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:

Access the assessment's settings.

Action menu with Settings selected

For steps to access the Settings page, see How do I inspect and adjust the settings of an assessment?

Select Layout and Appearance.

  1. Select Layout and Appearance on the assessment's Settings page.
  2. Or select the Expand All link to open all the sections on the Settings page.

Navigation controls how students proceed through the assessment.

The default is Random access where students can navigate the assessment with Next and Previous buttons, as well as a Table of Contents.

The Linear access 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 is the recommended setting, 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 second option can be used to display Each Part on a separate Web page.  To display The complete Assessment on one Web page, select the third choice.

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

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.

Add checkboxes next to questions so they can be marked for review

If the assessment allows Random access to questions from a Table of Contents, you can Add checkboxes next to questions so they can be marked for review.  Mark for Review 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.

Change background? (Optional)

You can choose a color or image for the background here.

  1. To select a Background Color, click the palette icon.
  2. 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.