What’s the score?

There are number of factors that all play a part in how a learner’s test score is determined.

These factors give authors a lot of flexibility and customization options – but it also means test scoring can be a pretty subtle thing to manage.

The score value that the LMS receives from a SCORM package is a percentage value.

When you set the pass score for the Project, you are setting what the passing percentage should be. It’s set at 80% by default but you can change that.

Here’s how to set the pass score:

The score is a calculation made using the weighting for each question. By default, each question has a weight of 10 points.

Here’s the calculation that gets made in order to determine the learner's percentage score for a test:

Learner’s points/Total available points x 100

How the learner scores on questions will depend on several choices you can make:

• Question weighting (which you can customize)
• The types of questions themselves
• Whether or not you choose to allow partial scoring.

You can assign custom weighting to individual test questions according to the level of importance you determine.

You set the Weighting in the Question Properties panel, on the Details tab.

Here’s how to do that:

If you set a custom weight for a question, it’s a good idea to let learners know so they understand that the weighting will affect how they score overall. One way to do this is to add a text element to the question page with an explanation about the weight.

The distribution of points within a question depends on the type of question.

True and False

Correct – 100% of the marks for that question

Incorrect – 0% of the marks for that question

Multiple Choice

With Partial Scoring On:

The formula used is: # choices which are correct / # options which are true.

Note: There is a special case. Maximum Selections can be set to a number above the number of true options. If the Maximum Selections setting is greater than the number of options that are true, students are able to select more than the number of available true answers. If students select more than the number of available true answers, they get zero for that question. Many course designers word the question body to indicate the number of true options in the answer … “Pick the correct 2 responses”, or “Which three of the following are true?” You may also wish to add, "Scoring will be deducted for any incorrect selections."

With Partial Scoring Off:

If partial scoring is shut off, you must choose ALL of the correct options, and ONLY the correct options. So, using the example above, you must pick 2, 3, 4 to get 100%. Any other combination will result in 0%.

Fill in the blanks

Each option entry contains text that should be matched, along with variations on the text.

The formula for this question is: # of correctly matched choices / # of choices presented.

Multiple Pull Downs

These questions are scored the same as the fill in the blanks questions. The only difference is that variations for each option are listed in a pull down box. The student need only pick from a list instead of typing original entries.

Drag and Drop

These questions are scored the same way as a fill in the blanks question.

Short Answer

No weighting or score is applied to this type of test question.

You can turn off partial scoring of questions course-wide via your Publishing Profile or by individual question from the Question Properties panel's Details tab.

The Course score is technically a combination/calculation of the scoring for each Module. This doesn't have relevance for courses that have only one Module but it is something to keep in mind for courses that contain more than one Module,

If a user takes a multiple-module course but only completes one of the tests, the score for that module is sent back to the LMS. The course score reflects what has been completed and scored so far. The course status won't be complete until all module tests have been taken. Since tests can have points AND also be randomized, a user's overall score can't be calculated until all modules have been completed.

The overall score for a course is based on all of the points from each test questions in all of the modules.  So if one module had 80 points and a second module had a test with only 20 points, a learner could get 100% (80 points) on the first module and 0% (0 points) on the second module and achieve an overall course score of 80% (80/100 points).

In a multiple-module course you can also assign a specific passing score for any module. For example, the Course score can be 80% but you can also set the first Module to require a score of 100%. As a result, the learner will only be marked as passing if they have both an overall Course score of 80% or hgiher plus a score of 100% on the first module.

There are a lots of pieces in play when it comes to determing a learner's score on a test.

The good news is that in most simpler cases the default settings work the way most learners would expect test scoring to work.

Knowing all the details, though, allows you to address less-common assessment specifications and needs.