Assign Settings Redesign
As of May 31st, 2024 Formative's workflow for assigning (Student-Paced) and Presenting (Teacher-Paced) formatives to students has changed.
Assign a Formative (Student Paced mode)
This section provides insight and instructions on assigning formatives that students can take at their own pace. If you are looking to assign via a Teacher-Paced mode, where you will control the pace of the assignment, please skip to the section "Present a Formative"
Formatives can be assigned directly on the Formative platform, in which case students will need to log in to their Formative accounts to locate and take them. If a class is already synced with a Google Classroom, you will see the option to choose between "assign only" and "assign & post to Google Classroom" which will automatically post the formative into the corresponding Google Classroom!
Ready to make your formative accessible to your students?
Assign to a single class
There are two ways to assign a formative to a single class:
From inside the formative
While in the Formative you'd like to assign, click on "Assign" and choose the class you'd like to assign this formative to by checkmarking the box to the left
If you'd like to assign the formative using the default assign settings on your account, proceed to click "Assign" at the bottom of the window (or "Assign & Post to Google Classroom" if applicable). However, if you'd like to adjust the assign settings for this class, click on the carat to the far right to access the assign settings modal
Proceed to adjust any assign settings needed and when finished click on "Assign" at the bottom of the modal
From the Activities page
Navigate to your Activities page and locate the formative in your list
Identify the class you would like to assign the formative to at the top of the grid
Hover over the corresponding cell within the grid, and click on the + button that will appear
Adjust any assign settings needed and when finished click on "Assign" at the bottom of the modal
Assign to multiple classes in bulk
Similarly, there are two ways to assign a formative to multiple classes at once:
From inside the formative
While in the Formative you'd like to assign, click on "Assign" and choose the classes you'd like to assign this formative to by checkmarking the boxes to the left of each class
If you'd like to assign the formative using the default assign settings on your account, proceed to click "Assign" at the bottom of the window. However, if you'd like to adjust the assign settings for these classes, click on the "Adjust settings" button at the bottom of the window instead to access the Assign Settings modal. Note that this button will specify the amount of classes you've selected.
Proceed to adjust any assign settings needed and when finished click on "Assign" (or "Assign & Post to Google Classroom" if applicable) at the bottom of the modal. Note that any adjustments you make will affect all the classes selected at this time
From the Activities page
Navigate to your Activities page and locate the formative in your list
Identify one of the classes you would like to assign the formative to at the top of the grid
Hover over the corresponding cell within the grid, and click on the + button that will appear
In the assign settings modal that will open click on "Back" at the top left corner
Proceed to checkmark all the classes you'd like to assign this formative to
At the bottom of the modal the button "Adjust settings" will display a count of the selected classes. When you're done selecting the classes, click on this button to open the Assign Settings window again.
This time, the Assign Settings window will display all the selected classes at the top. Adjust any assign settings needed and when finished click on "Assign" at the bottom of the modal
Join Instructions
When you assign a formative, a Join Link will appear at the top of the Assign Settings window, from here you can copy the link and provide it to your students:
Note: if you are at a Gold school/district, you may be able to use Formative directly in your Learning Management System (e.g. Canvas, Blackbaud, Schoology). See this article about LTI integration for more information!
Assign & Post to Google Classroom
** If you selected a class that you've imported from Google Classroom in step 2, you'll have slightly different options: "Assign & Post to Google" or "Assign Only." If you choose the first option, your assignment will be automatically posted to your Google Classroom stream!
A new window will launch asking you to sign in with your Google account. Choose the correct account, and the formative will be posted to your Google Classroom Classwork page as an assignment!
If you have defined topics within your Google Classroom, Formative will also give you the option to choose which topic to post the assignment to. You can choose the topic from the dropdown list and then click "Post to Topic(s)", or if you'd rather not post the assignment to any specific topic you can click "Skip & Finish Posting"
Tip: make sure that you have pop-ups enabled in your browser, so that the new tab can open and you can confirm your Google account.
If you'd prefer not to post the assignment to Google Classroom, you can choose the "Assign only" option. This can be useful if you are re-assigning a formative to a small group of students. When the students log in to Formative with their Google accounts, they will see the assignment on their dashboard.
Running into issues with assigning & posting to Google Classroom? Review this article for common FAQ and troubleshooting tips
Note: Formative is now an official Google Classroom Add-on! See this article to learn how to install Formative into your Google Classroom and take your Formative-Google integration to the next level!
Assign & Share to Microsoft Teams
** If you selected a class that you've imported from Microsoft Teams class in step 2, you'll have slightly different options: "Assign & Share to Microsoft Teams" or "Assign." If you choose the first option, your assignment will be posted to your Microsoft Teams Classroom stream!
Clicking the "Assign & Share to Microsoft Teams" button will launch a new window asking you to sign in with your Microsoft account. Choose the correct account, and a new window will open up where you will be prompted to choose between the following two options:
Option 1: Share to person, group, or channel
Choosing this option will prompt you to choose the person, group, or channel you would like to share the link of the formative with. A link to the formative will appear as a stand-alone item where you've chosen to post it.
Option 2: Create an assignment
Choosing this option will prompt you to enter the full details of the assignment such as title, instructions, due date/time as well as set a point value for the assignment and choose the group or channel to post the assignment in. The assignment you create will be posted to your Microsoft Teams space, and your students will need to click into the assignment to find the link to the formative.
Please note: at this time a grade pass back to Microsoft Teams is not supported. You will need to manually grade the assignment on Microsoft Teams.
Tip: make sure that you have pop-ups enabled in your browser, so that the new tab can open and you can confirm your Microsoft account.
Assigning to Guest Students
Students not in your class can access a formative through a temporary guest account by utilizing the join link or the QR code posted at the top of the Assign Settings window.
Please note: Guest accounts are temporary, single-use accounts that students may use to take a formative. Students will be unable to log back into those accounts to see their scores, etc, and their scores will not appear on the Tracker (although they will in View Responses). We highly recommend to not use Guest assignments with students who have a proper Formative account!
Please be mindful, if a student in your class launches a formative as a guest instead of with their own student account - their responses will be logged as a guest student. If this happens, they must log out completely and then log back in with their login credentials to avoid the risk of accessing other assignments as guests.
Unassign a formative
There are three ways to unassign a formative from a class or from guest students:
From within the formative's Edit tab:
Go to "Assign"
Click on the carat to the class you want to unassign
Scroll down the assign settings window and click on "Unassign" at the bottom right corner
Confirm you want to unassign from this class
From within the formative's Responses tab:
Click the icon next to the class you want to unassign
Select "Adjust Assign Settings"
Scroll down the assign settings window and click on "Unassign" at the bottom right corner
Confirm you want to unassign from this class
From your Activities Page:
Locate the formative on the list
Click on the icon in the appropriate grid cell for the class you want to unassign
Select "Adjust Assign Settings"
Scroll down the assign settings window and click on "Unassign" at the bottom right corner
Confirm you want to unassign from this class
Notes:
Unassigning can only be done on the singular class level. If you need to unassign from multiple classes, you will need to go through this process for each class individually.
Unassigning a formative from students in a class or from guest students will cause their responses to disappear from your View Responses page and Tracker.
You can re-assign to the same class or to guest students and their data will re-populate.
If you want to hide formatives from your students while keeping data in your account, you can do this in your After Submission settings.
Adjust 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 Assign Settings modal offers the same settings as before, with additional new ones that are only supported on this newly designed experience, all efficiently organized into categories:
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!
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
New! 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 will 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!)
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!
Accommodations (Gold feature)
If students have Global Time LImit Extension , Answer Choice Reduction, 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' or 'Answer Choice Reduction' 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 button next to the specific accommodation(s) you'd like to remove (Text to Speech and/or Answer Choice Reduction
Click "Update" to save the changes for this specific formative
Update assign settings for a formative you already assigned
Adjusting assign settings for a formative that has already been assigned can be accomplished from three locations on the Formative platform:
From your Activities Page:
Find the assigned formative on your dashboard.
Find the class on the grid and click on the icon shown in the corresponding grid cell
Click "Adjust Settings"
Make the desired changes.
Click "Update"!
From within a formative's Edit tab:
Open the assigned Formative
Click on "Assign"
Click on the carat next to the class name
Make the desired changes
Click "Update"!
From within the formative's Responses tab:
Click on the assigned icon next to the class name
Click on "Adjust Settings"
Make the desired changes
Click "Update"
Notes:
You must update/change these settings for each class separately.
If the class you assigned the formative to is a Google Classroom class, you'll see different options: "Update & Post to Google" and "Update Only." If you click the "Update & Post to Google" option, this will update the assignment in your Google Classroom stream.
Present a Formative (Teacher-Paced Mode)
Formative's traditional Assign format allows for self-paced lessons and assessments that provide real-time data, so teachers can send immediate feedback. With Present (Teacher-Paced) Mode, you have the option to control the pace of questions so the whole class can progress together!
Here's how you can get started:
Step 1: Create your lesson/assessment
Open one of your existing formative assignments, build a new one from scratch by adding content, questions, or uploading existing materials, or grab a copy of a pre-made formative from the Library tab.
Step 2: Present to your students
Click the "Present" button at the top right corner of your screen. A list of all your classes will appear in a dropdown menu. Any classes this formative is currently actively assigned to (either via the Assign button or via the Present button) will be listed at the top of the list. Below will appear all the classes this formative is not currently assigned to.
Locate the class you would like to present to at this time and then click on "Start" or "Resume" next to it.
Note to Silver/Gold users: Teacher Paced mode will automatically disable the options to restrict to individual students, schedule open and close times, and set a time limit. These controls can be restored when Teacher Paced mode is turned off.
Step 3: Manage Teacher Paced Presentation
From here you will be directed to the Teacher-Paced Presentation's Lobby. Refer to steps 3 and up on this article to learn more about managing presentation. reviewing student responses, and more.