Previewing the item

Ian now has a test item which contains his three multiple choice interactions. Next, Ian saves the item, then clicks Preview.

To try it out, he enters some responses and clicks Submit. The outcome is shown below, in the black window:

Preview of configured item

The contents of the black (output) window can be interpreted as follows:

RESPONSE_1/RESPONSE_2/RESPONSE_3 represent Ian’s responses, and show which choice he selected for each of the interactions.

SCORE takes the individual scores of each interaction (in Ian’s case, he scored 1 on the first interaction, 2 on the second and 3 on the third) and adds them together to get the item score. Ian has scored 6 for this item. 

MAXSCORE takes the maximum possible score from each interaction (which was 3) and adds them together. The maximum score possible for this item is 9.

TAO automatically generates values for SCORE and MAXSCORE when map response is chosen as the scoring method, which is the one Ian chose. This scoring method uses the individual interaction scores to generate an item score, but it doesn’t output the individual interaction scores themselves. This is the part that Ian will need to configure next. It involves two steps: creating variables for each of the interactions, and then defining what should go in them.