Multi-short answer (MSA) questions require respondents to answer a multi-solution question and input their answers into individual input boxes. Respondent's answers are checked against each possible answer stored in the answer fields. D2L recommends that the required number of answers corresponds with the number of input boxes provided.
An MSA question's maximum point value is reflected by a 100% weight. As a best practice, D2L recommends that each possible answer's weight calculation equals 100% divided by the number of answers required by the question.
Multi-short answer questions differ from short answer (SA) questions in that the multi-short answer question enables you to create multiple answer boxes which all relate to one answer set; short answer questions also support multiple answer boxes, but each requires a distinct set of possible answers. The short answer question type is ideal if you need to create a multi-part question that cannot share the same answer pool.
For example, the question "Name 3 state capitals" displays three input boxes to users. Each answer users submit is checked against 51 possible correct answers stored in the answer fields and each answer field has a weight of 33.3%.
- In the Question Library, from the New button, click Multi-Short Answer Question (MSA).
- In the General area, enter your multi-short answer question details.
- In the Options area, do the following:
- In the Input boxes field, enter the number of required answer fields you want your question to have. You can assign the number of rows and columns for each answer field.
- In the Answer fields, enter the correct answers for your question, the weight for each answer (you can set different weights if some solutions are more correct than others), and how you want the answers to be evaluated.
- To assign more possible answers for the question, click
Add Answer.
- To verify your answer, click Preview.