Akindi On Paper assessments

Access the Content tab in your D2L Brightspace course shell. Add a module to the left-hand navigation bar by clicking Add a module… and give it a name. 

Student-facing pages are not necessary when using Akindi only for Paper-Based Assessments.

If you are not running online assessments and would like to hide the module from students, click on the eye icon in the top right corner and switch the visibility to off.

This is confirmed by the eye icon displayed below the name of the module in the sidebar navigation.

Inside your new module, click on the Existing Activities drop-down menu and select External Learning Tools.

Select Launch Akindi.

This will add a link with the same name to your module; click it to open the tool.

Access the tool by clicking on the Launch Akindi link in your module.

Click on the big orange Launch Akindi Assessments button in the bottom left of the new window.

This will take you to Akindi on an external site.

Access the Akindi Dashboard through the link you added to your course. 

Click the Create Assessment button in the top right corner. 

1. Course Name - Select the name of your course under the dropdown menu. Never use the + Add new course option as it will cause syncing issues with D2L Brightspace.

2. Assessment Name - Name your assignment (ie. Final Exam).

3. Assessment Type - Select “Paper” from the dropdown menu to create a paper-based assessment.

4. Select Layout - Choose a 50, 100, or 150-question layout. Select a layout that has equal to or more questions than your assessment. If your answer key has unanswered questions, it will skip the question during marking.

5. Turn on/off multiple versions - Allows you to select the number of versions of this test you would like to create, up to 6 versions.

Note: You will have to create a separate answer key for each version of the assessment. How you divide the different versions of question sheets in person is up to you. While writing the test, students will specify the version of the test they received by filling in the appropriate bubble on their bubble sheet.

6. Prefill Student Information - Choose if you would like the printed bubble sheets to automatically fill in your students' first names, last names, and student numbers. If you do not select this option, the sheets will all be the same and each student will be required to fill in their information. 

7. Sort printed sheets… - If you've opted to prefill student information, you can choose to sort printed sheets by Student Name (ordered by last name) or Student ID number to facilitate exam sheet distribution. 

8. Show in Title - Choose what information is automatically displayed at the top of every bubble sheet. The preview window on the right will automatically update to reflect these changes. As it can get quite long, we recommend displaying the Section Name and Assessment Name (and including the course code in the name of the assessment).

Click Save & Continue.

1. If you have multiple versions turned on, you can edit the different versions of the test by selecting them in the dropdown menu at the top (Version A, B, etc).
2. You can manually input the answers to each question by clicking the letters next to each question, turning each box orange. Select multiple boxes on each row if a question has multiple correct answers.
   
   When you input the answers for each question, changes are immediately reflected on the bubble sheet previewed on the right.

You can import an answer key by selecting Copy & Paste Answer Key from the "More Options" drop-down menu at the top right of your screen. A new window will pop up.

Answer keys must be typed or copied and pasted into the text box using the format indicated on the screen. Each new line will be counted as a new question.

If you have already filled out your answer key in the tool using a different type of input, this text box will be filled automatically.

You can export your answers as plain text by clicking in the text box window and copying and pasting them to an external location on your computer (ie. Word, Google Docs, etc).

If you have your questions listed in a plain text Word Document (.docx), you can upload them as a file by selecting Upload Answer Key from the "More Options" dropdown menu at the top right of your screen. A new window will pop up.

In your document, you can identify correct responses by changing the text colour, making it bold, or italicized. 

Akindi will select the correct answers from the uploaded Word Document (.docx),  and create an answer key. 

You can print and complete an on-paper answer key by filling in "0000" as the student ID. 

Once this document is scanned, it can be uploaded to your Akindi assessment as a response sheet in Brightspace.

You can toggle advanced marking by clicking the on/off slider at the top right of your screen. If the slider is orange, advanced marking is turned on.

Setting advanced marking options is only necessary for your assessment if your assessment has bonus questions, questions worth different amounts, or questions with multiple answers.

1. If you have multiple versions of your test and they are worth different amounts of points, you will get a warning message.
   
   It is possible for tests set up this way to be accurately graded, but you won’t be able to take full advantage of Akindi’s statistics dashboard after your assessment is complete.
   
   
2. Click on the orange Continue button for printing options.

If you have access to a regular scanner, you can scan the sheets one by one in any order and upload the PDF to your Akindi Dashboard in the Upload Response Sheets option.

Once your tests are completed, you can view your results from the Akindi Dashboard by clicking on View Results under the relevant assessment.

The first tab of your results is the Overview.

Here you can see:

• Statistics on how well your students did on the test
• Which questions were easiest and most difficult for them
• A breakdown of your Akindi discriminatory score, summarizing how well your test was designed based on the results

The second tab of your results is the Graphs tab.

This displays visualizations of your student marks, grade distribution, answer breakdown, and point biserial.

The third tab of your results is the Responses tab.

This will give you details of each student's completed attempts. 

For each student, you can see their response to every question, and if it was correct or not. To view an annotated scan of their response sheet, click the corresponding icon in the “Reports” column.

Using the Actions dropdown menu in the top right corner, you can make changes to the assessment and answer key.

Akindi provides a detailed explanation of all the information presented on the "Results" page, including how to use it. Learn more at the Akindi Results Resource (external link) (external link) .

The fourth tab of your results identifies the Exceptions. 

If any student responses were scanned with missing information or errors, Akindi will collect them here for manual review. This can include (but is not limited to): 

• Ambiguous answers
• Multiple selections
• Missing version information
• Missing/unclear Student Identification information

Note: Be sure to review and address the Exceptions before syncing the grades to Brightspace, as they may impact grading.

Akindi provides detailed explanations of how to process Exceptions. Learn more at the Akindi Resolving Exceptions Resource (external link) . 

When you are ready to export the grades to your D2L Brightspace course shell, click Send Grades to Brightspace in the top right corner of your "Results" page to send grades to all students. 

Note: Please ensure that you have resolved all exceptions before beginning this process.

You can also send grades to select individual students by navigating to the "Responses" tab and selecting individual students using the left column, before clicking Send Grades to Brightspace.

You can choose to:

• Create a new column (which will automatically be visible to students) 
• Select an existing column from your Brightspace course

It is recommended to create your intended column in advance, as a "Numeric Grade" in the Brightspace Grades tool. This allows you to set visibility options and the intended overall course weight of the assessment before syncing the scores from Akindi.