Once you sign into Blackboard and select your course, click ‘Launch Akindi’. Akindi will automatically sync your course and class roster (including section numbers and emails) and be ready for you to create your first assessment.
How will your assessment be delivered?
Depending on how your assessment will be delivered, skip to 'Creating a Paper Assessment' for in-person tests, or 'Creating an Online Assessment' for tests delivered remotely.
Paper Assessments
1. Creating a Paper Assessment
To get started, click the 'Create Assessment' button on the top right hand corner.
Set up your assessment by choosing a Course, adding the Assessment Name, and selecting ‘Paper’ as the Assessment type.
Choose whether to turn on multiple versions and select a bubble sheet layout for your assessment. You'll also have the choice of allowing Akindi to pre-fill the test sheets with the student names and IDs. Click 'Save & Continue'.
2. Creating an Answer Key for Paper
Enter your answer key by selecting the correct response for each question. Turn on ‘advanced marking’ options to control the weight and grading scheme of each question. Click 'Continue'.
3. Printing Test Sheets
On the next step, click 'Print Bubble Sheets' to open a PDF of your test sheets, download the PDF test sheets and print them using any printer and regular paper.
4. Scanning and Uploading Test Sheets
After the test has been completed, scan the test sheets to a PDF using any scanner and select ‘Upload sheets’ to upload the PDF to Akindi.
5. Resolving Exceptions
When scanning the test sheets, Akindi will call exceptions if student information is missing or mis-filled, if a student bubbles-in more responses than the answer key contains, or if a page wasn't able to be graded.
Select the one of the presented suggestions to or search the student name by ID of student number in the dropdown menu.
If you will only be delivering in-person assessments with Akindi, please skip to 'Analyzing the Results'.
Online Assessment
1. Creating an Online Assessment
To get started, click the 'Create Assessment' button on the top right hand corner.
Set up your assessment by choosing a Course, entering the Assessment Name, and selecting ‘Online’ as the Assessment type.
Choose how you want your students to access their online assessment. You can choose ‘Deliver via LMS’ so that the students will only be able to access their assessment through Blackboard.
To ensure that Akindi is visible to your students in Blackboard, check our steps for enabling Akindi.
The other option is to allow Akindi to email students to their online assessment. To do this, use the dropdown menu to select ‘Deliver via email’
You'll also choose, if and how, your test questions are displayed. Under 'Test Question Display', choose from the following options:
- Display Full PDF: Your questions will be displayed to students, as they appear in the PDF file alongside the bubble sheet layout that you will be prompted to choose
- One question at a time: Students will only see one question and the associated answer options on screen at any given time. Students will be able to proceed freely to any question during the assessment, unless the ‘allow backtracking’ option has been disabled
- I don’t want to upload test questions: Students will only be presented with the bubble sheet layout and you’ll need to provide access to the test questions outside of Akindi
2. Uploading Test Questions
Display Full PDF
If you selected 'Display Full PDF' in the previous step, Akindi will prompt you to upload your test questions in a PDF file, then click 'Continue'.
One Question at a Time
For 'One question at a time', you'll need to upload a Word Document or .docx file of your test questions and then click 'Continue'. Akindi will read the document and ask you to review that all the question and answer categorizations are correct before moving on. Take a look at our 'Review Questions & Enter Answer Key' page on how to ensure everything in your test question document has been identified and properly categorized.
3. Creating an Answer Key for Online
Enter your answer key by selecting the correct response for each question. Turn on advanced marking options to control the weight and grading scheme of each question.
If you will be showing ‘one question at a time’, you’ll have the option to enter your answer key when you are reviewing Akindi’s categorization of the questions and answers.
4. Scheduling the Online Assessment
Set the times in which the students can access the online assessment.
The 'Activation time' is when students will be granted access to view and start their assessment. The 'Deadline' is when the assessment closes, meaning students can no longer access their assessment or submit their answers.
You’ll have the option to turn the test into a timed assessment. Under 'Time limit', select the hours and minutes that your students will be given to complete their submission. If you don't want to set a time limit, select the 'Disable time limit' checkbox.
5. Providing Extra Time for Individual Students
Once you click ‘Save & Continue’ you'll be taken to the 'Online Assessment Status' page. Here you can adjust the time limit, activation time and deadline for selected students that may require accommodations.
Select the student(s) from the table, click on the 'Actions' dropdown menu and select 'Edit Assessment Timing'.
6. Publishing & emailing students
For students accessing the test through Blackboard
If your students will be accessing their assessment through Blackboard, you'll see an option to 'Publish' in order to make the assessment visible to students in Blackboard.
Once you click 'Publish' you'll be asked if you want to 'notify 'students' so that your students also receive an email notification about their upcoming assessment from Akindi. This subject line and message of the notification can be edited.
Once you hit 'Publish' the assessment details will immediately become visible to students, but they won't be able to access their assessment until the 'Activation time' has passed.
For students accessing the test from their email
To email all students their Online Assessment link, click 'Email Students Online Assessment'. You'll have the option to customize the subject and message of the email that is sent to students.
Once you hit 'Send' the emails will be immediately sent to students, but they won't be able to access their assessment until the 'Activation time' has passed.
7. Monitoring Student Progress
To help you manage the process of delivering an Online Assessment, select 'View Online Assessment Status' from your course dashboard at any point after you've set up your Online Assessment.
Here you can keep track of and sort by:
- The delivery status of online assessment emails
- Whether students have opened their assessments
- The number of questions answered by each student
- Which students have submitted their assessments
Analyzing the results
Once the sheets have been uploaded or the students have submitted their online responses, click 'View Results'. Our results analysis helps you to answer two main questions: how well did the student do and how well was the test designed.
Exporting the Test Results
Sync grades back to Blackboard by clicking the 'Send Grades to Blackboard' button on the 'Results Analysis' Page.
There are a number of other ways to export the results using the 'Actions' dropdown menu. Export the raw results into a CSV file, download the question breakdown in a CSV, or email students their grades.
Collaborating with TAs and Instructors
Invite a TA or another instructor to collaborate on a course or section by clicking 'Collaborate', inputting their email and selecting the permission settings.
The instructor or TA will receive an email inviting them to join the course or section.
The instructor or TA will receive an email inviting them to join the course or section.
Want to learn more?
If you want to learn more about Akindi or have any questions, feel free to check out our help center or
send us a message
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