Page History

Open-ended question type that has no preset answer choices, but gives a textual input field for respondents. Due to the freely worded textual answers, these items are evaluated manually, that is, scoring requires faculty participation, referred to as Open-Ended Question Scoring (OEQS).

IMPORTANT: Only users with Open-Ended Question Scoring Data Entry privilege have access to evaluate answers submitted for text items.

The question is to be entered in the Question phrase field, while the textbox below allows for typing in any initial phrase if inteded.

Character limit: By default, there is no limitation set for the responses, that is, the character limit is zero. If changed, respondents would not be allowed to exceed the set number of characters.

Use the buttons in the item panel for further options:

Information - text field for additional information pertaining to the question.

Page: Reported comment item - if activated, the item, that is, the question and the answer, will be displayed in the Comments Report of the Preset Reports, in the Reports module.

Asterisk: Answer required - if activated, a user cannot submit the checklist until that item is answered, that is, they cannot leave it blank.

Comment box - when activated (darker blue), a text field is displayed at the item during data entry, providing space for additional notes.

Copy - a fully created item can be duplicated, thereby copying the question with all the settings. 

Scoring

Scoring textual items has three available techniques. When clicking the Points button, a drop-down menu appears for selecting the scoring method: 

Direct - when direct scoring is selected, a Max. Score field is displayed where the maximum point value has to be determined; OEQS users can choose to give any number in the range of zero and the provided score value.

Keywords - selecting the Keywords method prompts the Set Keywords button to be displayed. Clicking the button opens the Keywords Setup pop-up where any word can be set with fixed value, thus when typed in, the system recognizes and calculates a recommended score for the response (from the sum of the point value of the matching words), which is displayed on the OEQS page by highlighting the relevant words in the response text and also listing them with their values and the recommended score.

Questionnaire - Evaluation completed by answering a set of questions. The questionnaire can be created on the Special Section part, which then can be selected via the drop-down menus displayed when the Questionnaire method is selected.