display full PDF' will display an unedited test question PDF to the students alongside a virtual bubble sheet.
'I don't want to upload test questions' will only provide the students with a virtual bubble sheet and the test questions will have to be delivered in a different method.
d) Choose to scramble the test questions by turning on the 'Turn on Multiple Versions' toggle. This will ensure that each student receives the questions in a randomized order.
e) Unchecking the Allow Backtracking' checkbox prevents students from returning to previously answered questions. When this box is checked, students will be able to revisit previous answered questions.
f) Click 'Save and Continue'.
4. Format your test question document
Akindi will digest your word document (.docx) and automatically identify your questions, answers, and answer key.
To ensure that Akindi is able to successfully digest your test questions:
Ensure that your questions are numbered (1, 2, 3, etc...) followed by a period or parenthesis.
Ensure that your answers are lettered (a, b, c, etc...) and are followed by a period or parenthesis.
Ensure that the correct response(s) is indicated using either boldface, italics, or a different coloured font. Note: Akindi cannot read highlighted text.
Remove any titles, dates, and instructions that are in your word document.
5. Upload your Test Questions & Enter Answer Key
a) Click 'Import Questions' and select the word document (.docx) that contains your test question.
b) Akindi will automatically identify the questions, answers, and answer key.
Anything that isn't able to be identified will be flagged with an exclamation point icon.
c) Resolve any identification errors using your keyboard (as if it were a word document) or by clicking the options icon.
💡 For an in-depth guide into using the Akindi Author, check out this article.
d) Select the corresponding bubble for each question to create your answer key. Customize question weight or grading scheme by selecting the 'options' icon.
💡 For a more in-depth look into Akindi's advanced marking options to control the weight and grading scheme, check out this article.
e) Once you have resolved all errors and customized your answer key, Click 'Save & Continue'.
6. Set Assessment Schedule
Set the assessment schedule that will apply to the majority of the students.
To set custom schedules for students with accommodations, see Step 7.
a) Set the desired time limit. This will be the amount of time the student will have to complete the assessment once they start.
💡 If the student's browser crashes, they loose internet connection, or closes the assessment, the timer will continue to countdown while they are not present.
Akindi will automatically close and submit the students assessment when the timer runs out.
b) Set the activation window. This will be the window that the assessment will be available to the students. The students will not be able to access the assessment prior to the activation time or after the deadline.
💡 The assessment deadline is a hard deadline. If the student starts the assessment one minute prior to the deadline, they will only have one minute to complete the assessment.
Akindi will automatically close and submit the students assessment when the deadline passes.
c) Click 'Save & Continue'.
💡 The time displayed in Akindi reflects your current timezone.
If a student is in a different time zone, they will have to complete the assessment at the same time relevant to your time zone.
For example, if you set the assessment to open at 12noon ET, a student on the west coast will have see the assessment open at 9am PT.
Click here to learn more about how Akindi handles time zones.
7. Set Student Accommodations
Create custom schedules for students that require extra time to complete the assessment or that will be writing the assessment on a different day.
a) From the 'Online Assessment Status' page, select the desired student(s).
b) Click the 'Actions' dropdown menu, and select 'Edit Assessment Timing'
c) Edit the new time limit and activation window for the selected students, click 'Save & Continue'.
d) The custom schedule will be reflected on the 'Online Assessment Status' page.
8. Preview & Publish Assessment
a) Preview your online assessment by clicking the 'Preview Assessment' button.
The assessment will open in a separate browser tab and will reflect exactly what the students will see.
b) To publish/ send the assessment to students, click the 'Publish to LMS' button. Choose to send an email notification to students and click 'Publish'.
Once the assessment has been published, the students will see the assessment listed as an upcoming assessment. The students will not be able to access the assessment until the activation time and date.
💡 If delivering the assessment via email, the email containing the assessment links will be sent immediately, but the assessment cannot be accessed by the student until the activation date passes.
9. Administer the Assessment
For Students
a) Once the Activation Date has passed, the students will be able to access their assessment through the 'Launch Akindi' link in their LMS course shell.
b) They will be prompted with general Akindi instructions. Once they click 'I agree' their assessment will begin.
c) The timer will begin as soon as the student click 'I agree.'
Akindi will continuously save the students' responses as they complete the assessment. If a student looses internet connection or closes their browser, the timer will continue to run. When they re-open the assessment, Akindi will retrieve their saved responses.
Akindi will automatically close and submit the assessment when the time limit or deadline passes (whichever comes first).
💡 Click here to learn more about the student experience of taking Akindi online assessments.
For Instructors
a) From your course dashboard, click 'View Online Assessment Status'.
b) The Online Assessment Status page, will allow you to monitor students progress in real time.
'Assessment Status' column will display whether the student has opened and or submitted their assessment.
'Questions Completed' column will display the current number of questions they've completed.
'Time Spent' column will display the amount that has lapsed since the student started their assessment.
c) Click the 'refresh' icon to get the most up-to-date statistics.
10. Analyzing the Results
As soon as a student submits their assessment, the results will be populated in Akindi.
Akindi Results are broken down into three separate tabs (Overview, Graphs, Responses) to help you understand two main questions 1) How well the students performed, and 2) How well the test questions performed.
The ‘Overview’ tab features a high-level look at your assessment.
The ‘Graphs’ tab contains the item analysis of all your questions.
The ‘Responses’ tab is the full spreadsheet view of all the students and their individual grades.
11. Exporting the Test Results
To Send the grades to your LMS Gradebook:
Click the ‘Send Grades to LMS’ button.
Select the desired grade item you wish to send the grades to.
Click ‘Export’
There are a number of other ways to export the results using the 'Actions' dropdown menu.
Questions? Feedback?
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