PC-SIG: World of Education

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TEST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TUTORIAL This tutorial refers to Test Management System version 1.08 copyright (c) 1988 Marshall Woolner. All rights reserved This is a simple tutorial to get you acquainted with TMS. If you have not alread installed TMS, do so before you begin the tutorial. The installation procedure is explained in the reference manaul, stored on the distribution disk as the file named MANUAL.TMS; the installation procedure is located in Section 7: INSTALLATION. IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY MADE BACKUP COPIES OF TMS, DO SO NOW! If you are viewing this on screen, be sure to print it out so you will have it in hand for viewing while you run the program. Now, for the tutorial: Step one: load TMS load TMS by changing the directory to the directory in which TMS is installed, then typing "TMS" (without the quotes) and pressing the <ENTER> key. TMS will load in 15 seconds to one minute. The opening screen will say "Welcome to Test Manage- ment System" - it will give you a brief status message to show how many test items and tests are stored in TMS. If any of the files necessary to run TMS are missing, a message to that effect will be displayed. TMS will not run unless all the essential files are present, and will terminate with a message to allow you to correct the problem. Step two: using a menu When the main menu is displayed, scroll through the options using the "up" and "down" cursor keys on the numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard. If nothing happens, you may need to press the NUM LOCK key once to make the cursor keys functional. Notice as you press the up/down arrows that the magenta highlight bar moves up and down, and that the menu choice in the magenta highlight bar is displayed in bright white. Also, notice that as you scroll the highlight bar up and down, the message that appears in the message area below the menu changes. This message is a simple description of the function invoked by the menu choice.f Move the highlight bar until it is on "Questions", then press the <ENTER> key. After a second, the "Question" menu will appear. In the "Question" menu, move the highlight bar until "Finished" is highlighted, and press <ENTER>. This will return you to the main menu. Now, in the main menu, highlight any choice EXCEPT "Question", and press the 'Q' key. The "Question" menu appears. In the "Question" menu, highlight any choice other than "Finished", and press the 'F' key. You will return to the main menu. This has demonstrated how to use a menu. You have two ways to use the menu; press the first letter of your selection, or move the highlight bar to your selection and press <ENTER>. Step three: adding a question From the main menu, select "Question", and from the "Question" menu, select "Add". The first display will be a scrolling choice screen (in fact, you will see a a total of three of them, in succession). These operate somewhat like the menu; use the cursor up/down keys to move the lightbar up and down to your choice, then press <ENTER>. For now, highlight the choice at the top "Choose no AREA, or leave as is" This will bring up the next scrolling choice menu - choose the same option "Choose no CLASS ...", and the next one also, "Choose not AUTHOR...". We will return to these options in a moment. After the three scrolling choice screens, a test item entry screen will appear. At the top you will see L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6 - these are for each of the six possible stem lines for your question. Type in the following item stem: Sodium nitroprusside, once prepared for intravenous admin- istration, should be replaced with a fresh bottle no later than: Notice that you can type no more than 60 characters on each line, and that there is no word-wrap. Also note that you must use line L1 first, and that there should be no blank lines above any line. When TMS reads your question to print it out, it will stop printing at the first blank line - so if you leave a blank line within the stem of your question, the remaining lines will be ignored. Now, move the cursor down to option a:, and type the following: 4 hours from preparation Then move to b: and type: 8 hours from preparation Then move to c: and type: 16 hours from preparation Then move to d: and type: 24 hours from preparation Note that you have left the lines immediately under a: , b: , c: , and d: blank - this is the right way to enter the options. Use the line under a: only if the a: option requires two lines. If you enter the a: option in the line immediately below a: without entering anything in a: , TMS will not print that option on a test. Now move the cursor down to the Correct: area. Try to move the cursor out of Correct: area. You can't (or at least, I hope you can't). This is a mandatory field - you can't leave it until you enter a letter, A, B, C, D, or E. This is for the correct answer to the item. Press the <ENTER> key or use the cursor up/down key to more to the next area, which is Level:. Enter 1. This is intended for level of difficulty; you can enter only a single number, in the range of 1 to 9. You can use it or leave it blank as you wish. The next areas are Ext. Ref. and Int. Ref., for external reference and internal reference, respectivelyh. Each has a 40-character line, and you can enter anything you like. I use them for infor- mation about the questions; "Ext.Ref" for professional journal or book references, "Int. Ref" for program syllabus or outline information. Press <ENTER> and you move down to the "Is this entry complete (Y/N) ? area. It will only accept Y or N; if you press N, then <ENTER>, you will have another opportunity to edit the item. If you press Y, then <ENTER>, you will see a red bar with S)tore A)bandon R)esume editing [select your choice ..... Press S, then <ENTER>. This will store the question in the testbank. If you pressed A, you would be prompted to confirm your choice to abandon the question. If you pressed R, you would resume editing. After you pressed S and <ENTER>, a black bar appeared which said: Do you want to CONTINUE adding questions (Y/N) ? At this prompt, press N, then <ENTER>. You will return to the "Questions" main menu. If you had pressed Y, you would go through the question adding routine again, starting with the scrolling choice screens for AREA, CLASS and AUTHOR. Step four: making a test At the main menu, select "Test". The first display will be question 1 in the test bank. You will also see a horizontal menu at the bottom of the screen. This works the same as the vertical menus you have already seen, except that you use the right and left cursor keys to move the light bar, and the message appears on the very last line. The menu reads: NEXT BACK GOTO SEARCH MARK UNMARK EDIT QUIT/SAVE Select NEXT to move forward to the next question Select BACK to move backward one question Select GOTO to enter a question number, then jump to it Select SEARCH to set a search path for your questions Select MARK to mark a question for inclusion in the test notice how the "Marked" area is highlighted and the "Total marked" counter is incremented by one Select UNMARK to un-select a question for inclusion in a test notice how the "Marked" area is no longer highlighted, and the "Total marked" counter is decremented by one Don't select EDIT at this time - it is used for editing a question, and follows the same process as adding a question. Now mark a couple of questions, then select QUIT/SAVE. If you had selected no question, you would go immediately back to the main menu. Since you had marked several questions for inclusion in a test, you are asked what you want to do with the test - S)ave it or A)bandon it. Enter S to save the test. You are now presented with an information entry screen. Use it to enter information about the test, which will be used in administer- ing the test. Test Name and Comments are optional, but very help- ful. Test Code is mandatory entry. Make sure that the test code has some meaning to you - it is only eight characters long. When the information is complete and correct, enter Y at the "Is the information as complete as you want? (Y/N)" prompt. You have just created a test. To view it, select the "Print" option at the main menu - you will see a scrolling choice screen with the test you created and three other tests listed - the demo tests. Step five: printing a test From the main menu, select "Print". The first display will be the scrolling choice screen with the tests identified. Select a test. The next screen is for information about the printing of the test. To choose where you want to send the test, select P for printer only, D for disk only, and B for both. P will print the test directly on a printer, D will save the test as an ASCII text file, and B with do both. Also select the T if you want to print only the test, or R if you want to print the test and a reference key verion of the test. When you print the test, you will also get a face sheet with test information on it, an answer sheet suitable for photo copying, and a key template, to overlay an anwer sheet for rapid test scoring of paper and pencil tests. You will, un- fortunately, have to cut out the holes on the correct answers to make the template usable. Once you have selected where to "print" the test and whether you want a reference key version, the next screen will ask for in- formation to be printed with the test; simple header and footer information, date and instructor. Once you have entered this, the test will print. If you selected D or B, the first to be saved is the disk file. After it is saved, there will be a message about renaming the file(s) so you will not overwrite them the next time you save a test to a disk file. Step six: disk-based testing Before you make a disk-based test, you will need one formatted disk for each test disk you want. The test disk you create will contain a program to administer the test, score the test, and save the test. The test disk can be used in any computer that meets the requirements listed under "Remote Computer" in the manual. You can make the disk a system disk (self-booting - see the DOS manual) and add an AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the single command "TESTOR" on it to make the disk self-running. Select "Disk" from the main menu, then select the test you want from the scrolling choice screen. Once you have selected a test, you will be presented with an in- formation entry screen for disk-based testing, including the name/description of the test group (make it whatever you like) and how you want to administer the test. The options are: Auto score - will display the score to the test taker Auto review - will allow the test taker to review the test, with his/her own answers and the correct answers shown. There is no possibility that the test -taker can change his/her answers during the review Auto retest - if the test taker scores below the minimum passing score (which you enter on this screen), will allow one retake. Enter the information as you like, and follow the prompts to create the test disk. You might like to try taking the test yourself. To do so, just exit TMS, make A: the default drive, place the test disk in A: and type "TESTOR", then press <ENTER>. The TESTOR program has help screens and is almost fool-proof. To see how each of the options (above) work, when you are in TMS select Y for each of them - then you will see your score displayed, review, and re- test if your score is lower than the minimum passing score. Step eight: experiment Try TMS out - experiment. By this time, you have a pretty good feel for how it works. Good Luck!