English Assessment Suite (EAS) is a WordPress quiz creation and management plugin, created for this website. It has been designed in such a way that both the TOEFL iBT and the TOEIC practice test can be created and the test Interface is as close to the real test Interface as possible.
Structure
The core structure of EAS rests on Quiz > Page > Question format.
Quiz Settings
Quiz Settings include Quiz Title and Quiz Description, the number of Attempt Allowed, Time Limit, whether Backward Navigation should be allowed, and whether options in a questions should be shuffled.
From the EAS quiz dashboard, it is possible to edit, duplicate, or delete a quiz, add pages to a quiz, and manage questions in a quiz.
Page Settings
After a quiz has been created, pages are created for the quiz. After that, one or more questions can be added to pages. Alternatively, pages can be used for instructions, audio files, etc. within a quiz. Apart from the page title and content, a Page Time Limit can be set for each page. When the time limit for a page is over, the next page is loaded automatically. Page Time Limit overrides Quiz Time Limit. The order of pages in a quiz can be rearranged. Similarly, the order of questions in a page can be rearranged.
When a page includes a “Description” question type and any other question type, these two items are displayed side-by-side on the quiz page, as in the TOEFL iBT and the TOEIC.
Question Settings
Questions are saved in a question bank in each quiz and one question can be used more than once in a quiz. Questions are not shared between quizzes.
It is possible to create questions manually by means of links in the question bank or in the Pages dashboard. Questions can also be imported directly into a quiz. The Import function supports Moodle GIFT format, which enables importing multiple-choice and description questions. Similarly, questions in a quiz can be exported in Moodle GIFT format.
There are six types of questions. Comments can be added to each question. These comments are displayed in the Review page, after the quiz has been completed.
Description
This is not a typical question because its point is always zero. Description can be used to add texts within a quiz.
Multiple Choice
Between two and five options can be added. There can be only one correct option, as this is the case in the TOEFL iBT and the TOEIC.
Drag and Drop Into Text
Up to seven Items can be dragged and dropped. It is also possible to add one distractor. If the first blank is at the start of a sentence, the first letter of the dropped word is capitalized – because a sentence must start with a capital letter.
Fill in the Blanks (C-Test)
Each letter in a selected blank is represented by a gap in the question, but the point is given for the whole blank, not for Individual Letters.
Essay
Responses to this question must be assessed by the lecturer. Essay settings include Minimum Answer lines to determine the length of the essay field. Only three editing buttons – Cut, Copy, Paste – are displayed above the Essay editing field on the quiz page.
Audio Response
Responses to this question must be assessed by the lecturer. On the quiz page, audio controls are not displayed and audio recording is started and completed automatically. Settings for Audio Response are
- Delay before recording: There is always an audio instruction for audio responses. Recording starts after this instruction.
- Preparation countdown: This can be a value between 0 to 45 seconds. It is initiated after the “Delay” time.
- Recording duration: This cannot be more than 60 seconds.
Responses are saved in mp3 format.
Lecturer
Apart from creating and implementing quizzes, the lecturer can see the list of all attempts, delete attempts, and assess written and spoken responses.
The lecturer can add feedback to the responses to all question types.
Student
Only registered members – students – can attempt quizzes. The main reason for this is that most quizzes can be attempted only one time, and this action requires registration. Also, the result from a quiz completed by an anonymous user will not be displayed on My Results page.
After a reading or listening test or activity is completed, the result is displayed immediately and details can be seen on the Review page. Responses to speaking and writing tests and activities will be assessed by the lecturer. When the student visits My Results page, the quiz whose grading is completed is displayed with a special icon. The student can see the total score and the teacher’s feedback for the responses.