In this mannual, we will learn how to design and build a Pre & Post test-scoring/marking form for use in SPAmarkbook. 
Please note, that while the name might conjure up the idea of a pen & paper test, that is not the only reason you can use the pre-post test scoring functionality in SPA. You could have an observational checklist or a learning task that could be marked/scored using the pre-post test section of the software.
If you want to import pre/post-test results into SPAmarkbook via excel, you will first need to follow these 'design' and 'publish' steps.


Step 1: Navigate to the Design Pre/Post Test section

Step 2: Navigate to the Design Pre/Post Test section
  1. Click SPAmarkbook.
  2. Then click 'Design'.
  3. Then click on 'Pre/Post Test'.


Step 2: Click on "Create New Pre/Post Test"

Step 3: Click on "Create New Pre/Post Test"



Step 3: Fill in the Pre/Post Test details

Step 4: Fill out the details for this Pre/Post Test
1. Give the Test a Title (Required)

2. Select the Curriculum (Required)

3. Select the Domain (Required)

4. Select the Strand (Required) and type a Sub-Strand (Optional)

5. Select one or more Year Level(s) the test may be appropriate for (Optional)
This does not limit who you can mark the test for, it is just to help you tag your tests.
Note: Hold down the Ctrl key or the shift key on a mac to select multiple-year levels.

6. You can also assign the test to multiple Domains and or Strands by clicking the green '+'  button. (Optional)

Note: Assigning the test to a 'Domain/s', 'Strand/s', 'Sub-Strand/s' and 'Year Level/s', is a system of placing your tests into folders. By tagging them to one or more domains, strands & year levels, you will be able to filter your test lists down when you are looking for a specific test in the marking and analysis sections of the SPAmarkbook software. It will also be useful when you are viewing tests in SPAtarcker, you can filter assessments to display only the subject area tests you are reviewing.


Step 4: Add Items to your test

You can add as many items to your test as you would like. You can also use a combination of item types within the same test. 

Please see details and instructions/advice for each 'item type' below as well as guidance as to what to enter into the 'item fields'.

Step 5: Add Items to your Test
1. Click on the item type you want to add to your test. 
(See extensive explanations on 'item types' below.)

Note: As you add items to your test, you will note a count of the number of items will appear in the grey box just above the list of item types, as well as the total max score a student could receive if marked correct on all items. 

2. Fill in the correct answer/min/max scores for each item. 
The 'answer field' must be filled in before the software will let you save the test. We recommend saving the test regularly as you build the test to ensure you don't lose your work! 
(See additional information below under 'item types' explanations.)

3. Fill in the item field details. 
Optional, but highly recommended as you will get more detailed/useful analysis within the analysis section of SPAmarkbook.
(See extensive detail on 'item fields' below.)


ITEM TYPES


Right/Wrong Item: 

This is a popular and versatile item type. It is a simple right/wrong, yes/no question. The upside to using this item type to mark/score your test/assessment is that they are very quick to mark and versatile to use. They can be used for observational assessments too. The downside to using this item type is that you can't store the student's response, only record whether they got the item right or wrong.
a) Right/Wrong: A simple Right/Wrong , Yes/No Question
Examples of when to use the 'Right/Wrong' item type to score an assessment.

  • What is the answer to 2 X 2=? Note the student's response on the test (Right/Wrong)
  • What is the capital city of Australia? Did the student write the correct answer on their test/work? (Right/Wrong) You may have your own criteria in your mind like they must spell the city name correctly to be marked correctly. This detail is not stored in the software. 
  • Record the number 1,264 in written form. Did the student write the correct answer on their test/work? (Right/Wrong)
  • Draw a symmetrical image. Did the student complete the task successfully? (Yes/No?)
  • Can the student identify some/all of the sounds the spelling pattern 'ea' makes?  (Yes/No?)

  • Asking a student to skip count to 100. Did the student complete the task successfully? (Yes/No?)


Closed Response Item: 

A free text box to store the correct answer. Ultimately this item type is still a right/wrong type of question, but when marking the test you are now able to store the answer the student provided. (And in the analysis section of SPAmarkbook the student's answer will appear in a hover-over dialogue box.) If when the student's response (entered during marking) matches the correct answer you enter in this 'design' form below, they will be automatically marked right/correct, if not, the student will be automatically marked incorrect. 
Pease note that this item type is very time-consuming to mark and is case-sensitive, so should only be used sparingly in our opinion.
b) Closed Response: A free text box to write the correct answer (Eg, Question: What is 1+1? Answer: 2)

Examples of when to use the 'Closed Response' item type to score an assessment.

  • What is the answer to 2 X 2= Correct answer: '4'
  • What is the capital city of Australia? Correct answer: 'Canberra' (note you would need to write 'Canberra' with a capital letter when marking the test, for the software to registar a 'correct' response.
  • Record the number 1,264 in written form. Correct answer: 'one thousand, two hundred and sixty-four'

Partial Credit Item: 

This is a popular and versatile item type. This item type allows you to mark a question with some sort of criteria, or scale. It also allows you to group items on your test that are all testing the same skill together to tally up a total score in a section of a test, which can save the marker heaps of time when marking a test. They are also very useful when designing an observational assessment or work task.

Note: You must set a maximum score (must be numeric). You can choose to also set a minimum score, as some schools requested the option to remove '0'.


c) Partial Credit: Set the max score (must be numeric)

Examples of when to use the 'Partial Credit' item type to score an assessment.

  • Your test includes 5 questions testing the 2X table. Rather than set up five separate right/wrong items in your scoring/marking template, you would instead add one partial credit item and then mark the student 0-5, depending on how many of the 2X table questions the student answered correctly. (Min:0 Max:5)
  • What is the capital city of Australia and why? With an open-text question on an assessment, you may need to add a partial credit scoring system. In this example, you might give 1 point if they answer 'Canberra' and another point if they give a correct answer as to why Canberra is our capital and not Sydney or Melbourne. (Min:0 Max:2)
  • Can the student identify the correct sounds the spelling 'ea' makes?  There are 6 sounds the spelling 'ea' makes. Record how many successful identifications the student made (Min:0 Max:6)
  • Your school uses a pre-exsiting test where the scoring system is set to give a score of 1, 2 or 3 depending on how the student responded. Your teachers are used to these numbers, so you don't want to change the way they mark the test. Therefore, you don't want to introduce a '0' as part of the scoring system. You will input a 1 in the minimum score and a 3 in the maximum score. (Min:1 Max:3)

Multiple Choice Item: 

A straightforward A-E multiple-choice item where the possible answers are locked to A, B, C, D, E. 
You can not store the details of the answer options in this style of item.
d) Multiple Choice: A straight forward A-E Multiple choice question

Examples of when to use the 'Multiple Choice' item type to score an assessment.

  • What is the answer to 2X2=? (Answer Options: A=4, B=6, C=7, D=3, E=10. Correct Answer: A)
  • What is the capital city of Australia? (Answer Options: A=Melbourne, B=Sydney, C=Canberra, D=Brisbane, E=Darwin. Correct Answer: C)
  • How would you record the number one thousand, two hundred and sixty-four in digits? (Answer Options: A=1000200604, B=1,264, C=1642, D=2146, E=120064. Correct Answer: B)
  • What type of animal is this? (A picture is obviously required for this question. The image would be on the test, but not stored/attached within the SPAmarkbook software (Answer Options: A=Reptile, B=Mammal, C=Marsupial, D=Anphibian, E=Bird. Correct Answer: B)
Note: For all these examples during the marking & analysing sections within the SPAmarkbook software, you will only be able to see the options listed as A, B, C, D, E. You won't see what the answer equals, this user would need to refer back to the original copy of the test given to the students.

Custom Item: 

A custom item is used when you want to manipulate a multiple-choice item. At a basic level, you may want to add or remove the number of possible multiple-choice answers. Alternatively, you may also like to input the actually answers, rather than leave the basic A, B, C, D, E text.
e) Custom: A custom multiple choice question. (Eg Question: Brass gets discoloured in air because of the presence of?)
Note: You can set, add, or remove answers from this screen.


Examples of when to use the 'Custom' item type to score an assessment.

  • What is the answer to 2X2=? (Answer Options: A=4, B=6, C=7, D=3 Correct Answer: A) Note: Only needed 4 answer options, not 5, so removed 'E' by clicking the red 'remove' button next to the answer choice.
  • Add a question with lots of answer choices (Answer Options: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) Note: Add as many choices as needed. Enter your choice in the 'Add New Choice' box and click the green '+ Add' button.
  • What is the capital city of Australia? (Answer Options: Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Darwin. Correct Answer: Canberra) Note: Wanted to store the actual answers here, so changed the A, B, C, D, and E text with the actual city names. This can be helpful when analysing the data within SPAmarkbook, as you won't need to refer back to the test to see what answer students who answered 'c' actually thought.
  • What gas do humans breathe out? (Answer Options: Oxygen, Hydrogen Sulphide, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen. Correct Answer: Carbon Dioxide )  Note: Only needed 4 options, so removed one & changed the A, B, C, and D labels to be the answer text.


ITEM FIELDS

When you add an item to your test, after inputting details into the required 'answer' field, you then have the option of filling in five additional fields. Below we will describe how these could be used to benefit you at the analysis stage of using SPAmarkbook.


Number Field

This is the item number/letter assigned to the test. It will default to 1,2,3 etc. But you have the option of changing these. You could group questions together on your test by labelling the items accordingly (ie -a, 1b,1c then 2a, 2b 2c etc.) Another example is to replace numbers with letters or words instead. This is great if you are building an alphabet-letter/phonics test, high-frequency word test or even just want more descriptive headers, and would therefore like text displayed at the top of your analysis grid, instead of item numbers.

Note: Sometimes schools have trouble seeing the text in this 'number' field. If this is the case for you, please zoom out on the web page, you will eventually see text in these boxes. The longer the text you enter in this number field, the more zoomed out you will need to be.

Note: We don't recommend making this field longer than 23 characters, or it will cause display issues.

Need help learning to zoom out/in your webpage?


Skill Assessed Field

This is one of the most useful fields to enter some text. Think about what your question is assessing. Maybe it is assessing '2-digit addition' or 'worded-problems in maths. Or maybe in literacy, you are assessing a student's 'code knowledge' or 'grammatical knowledge'. Or in PE you are assessing 'gross motor-ball skills"

By entering this overarching skill here, at the analysis stage within SPAmarkbook, one of the options is to get a total score for all items assessing the same 'skill'. It will group items assessing the same skill together and provide a fractional or % correct score. Often schools will use this field to enter their unit's learning intentions so teachers can track overall progress/skill level for each learning goal.


Question Field

This field is usually used to enter a description of the question being asked on the test. (You can't add pictures or tables here, just text.) It is not an essential field but can be useful to have the question, (or a description of the question) stored here


Level Tag Field

This can be used to tag the item to a difficulty level or year level. Like 'beginning'/'mid-level/'advanced' level question. Or 'Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 question. 

By entering a 'level' here, at the analysis stage within SPAmarkbook, one of the options is to get a total score for all the items assessing the 'level'. It will group items assessing the same 'level' together and provide a fractional or % correct score. It can be useful to see on balance what level the student is 'established', 'consolidating', beginning' at.


Code Tag Field

This can be used to tag the item to a curriculum area (ie-VicCurricum/Australian Curriculum content description code). (ie-ACMNA051 or VCGGC076)

It can also be used to double-code your items. For example, let's say you are assessing addition as an overall skill. In the 'Skill Assessed' field, you might enter 'Addition'  for many of your items, so at the analysis stage, you get a total score for each student for the skill of 'Addition'. Then in the 'code tag' field, you enter either '1-digit', '2-digit' or '3-digit+'.  At the analysis stage, you would be able to pinpoint what type of addition type they are struggling in.

By entering some text in the 'code' field, at the analysis stage within SPAmarkbook, one of the options is to get a total score for all the items assessing the same 'code'. It will group items assessing the same 'code' together and provide a fractional or % correct score. It can be useful at report writing time to get detailed information about which content descriptions or skills the student has mastered or not. 


Additional Options

Changing Item Values (optional)

ADVANCED (optional) Step 6: Changing Item Values

By default, other than 'partial credit' items, each item has a value of 1, making each item equally weighted. Normally, you would leave this set to 1. But you can change the value of an item to change how much that particular item is worth in the analysis. 

Note: You can also set the value to be '0'. This is sometimes helpful if you want to store some information, like what level test the student sat. In this example, you might set up a 'custom' multiple choice item with all the level options, set one as the 'right' answer (even though there really isn't one).  At the analysis stage, any items listed with a value of '0' will be differentiated by displaying a blank/white colour in the grid display, instead of a shade of red/green to show you how well the student performed at each item.


Rearrange Item Order or delete an item (optional)


1. Change the item type. If you originally set a question to be a right/wrong question and decide you would prefer to make it a multiple-choice question, simply click and select the new item type.

2. You can rearrange the order of your items by clicking the up and down arrow on the item. This will move the item up or down.

3. To delete an item, click the red 'x' button next to the item.


Step 5: Save your Test

To move on to the next step, you will need to 'save' your test. The system won't let you save the test until you have given the test a title, tagged it and entered answers/values for all items on your test. 

We highly recommend saving the test as you go, rather than waiting until the end! We don't want the system to time out, for your internet connection to be lost or for you to accidentally click the wrong button on your keyboard and suddenly you have lost all your work. OUR BEST ADVICE IS SAVE OFTEN!
Step 8: Save your Test


Once you have saved your test, you will be pushed out to the main design-draft page. You can either select 'edit' if you have realised you need to adjust something in your test, or just continue working on it. Or you can click 'publish'. 


Set 6: Publish your test

Click 'publish' when you are happy with your test and want to begin marking students against this test. 

Note: You can make some changes to a published test (Alter the test name and how the test is tagged. You can also alter the details under most of the item fields (number, skill assessed, question, level tag & code tag). But you can not change the order of the items, remove items or alter the scoring against items. So make sure you are happy with all these parts before you publish the test. 

We will discuss altering published tests, draft tests and archived tests in another manual.

Note: We also suggest publishing a test and then doing a trial mark to see if the analysis is what you want. If you realise there is an issue, you can delete the published version, alter the draft version and then re-publish the test. We recommend doing all of this before attempting to mark a whole class for real.



1. Check you are happy with the name of your test.
2. Click the 'Publish to School Name' button.

Note: A published test will be available forever (unless you delete it). So once you have designed a great pre-post test, you can reuse it each year and other staff in your school can also use it to mark their own students. SPAmarkbook has been designed to be a shared school resource. 


Please reach out to the SPAteam if you have any questions about designing a pre/post-test. You can also arrange a professional development session with a SPA consultant if required.

Last modified: Thursday, 7 March 2024, 1:13 PM