What Are Assign Settings?
Different test environments require different settings. At times you may want to allow your students the option to edit their assignments after submission while at other times you'd prefer to keep them from having that option. You might want to allow them multiple attempts on the same formative. You may decide returning scores and correct answers instantly or only after submission, or you might like to present your students with one item from the formative at a time. All of these are just a few of the optional, additional assign settings in Formative.
The different Assign Settings are organized into convenient categories:
Note: If you choose "Teacher Pace Mode" to control your students progress pace on the formative, the process of defining additional assign settings will be different. Please visit the linked article to learn how to define and adjust assign settings with this mode.
Time Management settings
Schedule open/close times (Silver/Gold feature)
As a Silver/Gold plan user, you can schedule your formative to open and close on designated days and at designated times.
Checkmark the box next to "Schedule open/closed times"
Select the date and time you would like your formative to open and/or close
Your Formative assignment will appear as a draft assignment until the scheduled open time, at which point it will appear as an assignment on your Classwork page!
Note: If you've enabled Retakes on a formative, once Close time arrives the formative will close for all students regardless of the amount of attempts they managed to complete by that time.
Schedule a due date
Teachers can schedule a due date on a formative for each class. This setting will present a notification for the students when they are expected to submit their work, and they will also see a clear notification once the formative is past due.
On your end, if a student submitted their work past the due date, you will see an indication of it on your end as well.
This setting can be turned on separately from the automatic Open/Close times, meaning: You could set a specific Due Date but set the automatic Close date a few days later, giving students a grace period to submit prior to the formartive closing automatically. Having the indication of a late submission on your end will allow you to act upon the late submission per your discretion.
Note: If you've enabled Retakes on a formative, any attempt taken after the due date has passed will be marked as Late Submission.To set a Due Date:
Checkmark the box next to "Schedule a due date"
Select the date and time from the calendar presented (this can be adjusted at any time)
Indication of late submissions will be displayed on the "Responses" tab, both with an icon next to the student name and with a written message within the side-panel when expanding the student's submission. Hovering over the icon next to the student's name will provide you with the date and time the student opened the formative, the due date/time, and the the date and time the student submitted.
Set a time limit (Silver/Gold feature)
Silver/Gold users can set a time limit on any Formative. This will limit the amount of time a student has to complete the Formative, and will automatically submit when the time runs out. This can be particularly useful when conducting an assessment.
Note: If you're a Gold user and students in your class have a Time Limit Accommodation set up, as soon as you define the Time Limit for the formative you will be able to see a list of those students and if needed adjust their accommodation for the specific formative from your assign tab.
To set a Time Limit:
Checkmark the box next to "Time Limit"
Select a time from the blue drop-down menu, or set a custom time.
Your students will now have a time limit that will begin once they open the Formative!
Students will receive a warning screen before they begin the Formative letting them know that there will be a time limit.
Once students click "Start," they will be able to track how much time they have left in the menu at the top of the Formative.
Tip: You cannot add more time once a student's time has run out. However, you can always remove the time limit on an assignment by adjusting the time following the same steps above, or allowing them to make edits after submitting.
However! If you've enabled Retakes (multiple attempts) on the formative, the countdown timer will reset with each attempt the student takes!
🙋🏽 How can I reset the time limit for a student?
You can undo submission for students if there is a time limit set. When you undo submission, students will see the timer confirmation screen again, and the timer will restart for them. They will not lose any of their responses.
If you've enabled Retakes (multiple attempts) on the formative, the countdown timer will reset automatically with each attempt the student takes!
🙋🏿♂️ Can I allow a student to retake a timed formative?
Yes! If you've enabled Retakes (multiple attempts) on the formative, the countdown timer will reset with each attempt the student takes!
If you haven't enabled Retakes on the formative you can remove a student's responses on a formative with a time limit, students will see the timer confirmation screen again, and the timer will restart for them. Their old responses will be cleared, and they can retake the formative.
🙋🏼 How do I pause a formative with a time limit?
You can pause a timed formative for the entire class, or for individual students, from our "view responses" tab. Please see the article on pausing a formative for step-by-step instructions!
🙋🏽 The timer ran out while my student was recording audio/video responses and they did not save
Since once the timer runs out the formative automatically closes, any responses that are not fully added at that time will not be saved. This includes audio responses, video responses, or any other file uploads that have not yet finished to process and get added into the formative. Best practice would be to instruct your student to pay attention to the timer countdown and submit what they were able to record/upload a few seconds prior to the timer running out. You could re-open the assignment for the individual student after it closes to allow them to make changes and add any responses they didn't have time to complete.
Grading and Feedback settings
Total Attempts
The Total Attempts setting gives you the option to enable a pre-defined amount of up to four (4) attempts on the same formative, which will allow your students to do a full Retake (or several of them) after they submit the formative for the first time. Enabling multiple attempts will also record all the student responses across all attempts they take, and while only the latest attempt's score will be returned and counted for data reporting - you will be able to view all the responses entered by your students on all the attempts they've taken. Click here to learn all about how Retakes / Multiple Attempts work!
Clicking the carrot next to this setting you can choose between 1, 2, 3 or 4 total attempts from the dropdown menu:
After submission
The After Submission settings allow you to decide if students can edit their responses after submitting (useful for Free Response questions or just to keep learning happening), and whether or not students can still see a formative on their dashboard after they submit.
Clicking the carrot next to this setting will allow you to choose one of the following options from a dropdown menu:
"Allow Edits" - Students will be able to edit and re-submit the formative as long as this setting is enabled or the formative is open:
Note: When you enable this setting, there is no limit to the number of edits a student can make. Answers that have been changed after grading are labeled with a red exclamation mark.
"Make Hidden" - The formative will appear on the student's dashboard but the content of the formative will not be accessible after the student submits. Students attempting to access the formative after submitting will receive notification that the formative has been hidden by the teacher. When enabling "Make Hidden" you cannot set correct answers to return to students. You can only set scores to return.
"Keep visible (no edits allowed)" - Students will be able to see the formative on their dashboard and view the contents after they've submitted it, but they won't be able to edit it.While it is true that students cannot edit their answers when the assign setting is "Keep visible no edits", teachers and students can still exchange feedback.
Note: If you are a Silver/Gold user, you can set default After Submission settings on your Settings page.
if you would like to return scores or correct answers to your students, you must choose "Keep visible" or "Allow edits" before you can adjust the settings for returning scores / correct answers.
Return Scores
You have many different options for returning scores to your students. Note that:
In order to return scores, you must select "Keep visible" or "Allow edits" in the After Submission setting first. If you do not do this, you will not be able to adjust the settings for scores or correct answers.
If you return scores, and you are a Silver plan subscriber or at one of our Gold schools, then your students will be able to track their progress against standards in their "Standards" tab.
Clicking the carrot next to Return Scores will allow you choose one of the following options:
"Instantly" - Scores will be returned to students as they are working to complete their work. If a question is auto-graded and does not require any keyboard entries (for example, multiple selection or multiple choice question types), students will have the option to reveal their score and check if their answer is correct as they are taking the formative by clicking the button "Check Answer".
Formative will record the amount of attempts made by the student and will display the number of attempts on the responses tiles on the teacher's end:
"When closed" - Students will get their scores back when you close a formative. These scores will appear on their dashboard.
If you re-open the formative, students will be unable to see their scores until you close it again or choose another option.
"After student submits" - Students will get their scores back immediately after they submit, even if the formative is still open to other students. These scores will appear on their dashboard, next to the "Submitted" button. If they've already submitted a formative once, their scores will continue to update.*Note: You can always decide later and come back at any time to pick an option to return scores!
Silver/Gold users can set a default return scores setting on the account's Settings page.
Return Correct Answers
Returning correct answers is very similar to returning scores. Similarly, note that:
In order to return correct answers, you must select "Keep visible" or "Allow edits" in the After Submission setting first. If you do not do this, you will not be able to adjust the settings for scores or correct answers.
If you return correct answers, and you are a Silver plan subscriber or at one of our Gold schools, then your students will be able to track their progress against standards in their
Clicking the carrot next to Return correct answers will allow you to choose from the following options:
"Don't show answer" - Students will not get the correct answers back at any point.
"When closed" - Students will get the correct answers back when you close the formative. If you re-open it, they will be unable to see the correct answers until you close it again or choose another option.
"After student submits" - Students will get the correct answers back after they submit. If they've already submitted a formative once, the correct answers will continue to display.
*Note: You can always decide later and come back at any time to pick an option to return correct answers!
Silver/Gold users can set a default return correct answers setting on their Settings page.
Content Display settings
Display each item as a separate page
Formative's traditional format allows for self-paced lessons and assessments that provide real-time data, so teachers can send immediate feedback. Scrolling through a screen filled with numerous questions can sometimes be overwhelming for students. To increase focus on individual questions and avoid confusion, teachers now have the ability to assign formatives to show one item** at a time. Students assigned these type of formatives will have control when to move on from one item to the next.
**Note: an item is any of the following:
A stand-alone question or content item
An enhanced PDF/Image/Doc/Google Doc with the questions and/or content items added to it
Student View
When students access a formative with this assign settings, they will see the first item on their screen. To move on to the next items, students will need to click the "Next" button located on the top right side of their screen.
Students also have the option to navigate back to former questions by clicking the "Previous" button located on the top left side of their screen.
The last page will show the "Submit" button at the top right side of the screen in stead of the "Next" button.
Want to guide students through a lesson or assessment so everyone can stay on the same page? Try Formative's "Present" mode (Teacher-Paced)
Display questions in random order (Gold feature)
As a Gold user you can randomize the question order for your students! This is a particularly useful feature when you assign a formative as a test/exam.
Toggle on the button next to "Display questions in random order" and each student will see a different version.
Note: When randomizing questions, the randomization will appear only on the students' end. The teacher's version will remain in the original order, including within the Preview mode. The responses tab for the teacher will also present the questions in the original order.
💭 Troubleshooting Randomize Order🙋🏻♀️ When I chose to put questions in random order, it rearranged everything in my formative. Why?
This feature will randomize text blocks and other content as well as questions! If you have an image (for example) that needs to be locked to a question, make sure that you upload the image directly in the question - not as a separate content block.
🙋🏻 What happens if I randomize questions that I attached to an enhanced pdf?
You can randomize questions that are attached to a PDF, however, this will not move what is actually written on the document. Only the question numbers will change. We don't recommend using randomize for formatives that are made using uploaded and enhanced PDFs because this will be confusing to students.
Secure Exam Browser Mode (Gold Add-on)
Formative and Respondus have teamed up to provide you with the power to quickly and easily create secure testing environments with just a few clicks!
If your school has purchased this powerful add-on, you will be able to choose it on your screen. Please see the Respondus LockDown Browser help article to learn more!
Learning Tools - Calculator (Silver/Gold feature)
Formative and ClassClac partnered to enable an integration calculator on the Formative experience. By enabling the calculator in this section, students will be able to utilize the chosen calculator on their end when completing the formative.
Toggle on the "Learning Tools" button, and proceed to select your preferred calculator from the dropdown menu
The student view:Clicking the Calculator icon will open the calculator selected by the teacher
Learning Tools - Accents Keyboard
Accents Keyboard can be enabled on individual formatives for students to use when responding to Short Answer and Free Response question types. This tool is useful for World Languages classes and at this time supports Spanish only.
Toggle on "Learning Tools"
Select the desired Accents Keyboard from the dropdown
The student view:
When this setting is selected, the Accents Keyboard will appear on students' screens on Short Answer and Free Response question types. Students will expand the Accents Keyboard and click on the desired accents to add them to their responses. For uppercase accents, students will need to hold the Shift button and then click on the desired accent button.
Learning Tools - Spell Check
While Spell Check can be useful on some assessments, when assigning Spelling assessments it should be disabled. To accommodate for different needs, Formative offers a feature to Disable or Enable the Browser Spell Check Feature on specific formatives, without needing to disable the system browser's feature completely.Disabling the spell check feature will prevent the red line indicator from appearing underneath the misspelled word.
***Note:
Spell Check, when enabled, will only be available when using Student accounts. Spell Check is not intended to work when using teacher accounts (i.e. the Preview environment)
Spell Check, when enabled, is not available when using the Free Response question.
The Spell Check setting in Formative applies to the browser spell check feature only. It can not affect 3rd party apps or extensions in the likes of Grammarly or Read&Write. If your students have such services installed on their devices, you will need to disable them at the source.
Disable / Enable Browser Spell Check on a Specific Formative
Select a class to assign the formative to
Click the carat next to the class name to open the assign settings window
Toggle on "Learning Tools"
Then, toggle the button next to 'Spell Check' ON if you want your students to be able to use the browser's Spell Check feature, or toggle it OFF if you want to prevent your students from using the browser's Spell Check feature.
Entry Password (Gold feature)
When Entry Password is enabled, students will be required to enter the defined password in order to access the assigned formative. Once the formative has been submitted and scores returned the Entry Password will be disabled and students will be able to re-access the formative for viewing without it (unless blocked via other assign settings such as "keep hidden" after submission).Toggle on "Entry Password"
Type the password of your choice into the text field
You can enable or disable the Entry Password at any time by toggling the setting on/off.
Note: Entry Password is Case Sensitive!
The Student View
Upon attempting to access the formative, students will be notified the formative is password protected and will be prompted to enter the password to open the assignment.
Note: Entry Password is Case Sensitive
Student Management settings
Add Students
This setting allows you to add students to the class(es) you're assigning this formative to without navigating away from the assigning process. This is a great solution if you realize that your class roster is out of date after you already started assigning.
Click the carat to the far right of "Add Students"
Use the "Add student" button to add / send a joining invitation to a new student manually, or
Copy the join-link or the join-code to the class and provide it to your student so they could join your class independently, or
Click the "Roster Sync" button to import your class roster directly from Google Classroom, Clever, or Microsoft Teams Classroom
Assign to individual students (Gold feature)
If you do not want to assign a formative to your entire class, you can select which students have access to it. This can be useful for re-takes, extra practice, to deter cheating, or any other reason you would like some students to take a different formative from other classmates.
Click on the carat to the far right of "Assign to Individual Students".
Checkmark the name(s) of the student (s) you'd like to assign your formative to.
Click "Assign"
Tips:
You can always edit your selection by returning to your "Assign Settings" modal. You can check or uncheck individual students on or off as needed (Great if someone is absent!), just make sure to click on 'update' after making your changes
You can clone a formative as many times as you need to, then edit the clones to make them differentiated for different groups. Then assign each clone to the relevant group!
Assign to Student Groups
If you already created Student Groups in your class, you will be able to assign the formative to one specific group (or more) by utilizing this setting.
Click the carat to the left of 'Assign to Student Groups'
Expand the list of groups and check-mark the desired one(s)
Click 'Assign' >> the formative will now be assigned only to the students within the selected group(s)
To change the selected assigned groups, click back into the assign settings window by repeating the steps above, check-mark additional group(s) to add them to the assignment or un-check group(s) to remove them from the assignment, and click 'Update' to confirm
Accommodations (Gold feature)
If students have Global Time LImit Extension or Text to Speech accommodations that are not relevant to your class or to this specific formative - you can adjust or turn them off for the specific formative from this setting.
Edit/Disable Time Limit Extension for students with a global accommodation:
Click the carrot next to "Accommodations" to reveal the list of students with accommodations
Click on the blue-highlighted accommodation status next to a student's name
Edit the Time Limit Extension for the student as needed, or
Disable the Time Limit Extension for the student by toggling off the Time Limit Extension button
Click "Update" to save the changes for this specific formative
You can then proceed to assign the formative to the class
Remove Text to Speech for students with a global accommodation:
Click the carat next to "Accommodations" to reveal the list of students with accommodations
Click the blue-highlighted accommodation status next to a student's name
Toggle off the Text to Speech button
Click "Update" to save the changes for this specific formative