As we begin the new academic year, let me take a moment to welcome back our seasoned ExamView users and extend greetings to those of you new to this newsletter. Four times a year, the ExamView Quarterly newsletter comes to you with useful tips and answers to some of the more frequently asked questions about ExamView. Instructors from around the world contribute their insight by writing articles for the In Your Own Words and ExamView My Way columns.

I hope you find this issue helpful as you begin the year. Our goal is to help you save time and improve your students' performance. Your feedback is important to us. Please let us know how we can continue these efforts.

Sincerely,

President

• ExamView is now used in more than 30 countries!
• More publishers than ever are using ExamView.
• Read about the new free Internet Test Results utility.
• Learn about a great back-to-school offer on the latest version of ExamView.

• This issue addresses questions about inserting pictures into questions, formatting multiple-choice questions, obtaining technical support, and locating question banks.
  
  

• Want to become a power user? Check out the latest user tips to find out how to reduce cheating, use advanced formatting features, and copy/paste a test to your word processor.

• Kevin McMenamin from The Peninsula School (Australia) describes how he uses ExamView to deliver math homework assignments online. Instructors work together to create a pool of questions and then use the statistical result data to refine their questions and help students improve performance.

Question:
Can you force an existing test to use a single-column of answers for all multiple choice questions?

Answer:
Yes—it's a snap. Once you build a test, press CRTL+M (or CMD+M for Macintosh) to display a window to set the number of columns. Enter 1 in the columns entry field and click OK. ExamView automatically changes all of the multiple choice questions to a one-column format.
 

Question:
Can you insert pictures into a test question?

Answer:
You can insert almost any kind of picture (photo, chart, graph, illustration, etc.) into a test question. ExamView supports both color and black & white images in a variety of formats (.bmp, .jpg, .tif, etc.). Follow these steps to insert an image.

1. Choose to create or edit a question.
2. Position the cursor where you want to insert the image.
3. Insert an image by copying/pasting it from another source or by using the Picture option in the
   Insert menu.
4. Record and save your changes.

Note: For math instructors, you can use other software, such as a graphing calculator program, to create a graph. Then, simply copy/paste it from the calculator into ExamView.
 

Question:
I'm using ExamView and WebCT. Is it possible to create a test in ExamView and then use that test in my WebCT course?

Answer:
Yes, with ExamView 3.6, you can now export questions for use with WebCT 3.x and Blackboard 5.x. Simply build a test and choose the Export option. Step-by-step instructions explain how to import the questions into the e-learning system. Then, you can use those questions to build online tests.
 

Question:
Occasionally I need help using ExamView. Where do I go for support?

Answer:
This is a two part response: 1) If you received ExamView from a publisher as part of your instructor-supplement package, you should contact your publisher's hotline. These folks have the expertise to answer almost any question.
2) If you purchased a new or upgrade version from FSCreations (the developer of ExamView), please give us a call or send an e-mail. The contact information is available at our website (www.examview.com). Another option is the ExamView online support forum. Anyone is welcome to search the forum or post a question for help with a problem. It's available 24/7.
 

Question:
I was using ExamView with questions from one textbook and later installed another question bank for a different text. Now I can't find either set of questions. Where are they?

Answer:
First, the ExamView setup program installs the question banks for each textbook in subfolders within the Banks folder. If you installed two products, the content might be organized as follows on your hard drive.

With older versions of ExamView (version 3.0 and earlier), follow these steps:

• Choose to build a new test and enter a test title.
• In the Select Question Bank window, click the Folder button to set the location.
  
  

• Use the controls in the window to select or highlight the folder you want. (Do not open the folder.) With the textbook folder highlighted, click the Select button to select that folder. (On the Macintosh, click the Choose button.)
  
  

• Select a question bank.
  
  

For ExamView 3.5 (or a more recent version), follow these steps:

• Choose to build a new test and enter a test title.
• In the Select Question Bank window, click the Banks folder to find the questions for your textbook.
  
  

• You should see a separate folder for each textbook. Select the one you want.
  
  

• Now you should see the question banks titles in the Select Question Bank window.
• Highlight a question bank and click the OK button.
  
  

As the Head of a Mathematics Department in a school where all students have computers and the use of technology is an integral part of the curriculum, it is important to constantly update the applications available. Over the past few years we have introduced interactive computer-based activities throughout all year levels (7-12). These activities now complement the traditional methods of teaching and learning that take place every day within the school.

As an adjunct to the classroom education, there is an established homework program. The overall focus of the homework program is to provide opportunities for students to regularly revise past methods and skills so that their recall of past work is at a premium. It is within this program that we make extensive use of ExamView and its capabilities.

ExamView allows us to:

• construct tasks that can be completed any time outside the classroom and
• provide immediate feedback to the students when they have finished.

The majority of tasks we develop consist of twenty multiple choice questions. ExamView creates the questions with ease due to the fully-featured inbuilt equation editor.

To a mathematical-based department like ours, this feature is a must.

The created questions are saved into question banks which are categorized by topic and year level. Access to these question banks is available to all members of the Mathematics Department and therefore the variety and number of questions increases very rapidly in a short amount of time.

Up until now we have created the questions without giving real feedback to the students, particularly when wrong answers were chosen. In our future tasks we will make use of the 'notes' and 'rationale' fields when constructing the questions so that students get more information about their incorrect responses. Also, for senior classes we will shorten the tasks to ten questions as students have found the twenty questions too long for one sitting.

In making the tasks available and to ensure students have access at any time, we use the test-hosting service offered by ExamView. Tasks are published directly to the ExamView website and students are made aware of the website address. We use one account for the entire department and group students by class. One department account allows us to publish one task for an entire year level which is perfect for our homework program.

The other benefit of the test-hosting service is the statistical analysis available on each task. As well as providing information on individual student results, it can give a breakdown of the responses for each question and indicate which ones were answered poorly. This allows us to go back and revise certain concepts and algorithms immediately so that misconceptions are not left unchecked. As the screen shot below shows, there are a few questions on this task that were answered poorly and therefore some form of follow up would be carried out.

The ExamView program has allowed us to expand our repertoire of technology-based applications. Over the coming months we will begin to further explore the capabilities of ExamView and implement those features we see as being helpful to the overall education of the students we teach.

Kevin McMenamin
Head of Mathematics
The Peninsula School Victoria, Australia

ExamView Used in More Than 30 Countries

Over the past year, instructors in more than 30 countries including Australia, Egypt, Japan, China, New Zealand, Korea, England, and Germany have adopted ExamView. Instructors around the world are saving time and improving student performance with ExamView.

New Publishers Plan to Offer ExamView

The following publishers now plan to offer ExamView for use with selected new textbooks. See the publisher's website for a list of which textbooks will include ExamView as part of the instructor-supplement package.

• Lawrenceville Press (www.lvp.com)
  
• Macmillan/McGraw-Hill (www.mhschool.com)
  
• Scott Foresman (www.scottforesman.com)
  
• McGraw-Hill/Ryerson (www.mcgrawhill.ca)
  
• Interstate Publishing (www.ippinc.com)

New Internet Test Results Analysis Utility Available

Do you publish Internet tests to your own website? If you use Internet testing, you know how time consuming it can be to accumulate your students' scores. With this new utility, you can just drag and drop the test result e-mails onto a program to produce comprehensive reports. You can even export the data for use with any gradebook program. Click here to download this free utility.

Thanks to the following instructors for helping beta test this utility:
Gerry Jenkins
Paul Long
Denise Padavano
Michael Sorensen
Jim Weber

Back to School Special!

You can upgrade any version of ExamView to version 3.6 for just $89 plus shipping and handling. Click here to purchase the latest version online.

If you received ExamView as part of your instructor-supplement package or purchased it from FSCreations, you can upgrade to the latest version. A sampling of the new features is listed below. Check out our website for more detailed information or to download a demo version.

ExamView 3.6 includes the following new features:

• WebCT/Blackboard Support (Windows only)
• New Features for Special Needs Students
• New Test Layout Options
• Enhanced LAN-based Testing Options
• Internet Test-Hosting Updates
• Foreign Language Support

"User friendly" is a recurring description when SCC OnLine faculty at Southeast Community College in Nebraska were surveyed for their comments about ExamView:

"I've been very pleased with the software. It's quite user friendly, and the best part is that it doesn't require a [training] class just to learn to use it. If you can follow one step after another, you should have no problem composing tests. I am definitely thankful for being able to utilize this program." —Benjamin Burt, Business Law and Philosophy Instructor

Not only is creating a test easy, Internet test hosting is extremely user friendly. Tests can be published to the web in a few simple steps. And as soon as a test is published, the ExamView folks send an e-mail to the instructor that contains the link to the test as well as student instructions that can be copied/pasted into the online course. Preferences can be changed "on the fly" simply by accessing the tests through the Instructor Center—a bonus for online instructors:

"ExamView is an excellent, convenient way to manage test taking for students enrolled in online courses. I find it easy to use. I especially like the verification ExamView provides when my test has been successfully published to the website and the simple instructions provided on how to access the exam that I can forward to my students. ExamView saves me time by scoring the exams and notifying each student of his/her results."
—Deb Thomas, Early Childhood Education Instructor

ExamView is not only user-friendly test generation software, but it is also built with wonderful testing options ranging from the standard multiple choice/true false tests to tests requiring numeric responses, case problem responses, and essays. An instructor can use the equation editor to post mathematical symbols and can include graphics and pictures.

Furthermore, tests and test banks are stored locally on the instructor's hard drive instead of on a remote web server owned by someone else. This provides maximum flexibility in test bank building and test revision options.

"I have used ExamView to create both on-line tests and classroom tests for about nine months. The software is very friendly and offers a variety of types of test questions to use. It creates the answer sheet immediately, too, which speeds up the grading of classroom tests. Publishing the tests online is easy, fast, and accurate. Rarely do students have problems when taking their tests online.

Regarding ExamView's customer service, once I had some quirky little things happen regarding an online test, and their technician immediately returned calls and e-mails until the problem was fixed. ExamView is much more reliable than other online testing methods that I have used, and I will continue to use it for all my classes."
—Kathy Zabel, Medical Terminology and Continuing Education Instructor

As Coordinator of SCC OnLine, I have found that ExamView is an invaluable tool for online instructors who find it flexible, reliable, and user friendly.

Susan Fielder
Coordinator, SCC OnLine
Southeast Community College
Beatrice, NE

1) Save Time and Prevent Cheating - When you print multiple versions of a test, use different paper colors for each version. Distribute the test in a checkerboard style so students know they don't have the same test as the students on either side of them. An additional benefit is that sorting papers after a test is a cinch.

2) Controlling the Appearance of a Test - ExamView provides numerous options to customize the appearance of a test. After building a test, choose the Layout option from the Test menu. With the options found on the Layout and Style tabs you can customize what the test looks like down to the smallest detail.

For even more control, you can change the headers and footers. For example, you can put a picture (e.g., school logo) in the header of your tests. If you don't like the Times New Roman font, it takes just a few seconds to change the entire test. Build your test and then choose the Replace Font command in the Edit menu. You can change all fonts to Arial 14 point to make it more readable, especially if you plan on delivering the test online.

3) Advanced Formatting Options - While ExamView offers many options for controlling the appearance of a printed test, it does not provide for complete control. When you need a bit more flexibility, copy the test to your word processor (e.g., Microsoft Word). Then use your word processor's capabilities to fine-tune the appearance of your test. Your formatting options are really unlimited.

To take advantage of this feature, build your test and then choose the Copy Test option from the Edit menu. Start your word processor, create a new document, and then simply choose the Paste option.

T-shirts for Tips! Share a tip or share a story about ExamView with our staff. Please email your ExamView user tip to info@examview.com

If we publish your suggestion we will send you a free ExamView logo shirt!

GENERAL

CRESST (http://www.cse.ucla.edu/index.htm) CRESST is the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. The CRESST Website offers news, articles, and advice on everything to do with testing and assessment.

Thirteen Ed Online (http://www.thirteen.org/edonline) This site provides a variety of useful information to educators, including lesson plans and professional development opportunities. Useful resources may be found for all grade levels, from grade school to adult education.

K-12

NetTrekker (http://www.nettrekker.com) NetTrekker is a search engine for K-12 schools. It provides a safe way for students to search the Internet for school projects with high quality, contextual results and gives educators easy access to online resources that link directly to their state's standards and benchmarks.

Xpeditions @ nationalgeographic.com (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions) This site provides countless resources and activities for social studies and science teachers. Customize and print maps for copying, visit the Xpedition hall for a multimedia geography journey, or browse through the archives of lesson plans and activities.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) (http://www.ed.gov/free) More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of Federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE web site.

POST-SECONDARY

Teaching and Learning With Technology (http://www.ihets.org/learntech) The Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System was created in 1967 by the Indiana General Assembly to permit sharing of educational resources via technology. The IHETS Website provides information and links related to distance learning, technology resources, and grant writing.

The Technology Source (http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp) The Technology Source is a peer-reviewed bimonthly periodical published by the Michigan Virtual University. It provides articles that assist educators as they face the challenge of integrating information technology tools into teaching and into managing educational organizations.

Tell us what you want to know about ExamView and we will strive to answer your questions in upcoming issues. Email your questions to: info@examview.com

Publisher-created ExamView question banks are available for over 1,000 textbooks from a wide variety of educational publishers. Check with your publisher to see if ExamView question banks are available for your new textbook. If not, encourage them to contact www.fscreations.com for details.

As the name suggests, the ExamView Quarterly is truly a quarterly newsletter–we will not inundate you with daily or weekly promotional materials and advertisements. Nor will we ever share your e-mail address with any outside sources or lists.

To purchase ExamView for your department or school, visit www.examview.com.

Copyright © 2002 FSCreations, Inc.
All rights reserved.