This help article is for publishers wishing to upload assessments for students to take online. 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, you can add bolding, italics etc. using the following:
- To bold a word / sentence add ** either side, e.g. "This word is **bold**", would present in the UI as "This word is bold".
- To use italics add _ either side, e.g. "I like to _highlight part of a sentence by using italics_", would present in the UI as "I like to highlight part of a sentence by using italics".
- To underline a word or words, use ~~ either side, e.g. "This ~~part of the sentence~~ is underlined", would present in the UI as "This part of the sentence is underlined".
Please note: This formatting can only be used in the questions, not the answers.
Once you completed all the required information, save your spreadsheet as a CSV file ready for upload.
IMPORTANT: If your spreadsheet contains special characters such as accents for languages assessments, then if using Excel, please save/export your file as a CSV UTF-8 file:
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.
- 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.