The most flexible question type in Stile allows students to respond using their medium of choice.
The Open response question allows students to choose the method in which they respond, such as with text, audio recording, images, and more. Students can respond using a combination of methods or multiple of the same. The flexibility of the open response widget lends itself to several useful scenarios, such as:
Practical activity results: Students can upload images, create a graph, and include a write-up all within a single question response. Teachers can offer guidance in the question space by suggesting what tools to use, or they can leave students to decide independently.
Differentiated responses: Students can respond the way that feels most natural to them and still demonstrate knowledge of a subject. A visual thinker may respond with an annotated diagram, while a more verbally active student could record and upload their own explainer video.
Open-ended or ongoing projects: Students can add observations, milestones, photos and data they collect as they work on a project. It can be used to document their progress and track their research.
Click to jump straight to a section or keep reading below:
- How to set up the question;
- How students interact with the question;
- How to review student responses.
How to set up the question
The Open 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 Lesson, click on the Add content tab sticking to the right edge of your page.
When writing the question, you have access to the full rich text toolbar that includes options for formatting, special characters, and mathematical notation. Click here for a complete tutorial on what's available. You may want to help your students with some visual cues, such as writing cognitive verbs in bold or highlighting context clues with italics. If there are multiple parts to the question, then outline them in a numbered list. This is entirely up to you!
If your Lesson is an Assessment, then be sure to adjust the number of marks. All Stile questions are worth 1 mark by default and this can be changed to whatever you like. If the Lesson is not an assessed quiz or test then this box can be ignored.
The model answer can be written next. Click the Model answer tab below the question text box. The Model answer for the Open response is stripped down, so as the teacher you only have the option to add text and attachments. This is because the question is designed to collect a variety of answers from students, and so there likely won't be any one model answer to fit every response.
Instead, You can use this space to write a general response or collection of notes suited to the particular 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. For more information on how to use model answers effectively throughout Stile, click here.
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 Lesson. Key questions demonstrate student understanding of a stated learning goal, and Challenges are typically more difficult to answer than the rest of the Lesson. 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.
How students interact with the question
When answering the question, the student can use any combination and quantity of the following:
- Text widget including mathematical notation;
- Upload files and media to include custom videos, images, PDFs, and other project files;
- Annotate Image widget for freehand drawing and annotating images;
- Embed Youtube or Vimeo videos;
- Table widget;
- Mind map;
- Graph widget;
- Record audio.
The ability to choose how to respond to a complex question can help avoid situations like this:
When students use the Open Response question, what they see is very similar to a teacher's Lesson editing tools. The student can select a widget by clicking its icon in the response window. The selection of widgets will stick to the bottom of the response window, below their work. The tools they have available for each widget will be almost identical to what a teacher has. For more information on each option, please see the links above.
A student can edit, delete, and re-order widgets after creating them. Be very careful when deleting the work, because it cannot be undone!
How to review student responses
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 them 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, Open 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.
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