As many of you know, ExamView is more than just a tool to create tests. Instructors around the world use the program's capabilities to deliver Internet study guides, create homework assignments, and help students prepare for high-stakes exams.

With ExamView, your investment in creating your own content can be leveraged in many ways. Questions can be easily shared with other instructors, exported to almost any format (Word, WebCT, Blackboard, etc.), and used by other programs.

Take a few minutes to review the informative articles and features in this newsletter to learn how you can leverage your efforts to save more time and improve student performance.

Sincerely,

President

• MindPoint™ Quiz Show Coming Soon

• More publishers than ever are using ExamView. Find out who!

• Blackboard 6.x Now Supported

• This issue addresses questions about building a new test from your previous tests and exploring the computerized (online) testing options.

• Want to become a power user? Check out the latest user tips to find out how to share question banks with other instructors, create tests for special needs students, and use the SmartPaste feature for copying and pasting multiple choice questions.

• Kathleen Weaver from Hillcrest High School (Dallas, Texas) describes how she uses ExamView to test her students on a daily basis. She focuses on the time-saving values of ExamView, such as the ease of preparing question banks and the ability to track student progress.

Question:

How can I build a new, comprehensive test using my old tests?

Answer:

The easiest way to build a comprehensive test from old tests is to export old tests as question banks. You can either export each test individually or create a combined test and export it. Then, you can build a new test from the question banks.

Question:

What is the difference between a LAN (local area network) test and an Internet test?

Answer:

Using ExamView you can deliver computerized (online) tests two different ways—via a LAN (local area network) and the Internet. The type of online test you use depends on your particular needs.

LAN (local area network) Tests: If you plan to deliver tests in a classroom or lab setting, the LAN version is probably the better option. LAN tests are very easy to set up and administer; and, students do not need access to a browser or the Internet. This option is great for tests and study guides. Using the study guide mode, students can get instant feedback that will help them improve performance.

Internet Tests: If you are in a distance learning environment or you want to deliver tests/study guides to your students at home, the Internet testing option gives you the flexibility you need.

For step-by-step instructions to create a LAN or an Internet test, simply choose the Help option while using ExamView.

Saving Time and Improving Student Performance
As a teacher of both advanced placement (AP®) and regular computer science courses at the high school level, I must prepare students for the AP test (which is 50 percent multiple choice) and for the district finals tests (which are 100 percent multiple choice).

A strategy I've found successful in preparing my students for these important tests is to administer daily practice tests. I believe seeing test questions on a daily basis that are similar to those on the AP and district finals tests reduces the students' test stress and anxiety. As an added benefit, while students are engaged with their daily tests, I can take attendance and deal with any administrative tasks or individual student issues.

Testing this frequently would be impossible without ExamView 3.6. The software allows me to maximize my teaching time, as giving tests traditionally takes the entire class period. (This is especially important since we are currently on a block schedule.) With ExamView 3.6, I can build tests for five different subjects and seven class periods in just ten minutes. In addition, entering grades into the gradebook only takes about one hour every six weeks. Compare that to the time it takes to manually create, print, distribute, administrate, and grade tests!

Preparing Questions for use with ExamView
Nowadays, prepared test banks are often included as part of the textbook ancillaries. These test banks are generally stored as RTF or Word files. ExamView's EV Import Utility provides an easy way to import these existing test banks into ExamView question banks; however, the test banks must follow the conventions provided in the EV Import Utility sample bank. For example, the following test does not follow the EV Import conventions:

Using the Find and Replace feature in Word and doing some minor editing, I can easily prepare the file for EV Import. (The minimal amount of upfront time spent preparing the file and importing it into ExamView is more than offset by being able to use ExamView to grade each student's test later!) Below is the word processor document, but in the correct format for EV Import:

Once imported, the question bank can be used to build tests quickly and easily anytime using the ExamView program.

[Note: The EV Import Utility for Windows is available free-of-charge at www.examview.com. The download includes the utility, a manual, and sample files.]

It is also quite easy to import a test bank that contains diagrams. I simply use ExamView's SmartPaste feature to cut and paste the multiple choice questions into ExamView, and then save the diagrams in JPEG format.

There are some instances when I cannot use the EV Import Utility and must manually type questions into ExamView. No worries here either—ExamView's Question Bank Editor allows me to quickly key questions in the proper format. If the questions contain diagrams, I can scan them and save them in JPEG format for inclusion in the question bank.

Using ExamView test banks, I can quickly and easily choose the questions to include on the tests each day. Tests may contain questions from material studied the day before, or questions from the entire year.

Tracking Students' Progress
Whether using a classroom server (LAN) or the Internet, there are several grading options with ExamView 3.6. One option is to print a test score report for an online test and then enter the grades by hand. Many gradebook programs allow copying and pasting, which makes the process of entering grades even faster. Below is an example of a report with student results from a LAN test. To access the report, click the Online menu and select View Test Results.

It is also possible to export the reports to a comma separated value file (.csv) by clicking the Online menu and selecting Export Test Results. Accept the defaults in the Export Test Results window (see below) and click OK.

Simply enter a file name and indicate where to save the file. I use a descriptive file name such as "Day1.csv" and save the file on the Desktop so I can find it easily.

Open the file in Excel (see below) or another spreadsheet program. Then copy and paste the grades into a gradebook program using the standard copy and paste operation. It's that simple!

Making a Difference
As you can see, using ExamView 3.6 makes frequent testing practical and easy. By taking daily tests in the classroom, my students are much better prepared to take their advanced placement and district finals tests. And, using ExamView makes testing less stressful for both my students and me!

Kathleen Weaver
Dallas Independent School District
Hillcrest High School
Dallas, TX

MindPoint ™ Quiz Show Coming Soon

Looking for an exciting, fun way to reinforce important concepts and help students prepare for tests? With MindPoint Quiz Show you'll be able to deliver ExamView question banks in an entertaining format. Students will have the option to compete in teams, with other players, or against the computer. Look for MindPoint Quiz Show this Spring.

Students create customized players

Students compete with classmates

New Publishers Plan to Offer ExamView

The following new publishers plan to offer ExamView for use with selected textbooks. Contact your publisher to find out which textbooks will include ExamView as part of the instructor-supplement package.

• Pearson Learning (www.pearsonlearning.com)
• Benziger (www.mhschool.com/benziger)

Blackboard 6.x Now Supported

If you have ExamView 3.6 (or a more recent version) you can export question banks to WebCT and Blackboard. To obtain the latest Blackboard export utility, visit the ExamView website and click the Support link, or click this link (http://www.fscreations.com/download_updates.php) to go directly to the download page.

A Remedy to a Painful Process
Over several years of teaching high school science, I have attempted to prepare tests and worksheets by a variety of methods. I remember many long winter nights of spreading out exams on the kitchen table after the kids were in bed in an attempt to cut and paste a final exam that was, literally, duct taped together. I also remember my frustration with a supposedly "great new" test generator that was all bells and whistles but that constantly crashed my computer and was cumbersome. Another frustration of mine was the students who were perpetually sick on test days. They would be "healthy" enough days later to take the test after talking to other students, and I did not have the time or resources to make up a different test for them. ExamView has helped change all of that.

Within just a few months, I have been able to go from hours of test preparation to minutes. Creating multiple copies of exams, complete with graphics, is just a click away. ExamView has greatly increased the "honesty" factor in test taking. Students now are well aware that I pass out multiple copies of tests and that it would be pointless to try to look on someone else's paper. I have also told them that those students who take the exam the first time get the "easy" questions and that I save the "tough" questions for the make-up exams. This has worked wonders during flu and cold season concerning the "health" of my students.

Horizontal Articulation
An unexpected benefit of this program is the question bank portion. Initially, I had to create all of the question banks myself. As more colleagues have started to use ExamView, we have begun to spread the work around. People are generating and sharing test banks. The real value of this is the discussions that we are creating in our department about what makes a good question, assessment, and the types of concepts that we teach and think are important.

Another key benefit of sharing test banks is that it helps with horizontal articulation. It is common to have several instructors teach the same course in a large school. Those teachers, to some extent, must be on the same page, which is the main idea of horizontal articulation. If chemistry teacher "A" teaches slightly different concepts than chemistry teacher "B" or there is a widely different grade distribution, word gets around. Parents and students start complaining. Theoretically, under these circumstances, the same student might get a completely different grade solely based on the teacher and not the course content. On the other hand, if everyone is on the same page all the time, teachers have little freedom to change their methods of instruction and assessment to meet the needs of the individual students. This also becomes a problem during exam time. The first class to take the exam has a harder time than the following classes, as word about the exam gets around.

Building the Question Bank Library
We have found ExamView to be a huge help. First, the ExamView Import Utility makes it relatively easy to convert large worksheets and tests into an exam question bank. Second, instructors teaching the same class can agree to use a certain percentage of common questions from the bank and another percentage of questions that they have tailor-made to fit the needs of their students and their individual teaching style. It is the best of both worlds and a logical answer to a problem that satisfies most concerned parents and administrators.

We are looking forward to a time when teachers around the country will have shared access to huge banks of thoughtful, well-written, teacher-generated, peer-reviewed questions. This will provide a kind of horizontal articulation that is needed across the country. A new generation of teachers will have access to the collective wisdom of seasoned veterans and will, in turn, add to the knowledge base. (Note: The ExamView forum http://forum.fscreations.com/ provides an opportunity to facilitate sharing question banks among instructors around the world.)

Pushing the Envelope
Physics students need a great deal of opportunity to solve different variations of the same problem. The problem-solving method in most trajectory or momentum problems is basically the same; there are simply changes in the details from problem to problem. It can become tedious to constantly generate new problems of this kind, not because the problems are difficult to solve, but simply because there are a great many steps and it can become time consuming. There is also the possibility of making careless errors when creating the answer key.

To solve this dilemma in the past, I wrote a series of Excel spreadsheets containing three different interlinked sections. In the first section I type in the values for the variables. The second section uses those variables to create a word problem narrative. The third section uses the same variables to solve the problem and create the answer key. This solution works well for stand-alone tests but does not integrate well into larger, cumulative tests.

Now I can still use that resource to create multiple questions of the same kind, but with different variables. I can cut the cells out of Excel and paste them into an ExamView question bank, along with the correct answers. ExamView allows me to create multiple versions of the same question types in the time it takes to change the variables, cut, and paste. Even formatting-such as subscripts, superscripts, font, size, and color-is carried over.

I have heard that a similar function may become available in ExamView in time. I anxiously await its debut. In the meantime, I can easily integrate my existing Excel investment into ExamView.

Sharing ExamView Content
Most of us have suffered through the experience of purchasing a specialized piece of software, only to watch it become obsolete. Ask anyone who invested in DOS- based test generation software. Not only are the programs obsolete and not executable, but the test banks themselves are inaccessible. Anyone who has invested time and energy in such software only to be left back at square one with the latest change in an operating system becomes very leery of the next "great idea" on the block. In fact, many are tempted to become neo-Luddites, going back to their filing cabinets and tape.

Being one such person burned by orphaned software, one of the things that I like about ExamView is its ability to export to rich text (RTF). This allows my precious investment in question banks to be independent of the ExamView software itself. I can rest easy knowing that my data is in a universal format. I can even send copies of ExamView-created tests as Word documents to my professional colleagues in India, who do not yet have access to ExamView. I am pleased that the programmers at FSCreations had the good sense to open many lines of input and output with their software. For just that reason, I probably will not need to worry about ExamView becoming obsolete.

Greg Presnall and Chad Husting
Sycamore High School
Cincinnati, Ohio

1) Sharing question banks with other teachers - The ExamView Forum now includes a separate forum area for exchanging question banks with instructors around the world. Click here (http://forum.fscreations.com/) to visit the forum. Or, go to the ExamView website and click the Support Forum link. Choose the Question Bank Exchange option from the Forum pop-up menu to download and upload question banks. (Note: Be sure to post only non-copyrighted questions.)

2) Creating tests for special needs students - Many states have very specific guidelines for creating tests tailored to special needs students. In some situations, you may need to create the same test for all students, but format multiple choice questions with only two answer choices for special needs students. ExamView 3.6 (or a more recent version) helps you create both tests in minutes.

The program automatically reduces the number of choices for all multiple choice questions. If an answer was in Choice C or D, the program shuffles the correct answer and moves it to Choice A or B.

3) Using the SmartPaste command to copy questions from a word processor document - Copying and pasting-multiple choice questions from a word processor into ExamView can be a bit tedious unless you use the SmartPaste feature. Instead of copying and pasting each part of the question, you can copy an entire multiple choice question and paste it quickly into a new question.

The program will copy the question and put each of the choices in the appropriate table cells.

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

Computers for Learning
www.computers.fed.gov/school/user.asp
The site is designed "to streamline the transfer of excess federal computer equipment to schools and educational non-profit organizations, giving special consideration to those with the greatest need."

Techlearning.com
www.techlearning.com
Techlearning.com is an excellent resource for people working to integrate technology and education. The site includes content for teachers, librarians, and media coordinators who want to use the Web in the classroom. Searchable information includes a database of reader-recommended sites, a list of grants available for teachers, a list of Web sites for particular subject areas, technology contests for teachers and students, and Ultimate Hotlists for educators and students.

American Sign Language
www.where.com/scott.net/asl
Ever want to learn sign language? The American Sign Language Web site has a number of tools for novices and experts alike to help you become proficient at fingerspelling.

K-12

Education World
www.education-world.com
Education World is designed especially for teachers, administrators, media specialists and everyone interested in integrating the Internet into education. With more than 100,000 links to education-specific Web sites, original lesson plans and weekly articles, Education World is one of the most comprehensive education sites on the Net.

Learning with PBS
www.pbs.org/teachersource
This part of the Public Broadcast System (PBS) Web site was developed just for educators. It includes curriculum ideas and an online forum.

POST-SECONDARY

American Council on Education
www.acenet.edu
ACE, the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, seeks to provide leadership and a unifying voice on key higher education issues and to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives.

Syllabus: Technology for Higher Education
www.syllabus.com
The mission of the Syllabus Web site is to inform post-secondary educators on how technology can be used to support their teaching, learning, and administrative activities. Visitors to the site can read articles, participate in online forums, or even listen to "Syllabus Radio."