Respondus

for CICE Facilitators

Agenda

• About Respondus
• Using Respondus
• Importing a Test
• Publishing to the LMS
• Retrieving from the LMS
• Limitations
• Summary

About Respondus

• It's a test creating/editing software
• It's designed to work with different LMSes, like DC Connect (they call it Desire2Learn)
• It has a few very powerful features

Accessing Respondus

• Respondus is only available for PCs
• We have a license so anyone at Durham College can use it

On the I: drive at:

I:\Centre for Academic and Faculty Enrichment\Respondus\Installer

 

The License Key is there, too:

ZB528375889-471239703

(expires and renews every summer)

StudyMate

• The same company produces a software called StudyMate
• StudyMate is used to make little flash-based learning activities, like quizzes and games
• These don't record marks but can be useful for review
• StudyMate questions and Respondus questions are cross-compatible

Importing a Test

• Probably the main reason people use Respondus!
• Respondus can take an existing test or quiz from a text document or Word document and attempt to make it into a quiz for an LMS
• To do this successfully, it requires very precise and particular formatting

Importing a Test

• See the Sample Formatted Respondus File
• Some quizzes or questions have such awkward/difficult/complex formatting that using Respondus can be impractical

Step To Import a Test

• Go to the Start tab
• Go to Import Questions
• Select the file type (I recommend plain text)
• Browse for the file
• Under step 2, name the file
• Click Preview
• Click Finish

 

If there are lots of errors, consider reviewing the file before proceeding

Publishing to the LMS

• You can set Respondus to login to DC Connect
• It can then access your courses and publish your quiz to DC Connect
• Even if you don't use this feature, you can export the quiz to DC Connect fairly easily

Steps to Publish to the LMS

• Go to the Preview & Publish tab
• Go to the Publish section on the left side
• Go to Publish Wizard
• Configure the server for DC Connect
  • Use the preconfigured settings
  • Enter your Banner ID and DC Connect password
• Click Next (this will take a few seconds!)
• Choose your course and the assessment type
• Click Next (this will take some time again)

Steps to Export

• If you instead choose "Export QTI XML for manual upload to Desire2Learn", it will export a file that anyone can import
• This may be useful for transferring a quiz to an instructor

Retrieving from the LMS

• Sometimes, you may want to download a test or quiz and edit or print it
• This may be especially handy for CICE facilitators, if creating a modified version of an online quiz

Steps to Retrieve from the LMS

• Go to the Retrieval tab
• Go to Retrieve Questions
• Configure the server for DC Connect
  • Use the preconfigured settings
  • Enter your Banner ID and DC Connect password
• Choose Next (it may take a few seconds!)
• Select your course
• Select the quiz to download
• Choose Next (this will take some time again!)

It's a .rsp File

• The retrieved file type is a Respondus file
• You can export this as a quiz (using that QTI XML option) after making your changes, so that the instructor can use it online
• You can also print it

Printing a Quiz from Respondus

• Go to the Preview & Publish tab
• Go to the Print Options section on the left side
• Choose how you want the quiz to print
• Use Print Preview/Send to Printer to print it off
• Also note the Save to File option from here - this will export to Microsoft Word or plain text!