Akindi On Paper assessments

Access the Content tab in your D2L Brightspace course shell. Add a module to the left-hand navigation bar by clicking Add a module… and give it a name. 

Inside your new module, click on the Existing Activities drop-down menu and select External Learning Tools.

Select Launch Akindi.

This will add a link with the same name to your module; click it to open the tool.

Access the tool by clicking on the Launch Akindi link in your module.

Click on the big orange Launch Akindi Assessments button in the bottom left of the new window.

This will open your Akindi Dashboard.

Access the Akindi Dashboard through the link you added to your course. 

Click the Create Assessment button in the top right corner. 

Confirm your course and name the assessment.

There are multiple ways to create an Akindi assessment:

Start with answer key (formerly Akindi Classic)

Use this option for multiple-choice only assessments, if you have already created your question sheet. 

This only creates your answer key and printable bubble-response sheets. You will need to print your question sheets separately.

Continue with the steps in the Start with answer key assessment to proceed.

Start with questions

Use this option to create your entire assessment in Akindi, including generating both the question and response sheets for printing. 

This supports assessments with multiple-choice and/or written answer questions.

Continue with the steps in the Start with questions assessment to proceed.

For a comparison between assessment types, visit Akindi’s Getting Started with Paper Assessments guide (external link) .

Create the answer key

After selecting “Start with answer key” in the steps for Getting Started (above), select a bubble sheet template to match or exceed the total number of questions in your assessment.

Choose “Enter answer key” then manually select the correct answer(s) for each question by clicking on the corresponding letter(s) for each question.

Note: Although it is possible to import the answer key from a Word document, if you wish to use this feature, the Start with questions workflow is more suitable.

To create multiple versions, select the “No Versions” drop-down and choose the desired number. You will be prompted to input a separate answer key for each version. While writing the assessment, students must specify the version they received by filling in a bubble on their response sheet.

Learn more at Akindi’s  Start with Answer Key guide (external link) .

Advanced Marking

After selecting an answer, customize grading with Advanced Marking, using the button beside each question. 

Settings include:

• Enabling partial or either-or marking.
• Changing the point value of the question.
• Setting the question as a bonus question.

Learn more at Akindi's Advanced Marking Options guide (external link) .

Once all answers are input, select the orange “Continue to download” button.

Preview your bubble-response sheet, and add additional details if desired.

A notable option is Prefill student info. Use this to add each student’s name and student ID number to their response sheet before printing. If selected, each student will need to be provided with their personalized response sheet at the time of the assessment. 

Save to device or order prints

Download: Save a folder of your assessments for printing on your own. 

Order Test Packets: Request the printing of the assessment through the on-campus service.

Learn more in our Printing and Scanning resource below.

After selecting “Start with questions” in the steps for Getting Started (above), questions can be uploaded or created directly in Akindi.

If you have already prepared your assessment as a Word document (.docx) that aligns with Akindi’s Formatting Word Documents guide (external link) , select the file for upload. Review all questions and answers after upload to ensure they are correctly identified.

If you have not yet created your assessment, close the upload pop-up and type or paste your questions directly into the on-screen editor. Select the correct answer(s) for any multiple choice questions.

Note: Written answer questions must be placed after all multiple choice questions.

Learn more at Akindi’s Start with questions guide (external link) .

After adding all questions, create multiple versions of the assessment by scrambling the order questions. 

Once completed, select Ready for Download to proceed.

Test packet organization

Choose the method of organizing the booklets that is best suited for your assessment:

1. Alternating versions: Recommended for most uses.
2. One per version: Useful if you prefer to manage test versions independently. 
3. 1 Packet per version: Generates only one version of each packet, allowing copies to be made for distribution. Note: On-campus scanning services will not be able to facilitate scanning these assessments.

Question sheet settings

Use the on-screen preview to review the printed assessment, and adjust the styling if desired.   

Notable options include: 

• Prefill student info: Add each student’s name and student ID number to their response sheet before it is printed. If selected, each student will need to be provided with their personalized response sheet at the time of the assessment. 
• Add cover page: Place a blank sheet before the first question
• Customize styling: Adjust Akindi’s pre-set spacing to suit your needs.

Learn more at Akindi's Customize Test Question Formatting guide (external link) . 

Save to device or order prints

Download: Save a folder of your assessments for printing on your own. 

Order Test Packets: Request the printing of the assessment through the on-campus service.

Learn more in our Printing and Scanning resource below.

If you have access to a regular scanner, you can scan the response sheets in any order and upload the PDF to your Akindi Dashboard in the Upload Response Sheets option.

Note: As the scanned file includes student personal information (name, student ID, assessment answers), it is not eligible to be emailed. You must use secure methods to move the file from the scanner to your computer (such as a USB or your TMU Google Drive).

If you do not have a secure way to move the file from your scanner to computer, please use the on-campus scanning service.

Once the assessment is scanned, you can access grading from the Akindi Dashboard by selecting View Results.

The required steps in the Results view will vary based on the type of assessment that was delivered, and Akindi will guide you through them in order.

Review & Fix

Before proceeding with grading, address each issue identified in Review & Fix.

This presents a collection of student responses with missing information or errors that require manual review. 

Learn more at Akindi’s guide to Review & Fix Exceptions (external link) . 

Grading written answer questions

If your assessment included written answer questions, Akindi will add a Grading tab in your assessment. With it, you can view, score, and give feedback to handwritten answers. 

Detailed instructions are provided at Akindi's guide to grade written answer questions (external link) . 

Responses

The Responses tab displays the overall score of each student, including manually graded questions and automatically-scored multiple choice questions.

You can also access a scan of each student’s response with grading annotations, and make changes to the grading.

Detailed instructions are provided at Akindi's guide to the Responses tab (external link) .

Analytics

A birds-eye view of the assessment, presenting:

• Statistics on how well your students did on the test
• Which questions were easiest and most difficult
• A breakdown of your Akindi discriminatory score, summarizing how well your test was designed based on the results

Learn more at Akindi's guide to Analyzing Assessment Results (external link) .

Graphs

View visualizations of your student marks, grade distribution, answer breakdown, and point biserial. Use this to identify questions that may need review.

When you are ready to export the grades to your D2L Brightspace course shell, click Send Grades to Brightspace in the top right corner any "Results" page to send grades for all students. 

Ensure that you have resolved all issues before beginning this process.

You can also send grades for individual students by navigating to the "Responses" tab and selecting individual students using the left column, before clicking Send Grades to Brightspace.

You can choose to:

• Create a new column (which will automatically be visible to students) 
• Select an existing column from your Brightspace course

It is recommended to create your intended column in advance, as a "Numeric Grade" in the Brightspace Grades tool, then select it in Akindi.

This allows you to set visibility options and the intended overall course weight of the assessment before syncing the scores from Akindi. 

Learn more about Brightspace Grade Items.