Knowledge Conversion and the Knowledge Spiral

As noted in the Essence of Knowledge Management, managing knowledge means dealing with both tacit and explicit knowledge. One of the challenges is deciding how best to share tacit knowledge: what to share through tacit-to-tacit (person-to-person) processes, and what to convert to explicit knowledge, so that it more easily transferable. The work of Nonaka and Takeuchi^[1] again gives a good conceptual background to consider these options, and others besides. They enunciated two key concepts - that of knowledge conversion processes and the knowledge spiral.

Knowledge Conversion Processes

Nonaka and Takeuchi defined four types of conversion processes which they describe as "fundamental to creating value". The four are the combinations of conversion of explicit and tacit knowledge (see diagram).

1. Tacit-to-tacit (socialisation) - individuals acquire knowledge from others through dialogue and observation
2. Tacit-to-explicit (externalisation) - the articulation of knowledge into tangible form through elicitation and documentation
3. Explicit-to-explicit (combination) - combining different forms of explicit knowledge, such as that in documents or databases
4. Explicit-to-tacit (internalisation) - such as learning by doing, where individuals internalise knowledge into their own mental models from documents.

Our research into KM success indicates that the conversion from one type to the other (i.e. tacit-to-explicit and vice versa) gives the most added value. Thus, knowledge once in explicit form can be more easily distributed, but then it does need converting and assimilating into another person's tacit knowledge for application in a different context.

The Knowledge Spiral

In their book, Nonaka and Takeuchi say that "the key to knowledge creation lies in the mobilisation and conversion of tacit knowledge". They go on to describe how organisational knowledge is created through processes in the knowledge spiral (see diagram).

Organizational knowledge starts at the individual level with thoughts or understanding (internalization). It them moves upwards through socialization, where individuals dialogue with their team colleagues. The ideas are then articulated (externalization) and become more widespread through diffusion of explicit knowledge (combination). As knowledge moves up the spiral knowledg is more widely spread and the spiral gets wider.

What also happens is that as individuals access organisational knowledge, they apply it and internalise new knowledge, thus setting the stage for an enhanced piece of knowledge to work its up the spiral.

The Concept in Practice

The terms socialization, externalization etc. are not in everyday use in knowledge management. The diagram below illustrates these processes (numbered as above) with decriptions that are more representative in practice.

Thus the tacit knowledge of an organisation in embodied in its people and the team and communities within which they operate, while the explicit knowledge is in various information repositories (databases, intranet pages etc.) A KM programme should therefore consider a range of strategies and practical techniques for each of the core conversion processes, which we have grouped under the broad headings shown - knowledge transfer mechanisms, knowledge harvesting, information management and the learning organization.

Reference

1. The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Comapnies Create the Dynamics of Innovation, Ikujior Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, Oxford University Press (1995).

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Web Site:-http://www.gyapti.com
Blog:- http://gyapti.blogspot.com/
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com

Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

The distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is perhaps the most fundamental concept of knowledge management. Such a distinction was first made by Michael Polyani in the 1960s, but it forms one of the central planks of Nonaka and Takeuchi's book The Knowledge-Creating Company. According to them, 'explicit' knowledge is formal and systematic^[1]:

"Explicit knowledge can be expressed in words and numbers and can be easily communicated and shared in the form of hard data, scientific formulae, codified procedures or universal principles."

Such knowledge is seen as "only the tip of the iceberg". 'Tacit' knowledge, on the other hand, is described as:

"something not easily visible and expressible. Tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalise. Subjective insights, intuitions and hunches fall into this category of knowledge."

"It is hard to formalize... difficult to communicate...deeply rooted in action and in an individual's commitment to a specific context...captured in the term 'know-how'. It consists of mental models, beliefs, and perspectives so ingrained that we take them for granted, and therefore cannot easily articulate them."

The example I like to use to illustrate tacit knowledge is that of riding a bicycle (Polyani's original example was that of an ice skater). The explicit knowledge for this might be a set of instructions along the lines of:

1. Stand besides your bike, hold both the handlebars and look forward.

2. Walk briskly forward or run a few paces taking the bike with you.

3. Now mount the bike, putting one foot on each pedal

4. Start pedalling while maintaining you balance

5. If you start to swerve or lose balance steer the bike into the direction in which you are falling.

etc. etc.

But would this convey the knowledge - the skill to ride a bicycle? The knowledge comes through that 'ah-ha' moment, and the ability to repeat it without thinking. You may have had someone to coach you and most likely hold the bike to help you balance. And you gain confidence with experience. Such knowledge (e.g. steps 4 and 5 above) is indeed difficult to put into words. It is embedded in your brain and you use it subconsciously.

The Tacit - Explicit Spectrum ... and more besides

Although we have expressed here and in the knowledge hierarchy a clear distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge, this is really an oversimplification. Some explicit knowledge, such as factual knowledge can be made portrayed as very precise. Other types, such as the know-what and know-why may be less clear cut. There is also potential lack of clarity if not articulated in precise terms that leaves no room for ambiguity (we all know about politician's summit agreement communiques, or statements made by both parties after an industrial dispute!).

At the other end of the spectrum there is deep tacit knowledge, such as belief and judgement, which is very personal and extremely difficult to transfer to other people. On the other hand quite a lot of tacit knowledge, with good 'knowledge harvesting' or elicitation, can be made explicit.

There is also implicit knowledge, which may be present in some combination of explicit and tacit knowledge but needs people to extract it. An example might be product knowledge that only becomes apparent through reverse engineering. The diagram below elaborates on the simple tacit-explicit split and shows examples of their manifestations.

The transfer of tacit knowledge throughout an enterprise involves complex processes, including the conversion from tacit to explicit, and vice versa. The different conversion processes are described on the knowledge spiral page.

Reference

1. The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Comapnies Create the Dynamics of Innovation, Ikujior Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, Oxford University Press (1995) - see our book review.

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Web Site:-http://www.gyapti.com
Blog:- http://gyapti.blogspot.com/
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com

Characteristics of Knowledge

When we talk of managing knowledge, what are we really managing? A strict definition of knowledge might imply we are managing only that in people's heads. But that suggests that knowledge management is an oxymoron (see this article). However, our broader definition includes all levels of the knowledge hierarchy, including explicit knowledge or information.

Information vs. Knowledge

Let's first consider some distinctions between explicit and tacit knowledge

Explicit (Information)	Tacit
Tangible	Intangible
Physical objects, e.g. in documents or databases	Mental objects, i.e. it's in people's head's
Processing changes representation	Processing changes understanding
Context independent	Context affects meaning
Easily shared	Sharing involves learning
Reproducible	Not identically replicated

So it is apparent that some differences in approach are needed according to the type of knowledge we are managing/

Characteristics

We often talk of knowledge as an asset. But compared to other assets, such as physical assets and finance, it has some distinctive characteristics:

• Non-depleting: unlike other resources that are managed because of their scarcity value, the more knowledge is used, the more is generated; we all know about 'information overload'!
• Win-win sharing: if you share your knowledge with another person, the first person does not lose it
• Chunkable and portable: it can be summarized, compressed or divided in manageable units for easier transfer and management
• Transferable: it can move from place to place; explicit knowledge, in particular, can easily be distributed via networks to many people
• Mobile: it tends tends to leak and diffuse, either as people move jobs, talk or through technical reproduction and transmission
• Substitutable: in many situations it can replace physical and other forms of resource; thus telecommunications reduces the need for travel or physical transport (of documents).

Naturally, some of these characteristics are more evident with explicit knowledge, e.g. ease of transfer and mobility. However, tacit knowledge exhibits the other characteristics, and combined with its distinctiveness (from the table above), its intangibility makes it difficult to identify and describe.

However, like other assets, it does have value, though this can be difficult to measure - see our section on valuing knowledge. Also, it may depreciate over time. The rapid rate of generation of new knowledge means that much existing knowledge has a short 'half-life'. How short depends on the type of knowledge and how many people are working in the same domain. Therefore any knowledge (or information) needs constant review, refreshing and revalidating through use.

Managing Knowledge

These characteristics and differences present some interesting management challenges.

For explicit knowledge, it is more readily copied, diffused and shared. On the other hand how do you convey real understanding? We give some ideas elsewhere. Also, the sheer volume poses challenges of organizing and categorizing this knowledge so that it can be easily retrieved when needed. This raises the challenges of how much to automate, e.g. in summarizing and tagging content, versus relying on social knowledge sharing within communities of practice.

But since most of an organization's important knowledge is tacit, this raises the question of what approaches to take to manage it to maximum effect. How much do you convert into explicit knowledge? What mechanisms do you put in place so that person-to-person interaction and knowledge sharing is encouraged where it has the most benefit?

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Web Site:-http://www.gyapti.com
Blog:- http://gyapti.blogspot.com/
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com

Types of Knowledge

The are many ways of categorizing knowledge - once you 'know' what 'knowledge' is. And that is the subject of endless debate. Over the centuries, philosophers have discussed epistemology, and more recently those in artificial intelligence have developed formalised constructs for knowledge. For practical business purposes, however, we find the following categorizations the most useful:

• The knowledge hierarchy: data-information-knowledge-wisdom
• Forms of embodiment: products, processes, people
• Practice-oriented categories: know-what, know-how etc. (Charles Savage)
• Degrees of diffusion: proprietary, shared etc. (Max Boisot)

The Knowledge Hierarchy

The terms information and knowledge are often used interchangeably. In reality there is a hierarchy as shown in the diagram below.

Here's an example of the differences:

• Data: 03772 41565 83385 10157
• Information (interpretation): Heathrow weather station; visibility 15 km, sky completely cloudy; wind direction north west, speed 85 kts; temperature 15.7 degrees C.
• Knowledge (understanding): my experience says this will cause severe flight delays.
• Wisdom (insight): I shall book a train before other passengers realise the implications.

There is a clear distinction between the lower two levels and the top two. The bottom two are embodied in objects, e.g. documents and databases, while the higher levels are in people's heads. This is also the distinction between explicit and tacit knowledge.

Forms of embodiment: products, processes, people

In a business context the most common forms of knowledge are in:

• Products: design and manufacturing knowledge that went into the product; there is also knowledge surrounding the product, such as on how to use it, its applications etc.
• Processes: a business process is little more than codified best practice collated through experience of doing something many different times
• People: after all "people are our most important asset" aren't they? Yet how many organisations focus their KM investments in IT solutions rather than the people who will use them?

In our article on strategies for leveraging knowledge, we also talk about other forms of embodiment, such as customer knowledge, relationships and intellectual property, such as trademarks and patents. A related perspective is that of intellectual capital which is commonly divided into structural, customer/relationship and human capital. The bottom line is to be conscious of where the vital knowledge in yoour organisation resides. In straw polls taken at my workshops, most attendees estimate that 70-80% of important knowledge is in people's heads. So that makes the KM challenge one of tapping into it in the most effective way.

Practice-oriented categories

• Know-how: a skill on how to carry out specific tasks; some is embodied in procedures. Examples: knowing how to place a purchase order; knowing how to lift heavy items.
• Know-who: who can help me with this question or task. Examples: knowing the best 'connected' and networked people; knowing who the expert is for a particular speciality.
• Know-what: from basic facts (know-that) to more complex concepts, structural knowledge and patterns. Examples: knowing that the earth is round; knowing what is likely to be the cause of a problem.
• Know-why: a deeper kind of knowledge, understanding the wider context. Examples: knowing why what seems a non-sensical procedure is being followed (e.g. to ensure regulatory compliance); knowing why customers really prefer your product to a competitors.
• Know-when: a sense of timing. Examples: knowing when to buy and sell shares; knowing when to enter a new market.
• Know-where: a sense of place, where is it best to do something. Examples: knowing where to locate your new venture (Silicon Valley?); knowing where best to manufacture your products.

In practice, the most important ones from a KM perspective are 1) know-who: often found in a skills directory ('Yellow Pages') or an online community (forum); 2) know-how: a combination of explicit (e.g. processes) and tacit (e.g. competencies and levels of expertise of staff); and 3) know-what: capturing the most commonly needed knowledge and organizing it in databases and portals (intranets). The others are more judgemental and are characteristic of highly qualified professionals and leaders whose experience and intuition guide them into making good decisions.

Degrees of diffusion

• Personal/individual knowledge: known only to those who create it or conceptualise it
• Shared: diffused to others, often by personal interaction with the creator
• Proprietary: known widely within a given organisation, but protected from widespread external use
• Public: readily available on the open market.

Boisot uses these categories as one dimension of his C-D space mapping of knowledge, where the C dimension is the level of codification of knowledge (i.e. tacit-explicit) and the D dimension is the level of diffusion (private - public). He charts the course by which knowledge evolves from private and undiffused into proprietary products and then into the public domain. An example is that of product development which goes through a process of concept - prototype - product commercialization. Nonaka's knowledge spiral is a similar concept which explains how knowledge evolves. 

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Web Site:-http://www.gyapti.com
Blog:- http://gyapti.blogspot.com/
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com

Core Concepts of Knowledge Management

Core Concepts

Whereas academics may cite hundreds of concepts from epistomology to "the resource view of the firm", we believe that practitioners need a grasp of only a few. Follow the links (from the images and headings below) to those that are the most useful in practice.

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The Knowledge Hierarchy

What is the difference between data, information and knowledge? This basic hierarchy identifies that knowledge is different and must be managed in a different way.

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Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

Simply put, explicit knowledge is that in documents and databases, while tacit knowledge is that in people's heads. But that's an oversimplification. This section explains the nuances.

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The Knowledge Spiral

A simple but powerful concept by Nonaka and Takeuchi. They explain how knowledge evolves through various conversion processes - socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation - creating value as it become more readily transferrable throughout an organization.

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Knowledge Cycles

Knowledge evolves through two complementary cycles - the innovation cycle and the knowledge sharing cycle. Innovation is the conversion of ideas (unstructured knowledge) into more structured and reproducible knowledge, embedded within processes or products. Sharing occurs through the creation, organising and accessing of knowledge stores.

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Intellectual Capital

If knowledge is to be managed as a vital asset, then some method of accounting for the assset is needed. This has led to a perspective of knowledge management based on intellectual capital.A common model of intellectual capital divides it into three categories - structural capital, customer or relationship capital and human capital.

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Levels of KM

Knowledge management covers a broad spectrum of activities and operates at many levels, from the individual to the enterprise, between enterprises (as in virtual organizations). Although our primary focus is that of KM at enterprise level, many of the approaches and techniques of organizational knowledge management are equally applicable at several levels.

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KM Maturity Curve

There are several KM Maturity models that help you understand how well developed knowledge management is in your organisation. This section describes the stages of our maturity model. Coming soon will be a self-assessment tool based on this model.

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Web Site:-http://www.gyapti.com
Blog:- http://gyapti.blogspot.com/
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com

The Evolution of Knowledge Management

Where From?

Knowledge has long been recognised as an important asset. Management writer Peter Drucker coined the term 'knowledge worker' in the 1960s and Fortune editor Tom Stewart highlighted the importance of 'brainpower' in the early 1990s. It was in 1995, that knowledge management truly captured widespread management attention. This saw the publication of the seminal book The Knowledge-Creating Business by Nonaka and Takeuchi and the conference Knowledge for Strategic Advantage organized by Arthur Andersen and APQC. We can trace the evolution of knowledge management through several overlapping phases:

• BK - Before Knowledge Management (BC - 1995AD) - we did it (sometimes) anyway but didn't call it KM. A stone age person showing a colleague how to hunt, Icelandic sagas and organizations such as the Royal Society were all examples of sharing knowledge for a purpose
• Awakening and Emergence (circa 1995-1997). Knowledge management becomes explicit. It was featured at conferences and gained attention on management agendas. The end of this period saw a wave of many new books on the subject. In reality, only a small number of companies had formal programmes, mostly just in one or a few divisions. These tended to be organizations in sectors that are heavily knowledge-based and/or globally dispersed: oil, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and high technology. The geographic bias was clearly North America and Northern Europe.
• Bandwagon and and Relabelling (1997-1999). Knowledge management was actively promoted as strategic, particularly by the large management consultancies, which used their own internal KM programmes as exemplars. As a consequence, it was 'hijacked' by IT departments, and many software and service suppliers relabeled their products and services as 'KM solutions'. A growing number of large companies created formal KM posts, such as Chief Knowledge Officers, created new knowledge initiatives and brought several existing programmes (originally designated under other labels, such as 'business transformation' or 'the learning organization') under the KM umbrella.
• Growth, Segmentation and Consolidation (1998-2005). KM is increasingly pervasive - across functions, all sizes of organization. all sectors and all geographies. It's a combination of KM with everything: KM and risk, KM and marketing, KM and innovation, KM and quality etc. It is also recognized as a distinct academic discipline, stimulating several new university courses at Masters level). However, its overall status varied from being an important high-level initiative to just another project. Some companies dispersed their central KM teams into business units, while in other organizations KM initiatives faltered.
• Re-evaluation and Redefinition (2001-2005). Many companies embark on formal KM programmes for the first time, while others disbanded their central KM units. There is increased questioning as to KM's distinctive essence. After all, knowledge underpins many other enterprise initiatives - such as innovation, ecommerce and customer relationship management. Significantly, many providers of 'KM solutions' have relabelled their products (again) as content management, portal or enterprise information solutions!
• In Search of New Identity (2004 onwards). As web-based and content management technology becomes more mature, IT-enabled KM solutions become more commonplace. There is also a renewed interest in the 'human' side of KM, again helped by the uptake of social technologies such as blogs (grass-roots KM), wikis (evolving knowledge) and Facebook-like 'Yellow Pages' (know-who). KM projects tend to have a more targetted business focus, e.g. risk avoidance. But is it KM?

Most commentators believe that KM suffered a set back in the 2000-2001 timeframe. Some of this is attributed to economic downturn, when companies 'downsized'. But it also led to a realization that valuable experience, skills and knowledge could be rapidly lost.

Where Now?

Knowledge management is now well established. It is widely practiced (under many different labels) in organizations of all shapes and sizes. It has been avidly taken up in developing economies such as India, China and Malaysia. Although many so-called management fads start to fade away after a period of 5-7 years, knowledge management is alive and well. Monthly magazines, quarterly journals, and annual conferences devoted to one or another aspect of KM are a well established part of the landscape.

Although the post of Chief Knowledge Officer is still a rarity, many organizations have identifiable and effective knowledge managers, knowledge networks and knowledge portals. However, although many companies are some way along the KM maturity curve, fewer than 5-10 per cent have totally embedded KM into their strategic thinking or daily activities (their 'corporate DNA'). What we also notice in our discussions with proponents of knowledge management in organizations is that some organizations do not know what they know, or at least once knew. In other words, once knowledge management became established, the eye was taken off the ball and the expertise on knowledge management has become diffused and some good practices introduced several years ago, have slipped into oblivion.

There is no excuse for this, since we now have a very strong base of research, evidence of effectiveness, teaching and practical knowledge about knowledge management, something that did not exist for the pioneers in the late 1990s.

In summary - we know a lot about how to improve organizational performance through effective knowledge management. However, the quality of practice of knowledge management across organizations is highly variable.

Where Next?

Unlike the late 1990s when it was fairly clear how knowledge management would evolve over the near future, today our crystal ball is somewhat cloudier. Discussions with leaders and experts in knowledge management identifies three divergent schools of thought:

• KM is past it's 'sell by' date - typical comments are "we tried KM and it didn't work", "it never really took off in our organization", "it fragmented, became confused and went in disconnected directions"
• The full potential of KM is yet to be realized - typical comments from this group are: "there's a better understanding of the real issues that concern knowledge management and organizations", "KM is still in its formative stages", "the discipline is still 'miles away' from a level of maturity", "There is a huge gap between theory and practice. I don't think KM has even reached 50 per cent of what it can offer"
• KM's future is uncertain - epitomized by these comments: "it's in the midst of a sort of identity crisis", "the term has too much baggage to be useful", "it's schizophrenic – suffering from multiple personality disorder"

Whichever one of these three positions you believe, the fundamental point is that KM, both now and in the future, is about the proactive approach of managing knowledge and that doing this better will contribute to improved organizational outcomes.

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Web Site:-http://www.gyapti.com
Blog:- http://gyapti.blogspot.com/
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com 

CyberExam

Introduction

CyberExam is one of the easiest to use quizzing programs.  It does not require any programming to use.  The CyberExam web site provides more information. You can create exams, assign students to take them, and view the results, including statistics. 

You can install CyberExam in one of two different ways.  The first way is illustrated with the image below:

In this way, the CyberExam resides on a server.  Your College Technical Support Team would probably install it on the College server for all faculty to use.  You would use your Netscape browser to create the exams that would reside on the server.  Students would use the browser on their machines to take the exams that would reside on the server. 

The advantage of this method for installing CyberExam is that instructors don't need to install or administrate the CyberExam program.  They only need to create exams and assign them to students.

A second way to install CyberExam is illustrated below:

In this way, CyberExam resides on the instructor's computer.  You would be responsible for installing it yourself.  You would create exams using your Netscape browser, but the exams would reside on your personal computer.  Students would use the browser on their machines to take the exams residing on your computer.  This option allows you a great deal of flexibility, but you are required to administer CyberExam yourself and to operate a web server on your desktop computer.

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Cost and Availability

Current costs should always be determined from quotes directly from the company.

Virtual Learning Technologies allows downloading of demo version for 30 days. The demo version is fully functional.

Virtual Learning Technologies also allows downloading a Classroom version that is fully functional, does not expire, but will support only 50 test takers (students). For individual faculty this is a nice feature.

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Starting the CyberExam server

If your College technical support team is installing CyberExam, you will not need to perform this step. 

However, if you are running CyberExam on your own computer, then you will need to start the server program before you can create tests. 

In the CyberExam directory (C:\CyberExam is the default installation directory) double click on the test.exe file to start the CyberExam server.  When the server has started you will see a box like the one below:

The CES Server Status field indicates that the server has started.  You can use this window to stop the server by clicking the Stop button.

When the server is running you can create tests and students can take tests.  When the server is stopped, you cannot create tests and students cannot take tests.  You can minimize the server window to remove it from your screen, but if you close it, then students cannot take tests.

From the File menu, click Properties to see the properties of the server running on your computer.

The first box give the IP address of the server on your machine.  You will use this number to access CyberExam.  See next section for details.

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Logging in

Start your Netscape or Microsoft Explorer browser. 

In the URL box, type the server address for CyberExam.  If CyberExam was installed on your College server, then the URL will be similar to this:  http://serverName.myCollege.cc.il.us:1273   

For this workshop,  the URL will be similar to this:  http://128.174.109.56:1273   Note that there is a colon immediately preceeding the number 1273.  If you are successful, you will be asked for a login ID and password in a box similar to that below:

If you are logging in for the first time, and CyberExam is installed on your computer, the login name is "admin" and the password is also "admin". 

If CyberExam is installed on your College server, your administrator will provide you with a login name and a password.

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Beginning to Use CyberExam

When you have typed in a login ID and a password successfully, you are presented with the Home Page with options.  The Home Page looks similar to the image below:
The buttons on the top are for creating and administering tests.  The buttons below with the green background are various kinds of help.  The Tutorial takes the test creator through the basics of creating a sample test.  It is a good place to start. The Design Guide is a guide for creating tests.  Everything you want to know about using the program to create tests is found here.  It is a good reference and seems to be well written.  The FAQ's answers common questions.  Many of them are of a technical nature.  You may not need to consult them.

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Design Center

The Design Center is where to go to create and edit tests.  It is available to Test Designers and to the administrator.  The Design Center is also the place where you add or create new Test Takers.  Once you have one or more Tests, and some Test Takers, you can assign one or more Tests to your Test Takers.  If you are teaching two or more courses, you can have different exams assigned to different Test Takers.

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Results Center

The Results Center allows the Test Designer to look at the results of student exams.  It displays scores and statistics.

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Administration Center

If you are not the CyberExam Administrator you will not see this button.  This Center allows creation of new Test Designers.  In the non-demo version you can have as many Test Designers as you like.

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Testing Center

This button is the one students would click to take an exam.  Note that students only see Testing Center and Results Center when CyberExam detects that a Test Taker is logging on.

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Types of Questions

CyberExam will allow you to create True/False, Short Answer (Fill in the Blank), Multiple Choice (zero or more correct) and Multiple Choice (one or more correct).

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Developing a Test

Let's create a test with three questions.  The test will have only one part, meaning that it will consist of only one web page.  All three questions will be on the same web page.  The items that need to be completed are:

•  Create a "new" test
•  Try out your test to make sure it performs like you want
•  Create a "new" test taker
•  Assign the test taker to take your test
•  Try to take your test by logging in as the "new" test taker

Creating a New Test

First, click the Design Center button to begin designing a new test.  Now click the Create and Maintain Tests image. 

Click the New button to create a new quiz.  For this quiz, choose Quick Start Mode to create a simple quiz.  In Quick Start Mode, you can only enter Multiple Choice or True/False questions.

Click Next.  You are presented with a screen to enter information about the quiz and the first quiz question.  For Full Test Name, type something descriptive.  For Test Identifier, type a short name with no spaces, such as quiz1 or test1.

In the Question/Item box type the first question.  You can use HTML tags in the question if you want some formatted text, and you know how to use tags. 

In the Type of Question/Item check box choose the type of question you have created. 

In the Enter Values for Choices boxes, type the possible answers and check one or more correct answers. 

Click Next when finished.

Add additional questions in the same manner as above. When you have finished adding questions, click Finish. You are returned to the quiz listing. Your new quiz appears on the list of available quizzes.

Trying the Test as a Student Would See it

In the Instruments to Administer screen, select your test by clicking, and click Try Test.

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Creating More Complex Tests

When creating a new quiz choos Expert Mode tohave many more options and much more flexibility.  The Create a New Text options require some exploration.  There are also options for Scoring the Test. After you have selected the test options, you must create at least one section. A test section is an individual page that contains questions. They are used to create a test with separate parts. Your test can have many sections.

There are many options associated with a Test section.

After the section is created, you can select the new section to begin adding questions.

You are now ready to enter some questions for the new section. Click New to create new questions.

There are many options for each question.  There are options for the answers as well, including partial credit options.  Once you have created questions, you can create one or more new test takers (students) and then assign the test to the test takers.  You can log in as the test taker and try the exam as a student.

This program is complex and rich and well worth some time to investigate its potential.

 

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Web Site:-http://www.gyapti.com
Blog:- http://gyapti.blogspot.com/
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com