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. 

1. Course Name: Select the name of your course under the dropdown menu. Never use the + Add new course option as it will cause syncing issues with D2L Brightspace.

2. Assessment Name: Name your test (ie. Final Exam).

3. Assessment Type: Select “Paper” from the dropdown menu.

4. Select Layout: Select a layout that has equal to or more questions than your assessment. If your answer key has unanswered questions, it will skip the question during marking.

5. Turn on/off multiple versions: Allows you to select the number of versions of this test you would like to create, up to 6 versions.

Note: You will have to create a separate answer key for each version of the assessment. How you divide the different versions of question sheets in person is up to you. While writing the test, students will specify the version of the test they received by filling in the appropriate bubble on their bubble sheet.

6. Prefill Student Information: Add each student’s name and student ID number to their response sheet before it is printed. IIf selected, each student will need to be provided with their personalized response sheet at the time of the assessment.  

7. Sort printed sheets: If you have opted to prefill student information, you can choose to sort printed sheets by Student Name (ordered by last name) or Student ID number to facilitate exam sheet distribution. 

8. Show in Title: Choose what information is automatically displayed at the top of every bubble sheet. The preview window on the right will automatically update to reflect these changes. As it can get quite long, we recommend displaying the Section Name and Assessment Name (and including the course code in the name of the assessment).

Click Save & Continue.

Option 1: Option 1: Manual input (recommended)

Click the letter beside each question number to manually input the answer. Select multiple boxes on each row if a question has multiple correct answers.

When you input the answers for each question, changes are immediately reflected on the bubble sheet previewed on the right.

If you have multiple versions, edit the different versions by selecting them in the dropdown menu at the top (Version A, B, etc).

Option 2: Copy/Paste Answer Key

Import an answer key by selecting Copy & Paste Answer Key from the "More Options" drop-down menu at the top right of your screen. A new window will pop up.

Answer keys must be typed or copied and pasted into the text box using the format indicated in-application. If you have already filled out your answer key in the tool using a different type of input, this text box will be filled automatically.

Advanced marking options are beneficial if your assessment has bonus questions, questions worth different point values, or questions with multiple answers.

Toggle advanced marking by clicking the on/off slider at the top right of your screen.

1. If you have multiple versions of your test and they are worth different amounts of points, you will get a warning message.
   
   It is possible for tests set up this way to be accurately graded, but you won’t be able to take full advantage of Akindi’s statistics dashboard after your assessment is complete.
   
   
2. Click on the orange Continue button for printing options.

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.

Akindi provides a detailed explanation of all the information presented, including how to use it, in their Akindi Results Resource (external link) .

Overview

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

Graphs

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

Responses

Details of each student's completed attempts, including graded responses to every question.

Select the icon in the “Reports” column to view a scan of a student’s response with grading annotations.

Use the Actions dropdown menu in the top right corner to make changes to the assessment and answer key.

Review & Fix

Student responses scanned with missing information or errors are collected for manual review. This can include (but is not limited to):

• Ambiguous answers
• Multiple answer selections, when unexpected
• Missing version information
• Missing/unclear identification information

Be sure to review and address each issue before syncing the grades to Brightspace, as they may impact grading.

Akindi provides detailed explanations of how to process Exceptions. Learn more at the Akindi Resolving Exceptions Resource (external link) . 

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.