QST User Manual

1. Instructors
a. Creating Questions
b. Files – Images, PDF/Files, file descriptions
c. Inserting Videos
d. Exporting/Importing Questions
e. Create a QST
f. Make your QST available to your users – Post
g. Branching Questions
h. Changing QST’s
i. GradeBook
j. Printing a QST

2. Students

3. Question Bank Admin

4. Mobile/Phone/Lock down browsers.

Info.
• After 4 unsuccessful logins, a user is locked out for 3 minutes.
• Mobile is only available to students.

Suggestions to help in understanding and using QST:

Organize your questions by folders:

- Grade
- Subject
- Topic
- Unit
- questions

or some similar file system structure that will make using your question bank easier for you.
Your curriculum system design should underlie the structure of the question bank.

The SOURCE (folder) the question is in can be displayed for the students Submitted QST and also when you go
to change the QST, View a QST, View/Mark a QST, or Export a QST as PDF.
Showing the SOURCE to the students helps them identify the Unit to find further information for the question.

In the GradeBook organize your quizzes by Topic and the questions come from the Units.

Currently, if you click on the quiz number and then on Stats, you can see how the class did on each question in
that QST.
 • If you grouped your questions (example: first 5 questions are from Drift velocity Unit), then you easily
see how the class performed on each question on that Unit as you can see how often the questions
were gotten right, wrong, etc..

• Clicking on the number of incorrect answers for that question displays the names of the students that got
it wrong. The questions with a high number of wrong answers suggest the class as a whole has a hard
time with question. So this would be a Unit to focus your teaching on. Seeing the same students names
coming up regularly by clicking on the number of wrong answers suggest who to focus your time on.
Looking at their marks in the GradeBook would show if this was a one time issue or whether the student
has been struggling all along.

• QST Details provides you with very detailed information on the results of a QST.
This can be imported to Excel or some other stats package which will empower you to do detailed
analysis of questions, etc..

Explanations and SOURCE can be toggled to show or not.

In your Explanations you may want to add a 'reading' tag so the students know where to find further information.
This would display to them after they submitted the QST and it was Posted with the permissions that it was
viewable and Explanations was checked. They can make some notes on which readings to focus on.

1. Instructors

To the right is the

home screen for
Instructors.

Here you manage your

questions, quizzes,
surveys, tests, images
and pdf’s.

GradeBook provides the

ability to view your
users results, create
a marking rubric and
enter Assignment
marks.

Your Administrator will be in control of creating your students and classes and
assigning your students to the appropriate classes.

a. Creating Questions

Click on Questions, then click on My Questions and either select Create Folder to
place your questions in (recommended - so your questions are grouped and easier to
find/use later) or select Create Question, which will cause a new window to open
with the Question Builder screen available.
You can flip between editors and the only contents saved is that in the editor
showing when you save the question (also applies to the answer type).

We provide the ability to create the question and then choose which type of answer
to accompany it.

Using the Advanced Editor

Create Explanation
 The Advanced Editor is a powerful WYSIWYG tool which allows the user to create a
more diverse range of questions (edit source code also). Script and iframe tags are
not allowed for users security.

If you enter an Explanation, it will show when their QST is marked for them when
you have Submissions are viewable checked and Explanations checked when you Post the QST.
If you check Source, the SOURCE will be shown also.

The Equation Editor is for creating Math Equations. If you are familiar with
MathML or LaTex, just enter the code. Also supports mhchem for MathJax. Otherwise
use QST EQ.

The Basic Editor is good for showing code samples, HTML, etc..
It is an editor that guarantees no malicious scripts, etc. can be embedded.
Links to video and audio on other sites can be entered.

Create an Advanced question with Multiple Answer type chosen.

Using the Basic Editor

The Basic Editor is excellent for displaying code samples and producing simple
questions quickly. Using the Basic Editor ensures no iframes or malicious scripts
can be embedded in the question or answers. Also, a pdf can be made available for
your users to read.

** If you are using DropBox links, change the ?dl=0 at the end to ?raw=1 for Video
and Audio links.

Using the Equation Editor.

Inserting an image into Equation Editor:

Open the Advanced editor, add the image, click on the </> (Show source - on the
far right) in the Advanced editor toolbar. copy the <img
src="/schools/qst_files/136.png" style="width: 52px;" alt=""> tag and then open the
Equation editor and paste it in where you would like it.
You can add some HTML to center it, etc..
Always Preview the question (not just the Preview Equation) to see how it will look
for the users.

Inserting a PDF into Equation Editor:

Open the Basic Editor, click on PDF to the right of text box, select your PDF,
Preview the question, right click next to View PDF and choose View page source,
copy the <table><td WIDTH="60"></td><td STYLE="cursor: pointer;"
onclick="window.open('/schools/qst_files/939.pdf','pdf_windo','width=700,height=800
')"><i>*View PDF</i></td></table><P>
bit and paste it into the Equation Editor.
Always Preview the question (not just the Preview Equation) to see how it will look
for the users.

The Equation editor will accept HTML tags.

QST EQ is an advanced WYSIWYG editor used to create math and chemical equations
and formulas. Logic, symbols, arrows, greek and function symbols are also
available.
Click Advanced or Equation or Basic to change editor.

Enter a Mark for the question.

The Mark may also signify the difficulty of the question.

A Description must be entered for each question as this is what is displayed when
browsing for questions.

Default answer selections are available which will provide you with templates to
begin with.

Enter up to 15 answers.

Multiple Choice and Multiple Answer answers have Advanced, Equation and Basic
editors.

Paragraph answers have an Advanced and Basic editor.

Create your equation/formula with QST EQ, then paste into an answer selection
surrounded by $$.

** Always Preview your question before saving it to see how it will appear to a
student. This duplicates the display window in the QST.

Create more questions - It is much simpler to group and create your questions in
advance of creating a QST. This is especially wise in the case of branching
questions, where the complexity increases very quickly.

b. Files - Images, PDF’s

Upload your images and pdf’s that you wish to use in your questions or answers by
clicking on files in the left screen.
Max width for images in questions should be 450 pixels.
You must provide a Description for the file to meet WCAG standards.
* If not using this just enter any text.
Your images will be available to add to your questions in the Advanced

editor by clicking on the picture icon in the toolbar.

Click on QST Files to select a file you have uploaded.

If you enter an Image URL also enter a Description.

* If not using this just enter any text.

In the Basic editor click on

or PDF.
Click on the checkbox in front of image to automatically insert it.

c. Inserting Videos

We do not let you upload videos due to the bandwidth they require for large scale
use.

Our Rich Text Editor allows linking to videos on the following platforms: YouTube,
Vimeo, Vine, Instagram, DailyMotion or Youku.

YouTube's licensing agreement (from our non-legal background) means that YouTube
and anyone in the world can do anything with your uploaded videos.
Some individuals/schools/institutions don't mind this, but others might not want
their competitors using videos they created.

Vimeo. Is a pay-for solution, but you are not giving away videos.
You can explore various purchase plans yourself on the Vimeo website.
In Vimeo, set videos to "unlisted," meaning that folks searching Vimeo will not
find them.
You can also restrict embedding to specific domains, like your school or
institution's domain.

Our Basic Editor allows linking to videos anywhere.

Go to the youtube video you want and copy the url in the toolbar:
Click on the video icon in the Advanced editor:

Click on Insert Video.

Paste the url in.

Videos should have Closed Captioning to be WCAG compatible.

d. Exporting/Importing questions

Exported questions will include the images and pdf’s in the question or answers.
The images are base 64 encoded (in QST XML and Moodle XML).
Also the Explanations and file descriptions (for screenreaders) will be
included.

Questions can be exported in QST XML, Moodle XML, QTI 2.2 zip format and PDF.
 Under My Questions, click on a folder name to export all the questions in that
folder.
This will only export all the questions in the folder, it will not recurse
through folders under that folder.
Images in questions and answers will be included in the export file.

TIP - Create a New folder and copy/paste questions into it, then Export.

Click on a folder name to Import Questions to it.

Any images associated with the question or it's answers will be saved under
My QST Files/Import Images QST Date and Time.

Importing Word XML files:

Only multiple choice - single answer questions can be imported (there can be up to 15 answers).
* Images (in questions and answers) will be imported also
A folder will be created under QST Files with the name Imported Images Word and the date and time
Open your word .doc and make sure you put QST as the first word at the beginning of each question.
There is no need to number the questions
Each answer should have )@ at the beginng of the line with each answer,
example )@ answer
Each correct answer should have ** as the first letters of the answer.
The character combinations )@ and ** and QST should not be used in any questions or answers as
they are special character in the import format.
Once you have done the above, save your word doc as xml and import it.
If no correct answers are indicated, the first answer will be set as correct.
Check your questions after you have uploaded them for any issues.

An example
QST What is the bird below?

)@ robin

)@

)@ pigeon
)@ ** pheasant

Importing/Exporting Moodle XML files:

Only multiple choice, matching, true/false, short answer and essay questions may be imported.
Matching questions may only be text.
* Images (in questions and answers) will be imported also
A folder will be created under QST Files with the name Imported Images Moodle and the date and time
Check your questions after you have uploaded them for any issues.

Importing/Exporting QTI 2/3 format files:

Only xml and zip files imported.

Only multiple choice, matching, true/false, short answer and essay questions may be imported.
Matching questions may only be text and contain 70 characters.
* Images (in questions and answers) will be imported also
A folder will be created under QST Files with the name Imported Images QTI ZIP and the date and time
 Check your questions after you have uploaded them for any issues.

Importing/Exporting QST XML files:

All question types are imported.

* Images (in questions and answers), file descriptions and Explanations will be imported also
A folder will be created under QST Files with the name Imported Images QST XML and the date and time
Check your questions after you have uploaded them for any issues.

Share your questions with other QST users or your Question Bank Admin.
Twenty-five questions containg images in questions and answers will load in
approx. 10 – 20 seconds. The file size will be approx. 800Kb.

Question Bundles are available to Import at qstonline.org under Info.

Example of QST XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<item>
<type>MC</type>
<mode>1</mode>
<sub_type>1</sub_type>
<ans_mode>0</ans_mode>
<value>1</value>
<descrip>What is the bird</descrip>
<explanation><p>A pheasant has a colored band around it’s neck</p></explanation>
<qimage_name>pheasant.jpg</qimage_name>
<qimage> Base 64 encoded image here - left out for this example
</qimage>
<question><p><span style="font-size: 16px;">What is the bird shown
below?</span></p><p><img style="vertical-align:middle; width: 134px;"
src="/schools/qst_files/pheasant.jpg" alt=”A picture of a bird.”><span style="font-
size: 16px;"><br></span><br></p></question>
<vlink>0</vlink>
<alink>0</alink>
<kolum>1</kolum>
<answers>
<c_answer>0</c_answer>
<answer>robin</answer>
<q_order>1</q_order>
</answers>
<answers>
<c_answer>0</c_answer>
<answer>owl</answer>
<q_order>2</q_order>
</answers>
<answers>
<c_answer>0</c_answer>
<answer>magpie</answer>
<q_order>3</q_order>
</answers>
<answers>
<c_answer>1</c_answer>
<answer>pheasanr</answer>
<q_order>4</q_order>
</answers>
</item>
</xml>
Explanation of xml:

- item consists of the question and answers

- type is MC (mutliple choice one answer), MA (multiple choice many ansers),
YN (yes/no), TF (true/false), SA (short answer), P (paragraph), MX (matching)
- mode (what editor is used to create the question)
- 0 Basic editor
- 1 Advanced editor
- 2 Equation editor
- subtype (type of question)
- 1 quizzes/tests
- 2 surveys
- ans_mode (what editor is used to create the answers)
- 0 Basic editor
- 1 Advanced editor
- 2 Equation editor
- value (what the question is worth 1 – 99 marks)
- descrip (description of the question – max 50 characters)
- explanation (describe why the answer is correct)
- qimage_name (name of the image in the question – could be more than one of
these)
- qimage (base 64 encoded image)
- if there are more than 1 images in the question, there will be multiple
<qimage_name><qimage> one after another
- question (the actual question)
- vlink (video link – only if you used the basic editor to create question)
- alink (audio link – only if you used the basic editor to create question)
- kolum (how many columns to display answers in 1-3)
- answers (one for each answer)
- c_answer (1 if correct answer, otherwise 0)
- answer (the actual answer)
- q_order (the order of the answer)
- </item> end of that question and answers

*** If you are going to create your own QST XML file, try one question first
to see how it goes.
- If there are images in your answer,there will be <ba_image_id_name>
<ba_image_id> under the answer if you used the Basic editor.If you used the
Advanced editor to create your answers, and there are images in your
answers, there will be <adv_ans_image_name> and <adv_ans_image> in your
answers.
**** Replace all “ in your questions and answers with &quot;
**** Create a question and Export it, then look at the .qstxml file in a text
editor to see the differences for each question and answers created in QST
by each editor.

e. Create a QST

Click on Quizzes/Tests, and then My Quizzes/Tests and Create a folder to place

your quizzes/tests in (recommended - so they are grouped and easier to find/use
later).

My Quizzes/Tests is your own bank. Your QST can be changed at any time while it is
in your bank. Once it is pasted into a class it is a copy of your original and may
be changed as long as no student has attempted it yet.
Selecting Create Quiz/Test, will cause a new window to open with the Create

Quiz/Test screen available.

Enter the name of your Quiz/Test and choose one of the two options.

Once you click on one of the selections, a new screen will appear and the QST has
been created.

The screen below is the ‘Add questions from bank’ option.

Click on Focus to see the questions in the QST.
You can add questions, delete questions, branch questions, re-order questions
and group questions to be chosen randomnly.

Click on Close when finished to update the Create/Manage Quiz/Test screen.

All question here are Primary Questions.

Click on a question shown to branch it.
As soon as you branch a question, there will be no marks available for the QST,
as it would be difficult to understand the value of a mark in this context.
In the GradeBook the branching QST will be shown as done by the user by ? , and
you can view it.

You can create an empty QST.

Your QST will appear on the right side main screen.

Preview your QST to see how it will appear to your users.
The Preview will show all the questions in the qst.
Branching QST's will only display the Primary questions.

Export the questions from a QST

Export QST questions as PDF

f. Make your QST available to your users - Post

Click on the QST you created under Quizzes/Tests and select Copy.

Click on the My Classes folder and click on the class you would like to make the
 QST available for and select Paste.

Now click on the QST you just pasted and select POST.

A new screen will appear with the options to make the QST available to your users.
You may want to deliver your QSTS’s differently to acheive your goals.

Sometimes you may want to ask a question based upon a previous question and do not
want the user to refer back to the question. Often you want the user to have
immediate feedback. Other times only provide feedback at the end, or not at all.

Traditional method of paper assessment - displaying all questions is also

available.

Delivery:
Paper – All Questions
Single Question – Jump
Single Question – Next No going back to previous questions.
Single Question – Answer
Single Question - Branch

Display:
New Window - QST will appear in a new window, and may be resized.
- ** Use this so students cannot use the browser back button.
Modal - QST will appear in a modal and cannot be resized.

In Modal dislay a user can use the browsers back button to go to previous
 questions even if the QST Delivery is set to Single Question – Next.
It is not recommended to use this display type for an exam or test.

QST's containg random questions or branching questions cannot be shuffled.

Have the Administrator create a demo student for you, then you can try different
combinations of the options available for Posting the QST.
The demo student will not be counted in the GradeBook as long as they have no
marks for a QST.
Delete the demo students mark after you have attempted the QST.

** If you add a student to a class, You must re-post any QST’s available to that
class so that student has access to them.

g. Branching Questions

Only True/False, Yes/No, Multiple Choice - Single Answer questions can be branched.
A single answer, multiple answers or all answers may be branched.

View Branching:

Primary questions are the first level questions in a QST.

Click on a Primary question to branch the answers.
A popup will appear and click on Question next to an answer.
A new popup will appear with your Question Bank questions.
 Clicking on the radio button in front of a question will add the question
as a branch for that answer.
Clicking on Question for the next answer will clear your previous selection
in your Question Bank, and you can now choose a new question.

If an answer is not branched, then if that answer is selected by a user,the QST

will continue to the next Primary question.

Primary Questions may be re-arranged in order and still contain the same branching
questions under them.

Usually Primary Questions would be something you would ask of every user, however,
some QST's may only contain one Primary Question, and all the answers lead in
separate directions.

Deleting a Primary Question deletes all branching questions under it.

If you delete a branch under a question, all questions and branches beneath it
will be deleted.
Because branching questions can get very complex quickly, it is best to map out
your design before beginning to save you time.
There is no limit to the level of branching under a question.
h. Changing a QST

You may only change a QST if it has not been taken by a student yet.

You can add questions, delete questions, alter the order of the questions, add
question groups and specify how many questions to choose from the group and
the mark for each question and alter the questions in a group. Additionally
you can show SOURCE – display the folder the questions came from.

If you add a Branching/Adaptive question to a QST, all the marks will be removed
for the QST as they become very difficult to interpret.

Select a QST to Change

Change QST screen

Displaying where the questions came from
Add questions from your Question Bank as a group
New question group added to the QST

When making changes to the quiz always click Save changes when you are done.
Another example of adding branching/adaptive questions
Result of adding above branching/adaptive question

Notice how the Marks are removed because it is now branching.

i. GradeBooks

GradeBook provides you with an immediate detailed summary of the auto marked
questions and graded QST’s.

Click on gradebooks, and then click on a class name to view the GradeBook for that
class.
To view Stats for a QST or Assignment, click on a Number, which will also display
other options, such as Weighing, View and Marks.
- In the Stats screen for Quizzes and Tests, click on the question Type to view
the question and see the number of times each answer was selected by the
class.
- Also view which users got the question correct/incorrect/no answer/partial
answer.

Stats provides immediate actionable results.

Download QST Details to perform deep analysis on the QST results.
Click on Weight to set the % value of the QST in the Total Mark.

When a students starts a QST, it will be shown as IP (in progress) in the

GradeBook.

Once a QST is started, an end time is set for the QST for that user.

Once they have submitted the QST, it will show their score.

If they did not submit the QST before the time is up, the QST will still show as
IP, and the instructor will have to click on the IP to View/Mark and submit
the QST for them.
Then a mark will be shown. May have to refresh Display.

If the QST is posted with multiple attempts and Record Mark is not chosen, in the
GradeBook the number of attempts at the QST will be shown A-2 for 2 attempts.

If the QST is posted with multiple attempts and Record Mark is chosen, a mark will
be shown for the QST in the GradeBook. The number of attempts will not be
shown as only the highest mark is kept and therefore it is likely the student
will use all the attempts to improve on their mark.

Click on a student's mark to view/mark their submitted Quiz/Test.

In the case a student has to Resume a QST, click on IP for their QST and click
Resume. This will allow them to re-log in to that QST, as long as there is
time remaining in it for them.

If they have been locked out for more than a minute, consider adding some
time to their QST. Adding time adds time to the end time of the QST for that
user.

A QST cannot be Resumed after the end time has passed unless more time is
added to the users QST and it is still available under Posted.

Resume is intended to let users continue an important QST.

The QST will be displayed to the user as having 0 attempts.

 The Time remaining shown to them will be the time difference from their last
question answered and the end time of their QST.

They will be restarted at the last question they answered.

Only resume a QST for a user if it is set to only 1 attempt.

Otherwise they can just attempt it again.

Only Paper-all questions, Single question-jump and Single question-next

Delivery styles will work with Resume.

Resume will not work with Display Modal – no resize chosen.

You can add time to a users QST by clicking on IP for their QST and click + Time.
Adding time to their QST will not change their Time Remaining display (unless
they are resuming a QST), so advise them to keep answering questions until
you notify them to Submit their QST or QST display tells them too.

You may delete a student's QST here if you would like to give them another
attempt.
If the QST is still available the student may retry it again.

If the QST is over, the student will not be included in the average for that QST
as they do not have a mark.

The GradeBook always shows all the students in the class.

* To see averages for a QST a weight must be given to it.
* For QST’s and Assignments to show in the downloaded GradeBook they must be
given a weight(%). Weights do not show in dwonloaded GradeBook.
* Students that did not take a QST, will not have a mark for that QST and will
not be included in the average for that QST.

Clicking on View/Mark on a students QST mark will show you the following screen
where you can also Print the students marked QST or Save it as a PDF to keep for
your records or email to your students. The time they answered each question is
displayed also.

There is a Comments section at the bottom of the QST.

Clicking on the word will display a textbox for your comments.
The text will not be saved and will display in the PDF or printed QST.
Creating an Assignment will allow you to also set a mark for the assignment and a
weight.
Click on -- under the Assignment to add a Mark for a user.

Downloading the GradeBook (in .csv or .json format) includes QST's and Assignments
with a mark for each student. If the student did not attempt a QST, there will be
no mark in the download for them.

The QST must have a weight(%), otherwise it will not be included in the download.
i. Print a QST to dispense to class

Click on Quizzes/Tests and then My Quizzes.

Click on a QST shown and click Print.

Click QST.

* It will display equations, images, etc..

* Put letters of the alphabet in the beginning of answers if you
need to see a, b, c, d, etc. in the answers and in the answer sheet.

When you click Print, you can choose to also save the QST as a PDF.

If you save it as a PDF, if you have LibreOffice you can open the PDF,
make changes to the QST as suits your needs then print it for your
students. LibreOffice may not always display the PDF correctly.

You can also convert the PDF to .docx format at

http://adobe.com/acrobat/online/pdf-to-word.html and make changes to it
in Microsoft Word and then print it for your users.
2. Students
Students can log into the QST on the homepage, or if using a phone browser click
on Phone browser.

Phone browser displays one question at a time (no matter what setting is
chosen for Delivery when Posting a QST).

Phone browser partially works with screen readers and our work to make it
WCAG 2.x compliant is ongoing.

If you want your users to go to phone browser the url would be:
https://your_web_server_name/mobile_qst.htm
 Phone Browser

Clicking on a Class will display the QST’s available.

Clicking on the QST name will start the QST.

You can only Submit the QST after you have gone through all the questions.

In normal mode, after the students have logged in, the left side of the screen
shows their name and optional photo along with the classes they are in.
 Clicking on a class name displays the QST's available to the student on the right.
Selecting a QST will display a popup with instructions for the QST.
The QST is only marked as attempted after the student selects OK in the popup.

If a student is taking a QST Paper style or Single question-Jump, they can

unselect the question checkbox on the right side of the screen of an answered
question so they will notice to review it before Submiting the QST.

Selecting an answer automatically saves it to the server and marks it as Answered.

Short Answer and Paragraph questions click Save Answer to do the same.

The questions are saved to the server as the students answer them.
If a students computer goes down or they lose their internet connection they can be
allowed to Resume the QST.

Having the server on your network greatly reduces the chances of network loss and
ensures the privacy of your users information.
3. Question Bank Admin
The screen is similiar to the Instructors screen, but the user can only
create/export/import questions and make folders in the bank.

They have access to the whole Question Bank and questions placed in here are
available to all instructors in the organization.

4. Mobile/Phone/Lockdown browsers
Mobile/Phone

This is only for students to take a QST.

QST is available on both android and iphone (Safari) for students.

QST delivery via the android app or phone browser is single question-next.

On the login page there is Phone Browser, which adjusts the screen to fit
for all phones. Use this if you do not have the app for your phone.
It provides the same display as the android apps do.

QST’s delivered by the phone browser option allow the user to use the back
buttons in the browser and they can return to previous questions.

In QST’s delivered through the android app the user only has the option to
move forward through the questions. They cannot return to a previous
question.

You will need to provide the students with a server name (the url to
your qst installation home), along with their usernames and passwords.

The server name must be a valid internet domain name or a valid

internet IP number.
- qst-android-http.apk does not require a certificate and can be
used on your local network.
 - In server put your local network IP of your QST server.

QST for android is available on Google Play and also at QST on

sourceforge.net . Sourceforge has both versions.

Lock down browsers

You may want to use Chrome Kiosk Mode to lock down the browser on chrome
managed devices or Chrome on Windows.

Microsoft Edge Kiosk Mode is also available.

Safe Exam Browser may be another option you might want to consider.

All are free.