Demonstration: Essay item type

An Essay-type item asks the respondent to respond freely or express an opinion about the given subject.

The quiz that we now have on screen is about Quebec and international cinema. It includes one essay question. 

In the field Item title, I wrote Your opinion matters. I could have just as well written Essay question, or anything else, since this title will not appear anywhere in the published quiz. However, it is very useful to me to have a meaningful title because it helps me find this question among all the others that make up this quiz. 

In the Question text field, I invite the respondent to give his or her opinion on Quebec cinema.

In the Suggested answer field, I can either write a comment or an answer that will appear in the published quiz when the respondent clicks on the Solution or Submit buttons.

The fields that we just completed can be found under the Content tab. But like the other item types, the Add-ons tab allows me to add information such as clues or a short helpful text, an image or a video that will show above the text in the published quiz. For this item, I have added an image.  

This type of question includes, under the Parameters tab, only the parameters that are common to all of the question types (Weighting, Automatically start or not the media and Display or not of the Solution button) in the published quiz.

Now, I will click on the Preview button to see how this item will appear in my published quiz. The image that I added under the Add-ons tab can be seen over the text and the field where the respondent must write his or her answer. When the respondent clicks on the Submit or the Solution button over the text, the suggested response will appear in the lower part of the screen, under the title Suggested answer.

Because there is not an automatic correction for this sort of question, unlike other types of items, your suggested answer will allow respondents to correct themselves by comparing this answer with theirs.

And that was the Essay item !