How to create an online exam?

An online exam is a type of formal, high-stakes evaluation designed to quantify skills and knowledge against standards (national, industry, etc.). It is usually long, complex, and the outcome severely affects the respondents' future.

The main goals of online exams are:

• To measure and grade the exam-takers' performance.

• To conclude and summarize a large part of the material, curriculum, etc.

• To provide objective confirmation of qualifications necessary to obtain a degree, a diploma, etc.

Online exam creation

Online exam on Testportal? With our efficient and user-friendly platform, you're guaranteed to swiftly create even the most complex assessments and evaluations. Keep in mind that even though our name is Testportal, our features work great for any online exam requirement.

To start your work, go to the My tests menu. There, you will see a green New test button in the screen's upper-right corner. Click it, and the Basic settings panel of your new exam will open.

Just one click and your new online exam is ready to be filled with challenging questions

Online exam basic settings

The Basic settings section is where you begin your work with a new exam. Here, you will find two sections: Initial settings, with information about your new assessment and Logo, where you can add your graphic symbol to the exam for branding purposes.

• Initial settings

It is the space where you enter the exam name (for example, 'Restaurant customer service standards - exam'). In the following step, you can create a custom category for the exam you're building or choose one from those previously created. Another option is to leave your assessment uncategorized.

Next is the Description field. Here, you can add information to identify the content of your exam and for whom you created it. The Description will prove very useful when your Testportal account contains various online assessments.

The Test language field is the last element of the Initial setting. There is currently only one version available - English.

• Logo

Some Testportal plans allow users to personalize their online exams by including a logo. If your plan doesn't support this feature, your assessments will display the Testportal logo.

Business users and institutions that use EDU School and EDU University plans have the option to add their own graphic signs. To do that, all it takes is to click the Select button and then add a file. Another option is to select the Hide logo, in which case your assessment will not display any logo.

To confirm, click the Save button, which you will find at the bottom of the screen.

Learn more about how to add your organization's logo to your exam from another article in the Help section.

How to create questions in online exam? Testportal questions manager.

To add the first question to your online exam, you must navigate to the Questions manager tab in the Test configuration menu. Next, follow these steps:

1. Click the green Add question button.

2. Then, you will see a text box where you can start adding the content of Question 1.

3. Finally, select a question category. You can also add a new category if you need one.

Questions are the most critical part of your online exam. Testportal gives you several kinds of questions to choose from.

There are 6 question types available on Testportal to make your online exams unique, challenging and fun: single-choice, multiple-choice, descriptive, true/false, short answer and survey. Make sure you read more about what question types you can use on our platform.

Question types are just the beginning. You can enrich them with a variety of attachments: images, spreadsheets, audio, video and more! Read our guide to find out how to add a file to a question or answer on Testportal.

• Adding answers to questions

Choice questions can have as many answer alternatives as you need. Whenever you feel like your online exam could benefit from more distractors in single or multiple-choice problems, simply follow these steps:

• Click Add answer to add an answer field.

• Configure your Score settings, then click the Save or Save and add the next button to confirm.

• Add more questions and answers, repeating the pattern above until your exam is complete.

Your respondents will have to choose the correct answers from the alternatives you provide for your single and multiple-choice questions. Enter them and tick the checkbox to the left of the correct answer to indicate it. If your online exam contains short answer questions, review the answers. Testportal allows you to mark respondents' answers as correct, even if you didn't include them in the answer key list.

To delete a created answer, simply use the trash can icon to the right of the answer you no longer need.

How to prepare a reliable online exam?

Testportal users can access a variety of options that help achieve validity and reliability of online exams. To make remote assessments consistent and cheating-free, make sure you utilize all of the following features:

1. Restrictive time limits.

2. Secure test-sharing methods, such as individual access codes or the dedicated Microsoft Teams app.

3. Making exam available to all respondents in the same, short period of time.

4. Questions and answers randomization. Question subsets and drawing mechanisms.

5. Blocking returning to the previous questions (backtracking).

6. Reliable, non-intrusive proctoring with the Honest Respondent Technology.

You can find all these methods described in detail in this article and other texts of our Help Center.

For the highest security of your online exams, we recommend that you use Testportal app for Microsoft Teams. This duo provides you with the most advanced test-sharing option, on par with our individual access codes feature. It also allows you to oversee your respondents live camera feed during the online exams. It is an effective proctoring method, which the respondents don't see as intrusive.

Test sets for online exams

Your online exams will be unique and reliable if you use our test sets feature. It allows you to randomize questions and answers to prevent cheating. You can set it up by proceeding as follows:

1. Go to the Test sets section. It is the place where you can configure the question order for your exam.

2. Choose Random questions and answers order  to create a test sets for each respondent, where all your questions and answers are in random order.

Another option is an exam comprising questions drawn from question categories or a manual configuration of your test set. Find out more about these features by reading about how to create test sets.

Result reliability is essential. Testportal helps you look after it with question randomization options.

Online exam access

Online exam access is an important part of your assessment settings. It is a way of inviting your respondents to take your exam. There are several access methods available on Testportal:

• Public link.

• Private access code.

• Group password.

• Link (training/quiz).

• Sharing as a tab in Testportal for Microsoft Teams.

Your online exams will probably need strict security measures to ensure the results are reliable. To achieve that goal, we suggest using the following access methods:

Private access codes - choose this method to have the most control over who takes your online exams. Each respondent is assigned a unique access code and starts taking the assessment only after entering the code.

Testportal for Microsoft Teams - our platform is a top Microsoft Teams app for a reason. It provides security on par with the private access codes - your exams will be accessible only to authenticated users from a group with which you shared this test. It also allows you to see all your respondents during the exam using their device cameras.

To find out even more about Testportal's test-sharing features make sure you read our article about access to test types.

Honest Respondent Technology

The Honest Respondent Technology is a light proctoring feature that lets you prevent and detect online cheating. It monitors respondents' cursor movements during the assessments and issues warnings on each attempt to leave the test browser.

If you select Enable warnings only,  respondents will see a warning on each attempt to leave their tests. If you use the Enable warnings and test block option, apart from issuing the warning, Honest Respondent Technology will also terminate the exam.

You can set the Max. allowed number of times a respondent can leave test page option. When the number of violations exceeds the set value, the exam terminates automatically.

Click the Save button to confirm your settings.

Honest Respondent Technology by Testportal is a game-changer in online exam security

Make sure you read more information about inviting respondents to your online exams by reading our article covering access to test.

Test start page

It is a space where you can add Instructions for respondents to your online exam. You can also configure the Test start form. There are default fields available, but if you need additional ones, you are free to configure your own. Confirm your settings with the Safe button when you finish.

Configure the start form for your online exam to provide respondents with all the information they might need

It is an excellent place to include personal data processing information and all necessary consent forms. This feature, however, is limited to our MAX, MAX Customized and EDU University plan users.

Those are the most advanced plan available on Testportal. If you'd like to know more about all of their features, give our Customer Success team a shout via the contact form. They will be happy to provide you with all the relevant information.

Grading and exam summary

• Test end message and redirection

Testportal allows you to prepare a message for your respondents. They will see it immediately after finishing their online exam. Another option available here is a redirect to an external website.

• Grading criteria

Your online exam needs a grading scale. You can define it in the Grading criteria section, where you choose between using points and percentages of points. You can also set grade ranges in which case your respondents will receive a grade automatically, based on the entered ranges of points/percentages for each possible grade.

• Information for respondents

Here, you can enter separate messages for those respondents who failed, and those, who passed your exam.

Time settings

Testportal features time setting that are handy when you want to ensure reliability of your exam results.

• Test duration

The length of your online exam and the time your respondents have to answer each question are up to you. In this section, you can set the time limits for your assessment.

For example, if you want to create an exam with 30 questions, you can give your respondents 60, 90 or any other number minutes to finish their tasks. All you have to do is to enter the selected value in the Time to complete the test field.

When setting the exam time, consider the type of questions included in the exam. If all of them are of the same type, select the time limit settings per question in the test will be checked. If you use both closed and open-ended questions, set a time limit to complete test, as open-ended questions require more time to answer than close-ended.

Strict time limits increase the online exams result reliability

In the Manual test activation field, you enter the selected period of exam activation. Then, your online exam will activate for the selected time. If you enter the period of seven days, your assessment is available for precisely one week starting at the moment of activation with the Activate test button. After entering your settings, remember to confirm them with the Save button.

To avoid mistakes, always double-check all settings. Review the Test Configuration to ensure the correctness of all entered values.

Continue reading about the time parameters on Testportal in another of our articles.

How to activate online exam on Testportal?

You can activate your online exam in two ways:

• Click the Activate test button if you choose Manual test activation in the Time settings. This way, your exam will activate immediately.

When your settings are checked, it's time to activate the exam

• Use the Schedule test option if you previously chose Activation in a set time period in the Time settings. Your online exam will then become active automatically at the selected date, for the selected period of time. Forcing your respondents to start their exam simultaneously is an effective way of ensuring that they don't share the question content and prepare answers beforehand.

After scheduling your online exam, it will activate automatically on the date you selected in the Time settings

Online exam sharing

When your assessment is ready for deployment, invite the respondents to take it. The method you will use depends on the choice of exam access mode.

Testportal sends Individual access codes to respondents' email addresses automatically just before the start of your online exam.

If the access link is your selected method, ensure you copy and send the link to your respondents using emails, chats, or other communication methods.

If you selected the group password, the next step is to provide respondents with the address of the sub-domain page and test password to start their exam. 

Your online exam is ready? Remember to take it yourself before you send it to the respondents to spot any errors.

When you finish taking the exam yourself, you will see the results in the Test progress & results. If you need to correct errors in the already activated exam, duplicate it by going to the My Tests screen. Then click the three-dot symbol, and select the Duplicate option.

You can copy any of your assessments using the Duplicate option

With the Duplicate option, you generate a new copy of the online exam. It is fully editable; you can add or modify questions, answers, and settings.