Diagnostics

Purpose of this document

This document contains information on setting up diagnostic logins in IMathAS

What Are Diagnostics

Diagnostics allow you to create a special login page for larger-scale diagnostic assessment. This provides a way for students to access and take the diagnostic without needing to register and enroll in a course. Also, it delivers them the correct assessment based on a selection from a list of options, such as course they want to place into, their grade level, etc.

Diagnostics are linked with courses, and grades are recorded into that course. A special diagnostic gradebook view is available, tailored for use by testing centers to look up the most recent takers of the diagnostic. The diagnostic can also be integrated with the tutor system in IMathAS to allow individual instructors access to view only their students' scores in a multi-instructor shared diagnostic.

Setting Up Diagnostics

If you have sufficient rights (Diagnostic Creator or Group/Full Admin), click the "Add New Diagnostic" button to set up a new diagnostic. Diagnostics are linked with assessments in a course, so you should first create a course and add your diagnostic assessments to that course.

On the first page, you will be asked for:

For a placement-type test, the first level selector might be "course you want to place into" and the second level selector might be some demographic info like "when was the last math class you took?"

On the second page, you will be asked for:

You must submit both pages before any changes are saved. After submitting the second page, you will be provided with the direct access link to the diagnostic, which you can provide to students or use to create a link from another website.

In courses for which a diagnostic has been set up, the gradebook will display differently, showing the student unique ID, the term, and the first and second selector values in addition to the students' names and scores

If you are doing a mass-testing situation, don't want proctors to have to enter passwords, and don't want to annouce a mass password for everyone to use, you can use the "One Time Passwords" link on the Admin page to generate a list of one-time-use passwords that can be distributed individually to students.


© 2009 David Lippman