Quick Start: add new Assessment

Do you need to create an assessment in Cirrus? With this quick start guide you can get started right away.

This quick guide will help assessment authors to understand to process of creating exams fast.

• Go to Assessments in the main menu.
• This will bring you to the Assessment overview page
• Click on '+Add assessment'. This will open a dialog window to apply some basic settings for your assessment.

Assessment settings

• Create a new assessment or base it on a template (already created assessment)
• Enter a key title and code (numeric and/or alphanumeric).
• Choose Formative, Summative or Mixed
• Choose 'Manual question selection' if you want to select questions yourself or 'Blueprint' to let the system pull questions for you.
• Click on 'Save' and you will arrive at the overview page of this new test.
• Or continue with Advanced settings

Advanced settings

• Click on 'Show advanced options'
• Set the period of which this assessment can be scheduled (optinal).
• Hit the 'Integration' slider to get an External ID to link this Assessment with your integration (optional).
• Apply a hierarchy so colleagues inside of this hierarchy group can schedule this test too (optional).
• Happy with your set up? Hit 'Save' and you will arrive at the overview page of this new test.

Adjusting Assessment settings

You can always adjust these settings.

• Click on the 3 vertical dots in the top right part of your screen.
• Select 'Assessment Settings
• A dialog window (see Step 1) will open

Assessment Dashboard

You will arrive to the Assessment Dashboard.

This overview shows the most important setting details that you entered when creating the assessment.

Options

• Go to the 'Options' tab to set up your assessment.
• Go here for more information about all options.
• Set at least the following:
  o Number of attempts
  o Attempt duration
  o Extra time (for eligible candidates)
  o When to show results to candidates
• Proceed to the next step: 'Question selection'.

Questions selection

Manual question selection

• The 'Question selection' tab lists all items that you have created or that have been shared with you.
• Select the questions you want to use in this test and click on 'Include Items'.
• Use the filter button to open a panel with filter options.
• The questions are now selected for the next step: Forms.

Blueprint

• If you have chosen Blueprint, you can compose a test on the 'Question selection' tab based on 'Topics' (simple template) or 'Learning objectives and Taxonomies' (extended template).
• After setting up your blueprint matrix, you can move on to Forms.

Forms

• Go to the 'Form' tab, click on '+Add form' to compose the test.
• Read more about Forms here. Below we guide you through a basic set up.
• Choose how many questions from the question selection you want to use in the actual test
• Also determine which test type you want: Fixed or Random
• In this guide we go for 'Fixed'.
• Add at least a 'welcome' and 'finish' page in the tag 'Intro and Finish page'
• View the questions and drag them into the right order if you want.
• Click on the 'Settings' tab at the top, choose an assessment scale and save your choice.
• Use the breadcrumb navigation to go back one step.

Publish your assessment

• Go to the 'Overview' tab and see if all the necessary steps are checked.
• Complete the last step 'Publish' to make the test available for Scheduling.
• Choose 'Scheduler is assessor' if the test scheduler will also be the marker. Choose 'Coordinator assign assessors' if a coordinator will setup a workflow with multiple assessors and moderators.
• Change the status to 'Live' and publish the test.
• Now it's ready to be scheduled.