BEFORE YOU START: in order to be able to create an assessment you need to activate a publisher profile. Then you'll need to add an assessment family (if one doesn't already exist). Also, if you want to use topics to group questions in your assessment, before setting up an assessment you'll need to create a topic library.
Note: This article covers how to upload online assessments. If you want to upload an offline or paper-based assessment, please refer to this article.
To upload an online assessment, a spreadsheet containing information about the test needs to be created first. At the bottom of this article you will see an Excel template. Download this and complete it with the relevant information, taking care to follow these instructions regarding the columns:
| Column Header | Instructions |
| Tier | Leave this blank (note: we do not currently support tiered online assessments) |
| Part | Enter the part number "1", "2" etc. |
| Question Name | Enter the question name e.g. "1a". Character limit 30 |
| Marks | Enter the max possible marks for the question |
| Topics | Topics must be contained in the topic library selected. If there is more than one topic for the question, they should be separated by a semicolon e.g. "Addition;Subtraction;Multiplication" |
| Question Text | Enter the question text. Character limit 500 |
| Optional Question? | Leave this blank (note: we do not currently support tiered optional questions in online assessments) |
| Correct Answer | Enter the first (or only) correct answer. Character limit 500 |
| Correct Answer 2 Correct Answer 3 | Only required if the question requires more than one response, either as a free text or as a multiple choice question. Character limit 500 |
| Wrong Answers 1, 2, 3 & 4 | Only required for multiple choice questions. Character limit 300 |
| Marking Guidance | Enter any marking guidance e.g. "Award 1 mark for 2 correct, award 2 marks for 3 correct" |
Spreadsheet FAQs
How does Smartgrade know if the question is a multiple choice or a free text question?
If the "Wrong Answer" columns are left blank, Smartgrade will create a free text question.
Can I create new topics if I add them to the "Topics" column?
No, the topics must already exist in the Topic Library.
Should I leave a space between topics?
When a question has more than one topic associated with it, the topics should be separated by a semicolon and should have no spaces (e.g. Addition;Subtraction).
Can I give more than one correct answer?
For free text questions, you need to complete as many "Correct Answer" columns as you would expect responses from the student. If you wanted to say that '3' was the correct answer, but you would accept 3.0, enter '3' in the "Correct Answer" column, and give advice in the "Marking Guidance" for anything else that is acceptable.
For multiple choice questions, each "Correct Answer" column you complete will create a choice that the student could select. You could give advice about acceptable answers in the the "Marking Guidance".
Can I have a breaker screen between questions to give instructions, or to signify the end of a section?
Yes! On the spreadsheet complete the "Part" you would like the breaker assigned to. In the "Question Name" put any header information that you would like displayed. In the "Marks" enter "BR" and in the "Question Text" enter any wording you want in the main part of the screen. See example below:
Can I format the text?
Yes, please this help article which explains how you can add bolding, italics and underlining.
Can I create questions with inline answer boxes?
Yes! You can add up to three interactive "inline" answer boxes per question.
Implementation: Use the tags [[1]], [[2]], and [[3]] to mark where the input boxes should appear.
Example: Entering 100 - [[1]] = 60 will render the equation with an empty box for the student to complete.
Student View: When the assessment is taken online, these tags are automatically replaced by interactive input boxes:
Customising the inline answer box
Box Sizing
By default, the width of the input box will match the character count of the correct answer provided plus 2 characters. Inline answers can contain up to 20 characters. You can specify a box size by including the answer number followed by the desired character count inside the brackets, separated by a comma.
Example: [[1,12]]
- Result: This example would provide students with an answer box wide enough for an answer containing 12 characters.
You should consider alternative answers a student may enter when determining the size of the box.
Text justification
- Left justification: This is the default setting for all inputted characters.
- Right justification: Use an 'r' (e.g., [[1,12,r]]) to justify text to the right of the box.
- Centre justification: Use a 'c' (e.g., [[1,12,c]]) for text that needs to be centred in the middle of the input box.
Important rules for inline questions
To ensure your questions function correctly upon upload, keep these technical requirements in mind:
- Sequential order: Tags must be used in numerical order.
- Column mapping: In your upload spreadsheet, [[1]] pulls from Column H, [[2]] from Column I, and [[3]] from Column J.
- Answer types: These are treated as Free Text questions. You can specify if they are Numeric, Case-sensitive, or require an Exact match for auto-marking within Smartgrade.
- Compatibility restrictions: Inline questions do not support Math notation or Multiple Choice (MCQ) formats.
Uploading the spreadsheet
- Once the file is prepared, you're ready to upload the details and create the assessment. To do this, navigate to My Assessments and select the BUILD AN ASSESSMENT button as you would when building an assessment via the user interface.
- Before uploading your online assessment, fill in the drop-downs on the assessment and select a Topic Library if one is being used. Don't forget that any topics used on the upload spreadsheet must be present in the selected topic library.
- On the Build a new assessment page, move the Upload question detail? and the Online assessment? sliders to the On position (i.e. move it to the right). NOTE: If you cannot see the Online assessment slider, please email help@smartgrade.co.uk
- You'll notice that the Question Detail box changes to include a file uploader.
- Click BROWSE FILES and select your saved CSV file. If there are errors during the upload process the system will give you indications of the data that did not import and why.
- Once the file is uploaded you'll be taken to the Question Detail modal with your spreadsheet information pre-filled. You can make further edits on the modal before clicking CONFIRM to save the data.
- You can also edit the type of answer required by Smartgrade by clicking View under the Answer(s) column:
- A Free text answer will allow students to type their answers. A Short answer will allow up to 75 characters and a Paragraph will allow up to 500 characters.
- A Free text (numeric only) answer will only allow a student to enter numeric characters.
- Exact match required will mark any answers that differ from your correct answer for any reason as incorrect. Case sensitive? will require any answers to include the correct casing.
- Multiple choice will require students to choose from multiple options.
- If you require the answer options for Multiple Choice Questions to be in an consistent order to allow for them to be read aloud to the students, follow the instructions in this article.
- Add attachments if required and then publish the assessment as per the normal process. down