Help & Documentation

Gridded

Gridded questions provide students with the opportunity to derive answers independently.

Description

The purpose of Gridded questions items is to provide students with the opportunity to derive answers independently without being influenced by the answer choices provided with the questions.

 

In this question type, students are presented with a grid of columns containing bubbles, with the numbers 0 to 9 in a vertical list underneath.

The answer grids can include a fixed decimal point or floating decimal points where the top bubble in each column contains the decimal point.

Students enter their answer in the top input field by clicking (or "shading") a numeral/decimal / plus / minus bubble underneath, or they can type directly inside the input field and the question will automatically "shade" the corresponding bubble in the column underneath.

 

Gridded question type example

Create a question

To begin authoring a Gridded question, enter the question stem inside the Compose Question field at the top of the Question Editor. In this field, you will have access to the Rich Text Toolbar and all of its functionality.

Set Correct Answers

If you don't need to make further changes to the layout of the grid in the question, you can set the correct answers for the question. The author sets the correct answer for this question in the same way the student would answer the question - either by typing directly inside the input fields or clicking on the bubbles that correspond to certain input fields.

 

 Setting the correct answer

To remove the content from any of the boxes (as either an author or a student), just click inside the input box and use the delete key on your keyboard.

There are some more configuration options that can be set for this question in the More options section.

 

More options

Scoring

Learn more on the scoring overview page.

 

Under the Default values section, the author can set data that will appear in the input boxes by default. The student will still be able to delete those values from the input boxes by clicking inside an input box and pressing the delete key on their keyboard.

The rest of the scoring options are found in all auto-scored questions:

  • Unscored/practice usage: Enabling this will remove all scoring from the question.
  • Penalty point(s): the value entered here will be deducted from the student's score for each incorrect response.
  • Check answer button: this is turned on by default and will display a 'Check answer' button to the bottom right of the question. When the student selects an answer, they can click on the 'Check answer' button and see if their response is correct or incorrect. The 'Check answer' button doesn't supply the student with any other feedback, and it does not give the student the correct answer if the response they enter is incorrect.
  • Check answer attempts: The value entered here indicates how many times the student can use the 'Check answer' button, after this, it will be disabled. In this case, 0 means an infinite number of times.
  • Enable auto scoring: This is turned on by default on all auto-scored questions. When this is disabled, the question will require manual-scoring.
  • Minimum score if attempted: Whatever value is entered in here will be added to the student's score for attempting the question.
Setting up default values in the Question Editor

Layout

The Layout section allows for some customization of the Gridded question.

 

Gridded question layout settings

The author can set both the number of columns and the range of numbers that appear in the question. The default number of columns is 6 and the default range of numbers is 0-9. Note that the largest number that can appear in the Gridded question is 9.

The plus/minus column option is turned off by default. When this is enabled, a column with only a plus and a minus symbol available will appear as the first column in the question.

When the Fixed decimal option is enabled, you can enter a value for which number column will contain the fixed decimal - e.g. 3 will input the fixed decimal in the third (numeric) column. The fixed decimal can only be added to columns that don't contain the plus and minus symbols, so the author should discount this column when they are figuring out which number column to place the fixed decimal inside of.

The student cannot edit the box containing the fixed decimal, which means they cannot remove or change the fixed decimal.

Alternatively, you can use a Floating decimal; this is enabled by default. With this option, the decimal bubble will appear in each column so the student has the choice to place the decimal anywhere.

 

The Gridded question when the floating decimal is enabled

Fraction slash is turned off by default, but when it’s turned on the fraction slash bubble will appear in the appropriate columns.

 

 

Gridded layout settings modified from the defaults; the number of columns have been set to 4, the range of numbers have been set as 0-6, the plus/minus column and the fraction slash have been enabled, and the fixed decimal has been turned on and set to appear in the second numeric column.

In the image above, Gridded layout settings have been modified from the defaults – the number of columns have been set to 4, the range of numbers have been set as 0-6, the plus/minus column and the fraction slash have been enabled, and the fixed decimal has been turned on and set to appear in the second numeric column.

 

It is also possible to change the Font size in the Question - Normal is the default, but you may select Small, Normal, Large, Extra large, and Huge.