"How to" Guideline series is coordinated by Helen Mongan-Rallis of the Education Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to improve these guidelines please me at e-mail hrallis@d.umn.edu.

Creating Surveys and Tests in UMD's Test Pilot

By Helen Mongan-Rallis. Page last updated: October 20, 2008

1. If you do not already have a Test Pilot account, send an email to ftgroup@d.umn.edu requesting that a Test Pilot account be set up for you.
2. Once you are notified that you have a Test Pilot account, login to your Test Pilot Management index using your UMD X.500 login and password.
3. In the box next to "New" type in a filename for your survey/test. It should be one word, no spaces, and should end in ".tp4" (e.g. presurveyedse4100sp08.tp4)
   
   
   
   
4. The file that you just created will appear in the list of assessments, and will be called "new" (this can be confusing, because you just gave it a name!). Click on the this new file (it is a link to the file).
5. You will be taken to the screen that allows you to manage the test you just created. At the top of the page the file will be titled "new" and under that will be the URL that you will need in order to have your students (or whoever will be the people using your assessment) link to and take the assessment. Click on the "Edit" link to begin editing your assessment.
   
   
   
   
6. The Edit button takes you to the "Look and Feel" page of your assessment. Here you will:
   • Change the assessment title from "new" to whatever you want to call it
   • Enter the header (I usually make it the same as the title)
   • Enter any instructions that you want users to read before taking the assessment
   • Enter your name (as the person who prepared the test)
   • Enter a footer (optional) that will appear at the end of the test
   • When you are done making changes (to this and any page in Test Pilot), click on the "Update" button to save your changes
     
     
     
     
     
7. Next, in the blue menu bar to the left of the Test Pilot page, click on the link to "#2 Create Questions." This will show you all the options for the types of test questions that you might want to create. You will need to return to this page for each type of question that you create.
8. Click on the type of question you want to create, and fill in your question. When you are done, click update.
9. Continue, repeating the above until you have created all of the questions.
10. To see what the test will look like to students, click on the "show test" button in the blue menu bar on the left.
    
    

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