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Cloze Math Question for Advanced Assessments
Cloze Math Question for Advanced Assessments
Monica Burke avatar
Written by Monica Burke
Updated over a week ago

A new Math question type has been released that uses a revamped scoring engine. We recommend all new content be created with Math, instead of Cloze Math, to take advantage of the new capabilities. Click below to learn more!


Now that you've started to build an advanced assessment, you may want to add a Cloze Math question.

Cloze Math is the digital version of a fill-in-the-blank line on a paper test. The student enters a math response into one or more response boxes.

Example:


Build the Question

  • If you are creating a new item, select the + Create button on the assessment builder, title the item, then select the Add New plus sign to add a question.

  • If you are adding to an existing item, simply select the Add New plus sign (as shown above) to add a question to the item.

Next, select the Math category from the options on the left, then select Cloze Math.

Compose the Question

Type question prompt into this field.

You have many formatting options from the Rich Text toolbar, including changing the font size, adding tables, using math symbols, adding multimedia, and more! Click here for more information on the different functions of the Rich Text toolbar

Add Answer Content

  • Type the content involved with the answer of the question. in the Formula Template section.

  • The response box represents the space where students will type their answer.

  • To add a response box, select the Response Box button from the toolbar:


Answers and Scoring

Below is an image of what it looks like to set the correct answer.

Step 1: Enter a Point Value

  • Determine a point value for the answer. The default point value is 1.

Step 2: Enter the Correct Answer

  • The correct answer goes in the Value field, as shown above.

  • We do not recommend including words in your correct answer. This type of question is specifically designed to score mathematical answers; including words increases the likelihood of auto-scoring errors.

  • Does your answer have a comma separator (example: 12,000)?

    • If the answer allows for comma separators, please check the Allow Decimal Marks option!

Does your answer involve a mathematical symbol that is not part of the "basic" keypad?

  • You will need to enable additional keypads for the students to use. Click here for more information.

Step 2.5: Additional Correct Answers / Alternate Answers

Click to see how to enter more than one correct answer.

  • If there is more than one correct answer (for example, the student can enter 12 or 13 as the correct answer) you can add alternate answers by selecting the blue + button.

  • If you are looking to accept multiple forms of the same value (for example, 0.5 and 1/2), that can be set up in a different way. Check out the equivSymbolic scoring method below. The method shown to the right outlines how to set alternate correct answers that do not have the same value.

Step 3: Choose a Scoring Method

Choosing a scoring method tells Otus exactly what to look for when auto-scoring the question.

  • In some cases, you may want students to get credit for different forms of the same answer, for example, 0.5 and 1/2. There are three available scoring options; equivLiteral, equivSymbolic, and equivValue. Read below to determine which scoring option is best for the question you are writing.

equivSymbolic

Will accept a response that is mathematically equivalent to the correct answer, even if they are in different forms. This is the method you should use if your answer involves variables or if your answer involves multiple parts that can be in any order.

  • If the correct answer is 0.5, other forms of 0.5 will be considered correct, like 1/2 or 4/8.

  • This scoring method allows variables

  • This is the most commonly used scoring method.

equivLiteral

Only accepts a response that is mathematically equivalent to the correct answer AND is given in the same form.

  • If the correct answer is 0.5, only 0.5 will be considered correct.

  • This scoring method allows variables.

  • This scoring method is sometimes used.

  • This is the default scoring method.

equivValue

Will compare numerical values that may be represented in different ways, such as units of measurement.

  • If the correct answer is 14ft, a student response such as 168in will be correct.

  • This scoring method does not allow variables.

  • This scoring method is rarely used. When in doubt, use equivSymbolic.

💡 Tips:

  • The other options outlined in red on the image above (isSimplified, isFactorised...) have very specific and rare circumstances as to when they would be used. For more information, click here.

  • Most of the checkbox settings are not used. The most commonly used checkbox option is the Allow Decimal Marks option, which allows it to accept answers with commas (for example: 12,000). You can read more about that option here.

Step 4: Repeat for Additional Response Boxes

Each additional response box will have its own scoring section; select each section to expand and set the scoring.

Step 5: Choose a Scoring Type

The scoring type is only necessary if you have more than one response box in the question. The scoring type allows you to give partial credit.

Click to see the options for scoring type, including Exact Match, Partial Match per Response, and Partial Match.

In the example above, the point(s) has been set to 1, and there are two responses required (6 and 5 are the correct answers). Let's use that example to describe the options for scoring types:

Exact Match

The entire question must be answered correctly to receive the point(s).

  • In this example, the student must answer with 6 AND 5 to receive 1 point.

Partial Match per Response

Each response is scored independently, and each is worth the number of points indicated in the point(s) field.

  • In this example, choosing this option will make this question worth 2 points; the student will earn 1 point for answering 6, and 1 point for answering 5, for a total of 2 points.

Partial Match

Similar to partial match per response, each response is scored independently, but the point value indicated in the point(s) field is evenly split among the responses.

  • In this example, since the point value is set to 1, and there are 2 responses, each response is worth 0.5 points (1 point divided by 2 answers); the student will earn 0.5 points for answering 6, and 0.5 points for answering 5, for a total of 1 point.


Student Preview

It's highly recommended to Preview the question as you are building it in the item. This displays the question as the students will see it and also verifies that the answers and scoring work as expected.

  • Step 1: Select the Preview button to go into Preview mode.

  • Step 2: Answer the question with the correct answers, including alternates.

    • Selecting Show Answers will present the correct answers.

  • Step 3: Verify that the auto-score correctly calculates the point value.

Click to see a short clip of this question type from the student's perspective.

If you'd like to see specific parts of the tutorial, use the timing outline below:

  • Overview: Begins the video

  • Horizontal Keypad - 0:23

  • Moving the Keypad - 0:30

  • Basic (Default keypad) Introduction - 0:57

    • Fractions - 1:24

    • Mixed Numbers - 1:38

    • Exponents - 1:53

  • Using Additional Keypads - 2:17


More Options

There are other scoring, layout, and keypad options available.

Scoring

Click to see other scoring options, such as penalty points, check answers, accepting a range of answers, and more.

  • Unscored/Practice usage: removes all scoring from the item.

  • Check answer button & Check answer attempts: find more information here!

  • Penalty points: use this option if you want students to lose points for giving incorrect answers. Find more information here!

  • Minimum score if attempted: student will receive points as long as the question has been attempted (if the question is left blank or is unanswered, the student will not earn those points).

Accepting a range of answers (tolerance)

  • Use the +/- symbol in your answer. For an example of any number between 3 and 3.5, you will want to set the answer as such: 3.25 +/- 0.25, which essentially adds a tolerance of 0.25 on the low and high end of the value.

Layout

Click to see font size options

  • In the Font size dropdown menu, you can change the font size of all components of the question to small, normal, large, extra large, or huge.

Click to see how to change the size of the response boxes.

  • In the Width (px) and Height (px) fields, you can adjust the size of the response box. The default size is about 20px, so you can use that as your guide.

Here are some examples:

Do you have multiple response boxes you want to make different sizes? select the + Add button under Response Containers (individual); that will give you the option to change make each response box a different size.

Keypad

Click to see how to change the math keypad available to the students.

  • The defaults for a math question will always be Basic and Keyboard.

There are several different keypads to choose from, as well as placements of the keypad. For more information, check out this article.

Extras

Click to see the "Extras".

At the very bottom of the More Options menu, you will see "Extras". These options are not applicable to Otus assessments - they do not have any impact on the questions or the assessment.


Learnosity Resources

Click to see a video tutorial on how to create this question type from Learnosity.

You can also read more about this question type on Learnosity's Author Guide.


Otus Live Video

Click to see a video from our Otus Live series on how to create a cloze math question.


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