Once a student selects Begin Test Now on the Instructions and Help page, the student is presented with the first test page.
A test page can include the following sections:
The Global Menu section displays the global navigation and tool buttons. It also includes the Items menu, test information, help button, pause button, and system settings button.
The Stimulus section, which appears only for questions associated with a stimulus, contains the stimulus content, context menu, and either the expand passage button or reading mode button. If the passage content is not fully visible on the page, an arrow may also be displayed at the bottom to indicate there is additional text below. A green scrollbar appears under the Stimulus section to indicate how much of the passage content has been viewed.
The Question section contains one or more test questions (also known as “items”). Each question includes a number, context menu, stem, and response area. Each question also displays the student’s name and the question’s most recent save date. Similar to the Stimulus section, if the question text is not fully visible on the page, an arrow and scrollbar is displayed at the bottom of the question section.
The following sections provide details about how to navigate the Student Interface.
How to Navigate between Questions
Some test pages may have only one question and others may have more or may consist of multiple parts that students must answer:
After students respond to all the questions on a page, they select Next in the upper-left corner to proceed to the next page.
To navigate to a previous question in a test, students select Back.
When multiple questions are grouped with a stimulus, the questions are tabbed for individual viewing. Students select the tabs in the upper-right corner to proceed to the corresponding question.
The navigation tabs may also include a Stimulus icon that students can select to view the stimulus associated with the grouped questions (refer to Icons).
To jump directly to a question, students can select a question number from the items dropdown that appears when students select the Items menu.
If a question has been marked for review, Marked For Review icon is displayed next to the question (refer to Icons).
If a question has been skipped or not answered, Unanswered icon is displayed next to the question (refer to Icons).
Questions that students cannot navigate to are grayed out.
If a test consists of cover pages, cover page icons are displayed in the positions at which they occur in the test.
How to View Stimuli
When a test question is associated with a stimulus, students should review that stimulus before responding to the question. A stimulus is a reading passage or other testing material (such as a video or graphic) that students review in order to answer associated questions:
Reading Passages: When the stimulus is a reading passage, the content may be paginated.
To move between the pages of a reading passage, students can select Left Arrow button and Right Arrow button below the stimulus (refer to Icons).
Students can also select Book button to open the Reading Mode window, which displays two pages at a time (refer to Icons).
If a stimulus has multiple reading passages, students can select the numbered tabs at the top of the stimulus to switch between the available passages.
Some reading passages contain sections of text that students can collapse to focus on other parts of the passage. Students can select Plus sign or Minus sign to expand or collapse sections of text (refer to Icons).
Videos: When the stimulus is a video, students can use standard video features to control the playback.
To play a video, select Play button in the lower-left corner (refer to Icons).
To jump to a different point in the video, drag the slider to the required location.
To adjust the speed at which the video plays, select 1X button, and then select the required speed from the menu that appears (refer to Icons).
To mute or unmute the video, select Audio button in the lower-right corner (refer to Icons).
To expand the video to full screen mode, select Expand button in the lower-right corner (refer to Icons). To exit full screen mode, select Expand button again (refer to Icons).
Slideshows: When the stimulus is a slideshow, students can navigate between the slides and play associated audio, if available.
How to Respond to Test Questions
The questions presented in TDS are of various types and students may need to respond to them differently. Students can use the Student Practice Site to familiarize themselves with the question types that may appear on tests.
All responses are saved automatically. Students can also manually save their responses to questions by selecting Save in the upper-left corner.
Test questions may require students to do any of the following tasks:
Select one or more choices from a list of answer options:
For multiple choice type questions, students can re-click a selected radio button to deselect the response option provided this feature is enabled.
Use an on-screen keypad to generate an answer. Students can select Keyboard button in the answer space to open the keypad (refer to Icons).
Select graphic objects or text excerpts.
Place points, lines, or bars on a graph.
Drag and drop text or graphic objects.
Enter text in a text box or table.
Match answer options together.
Modify a highlighted word or phrase in a reading selection.
Enter input parameters to run an on-screen simulation.
Copy content from a passage to a text box.
Expand categories and select options within them.
Create graphs and charts out of unstructured data sets and draw inferences.
Record a spoken response:
For speaking items, students can click the red microphone icon to begin recording a spoken response and click the red ‘stop’ icon to end the recording. Students have one opportunity to re-record a response; recording will begin immediately when the second attempt is confirmed.
How to Pause Tests
Students can pause the test at any time. Pausing the test logs out the student. To resume testing, students must repeat the sign-in process:
To pause a test, students select Pause in the global menu and then select Yes in the confirmation message that appears.
If students are testing on Chromebooks, please ensure they pause the test before closing the lid of the Chromebook. If the lid closes before the test pauses, whoever opens the Chromebook next will be able to see the last question that the student viewed (and the response they entered.)