How do I adjust the layout and appearance of an assessment?
Layout and Appearance options control the overall look and feel of an assessment for students, such as how they navigate from one question to another and how the questions are numbered if the assessment has multiple parts.
For information on editing additional settings, see:
- How do I inspect and adjust the settings of an assessment?
- How do I edit my assessment title or description, or add an Honor Pledge check box?
- How do I enable and use question metadata for assessment Statistics?
- What are the Availability and Submissions options for an assessment?
- How do I give specific students different date or time settings on an assessment?
- What are the Grading and Feedback options for an assessment?
Access the assessment's settings.
For steps to access the Settings page, see How do I inspect and adjust the settings of an assessment?
Select Layout and Appearance.
- Select Layout and Appearance on the assessment's Settings page.
- Or select the Expand All button to open all the sections on the Settings page.
Navigation
Navigation controls how students proceed through the assessment.
The default is Flexible navigation where students can navigate the assessment with Next and Previous buttons, as well as a Table of Contents.
The Linear navigation option only allows students to go forward using the Next button. They cannot revisit earlier questions or use a Table of Contents to jump to questions.
Question Layout
The default layout option is to display Each question on a separate web page. This setting is Strongly Recommended, as students' answers will be saved as they navigate through the test using the Next, Previous, and Table of Contents buttons.
If the assessment has been separated into multiple parts, the you may select the option Each part is on a separate web page. This option is especially useful if you have a few questions associated with a scenario or case study, and you want the students to answer those questions on the same page.
Use of the third option, The complete assessment is displayed on one web page, is discouraged, particularly for assessments with time limits or high-stakes assessments. Please see the warning below.
WARNING: If you choose The complete assessment is displayed on one web page, students MUST click Save to ensure that their answers are saved. Displaying the complete assessment on a single web page greatly increases the risk that students will lose their work, for example if they experience an Idle Session Timeout.
Numbering for assessments with multiple parts
By default, if your assessment has multiple parts, questions are presented sequentially with Continuous numbering between parts.
If you select Restart numbering for each part, questions are numbered with the part number, then the question number.
Mark for Review
If the assessment's Navigation setting has not been changed (it is left as Flexible navigation to questions), the option Add checkboxes for students to mark questions they want to review before submitting is enabled by default. This option allows students to identify questions they may want to revisit before submitting their assessment.
Sample student view of a question with Mark for Review enabled
When a student selects the Mark for Review check box under a question, the Question Progress box and the Table of Contents display a question mark icon (?) for Questions Marked for Review so they can easily locate and navigate to marked questions.
Background (Optional)
You can choose a color or image for the background here.
- To select a Background Color, you may either enter a Hex value in the field provided for the color, e.g., #F5FFFF for light blue, or click the palette icon to select a color from a color picker window.
- To add a Background Image, enter the URL of the image's location. An image smaller than the screen will be tiled to cover the entire screen area.
Important: The color of the text in an assessment is black. For accessibility, only light-colored backgrounds should be selected so that they have sufficient color contrast with the black text.