All Users

  1. What is QuizSite?
  2. Who can use QuizSite?
  3. Can QuizSite be used at other IU campuses?
  4. Can QuizSite be used at other universities?
  5. When is QuizSite available?
  6. What are the software requirements for using QuizSite?
  7. Who can I contact about QuizSite and Post'Em?
  8. What is my Network ID (for QuizSite and Post'Em)?
  9. QuizSite indicates that my network ID is invalid, but I know I have correctly entered my username and network password. What should I do?
  10. What should be done when a student username changes?
  11. I get a "server error". What should I do?
  12. How can I log in as a guest?
  13. Why does the Back button send me back to the login screen when I use Internet Explorer 5 on a Macintosh?

Instructors

  1. How do I use QuizSite?
  2. How do I access QuizSite from within Oncourse?
  3. How should I instruct my students on how to access QuizSite?
  4. How do I create a link to QuizSite in Oncourse?
  5. How do I return to the Main Menu if there is no Proceed button?
  6. What is a QuizSite activity?
  7. Where can I put information and instructions about an activity?
  8. How do I code this kind of question in QuizSite?
  9. How do I implement this kind of activity in QuizSite?
  10. I made a mistake in some QuizSite test items. How can I make corrections so that students are graded fairly?
  11. How can I change the grades of one or more of my students?
  12. Can QuizSite give a timed test?
  13. Can QuizSite broadcast the time remaining for an activity?
  14. Can a QuizSite activity be restricted to take place at a certain location?
  15. My students report an error "Pool smaller than request". What does this mean?
  16. How can I see an activity as a student will see it?
  17. How can I remove questions?
  18. How can my department set up an account (e.g. for course evaluations)?
  19. How can I conduct a survey of all members of an IUB Majordomo mailing list?
  20. How can I let my students practice a past activity?
  21. Where can I find a student's answers to an activity?
  22. How do I get scores from QuizSite to use in Post'Em?
  23. When are student scores ignored or not stored by QuizSite?
  24. What other software can I use to set up my own custom quiz, evaluation or survey?
  25. When are workshops given on the use of QuizSite?
  26. Can QuizSite display non-Western character sets for foreign languages?
  27. How can I keep students from distributing copies of a test administered through QuizSite?
  28. I set an activity to expire at 11:59 pm. Why were my students unable to access the activity after 11 pm?

Students

  1. How do I use QuizSite?
  2. Why is my name not listed in any QuizSite class records?
  3. Why does my class not appear in QuizSite?
  4. How can evaluations be anonymous if you rely on rosters?
  5. I accidentally pressed Enter and submitted my activity before I was finished. How can I avoid this in the future?
  6. My computer crashed before I could submit my activity and I lost all my answers. How can I avoid this in the future?

QuizSite General Questions

  1. What is QuizSite?

    QuizSite is a Web-based computer program created by the IU Bloomington Evaluation Services and Testing. QuizSite permits instructors to deliver homework, quizzes, exams, minute papers or course evaluations via the World Wide Web. QuizSite also provides immediate feedback to both instructor and students.

  2. Who can use QuizSite?

    Any instructor or associate instructor with a valid IU Network ID can use QuizSite. (The system is designed to use official IUB course numbers, but for informal courses and workshops, you can fabricate a number.)

    Any student who is listed on such an instructor's QuizSite roster can use QuizSite.

  3. Can QuizSite be used at other IU campuses?

    QuizSite was designed to work at Indiana University Bloomington. Instructors must have an IU Network ID. Instructors at IU campuses other than Bloomington can obtain a Network ID. See the UITS Knowledge Base entry How do I get an Indiana University Bloomington account if I am affiliated with another IU campus?

    However, students do not necessarily need an IU Bloomington Network ID. For example, IUPUI instructors with a Bloomington Network ID can use QuizSite with their IUPUI students by putting -- in the campus field of the roster file. For more information, see the rosters documentation.

  4. Can QuizSite be used at other universities?

    QuizSite was created specifically for Indiana University. It was not designed to be modified for use at other universities. Also see What other software can I use to set up my own custom quiz, evaluation or survey?

  5. When is QuizSite available?

    Although our office hours are 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday, QuizSite is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

    Occasionally we must reboot the server or perform maintenance, or some system problem occurs.

    If the system is not available for more than 20 minutes, please contact us.

  6. What are the software requirements for using QuizSite?

    QuizSite uses CGI, basic HTML and some JavaScript, but not Java. It will run in nearly every browser that supports forms. For example, QuizSite will run using Netscape Navigator version 2 and higher, and Internet Explorer version 3 and higher.

    However, we recommend that you use version 4 or higher of Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer to enable a few features that use JavaScript.

  7. Who can I contact about QuizSite and Post'Em?

  8. What is my Network ID (for QuizSite and Post'Em)?

    Your Network ID is your electronic identity here at Indiana University Bloomington and consists of two things: a username and a password (often referred to as your network password). It may or may not be the same as your e-mail password.

    For more information, see the Knowledge Base entry about Network IDs.

  9. QuizSite indicates that my network ID is invalid, but I know I have correctly entered my username and network password. What should I do?

  10. What should be done when a student username changes?

    Students
    Please notify all of your instructors who have used QuizSite and/or Post'Em this semester.
    Post'Em Instructors
    Simply make the change to your grades file on your computer and upload the file into Post'Em again.
    QuizSite Instructors
    1. Notify us so that we can rename some student files from past activities. We will inform you when we are finished.
    2. Make the change to your roster file on your computer and upload the file into QuizSite.
    • Please follow these two steps in order if possible. If you change the roster and the student completes an activity before we rename the file, we will have to combine two files instead of merely renaming one.

  11. I get a "server error". What should I do?

    This occurs on rare occasions if the server is receiving too many requests.

  12. How can I log in as a guest?

    The Veritas version of QuizSite does not support guest login. However, you can see instructor and student screen shots without logging in.

  13. Why does the Back button send me back to the login screen when I use Internet Explorer 5 on a Macintosh?

    QuizSite and Post'Em use the same URL for all screens. Apparently Internet Explorer 5 on a Macintosh does not cache screens but only URLs.

    We have not found a way around this problem, so we recommend that Macintosh users use either Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer 4.

QuizSite Instructor Questions

  1. How do I use QuizSite?

    To log in to QuizSite, go to the BEST home page and click QuizSite Instructors.

    For more information, see the QuizSite Instructor Documentation.

  2. How do I access QuizSite from within Oncourse?

    Oncourse no longer has a link to QuizSite because it maintains its own Test and Survey Tool. However, you can add QuizSite as a testing tool:

    Log in to Oncourse, select a course, click Tools, click Create/Edit Tools, click the + by New Item, select Testing Tools for the category, type in QuizSite Instructors for the title, type in https://www.indiana.edu/~best/cgi-bin/quizsite/instructors.pl for the URL, type in http://www.indiana.edu/~best/quizsite/ for the Help URL, and click OK.

    The title bar will not display QuizSite information since Oncourse puts QuizSite in a frame.

  3. How should I instruct my students on how to access QuizSite?

    There are several possible ways that you could point students to QuizSite. Use whichever works best in your situation.

  4. How do I create a link to QuizSite in Oncourse?

    1. Log in to Oncourse.
    2. Select a course, click Tools, and click "Create/Edit Tools" to go to the Tool Item Editor.
    3. For the Title, type QuizSite Students.
    4. For the URL, type
      https://www.indiana.edu/~best/cgi-bin/quizsite/students.pl
    5. For the Description, type "Activities, quizzes and course evaluations" or some description of how you will use QuizSite for the course.
    6. For the Help URL, type
      http://www.indiana.edu/~best/quizsite/students.html
    7. For the Icon URL, type
      http://www.indiana.edu/~best/images/besthome.gif
    8. Click Ok.
    9. Change to student mode and click tools to check that the link appears.

  5. How do I return to the Main Menu if there is no Proceed button?

    You can always click the Back button in your browser one or more times to return to the Main Menu.

    Note that the Back button does not undo any changes you make to QuizSite files.

  6. What is a QuizSite activity?

    A QuizSite activity is an exam, quiz, homework assignment, evaluation or other assessment given to students by an instructor.

    Activities are created from groups of question items.

    Activity settings, such as the question topics and start and end dates of the activity, are stored in an activities file.

  7. Where can I put information and instructions about an activity?

    From the Main Menu, in the Activities column, select Instructions. Select the activity, or select ALL to give the same set of instructions for all activities.

    You could also use one of the following solutions:

  8. How do I code this kind of question in QuizSite?

    If you do not see the answer in the documentation of question items, please contact us.

  9. How do I implement this kind of activity in QuizSite?

    If you do not see the answer in the documentation of activities, please contact us.

  10. I made a mistake in some QuizSite test items. How can I make corrections so that students are graded fairly?

    There is no perfectly fair way to repair the problem. It is important to handle the situation in a consistent way.

    There are at least four possible categories of students. They may have:

    Here is one possible approach:

    1. Let your students know that there are mistakes in the test.
    2. Define a new activity with corrected test items.
    3. Decide whether to ask all students to retake the test, or only those who did not provide answers to the bad test items.
    4. Decide whether to count the best test score, or only the most recent.

    The best solution is to prevent this problem from occurring in the first place. You can decrease the chances of having errors by:

    Also see the documentation on how to write better tests and test reliability.

  11. How can I change the grades of one or more of my students?

    There is no way for you to manually change grades within QuizSite.

    Note that scores of 0 are not counted as an attempt if an activity allows multiple attempts.

    If a student accidentally submits an activity without completing it and you would like us to remove that submission, please contact us.

  12. Can QuizSite give a timed test?

    QuizSite lets you specify a start and end time for accessing an activity, but for the activity to be timed, all students must start at the same time.

    If some students cannot complete an activity at that time (for example, they have an excused absence from a test), you could create another section containing only those students. The disadvantage would be the extra work of combining the activity results.

  13. Can QuizSite broadcast the time remaining for an activity?

    No, the program does not have this feature. We suggest that you check whether the time shown on computers at the testing site is accurate, and let students know if it is slow or fast.

  14. Can a QuizSite activity be restricted to take place at a certain location?

    No, the program does not have this feature. All QuizSite activities can be accessed from nearly any Web client computer on the Internet.

  15. My students report an error "Pool smaller than request". What does this mean?

    The quiz was attempting to randomly choose a number of questions (the request) out of a larger number of questions (the pool).

    Make sure that the questions include the quiz topic and that the activity settings specify fewer randomly chosen items than the number of questions in your item bank with that topic.

    For example, if your activity settings indicate sticky(10=history), you must have at least 10 questions with history as one of the topics.

    If there are no questions containing the topic, students will see a similar error message: "The question pool is empty."

  16. How can I see an activity as a student will see it?

    1. Include your own username on the student roster.
    2. Either
      • temporarily change the start and end dates of the activity so that they include the current time, or
      • use a different section for yourself in the roster and create a new identical activity which only includes that section.
    3. Log in as a student with your own network ID.

  17. How can I remove questions?

    You cannot remove questions from the database entirely, but you can change the topic of a question so it does not appear in an activity. You can remove all topics from a question to make it "invisible", though you could still access the question by choosing Display under Question Items on the Main Menu and selecting the question by its ID number. See the example under deleting in the items documentation.

  18. How can my department set up an account (e.g. for course evaluations)?

    We can create an account by hand if you indicate what username you would like your department to use and the username of the primary contact for that account. (The username must contain no more than 8 letters.)

    Also see the instructions for QuizSite On-line Course Evaluations.

  19. How can I conduct a survey of all members of an IUB Majordomo mailing list?

    QuizSite is not set up to do this easily, but here is a workaround. These instructions assume that you know how to use QuizSite as an instructor.

    1. Get permission from the appropriate authorities to conduct the survey.
      This depends on the nature of the survey, the target audience, etc.
    2. If the survey will go to more than a thousand people, please let us know so we can monitor the load on our server.
    3. Send an e-mail message to majordomo@indiana.edu with who list_name in the body of the message.
    4. You should immediately receive a list of usernames of everyone subscribed to the list.
      If not, the list of names might be protected, and you might have to get the list from the list administrator.
    5. Save the e-mail message as a text file.
      (In Pine, press e and type roster.txt.)
    6. Download the file to a PC and open the file in Microsoft Word.
    7. Remove the mail message header lines.
    8. Add a blank line at the beginning.
    9. Press Control-H (Find and Replace).
    10. In the Find box, type ^p
    11. In the Replace box, type ^p000,BL,0000,000000000,SURVEY,SurveyName,
      (This adds fake roster information before each username.)
    12. Remove lines with non-IUB addresses.
      (You could replace BL with -- in those lines and use 000000000 as their passwords, but that would not be very secure.)
    13. Press Control-H and replace @ with ,
    14. Save the file.
    15. Log in to QuizSite and create a fake course account.
      (Instead of a real course name, use something like A000 or Z999.)
      If you would like a custom account and course name, please contact us.
    16. Create survey question items and activity settings as you normally would for a QuizSite course activity.
      Make sure that the questions are anonymous.
    17. Upload the file roster.txt as the course roster.
    18. Test that the survey is working by logging into QuizSite as a student.
      (Your name will be on the roster, assuming you are a member of the list.)
    19. Send a message to the list with a description of the purpose of the survey and instructions on when and how to access it.
    20. During and after the survey, you can view the results in QuizSite.

  20. How can I let my students practice a past activity?

    1. Create a second activity identical to the first except for the activity name (e.g. add _practice to the end of the name).
    2. Allow a large number of attempts in the Scoring field (1000=first).
    3. Allow a large number of days in the Disclosure field (d=365) before the student can view the activity's answer key, or set the end date of the activity to be the last day of the semester.
    4. Tell students that scores from the second activity will not count toward their grades.

  21. Where can I find a student's answers to an activity?

    Students sometimes forget to take note of their answers and would like to know what they answered the last time they took the activity and which questions were answered incorrectly.

    This information is only available to the instructor, but you can e-mail it to the student if you choose.

    1. From the Main Menu, under Results, choose Item Analysis.
    2. Select the activity, select Examinees' Scores, Responses, Attendance, and click Proceed.
    3. In your browser click Edit->Find in Page, type the student's username, and click Find.
    4. The answers will be in the last column. Underlined answers are correct.
    5. You can now select the answers with the mouse, click Edit->Copy in your browser, and paste them into an e-mail message to the student.

  22. How do I get scores from QuizSite to use in Post'Em?

    Students can already see their scores in QuizSite. If you want to add student scores from non-QuizSite activities and display everything in Post'Em,

    1. From the QuizSite Main Menu choose Score Report and click Proceed.
    2. Select all activities, display the results in comma-delimited format, and click Proceed.
    3. Click File->Save in your browser and save as a text file.
    4. Import the file into an Excel spreadsheet, with comma as the field delimiter.
    5. Add student scores from non-QuizSite activities.
    6. Compute averages using spreadsheet formulas.
    7. Save the file in CSV (comma-delimited) format.
    8. Upload the .csv file into Post'Em.

  23. When are student scores ignored or not stored by QuizSite?

    When a student scores zero on an activity, it is stored by QuizSite but not counted as a submission because the student probably submitted the activity by accident, before completing it. For example, if your activity settings indicate 5=first, QuizSite will accept five non-zero attempts and count the first non-zero score.

    When a student submits a blank activity or an activity with answers that are exactly identical to that of a previous submission, the student is informed that the submission is not stored by QuizSite, since the student probably (re)submitted the activity by accident, before submitting/changing any answers.

    When a student submits an activity with a score that is identical to that of a previous submission but not identical responses, the new score is counted as a submission (and NOT ignored), since the student probably tried unsuccessfully to correct a wrong answer.

  24. What other software can I use to set up my own custom quiz, evaluation or survey?

    Although QuizSite is very flexible, you may find that you need even more control over how you collect, process and display your data.

    We are currently searching for commercially available on-line quiz programs and tools for developing on-line activities such as quizzes and course evaluations. Two commercial products you might consider are iQuiz and Macromedia CourseBuilder for Dreamweaver. Others are listed in the Class Management Technologies section of our Suggested Links page.

    At IU, you might consider the Web Surveys at the Center for Survey Research, or the Oncourse test and survey tool.

    In theory, you could create your own activities using Perl. QuizSite was written using Perl, a complex programming language that takes a considerable amount of time to learn.

    An easier and more practical option is Transform, a utility written at IU for processing HTML forms. Transform is also a Perl program, but processing custom forms with Transform does not require knowledge of Perl, though you do need to understand and create HTML.

    Here is an outline of the procedure you would need to follow. Also see the General overview of Transform.

    1. Obtain an account on a UNIX Web server.
    2. Create a web page with an HTML form that contains your quiz or survey questions.
      You can create HTML forms using a text editor like Notepad in Windows or pico on a UNIX machine, or a Web editor like FrontPage.
      If you create the file on your computer, you need to upload it to the web server using FTP or the publishing feature of your Web editor.
    3. Create a template file (with extension .tpl) that determines what to do with the data when the student submits it.
      You can use Transform to automatically do one or more of the following actions:
      • Display a message to the student that the data has been received.
      • Display feedback about student responses (e.g. correct, incorrect, and why).
      • E-mail a copy of the data to yourself, the student, and/or any address.
      • Save or append the data to one or more data files in a format you create (e.g. plain text, HTML or comma-delimited ascii).
      • Publish student contributions to one or more web pages on the server.
      See the Transform Examples.
    4. Restrict access to the activity using an .htaccess file.
      Access can be restricted to a list of student usernames or computer lab hostnames, or can require the students to type in their IUB network username and password.
    5. After the students have submitted their data, you can obtain the results in one of the following ways:
      • Create a link to the data file and view it over the web.
        (Restrict access to the data file using another .htaccess file.)
      • Download the file to your computer and process the data in another program:
        • Display and edit the data in a word processor.
        • If you saved the data in comma-delimited ASCII format, upload it to a spreadsheet program like Excel or a statistical package like SPSS and create your own statistical analyses of the data.

  25. When are workshops given on the use of QuizSite?

    A workshop can be arranged for groups of five or more instructors and/or secretaries upon request.

  26. Can QuizSite display non-Western character sets for foreign languages?

    Yes. If you send us a request, we can add your username to a list and you can include the appropriate HTML head tags in your quizzes. For more information, see the head tags documentation.

    Note that the test and survey tool in Oncourse also allows custom head tags. They can be added to the HTML Head section of the WWW Page Settings.

  27. How can I keep students from distributing copies of a test administered through QuizSite?

    There is no way to prevent all students from printing, saving or e-mailing copies of any QuizSite activity. For this reason, we generally discourage the use of QuizSite or other on-line testing software for highly important activities such as mid-term or final exams. However, some combination of the following measures may greatly reduce the instances of copying:

    1. Give only a short time to complete the test, so that students will not have much time to both create and copy answers before the test expires.
    2. Administer the test in a single room and physically monitor students by watching their computer screens. Take attendance to make sure that none of the students is taking the test from a computer outside the room. Configure the student browsers to hide and/or disable navigation controls.
    3. Select only a random subset of questions by specifying RAND or STICKY in the activity settings. It will then be unlikely that any two students will receive exactly the same set of questions.
    4. Use the SHUFFLE activity setting to shuffle the questions so that they appear in a different order for each student.
    5. Give completely different questions to different groups of students by creating different activities for each section or sub-section. (Student groups can be created by editing the section number field of each student in the roster.)
    6. Ask ESSAY questions that require students to submit subjective answers. Copying of answers will be easier to detect than for objective questions.
    7. Use the NOF or NOS activity settings to avoid giving students feedback about their answers or scores.

  28. I set an activity to expire at 11:59 pm. Why were my students unable to access the activity after 11 pm?

    This will occur if you set the time to be 23.59 and upload the activity settings. QuizSite will interpret 23.59 as a decimal number representing the hour and convert to the integer 23. Make sure that you use a colon between the hours and minutes. The time should be 23:59. Note that QuizSite will not catch the error only if you upload the activity settings.

QuizSite Student Questions

  1. How do I use QuizSite?

    To log in to QuizSite, go to the BEST home page and click QuizSite Students.

    For more information, see the QuizSite Student Documentation.

  2. Why is my name not listed in any QuizSite class records?

    This means that your username is not in the roster file of any instructor who is using QuizSite this semester.

  3. Why does my class not appear in QuizSite?

    1. Not all instructors use QuizSite and Post'Em. If you are not sure, check with your instructor.
    2. If you know your instructor uses one or both of these for your class but your name still does not appear, contact your instructor, who can add your name to the roster.
    3. If you were enrolled in a previous semester, your records may have been deleted after the semester ended. If you would still like to see your grades for that semester, contact your instructor.
    4. If your username has changed, ask your instructor to change your username in his or her roster and upload it to QuizSite again. Your instructor should also notify us so that we can rename your activity files and your past scores will appear.

  4. How can evaluations be anonymous if you rely on rosters?

    If the instructor indicates that the evaluation should be anonymous, only the results of the evaluations are sent to the instructor, and the instructor will never see who submitted them.

  5. I accidentally pressed Enter and submitted my activity before I was finished. How can I avoid this in the future?

    Internet Explorer may submit a form when you press Enter, if the focus is on a radio button or one-line text field for example, even if the Proceed button is not selected.

    If you avoid pressing Enter, or if you use Netscape Navigator instead, this problem will not occur.

  6. My computer crashed before I could submit my activity and I lost all my answers. How can I avoid this in the future?

    QuizSite does not save any of your work until you submit the completed activity. However, if your computer crashes frequently or your modem disconnects frequently, you should consider the following strategies: