Setting up a structure for your libraries

Topics and subject areas

Item and test libraries can be organized according to subject material. You might want to have folders under the root for Math, English and Geography, for example. These folders might contain sub-folders: there might be folders for Trigonometry and Geometry in the Math folder.

Another way to organize your test materials might be according to school grades. So, under the root folder in the Item Bank you might have folders Grade 6, Grade 7, etc, and then within these you would have sub-folders for subjects - Math, English, Geography etc. 

The image below shows you what the latter would look like in the Item Bank.

Item Library according to Grade

These folders would be the destination for items which are finished and ready to use.

Scratch folders

It's also a good idea for each member of the team to have their own scratch folder in the corresponding TAO library in which to keep their work – for example, one for each of your item authors – Iris and Ian and the others - in the Item library. That way, at the design stage, item authors can play around with items. These folders serve as a playground and a place to try things out.

The image below shows the scratch folders which have been created in the Item library for some of the item authors on the team.

Scratch folders of Item Authors

In OAT's own training and demo environment, we also have a shared folder. This contains many items which can be used and reused, or adapted, and are shared by everybody. (There are a few sample items available for new customers to start them off, which could go in your shared folder if you create one).

This structure can be mirrored in the Test library for test authors, so in this case, Tessa would have her own scratch folder in the Test library.