Exporting Tests

Tests may be assembled on almost any computer that has access to TAO. However, there will be situations in which sharing Tests will be useful. For instance, a department may have standard performance expectations for its most basic courses, and these might be determined by a singular Test distributed to the department’s several teachers . The ability to share Tests becomes essential in just such a situation. Doing this takes only a few easy steps.

Step 1: Upon opening Tests from the Assessment Builder Bar, either click on an existing Test class (folder) in the Test Library panel, or click on the Test folder itself. In the Actions Bar, click New Class.

Creating a new class, or a new folder, allows the user to place Tests in an organized location in which they can be made ready to be transferred from one machine to another. When doing this, where it says Edit test class in the canvas area, find the field marked Label. Here the Test class can be renamed, if desired. Hitting the blue Save button will create the class.

Step 2: In the Test Library, move the Tests to be transferred to the class.

This selects the Tests that will be exported.

Step 3: After clicking on the class select from the Actions Bar Export.

Alternatively, an individual Test can be clicked on for exporting, without creating a new class to transfer it in. However, in most instances it is more useful to organize the transfer in a single folder that can be exported in one go.

The pane that comes up on the canvas will ask that you confirm that the folder highlighted is the one that should be exported. If the Test is to be exported as a Question and Test Interoperability (.qti) formatted document, it will save the files as a compressed .zip file. Otherwise, the export will be in Resource Description Framework (.rdf) format. Click the blue Export button in the pane to continue with the export.

Step 4: Select the location on which to export your Test, and then save.

The Test will then be available to transfer either by data storage device or over a computer network. The next step in the transfer is to import the Test onto the desired computer.