The Written response question is one of the most commonly used question widgets in Stile. It can be used for short- or long-form written responses, mathematical equations or chemical formulae, and general note-taking. The text box will expand to fit your students' responses so there is no limit to how much they can write.

The Written response widget can be found in the Questions section of your content bar in Prepare mode. If you can't see the content bar in your Session, click on the Add content tab sticking to the right edge of your page.

The question field supports the full rich text toolbar, including text formatting, special characters, and mathematical notation. See Add text to a Session for a complete guide to available tools.

Use formatting to help students navigate the question. Common approaches include bolding cognitive verbs, italicising context clues, and using a numbered list for multi-part questions.

If the Session is an assessment, adjust the mark value for the question. All questions default to 1 mark. If the Session is not an assessed quiz or test, this field can be ignored.

The model answer can be written next. Click the Model answer tab below the question text box. Model answers mimic student responses, so your tools for creating the answer will be exactly the same as those provided to the student. This includes fewer formatting options and a different maths editor.

You can use this space to write a response suited to the particular question. It might be a single correct answer for balancing an equation, for example, or there may be several acceptable responses to a more open-ended question. You will be able to use this model answer later when reviewing student answers and discussing them with the class, so make sure it is beneficial to them as much as it is to you.

In the Settings tab you can flag the question as a Key question or Challenge. These flags are optional and should not be used on every question in a Session. Key questions demonstrate student understanding of a stated learning goal, and Challenges are typically more difficult to answer than the rest of the Session. You can learn more about Key questions and Challenge questions here.

Click the blue Done button in the lower right corner of the widget when you are satisfied with the question's setup.

Students working through your Session will see the question as you've written it followed by the lined response box. They will not see the model answers or any of the editing options. The lined response box will expand infinitely, so they will not run out of space for long responses!

The tools available in the response box are different and more limited than the full rich text toolbar available to the teacher. Students can use bold and italics, bulleted and numbered lists, monospace "code" font, hyperlinks, and math mode.

The student will be able to see more information after you review the student's work and release answers and feedback. Releasing answers allows the student to see the marks they earned, any comments you've made on their response, and the model answer to the question. You must deliberately release answers for your students to see them, but on a non-assessed Session your comments will appear in real time.

Teach mode allows you to review your students' responses during class, while they work. This is great if you want to discuss answers with everyone, highlight strong responses, and compare with the model answer.

Find the question within the page and click on Show responses. This will open up Quick review, in which you can scroll through everyone's responses and compare them with the model answer. Learn more about Quick review here.

In Analyse mode, Written response questions only display the question. Click on View responses to open Quick review. You can also click on a specific student's name to go directly to their worksheet.

Written response also allows you to annotate your students' responses by highlighting their text and leaving comments directly on their work. Use your cursor to select a block of text. This will add a light red highlight and give you the option to leave a comment.