Introduction
Imagine: it is Sunday evening, and you are looking at a blank screen and attempting to construct an assessment that really measures what your students learned – not what they can memorize. Sound familiar?
The vast majority of teachers spend hours leaping between incompatible tools, stitching together Google Forms, printable PDFs and gradebooks that do not communicate with one another. The result? A quilt system that does not reduce work.
Edulastic changes that. It is an online assessment platform designed to allow you to develop, administer and auto-mark standards-based tests, all under a single platform. First year teacher or a curriculum coordinator dealing with a district-wide implementation? This guide will take you step-by-step through how to build a test in Edulastic.
What Is Edulastic and Why It Matters.
Edulastic is a K-12 assessment tool that can be used by more than 200,000 teachers in the United States. It supports over 30 technology-enhanced question types – multiple choice and drag-and-drop, graphing and written math equations, and matches questions to Common Core, NGSS and state standards.
The difference between it and simple quiz tools is that it has a real-time reporting dashboard that displays the individual student performance, trends in the classes, as well as, mastery by standard. That is, spending less time on grading and spending more time on taking action on the data.
To whom this guide is addressed: This guide is aimed at beginners that have never entered Edulastic as well as at tech-savvy teachers that prefer to streamline their workflow and undergo more sophisticated settings.
Ready to start: What You need.
- An Edulastic account – Free Teacher accounts can be obtained at edulastic.com. District accounts open up more capabilities.
- Your learning objectives or standards – Know what standards or skills you are assessing prior to building.
- A question bank plan – Choose whether you will write your own questions or use the questions in the public Edulastic Item Bank or a combination of both.
- An approximate concept of test length – Most classroom tests have 1030 questions. Practice tests can be longer and are standardized.
How to make a test in Edulastic: Step-by-step.
Step 1: Login and go to the Assessments Tab.
Enter at app.edulastic.com. Go to the left-hand panel of your dashboard and select Assessments. Next, click the green “+ New Assessment” button in the upper-right corner.
You will be asked to select a method of creation:
| Option | Best For |
|---|---|
| Examination | Formal, structured exams. |
| Practice | Self-reviewing in students. |
| Dynamic Test | Adaptive items pool assessments. |
In the majority of classroom applications, choose “Test.”
Step 2: Name Your Test and Basic Details.
A modal window will show. Fill in:
- Name of the test – Be specific. Unit 4 Fractions Quiz Grade 5 is superior to the Math Test.
- Subject and Grade Level – These areas drive the standard-alignment capabilities of Edulastic, and should not be overlooked.
- Description of tests (not mandatory) – This is handy when you are sharing tests with others or creating a library of tests.
Click on the Create Test to get to the test editor.
Step 3: Test Settings.
To add questions, press the “Settings” tab on the top of the editor beforehand. It is here that a number of teachers make vital choices – and where novices tend to omit significant choices.
The settings to set up are as follows:
- Test Time Limit — This option allows you to simulate the conditions of the standardized tests or to control the class time.
- Shuffle Questions / Shuffle Answers – minimizes the copying amongst students.
- Performance Band — Set mastery thresholds (e.g., 0–59% = Below Basic, 60–79% = Basic, 80–100% = Proficient).
- Accessibility Features — Turn on text-to-speech, answer masking, and more within the platform.
- Password Protection – Will not allow students access to the test until set.
Pro Tip: When creating a summative assessment, you can enable Prevent students going back to replicate high-stakes test conditions.
Step 4: Add Your Questions to Your Test.
This is the crux of the matter. To open the question editor, click on Add Items. You have two paths:
Option A: Add New Question Using a blank question.
Click + Create New Item. You will have a library of question type cards. The most commonly used ones are:
- Multiple Choice -Traditional one or multiple choices.
- True/False
- Short Text / Essay
- Cloze (Fill in the Blank)
- Matching
- Drag & Drop / Classification
- Graphing -Math and science.
- Number Line/ Fraction Models – Standards based math tools.
Choose your type, type your question stem, enter answer choices, circle the correct answer and save.
Alternative: B. Search the Public Item Bank.
Click on Browse Item Bank to search the library of more than 80,000 community and publisher-created questions in Edulastic. Filter by:
- Standard (e.g., CCSS.MATH.5.NF.A.1)
- Subject and Grade
- Question Type
- Level of Depth of Knowledge (DOK).
Review the preview, and when you find the question to your requirements, click on “Add to Test.”
Step 5: Determine Scoring and Answer Keys.
After adding questions, go to the Review tab. Here you can:
- Adjust the value of points on each question – it is not necessary that every question is equally valued.
- Include rubrics in open-ended items.
- See what a student would see on the preview of the entire test, with accessibility settings.
- Check the answer key – this is the last check of the correct answer to the questions before publishing.
All objective types of questions are auto-graded by Edulastic. With written answers, you will be asked to manually grade them once they have been submitted.
Step 6: Publish Your Test and Assign.
Once you are content with the test, you can click on the upper-right corner and assign it. This brings up the assignment panel:
- Choose a group or class on your Edulastic list.
- Establish an Open Date and Due Date.
- Select a Release Policy — determine how soon students will see their scores (immediately, after due date or manually released).
- Delivery method Browser, Kiosk Mode (locks browser to provide secure testing), or Paper Mode (can print with auto-scoring using scanned bubble sheets).
Click “assign” – and you have a live test.
Advice on creating quality Edulastic Assessments.
- Tag all questions to a particular standard. This opens the mastery reporting of Edulastic that disaggregates performance by standard and not by a total score.
- Apply the DOK Level 3 and 4 questions sparingly but deliberately. Items of higher-order thinking (such as constructed response or multi-part performance tasks) demonstrate the knowledge not possible in multiple choice.
- Create question tags. Items can be easily filtered and reused in subsequent tests with custom tags (e.g., Vocab, Application, Prerequisite).
- Duplicate to create test versions. Edulastic is the one that enables you to clone a test and shuffle or swap questions to form A and B.
- Preview on a mobile phone. This is because many students are taking tests on school-issued Chromebooks or tablets. What is presentable on the desktop may not come out well on small screens.
Typical Fallacies.
| Error | Reason Why It is Bad | Remedy |
|---|---|---|
| Failing to establish grade level and subject | Breaks standard alignment | Always complete test information and then add questions |
| Bypassing the Student Preview | Broken items are served to students | Preview as a Student assigned beforehand. |
| Multiple choice only | Limits insight into comprehension | Combine at least 20% open-ended or technology-enhanced. |
| Failing to impose a time limit | Students take at extremely varying times | Use the time limit to summative tests. |
| Failing to publish with a review | Answer key errors create grading issues | Review answer key before publishing. |
Key Takeaways
- Edulastic is compatible with 30+ question types and can automatically grade all objective questions.
- When adding questions, always complete subject, grade and standard tags first – this is the driving force of the reporting engine.
- Save time and reshape questions to your pacing and vocabulary with the public Item Bank.
- Select and set up (time limits, shuffle, performance bands) prior to publication.
- Assign with an open/close date and a premeditated score issue policy.
- Get a preview of the test as a student before it becomes live – every single time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Edulastic free of charge?
Yes. The free Teacher account of Edulastic has access to the basic assessment builder and open item bank. Premium and District levels enable new features such as advanced reporting, custom performance bands, and integrations with Google Classroom, Canvas, and Clever.
Is it possible to import questions of Google Forms or Word documents?
Google Forms does not import to Edulastic natively. You may however recreate questions manually or bulk import questions of a specified format using the Edulastic bulk import option. The most recent import options are on their official Help Center.
What are the devices that students should use to take an Edulastic test?
Any computer that has a current web browser – Chromebook, iPad, Mac, Windows, or Android tablet. Kiosk Mode will need the Edulastic Kiosk App, which can be found on Chrome Web Store and the App Store.
What do I do to share a test with a different teacher?
Click the three-dot menu, and then choose Share. You may send the test to certain colleagues via email or share the test with your entire district.
Is it possible to practice state testing with Edulastic?
Yes. The item bank of Edulastic contains released items of PARCC, Smarter Balanced and numerous state assessments. Locate them by assessment type by filtering the Item Bank.
Ready to Construct Your First Test?
Now you can start with a blank canvas and create a fully-assigned, standards-aligned Edulastic assessment. Quit repairing tools that were not designed to be used in the classroom.