Renaissance Learning 2Know! User Manual

User’s Manual

Combine easy-to-use software and wireless, handheld remote devices to help teachers maximise classroom participation and instantly assess

students’ academic performance.

Classroom Response System

with AccelTest

Software and the AccelScanTMScanner

Contact Information

United Kingdom Europe, the Middle East, and Africa

Technical questions or problems: Technical questions or problems: Phone: 0870 120 0718 Phone: +44 870 120 0718 Email: UK-Help@alphasmart.com Email: UK-help@alphasmart.com

Latest support information: Latest support information: Web: www.renlearn.co.uk/support_home.html Web: www.renlearn.co.uk/support_home.html

For product information and how For product information and how to purchase to purchase products, visit: products outside the UK, visit: www.renlearn.co.uk/hardware www.renlearn.co.uk/hardware

www.alphasmart.eu

Copyright Notice

This publication is protected by US and international copyright laws. It is unlawful to duplicate or reproduce any copyrighted material without authorisation from the copyright holder. This document may be reproduced only by staff members in schools that have a license for AccelTest software. For more information, contact Renaissance Learning at the address above.

2Know!, Accelerated Maths, AccelScan, AccelTest, Advanced Technology for Data-Driven Schools, NEO, NEO 2, NEO Manager, Renaissance, Renaissance Learning, the Renaissance Learning logo, Renaissance Place, Renaissance Receiver and Renaissance Responder are trademarks of Renaissance Learning, Inc. registered or pending registration in the United States and in other countries.

ExamView is a registered trademark of FSCreations, Inc.

PowerPoint and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Novell® is a trademark of Novell, Inc.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Macintosh and QuickTime are registered trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the US and other countries.

Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

FCC Caution: Any changes or modifications not expressly approved by Renaissance Learning could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.

This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

10/2010 ATUK v.3.4

ONTENTS

Welcome to AccelTest and the 2Know! Classroom

Response System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

How the 2Know! Classroom Response System Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

How AccelTest Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Using AccelTest to Create, Assign and Score Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Using AccelTest to Score Assignments You Already Have . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Using AccelTest with Teacher-Paced Sessions (for In-Class Assignments) . . . . . . . . . .2

Programs You Will Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

AccelTest Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Renaissance Wireless Server Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Other Programs that You May Use with the 2Know! Classroom Response

System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Learning AccelTest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Online Manuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Online Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Need More Help?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Before You Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Getting Started with the AccelTest Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Starting the AccelTest Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Checking for Updates to the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Getting the AccelTest Version and Serial Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Navigating the AccelTest Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Tasks to Be Completed for AccelTest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Closing the AccelTest Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Setting Up the 2Know! Classroom Response System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Assigning a Unique Name to Each Receiver If You Have More than One. . . . . . . . . . . .9

Changing the Administrator PIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Assigning a Student Owner to Each Responder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Changing a Student’s Personal Identification Number (PIN) for a Responder . . . . . . 13

Displaying a Forgotten Student PIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Resetting the Student Owner of a Responder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Responder Firmware Versions and Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Classes and Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Using the Classes Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Adding a Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Adding a Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Enrolling Students in a Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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Removing Students from a Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Importing Classes from Renaissance Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Importing Student Names from a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

About Comma Separated Value (CSV) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

About Importing Data from Other Desktop Renaissance Learning Programs . . . . . . .23

How to Import Students from a CSV File or Another Desktop Program. . . . . . . . . . . .23

Editing a Class Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Editing Student Names or IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Deleting a Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Exporting Student Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Deleting a Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Adding Standards to Your Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Adding Standards from the Renaissance Learning Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Adding Standards from a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Deleting Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

. . . . .

Setting Up Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Viewing the List of Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Preferences That Affect Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Item (Question) Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Creating Assignments in AccelTest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Adding Graphics, Equations and Plots to Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Adding Graphics to Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Adding Equations to Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Adding Plots to Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Creating a New Score Key for Assignments That Will Be Done on Responders

or NEO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Creating a New Score Key for Assignments That Will Be Scored with

Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

Scanning a Card with the Correct Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Aligning Items to Standards on an Assignment or Score Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Importing Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Changing (Editing) Assignments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Adding Items to the Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Adding One Item to the End of the Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Adding Multiple Items, or Adding Items from the Libraries or Other

Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Changing (Editing) an Item on an Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Moving Items on an Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Changing Assignment Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Changing the Assignment Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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Changing (Editing) Score Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Copying Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Printing a Single Copy of an Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Previewing Responder or NEO 2 Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Exporting Assignments or Score Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Deleting Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Using the Record Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Viewing a Class Record Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Adding Assignments to the Record Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Adding an AccelTest Assignment or Score Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Adding a Points-Only Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Assigning Assignments to Students. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Printing Assignments for Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Changing the Dates, Category and Other Properties for Record Book

Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

How Students Complete Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Using the Responder or NEO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Completing In-Class Assignments, Including Quizzes, Tests and Exams,

Using a Responder or NEO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Completing Homework Using the Responder Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Using the AccelScan Scan Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

For Manual Scoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Scoring Assignments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Scoring Assignments with the Responder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Scoring Assignments with the NEO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Scoring Assignments with the AccelScan Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Starting the Scanning Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Scanning Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84

Ending the Scanning Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Scoring Assignments Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Scoring Points-Only Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Overriding Scores in the Record Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Viewing Assignment Scores in the Record Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

About the Scores and Status Messages in the Record Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Changing How Scores Are Shown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Viewing Students’ Scores for Each Item on an Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

How Marks Are Calculated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Term, Semester and Final Grades (Marks) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

How AccelTest Preferences Affect Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Categories (Category Weights) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Exams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Grading Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Extra Credit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Two Ways to Choose Extra Credit Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

. . . . .

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How AccelTest Uses Points Possible with Extra Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

How Category Weights Work with Extra Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Exporting Scores from AccelTest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Exporting Results from One Class’s Assignments in the Record Book . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

Exporting Detailed Scoring Data for One Assignment and Multiple Classes . . . . . . . .97

Unassigning Assignments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Removing Assignments from the Record Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Sending Notes to Students’ Renaissance Responders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

How to Send Notes to Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100

How Students Get and Read Notes on Their Responders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

How Teachers View the Note History for a Student, Change Notes and Delete

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Using Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

What Are Sessions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Using the Teacher-Paced Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Starting a Session for Projected Assignments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

Starting a Session for Existing Assignments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

Starting a Session for Verbal Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Starting a Session for PowerPoint Slides (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

PowerPoint Sessions with an Existing Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

PowerPoint Sessions with Verbal Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Using the Student-Paced Sessions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

How Students Answer Questions on Responders and NEO 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Multiple-Choice, True/False and Yes/No Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Numeric-Response Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Short-Answer Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Viewing Information on Past Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

. . . . .

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

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Printing or Previewing AccelTest Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Report Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130

Assignment Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Assignment Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130

Assignment Standards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Class Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Form Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Free Response Grading Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Group Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Overdue Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Program Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Record Book Summary by Term . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Student Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Student ID. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

C ONTENTS

Student Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134

Student Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

AccelTest Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Auto Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Assignment Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Data Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

Exams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Grading Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Libraries/Standards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Registration Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

Responder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Scanner Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139

School Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Setting the Data Location Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Check Rights Before Choosing or Creating a Different Data Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140

Rights Required for Network Data Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Rights Required for Data Folders on Windows 2000, Windows XP and

OS 10 Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

How to Choose a Different Data Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Setting Reports Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Setting Assignment Creation Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

. . . . .

About Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Other Responder Features and Settings . . . . . . . . . 150

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

AccelTest

User Manual

Installing Accelerated Maths Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Changing the Responder Font Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Using the Calculator in the Responder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Using the Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Disabling the Calculator Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

AccelTest

User Manual

Your Responder firmware version determines which

features the Responder supports. For more

information, see page 14.

ELCOME TO

LASSROOM

CCELTEST AND THE

ESPONSE

The 2Know! classroom response system allows students to enter their answers to assignments on hand-held Responders or NEO 2 for quick, automatic scoring. The system also allows teachers to send homework and notes to students.

AccelTest software allows you to create your own quizzes, tests and assignments for any subject, score assignments quickly and have the scores entered in its electronic Record Book. AccelTest can help you manage all your existing assignments, quizzes and tests.

YSTEM

NOW

How the 2Know! Classroom Response System Works

The optional 2Know! classroom response system includes a Renaissance Receiver and Renaissance Responders.

The Renaissance Receiver is connected to the teacher’s computer. Working with the AccelTest software, it sends assignments, homework and notes from the teacher to students’ Responders. When students use the Responders to complete assignments, the Receiver sends their responses to the AccelTest software for quick, automatic scoring.

AccelTest

User Manual

When you purchase the 2Know! classroom response system, students use hand-held Renaissance Responders to answer questions to assignments. They can also use them to get their assignments and notes from the teacher.

If you received this software with a NEO 2 SmartOption Mobile Lab, students can also use NEO 2s to answer questions to assignments, though NEO 2 does not support homework and notes.

W ELCOME TO ACCELTEST AND THE 2KNOW! CLASSROOM RESPONSE SYSTEM

Assignment questions can be in a variety of formats,

including multiple-choice, matching, ranking, true/false, yes/no, essay, short answer or numeric response.

How AccelTest Works

You can use AccelTest to create, assign and score the assignments that you want to give your students, or you can use it to score assignments that exist outside of AccelTest. You can also use AccelTest for in-class assignments.

AccelTest also calculates overall student marks, which are based on the dates teachers set for the school year and terms and on the grading scale teachers have chosen.

Using AccelTest to Create, Assign and Score Assignments

1. You create assignments.

2. You add the assignments to your class Record Book.

3. If you did not assign the assignments as you added them to the class Record

Book, you assign the assignments later. If students need printed copies of the assignments, they will be printed when you assign them.

4. The assignments are scored in one of three ways:

• Students enter their answers on Renaissance Responders or NEO 2

during a student-paced session, and the assignments are then scored automatically by the software.

• Students enter their answers on AccelScan cards, and you use the AccelScan scanner to scan the cards for automatic scoring.

• You score the assignments manually.

How AccelTest Works

. . . . .

Using AccelTest to Score Assignments You Already Have

1. You create a score key for the existing assignments. (The assignments are not

in the AccelTest software—only the score key is.)

2. You add the score key to your class Record Book.

3. You assign the score key to your students.

4. The assignments are scored in one of three ways:

• Students enter their answers on Renaissance Responders or NEO 2

during student-paced sessions, and the assignments are then scored automatically by the software.

• Students enter their answers on AccelScan cards, and you use the AccelScan scanner to scan the cards for automatic scoring.

• You score the assignments manually.

Using AccelTest with Teacher-Paced Sessions (for In-Class Assignments)

1. You create the assignment.

2. You start a teacher-paced session and select the assignment. You can project

the assignment, use PowerPoint slides, ask students questions verbally, or use printed copies for students.

3. Using Renaissance Responders or NEO 2, students complete the assignment in class at the pace you set in the session. These assignments may or may not be scored, depending on the choice you made as you started the session. If you chose to score the assignments, the software will score them automatically, and the scores will appear in your Record Book after the session is complete.

AccelTest

User Manual

W ELCOME TO ACCELTEST AND THE 2KNOW! CLASSROOM RESPONSE SYSTEM

Programs You Will Use

Before you install and use the programs listed below, make sure that your computers meet the minimum system requirements for the AccelTest software, the 2Know! classroom response system and AccelScan. To see the requirements, visit www.alphasmart.co.uk/crs/.

AccelTest Software

The AccelTest software is included with the 2Know! classroom response system and with NEO 2 class sets and SmartOption bundles. You can use this software to create, assign, print and score assignments for students, view student scores and print reports. To install this software, refer to the AccelTest Software Installation Guide.

Renaissance Wireless Server Utility

The Renaissance Wireless Server Utility is installed with the AccelTest software. It helps you manage and monitor communication between your computer and the Renaissance Receiver. You can also use it to set the administrator Personal Identification Number (PIN) for Responders and to change the Receiver name if you need to distinguish your Receiver from others in your school.

Programs You Will Use

. . . . .

Other Programs that You May Use with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

AccelTest is not the only software from Renaissance Learning that can use the 2Know! classroom response system. You can also use the 2Know! Toolbar, which you can download and install from the Renaissance Learning Web site. The 2Know! Toolbar allows you to quickly quiz or get feedback from your class or group. For more information, see the instructions installed with the program.

You can also use the classroom response system with Accelerated Maths RP so students can enter their answers to assignments using Responders or NEO 2. If you use the classroom response system with Accelerated Maths RP, you must download and install the Renaissance Responder program from Renaissance Place. For more information, see the Accelerated Maths Software Manual.

You do not need to install AccelTest to use Renaissance Responders or NEO 2 with the 2Know! Toolbar or Accelerated Maths RP. You can only use Responders or NEO 2 with one program at a time.

Learning AccelTest

Online Manuals

If you are reading this manual at your computer, you have already discovered that the AccelTest User Manual is in your Start menu under AccelTest (Windows) or in your program folder (Macintosh).

AccelTest

User Manual

When you are reading this manual on your computer, all references to other pages or sections are links that you can click to go directly to that page, section or

W ELCOME TO ACCELTEST AND THE 2KNOW! CLASSROOM RESPONSE SYSTEM

Do you still have questions?

• Send questions to

UK-help@alphasmart.com.

• Contact us using the phone numbers listed at the beginning of the manual.

Online Help

Need More Help?

. . . . .

procedure. When you move the cursor over the link, it will change to a hand pointing to the link. The sections listed in the Contents and the page numbers in the Index are also links.

If you are using Adobe Reader, you can also use the buttons in the Reader to go forward or back one page or to go to a specific page number.

This manual will help you use AccelTest software on both Windows and Macintosh computers. In most cases, the steps are the same for both operating systems. When the Windows and Macintosh software is different, this manual will provide the information for both.

While using AccelTest, you can get help by clicking the Help menu and clicking AccelTest Help. This menu is available no matter where you are in the program. Use the contents and index in the help to find the information you need.

Need More Help?

• Knowledge Base: Search the Renaissance Learning Knowledge Base on the

Web at support.renlearn.com/techkb/ for technical support information.

• Email: Send questions to UK-Help@alphasmart.com.

• Phone: Call +44 870 120 0718.

AccelTest

User Manual

If you have upgraded from version 2.x to version 3.x, the first

time you start AccelTest after the upgrade, the Data Migration Tool will convert your database to the newest format. This may take some time.

ETTING

TARTED

This section gives you the procedures you will need to start using the 2Know! classroom response system and AccelTest.

Before You Start

Before you start using AccelTest and the 2Know! classroom response system, check the following:

• Make sure you have installed the AccelTest software. See the AccelTest Software

Installation Guide.

• Make sure you have connected the Renaissance Receiver to your computer. See

the 2Know! Classroom Response System Installation and Set-Up Guide if you have the 2Know! classroom response system or your NEO 2 instructions if you have a NEO 2 SmartOption Mobile Lab.

• If you have AccelScan scanners, make sure they are connected. See the AccelTest

Software Installation Guide or the AccelScan User’s Guide.

Getting Started with the AccelTest Software

Starting the AccelTest Software

Important: When you start the computer, log in with your own user name and password so that you see the correct classes in AccelTest. Users who log in to this computer with a different user name and password will be asked to select their own database. For more information, see the AccelTest Software Installation Guide.

Follow these steps to start the AccelTest software:

1. Follow the instructions for your operating system:

Windows: Click StartProgramsAccelTestAccelTest.

Macintosh: Open the

Applications folder. Then, open the AccelTest folder. Double-click AccelTest that folder.

2. If this is the first time you have started AccelTest, the program may ask you to choose a data location and enter your serial number. See the AccelTest Software Installation Guide for details.

A in

AccelTest

User Manual

3. Enter your password. (If you have not

If you update from version 2.x to version 3.x, the first

time you start AccelTest after the upgrade, the Data Migration Tool will convert your database to the newest format. This may take some time.

A If you decide not to download

some updates, tick the boxes next to them before clicking Download. AccelTest will only download updates that are not ticked.

B If you do not want to download

any updates now, click Cancel.

changed it, the default password is

admin.) Then, click OK.

4. If this is the first time you have started

AccelTest, the program will ask if you want to set up your school year and terms. It is a good idea to do this right away so your grading periods are available. To do this, click Setup School Year Now and follow the instructions for the School Year preference on page 139.

Checking for Updates to the Software

AccelTest automatically checks for updates periodically. This helps ensure that you have the latest version of the software. The Auto Update preference sets how often the software checks for updates; see page 136.

If you want to check for updates manually, click the Help menu and choose Check for Updates. The software will notify you if no updates are available. If updates are available, they will be listed. Click Download to get the updates. Click Done when the download is complete. The update file will be downloaded to your computer’s desktop; double-click it to begin the update. You may be told to restart your computer after the update is installed.

G ETTING STARTED

Getting Started with the AccelTest Software

. . . . .

AccelTest

User Manual

Getting the AccelTest Version and Serial Number

BC D

A Assignments: Click this tab to

create, change or delete assignments.

B Sessions: Click this tab to start or

monitor teacher-paced or studentpaced sessions.

C Record Book: Click this tab to

assign or print assignments and monitor student scores.

D Classes: Click this tab to add, edit

or delete students and classes and to manage class enrolment.

Follow the instructions for your type of computer to see your AccelTest software version or serial number:

Windows computers: Click the Help menu and choose About AccelTest.

Macintosh computers: Click the AccelTest menu and choose About AccelTest.

Navigating the AccelTest Software

Click the tabs in the software to switch between AccelTest screens:

G ETTING STARTED

Getting Started with the AccelTest Software

. . . . .

You will find other tasks in the menus at the top of the screen. For example, to set preferences, click the Preferences menu and choose a preference. To generate reports, click the Reports menu and choose a report.

AccelTest

User Manual

Tasks to Be Completed for AccelTest

Do not forget your 2Know! classroom response system

setup. See page 9 for a list of

the tasks you should complete to start using the 2Know! classroom response system.

After AccelTest is installed on your computer, complete these tasks to set up your data and start using the software for your assignments.

Task Where to Find Instructions

G ETTING STARTED

Getting Started with the AccelTest Software

. . . . .

Create or select a data location (database). You will be asked to do this the first time you start AccelTest after installing the software.

Set up your school year information so that AccelTest can include it in your assignments automatically. As you enter your school year information, you will be asked to set up your terms (and possibly semesters).

Add your classes. Page 17

Add or import your students. Page 17

Add the standards that you would like to align items to on your assignments.

Review the Subjects preference, and if necessary, add to or edit the subject list.

Use the Device preference to choose which types of assignments you will use (Responder, NEO 2, projected, scanner and/or printed).

Look at the Categories preference, and add or edit categories to fit the subjects you teach. You can set mark weights for categories, decide whether a category’s worst score should be dropped, and choose how to calculate marks.

AccelTest Software Installation Guide

If you want to change your data

location, see page 140.

Page 139

Page 31

Page 139

Page 136

Closing the AccelTest Software

AccelTest

User Manual

Review the Grading Scale preference. You may want to change the Grading Scale to fit your grading system.

Look at the Exams preference. You may want to adjust the percentage and marking period the exam mark applies to.

Page 137

Windows: To close the software, click the button, or click the File menu and choose Exit.

Macintosh: To close the software, click the AccelTest menu and choose Quit AccelTest.

G ETTING STARTED

About NEO 2 setup:

Although NEO 2s

cannot be assigned owners, students can use them to complete assignments, either in student-paced sessions or teacher-paced sessions. For homework and notes, Renaissance Responders are required. NEO 2s do not require firmware updates because they receive updates through the NEO Manager software.

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

. . . . .

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

First, follow the instructions that you received with your 2Know! classroom response system or NEO 2 SmartOption Mobile Lab to do the following:

• Connect the Renaissance Receiver to your computer.

• Install, check the battery charge or replace batteries in your Renaissance Responders or NEO 2s.

The following sections explain other tasks that will help you use Renaissance Responders or NEO 2s with AccelTest software.

Setting Up the 2Know! Classroom Response System

Perform these tasks to set up the 2Know! classroom response system:

Task Where to Find Instructions

Give a unique name to each Receiver so students and teachers can tell them apart when they choose a Receiver on their Responders.

Change the Administrator Personal Identification Number (PIN) used for logging in to the Renaissance Wireless Server Utility and for changing settings or owners for Responders.

Assign a student owner to each Responder if you want to be able to send students homework and notes.

Perform firmware updates as needed. Page 14

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

Assigning a Unique Name to Each Receiver If You Have More than One

When students complete AccelTest assignments using either a Renaissance Responder or a NEO 2, they need to select the correct Renaissance Receiver. You should give each Receiver a unique name so students can be sure to choose the right one. (Each Receiver is named “Renaissance Receiver” unless you rename it.) Assigning a unique name is especially important if you have more than one Receiver in your school. You can choose a name that makes it easy for students to choose the correct Receiver, such as Mrs Smith’s Class or Room 245.

AccelTest

User Manual

1. Open the Renaissance Wireless Server Utility program:

• Windows computers: Right-click the icon in the task bar in the lower-

right corner of your screen and choose Manage from the menu. You can also click StartProgramsRenaissance Wireless

ServerRenaissance Wireless Server Utility.

• Macintosh computers: If you see the icon in the dock, click it to start

the utility. You can also open the Applications folder on your hard drive, open the Renaissance Wireless Server folder, and double-click

Renaissance Wireless Server Utility.

G ETTING STARTED

Tell students the Receiver name.

When you change the name of your Receiver, be sure to give students the new name so they connect to the right Receiver.

If you are using

NEO 2s, click the

Renaissance Place Settings button if you are

using the Accelerated Reader SmartApplet or the two MathsFacts in a Flash SmartApplets. Click the button to set the server name or address for your Renaissance Place server so the SmartApplets can communicate with your server.

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

2. Enter the Administrator Personal Identification Number (PIN) in the Server Login dialog box and click OK. If you have not changed the PIN, it is 1234.

3. Click the Server Settings tab A.

4. Click in the Network Name field

B, delete the name and type the new name

you want to use.

5. Click Update Network Settings C.

6. Click OK when the program tells you the settings have been updated. You can

then close the utility.

. . . . .

Changing the Administrator PIN

AccelTest

User Manual

The Administrator Personal Identification Number (PIN) is used when you reset the student owner for a Responder, when you view a student’s forgotten PIN on the Responder, when you update Responder firmware, or when you log in to the Renaissance Wireless Server Utility at the teacher’s computer. Follow these steps if you need to change the Administrator PIN:

1. Open the Renaissance Wireless Server Utility program:

• Windows computers: Right-click the icon in the task bar in the lower-

right corner of your screen and choose Manage from the menu. You can also click StartProgramsRenaissance Wireless

ServerRenaissance Wireless Server Utility.

• Macintosh computers: If you see the icon in the dock, click it to start

the utility. You can also open the Applications folder on your hard drive, open the Renaissance Wireless Server folder and double-click

Renaissance Wireless Server Utility.

2. Enter the Administrator Personal Identification Number (PIN) in the Server

3. Click the Server Settings tab

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

If you are using NEO 2s and you

have installed NEO Manager, click the Renaissance Place Settings button if you are using the

Accelerated Reader or MathsFacts in a Flash SmartApplets on NEO 2. Click the button to set the server name or address for your Renaissance Place server so the SmartApplets can communicate with your server. (The button is not available if you have not installed NEO Manager.)

Make sure the

Responder

preference is set to support owned Responders. This is the

default setting, but it can be changed. To check the preference setting, click the Preferences menu and choose Responder. Then, make sure the Support Owned Responders box is ticked and click OK.

4. Click Set Administrator PIN B.

G ETTING STARTED

. . . . .

Assigning a Student Owner to Each Responder

AccelTest

User Manual

5. In the dialog box that opens, your current PIN has already been entered. Enter the new PIN you want to use in the last two blank fields. Then, click OK.

6. Click OK when the program notifies you that the PIN was changed successfully.

Although students can use Responders without owning them, you do need to assign student owners to send homework or notes to students. (NEO 2s do not have assigned owners. Some Responders also cannot have assigned owners; see page 14.)

When you assign an owner to a Responder, only that student can use that Responder. When you start the Responder, the student will be asked to enter his or her Personal Identification Number (PIN). This helps ensure that only that student uses the Responder; the student or teacher can change the student PIN (see page 13).

Follow the steps on the next page to assign owners to Responders.

1. Before you start assigning owners, make sure you have added your students (page 17) and your classes (page 17) and assigned students to their classes (page 18). The AccelTest software must be running, and the class for which you want to assign Responders should be selected.

G ETTING STARTED

Student IDs are also available in the Student ID Report.

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

2. Press the On/Off button A on the Responder that needs an owner assigned to start the Responder.

3. Press

4. Press

5. If the Responder asks if you want to stay

6. You will be asked to enter your AccelTest student



B to scroll down to Settings; then,

press Select.



to scroll down to Assign Owner; then, press Select. The Responder will search for a Receiver.

connected to the previously chosen Receiver, and you want to do this, press yes (True), then Select to continue. If you want to choose a different Receiver, press no (False); then, highlight the correct Receiver and press Select.

If the Responder simply asks you to select a Receiver, highlight the correct Receiver and press Select.

ID. AccelTest automatically assigns an ID number to each student you add. To see student ID numbers, click the Classes tab in the AccelTest software Then, refer to the ID numbers in the master student list on the left side of the tab

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7. On the Responder, enter the ID number of the student that should own this Responder. Then, press Select or ENTER.

8. The Responder will identify the student owner by name and show a default PIN. Each student’s PIN is 1212 when you first assign the Responder owner. If you want to change a student’s PIN, see the steps below.

G ETTING STARTED

Entering the Administrator PIN: If

you make a mistake while entering the Administrator PIN, you can press CLEAR to start over. To change the PIN, see page 10.

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

Changing a Student’s Personal Identification Number (PIN) for a Responder

1. On the Responder the student owns, press the On/Off button to start the

Responder.

2. Enter the student’s current PIN and press Enter. (The default PIN is 1212; you may have changed it or set a different one.)

3. Press

4. Press

5. The student’s name will appear, and you will be asked to enter a new PIN.



to scroll down to Settings and press Select.



to scroll down to Change PIN and press Select.

Enter the letters and/or numbers for the new PIN (1–11 characters) and press ENTER. The Responder will identify the student owner by name and show the new PIN.

Displaying a Forgotten Student PIN

If a student owner of a Responder forgets his or her PIN, follow these steps to see the number:

1. Press the On/Off button to start the Responder.

2. Press ?.

3. If your Receiver name appears, click yes True and press Select. If more than

one Receiver name appears, scroll to select the correct Receiver; then, press

Select.

4. Enter your administrator PIN and press ENTER.

5. The Responder will tell you the device is unlocked, and it will show you the

student’s PIN. Make a note of the forgotten PIN; then, press any key. The student can use this PIN the next time he or she uses the Responder.

. . . . .

Resetting the Student Owner of a Responder

When you need to reset the owner of a Responder, follow these steps:

1. Press the On/Off button to start the Responder.

2. Press ?.

3. If your Receiver name appears, click yes True and press Select. If more than

one Receiver name appears, scroll to select the correct Receiver; then, press

Select.

4. Enter your administrator PIN and press ENTER.

5. The Responder will tell you the device is unlocked, and it will show you the

student’s PIN. Press any key.



6. Press

7. Press

8. Enter the administrator PIN again and press ENTER. The owner will be reset,

so no student will own the Responder. To assign a new owner, see page 11.

to scroll down to Settings; then, press Select.



to scroll down to Reset Owner; then, press Select.

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Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

Responder Firmware Versions and Updates

Firmware is the software that runs inside your Responders and Receiver. The firmware on your Renaissance Responders serves three purposes:

• The firmware version that you select tells the Responders what functions and

features you want on the Responder.

• Occasionally, you may get firmware updates through your AccelTest software.

You can update the firmware on your Responders when you get new versions through AccelTest software updates.

• If you are using a 1.xx version of the Responder firmware, you can switch

between the even and odd versions of the firmware to switch between a small and large font.

There are three sets of firmware versions on your Responders:

Firmware Versions

What Is Included What Is Not Included

G ETTING STARTED

. . . . .

1.xx • Ability to join sessions for AccelTest or the 2Know! Toolbar

• Support for owned Responders

• Homework

•Notes

• Settings

• Synchronising with AccelTest

•Calculator

• Small or large font based on firmware selected

2.xx • Ability to join sessions for AccelTest or the 2Know! Toolbar

• MathsFacts in a Flash practice

• MathsFacts in a Flash practice/test history

• Ability to send MathsFacts in a Flash practice data to Renaissance Place

• Settings

3.xx • Ability to join sessions for AccelTest or the 2Know! Toolbar

• Support for owned Responders

• Homework

•Notes

• Settings

• Synchronising with AccelTest

• Ability to answer short-answer questions in AccelTest or the 2Know! Toolbar

• MathsFacts in a Flash practice and history features

• Ability to answer shortanswer questions in AccelTest or the 2Know! Toolbar

• Support for owned Responders

• Homework

•Notes

• Synchronising with AccelTest

• Ability to answer short answer questions in AccelTest or the 2Know! Toolbar

•Calculator

• Small or large font based on firmware selected

•Calculator

• Small or large font based on firmware selected

• MathsFacts in a Flash practice and history features

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G ETTING STARTED

You can update more than one Responder at the

same time. If you follow these

steps at more than one Responder at a time, you can update a set of 24 Responders in as little as 20 minutes.

NEO 2s are not updated in this way.

They receive their updates to the NEO 2 and its SmartApplets through the NEO Manager software.

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

If you would like to switch to a different version of your firmware, make sure your data is synchronised on your Responder before installing the update (scroll down on the menu and select Synchronise). Usually, any changes you have made to the Responder settings will still be in place after the firmware update; if they are not, you may need to change the settings or assign an owner again.

Follow these steps to change or update firmware on each Responder:

1. Press the On/Off button to start the Responder.

2. If the Responder has been assigned a student owner and asks for the Student

PIN, press ?. Then, press yes (True) and then Enter to stay connected to the current Receiver (server). Enter the Administrator PIN (1234 is the default) and press Enter. Then, press any key.

3. Press

4. Press

5. If the Responder asks if you want to stay connected to the Receiver, press yes

6. The Responder will find and display the available firmware versions. Do one of

7. Press Select.

8. Enter the Administrator PIN when the Responder asks you to do this (the

9. The Responder will start updating the firmware. The program shows you its



to scroll down to Settings and press Select.



to scroll down to Firmware Update and press Select.

and then Enter.

the following:

• If you are using a 1.xx firmware version (see the table on the previous page) and you want to switch between the small and large fonts, scroll to the even-numbered version to choose the large font, or scroll to the oddnumbered version to choose the small font.

• If you want the ability to answer short-answer questions with Responders, scroll to the 3.xx firmware version.

Choose the highest firmware version of the type you want to get the latest version.

default is 1234), and press Enter.

progress as it does the update. When the update is complete, the Responder will show you the new version number. Press any key to go to the Responder menu or the student PIN entry screen.

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Different teachers may see different classes and

students. AccelTest requires

every person who logs in to the computer with a unique user name and password to select or create a database. You will see only the classes and students that are in your database.

A The Classes tab shows your classes

and students.

B Use these buttons to add students or

classes or to enrol students in the selected class.

C Use the Class drop-down list to

choose the class you want to view and work with.

D This list shows you all students you

have added in your AccelTest database.

E This list shows you which students

are in the selected class.

F In the Classes menu, you can

choose other tasks, such as importing, editing, exporting or deleting classes and students or removing students from a class. If you do not have the Classes tab selected when you click the Classes menu, some options will not be available in this menu.

LASSES AND

TUDENTS

Using the Classes Tab

To set up or view your classes or students, click the Classes tab A.

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Adding a Class

You may be able to save time by importing classes

and student information. To

import classes, see page 20. To import student information, see page 22.

Student IDs are shown in three places: the Record

Book, on the Classes tab and in the Student ID report.

Follow these steps to add a new class.

1. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest. (See page 16).

2. Click Add Class on this tab.

3. Type the name of the new class in

the dialog box. Then, click OK.

Next, add your students as described below; then, you can enrol them in the class by following the steps on page 18.

Adding a Student

Follow the steps below to add students to the database.

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Adding a Class

. . . . .

1. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest. (See page 16).

2. Click Add Student on this tab.

3. Enter the student’s

first name and last name. (You can enter a middle name, but it is not required.) A suggested ID has been entered for you; you can change this number to the student’s ID for your school. IDs can include numbers only. After entering the information, click OK.

4. If you want to add more students, click Yes in the alert that appears. Then, enter the name and ID for each additional student and click Add. When you have finished, click Done.

If you do not want to add more students, click No in the alert.

To enrol the student(s) in classes, see page 18.

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Enrolling Students in a Class

1. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest A.

2. Choose the class that needs students enrolled from the Class drop-down

list B.

3. Click Enrol Students

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Enrolling Students in a Class

. . . . .

4. Tick the boxes next to the students that you want to enrol in the selected class D. Notice that the list shows which classes the students are already enrolled in. You can also click Select All or Deselect All to select or deselect all students in the list. After choosing the students to enrol in the class, click OK.

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Removing Students from a Class

If you want to remove one or more students from a class, follow these steps:

1. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest A.

2. Using the Class drop-down list

removed.

B, choose the class that needs students

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Removing Students from a Class

. . . . .

3. Select the students that you want to remove from the class in the list on the right

C. To select one student, click the student’s name. To select more than

one, use one of these two methods:

• If the names are not next to each other in the list, hold down the Ctrl key

(Windows) or the  key (Macintosh) as you click the student names.

• If the names are next to each other in the list, click the first name you want

to select, hold down the Shift key, and click the last name in the group you want to select. The first name, the last name and all names in between will be selected.

4. Click the Classes menu D and choose Remove Students. (This option is not available if you do not

start from the Classes tab.)

5. Click Yes to continue when the program asks if you are sure you want to remove the students.

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C LASSES AND STUDENTS

To import students

from a comma

separated value (CSV) file or from a Renaissance Learning desktop program, see page 22.

Importing Classes from Renaissance Place

By following the steps below, you can import classes from your Renaissance Place programs. When you do this, the students and their class enrolments are also imported.

1. Click the Classes menu in AccelTest and choose Import from Renaissance Place. (It does not

matter which tab you are viewing before you click this menu.)

2. Enter the server or IP address of your Renaissance Place server. (If you do not know the address, contact your server administrator.) Then, click Next.

. . . . .

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3. Enter the user name and password that you normally use to log in to Renaissance Place. Then, click Next.

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Student IDs are not imported. AccelTest

will give the student a new ID. You can edit the ID by editing the student’s information; see page 27.

A To choose classes one by one,

tick the box next to each class that you want to import.

B To select all the classes listed,

click Select All. This ticks the box next to each class.

C To remove the tick from all

classes listed, click Deselect All.

D Tick this box if you do not want

to enrol the students that are being imported into the class. If the box is ticked, the class name is not imported, and the students are not enrolled in a class when they are imported, but you can enrol them into a class after importing them.

Importing Classes from Renaissance Place

4. Click the name of the school that has the class that you want to import. Then, click Next.

. . . . .

5. Tick the boxes next to the classes that you want to import. Then, click Next.

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6. Read the Summary to make sure you have chosen the correct classes. Then, click Next.

7. Click Done when the program tells you it has finished importing students.

Importing Student Names from a File

Do you want to import information from Renaissance

Place instead? See page 20

to import entire classes, including student names and class enrolments.

Importing Student Names from a File

Instead of adding students, you may be able to import their names from another program you are using. You can import text files with information separated by commas (CSV files), or you can import students from the database for a desktop Renaissance Learning program.

About Comma Separated Value (CSV) Files

A comma separated value (CSV) file is a text file that separates information within each line of data with commas. The file must have the information in a specific order so the student names and IDs are imported correctly. Follow these guidelines:

• Your file must have only one student record per line. Use a comma to separate

each piece of information. The maximum line length is 255 characters (including spaces).

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

. . . . .

• Each record must contain at least the student’s first and last names. The middle

name and ID are optional.

• Add a header line to the file that identifies the information.This line must start

with either the @ symbol or no symbol. (If you are creating the file in Microsoft Excel and saving it in .csv format, it is easiest to use no symbol.) Then, the header must list the names of the fields in the order they are in for each student record. In the header, use LNAME to show where the last name occurs, FNAME for the first name, MNAME for the middle name and ID for the student ID. If the record includes information that AccelTest would not import, use an X in the header to show where this information occurs.

For example, suppose that you have a file in which each record shows the student’s first name, then the student’s last name, the student’s ID and then the student’s year level. Since the program will not import the year level, your file should look like one of these examples:

@FNAME,LNAME,ID,X FNAME,LNAME,ID,X

Ryan,Emerson,3253,6 Ryan,Emerson,3253,6

Luis,Camacho,3192,3 Luis,Camacho,3192,3

Lyle,Johnson,3325,4 Lyle,Johnson,3325,4

Note the X in the header to show where the year level is in each record. The X tells AccelTest to ignore this information.

If some students are missing some of the information, include a comma to represent that field even though the information is not there. In the following example, Katrina Peters does not have a middle name in her record.

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@FNAME,MNAME,LNAME

Ryan,John,Emerson

Katrina,,Peters

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Importing Student Names from a File

About Importing Data from Other Desktop Renaissance Learning Programs

AccelTest can also import data directly from the database for any Renaissance Learning desktop product, such as Accelerated Reader 5.x–6.x, Accelerated Vocabulary 1.x, Accelerated Maths 1.x–2.x, MathsFacts in a Flash 1.x, STAR Early Literacy 1.x, STAR Maths 1.x–2.x and STAR Reading 2.x.

Note: The steps below explain how to import students from desktop products. If you want to import classes and students from the Renaissance Place version of these products, see page 20.

How to Import Students from a CSV File or Another Desktop Program

1. Click the Classes menu in AccelTest and choose Import from File. (It does not matter which tab you

are viewing before you click this menu.) The Import Students Wizard or Assistant will start.

. . . . .

2. On the first panel, choose whether to import students from a text file or a database from another Renaissance Learning desktop program. Then, click Next.

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C LASSES AND STUDENTS

B C

A To choose students one by one,

tick the box next to each student that you want to import.

If you want to enrol students in classes as you import them, make sure you only select only students who are in the same class!

B To select all the students listed,

click Select All. This ticks the box next to each student.

C To remove the tick from all

students listed, click Deselect All.

Importing Student Names from a File

3. On the next panel, click Select File or Select Folder.

Find and select (highlight) the file or folder that you want to import students from. Then, click Select, OK or Choose. (The button name varies depending on your operating system and the type of item that you are choosing.)

4. After you have chosen the file or folder, notice that the panel in the wizard will show you how many students were found in that location. To continue, click Next.

5. Tick the boxes next to the students that you want to import. Then, click Next.

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6. If any student names that you are importing are the same as student names that are already in your database, AccelTest will show you the duplicate student names one by one. For each student, you will have some or all of these options:

• Update ID and Update All IDs: These options are available when the

student name is the same but the ID is different. Clicking Update ID updates the student’s ID in the database to the one that is in the file or folder you are importing. Clicking Update All IDs does this for all student names that match names in the file or folder you are importing.

• Update Name and Update All Names: These options are available when

the ID for a student in the import source matches the ID of a student in your AccelTest database. Clicking Update Name changes the name of the student in the database to match the student with the same ID in the import source. Update All Names does this for all students with matching IDs. Make sure the student in your AccelTest database is the same as the one in the import source before doing this to avoid attributing a student’s marks to another name.

•Skip and Skip All: If the student information that is already in your

database is correct, and you do not want to replace it or update it with information from the file, click Skip to skip just this student (without importing the student) or Skip All to skip all duplicate students in the file.

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

D Click this option if you want to

import the students, but you do not want to enrol them in a class now. This is a good choice if you are importing students that are actually in different classes. To enrol the students in classes later, see page 18.

E Click this option if you want to

enrol the students you are importing in a class that already exists. Then, use the drop-down list to choose the class.

F Click this option if you want to

enrol the students in a new class. Then, click in the blank field and type a name for your new class.

Importing Student Names from a File

7. Next, choose whether to enrol the students you are importing in a class. After choosing an option (and a class if necessary), click Next.

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8. Read the information in the summary to make sure it is correct. Then, click Done to continue. (If you need to make changes, click Back to go back and

make your corrections.)

Editing a Class Name

1. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest A.

2. Choose the class that you want to edit from the Class drop-down list on this

tab B.

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Editing a Class Name

. . . . .

3. Click the Classes menu available if you do not start from the Classes tab.)

4. Make your changes to the class name. Then, click OK.

C and choose Edit Class. (This option is not

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Editing Student Names or IDs

Student IDs are shown in three places: in the Record

Book, on the Classes tab and in the Student ID Report.

1. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest A.

2. In the list on the left, click the name of one student whose information you want

to edit B.

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Editing Student Names or IDs

. . . . .

3. Click the Classes menu Student.

4. Edit the student’s first name, middle name, last

name and/or ID as needed. (The middle name is not required.) When you have finished, click OK.

C and choose Edit

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Deleting a Class

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Deleting a Class

1. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest A.

2. Choose the class that you want to delete from the Class drop-down list

. . . . .

3. Click the Classes menu (This option is not available if you do not start from the Classes tab.)

4. Click Yes when the program asks if you are sure you want to delete the class.

C and choose Delete Class.

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Exporting Student Information

If you want to export students’ assignment scores

instead, see page 95.

By following the steps below, you can export student names and IDs to a text file. The file will have the header “@LNAME,FNAME,MNAME,ID,” and each line will include one student’s last name, first name, middle name (if it is available) and ID in this format: “Smith,Olivia,Marie,135”.

1. Click the Classes menu and choose Export to File. The Export Students Assistant will start.

2. Click an option to choose whether to export all

students or just those in one class. If you choose Selected Class, click the drop-down list and choose the class. Then, click Next.

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Exporting Student Information

. . . . .

3. Enter a name for the file in the File Name field open the folder where you want to save the file, and click OK (Windows) or

Choose (Macintosh). Click Next to continue.

4. Click Finish to create the file.

A. Then, click Select Folder,

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Deleting a Student

You can export assignment results for a student so you

have a record of the student’s marks. See

page 95.

Follow the steps below to delete a student. When you delete a student, you lose all information for that student. This includes the student’s classes and

marks.

1. Make sure the students that you want to delete have been removed from their classes (see page 19).

2. Click the Classes tab in AccelTest

3. In the list on the left

database. To select one student, click the student’s name. To select more than one, use one of these two methods:

• If the names are not next to each other in the list, hold down the Ctrl key

(Windows) or the  key (Macintosh) as you click the student names.

• If the names are next to each other in the list, click the first name you want

to select, hold down the Shift key and click the last name in the group you want to select. The first name, the last name and all names in between will be selected.

C LASSES AND STUDENTS

Deleting a Student

. . . . .

B, select the students who need to be deleted from your

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4. Click the Classes menu Student. (This option is not available if you do not

start from the Classes tab.)

5. Click Yes to continue when the program asks if you are sure you want to delete the students.

C and choose Delete

TANDARDS

Adding Standards to Your Database

Before you start adding or importing your assignments, you should add standards that are relevant for your school. By doing this first, you ensure that the standards are available when you align items on your assignments to the standards that apply. (To align items to standards, see page 53.) This makes it easy for you to get reports that focus on student performance for those standards.

Follow these steps to add standards to your database:

1. Click the Preferences menu and choose Libraries/Standards.

2. Click the Standards tab

3. Click Add

will start.

B. The Install Standards Wizard or Assistant

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4. The first panel of the wizard will ask you to choose whether to add standards from the Renaissance Learning Web site or from a file. Click the option you prefer.

In most cases, you should choose to add standards from the Renaissance Learning Web site. However, if you are adding standards from a TestCheck library, you would choose to add the standards from a file.

Click Next to continue and follow the instructions for the choice you made:

• If you chose to add standards from the Renaissance Learning Web site,

see “Adding Standards from the Renaissance Learning Web Site” on page 32.

• If you chose to add standards from a file, see “Adding Standards from a

File” on page 32.

Adding Standards to Your Database

Adding Standards from the Renaissance Learning Web Site

5. On the next panel, tick the box next to each agency for which you want to add standards. Then, click Next.

6. Tick the box next to each standard that you want to add. (Be sure to scroll

down to see all available standards.) If you want to tick all the standards, click Select All; to remove all ticks, click Deselect All. After choosing the standards, click Install.

7. When the standards have been installed, you will return to the Standards tab in the Libraries/Standards dialog box. The standards that you added will be listed. Click Close to close the preference.

Adding Standards from a File

5. On the Install Standards panel, click Browse A.

S TANDARDS

. . . . .

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6. In the dialog box that opens, open the folder that contains the content with the standards you want to add. Then, click OK (Windows) or Choose (Macintosh).

7. Click Next.

8. On the next panel, tick the box next to each agency for which you want to add standards. Then, click Next.

9. Tick the box next to each standard that you want to add. (Be sure to scroll

down to see all available standards.) If you want to tick all the standards, click Select All; to remove all ticks, click Deselect All. After choosing the standards, click Install.

10. When the standards have been installed, you will return to the Standards tab in the Libraries/Standards dialog box. The standards that you added will be listed. Click Close to close the preference.

Deleting Standards

Follow these steps if you want to delete some standards that you have added. This can be helpful if you find that you do not need some of the standards you have added; removing them can help you focus on the standards you do use.

Important: If you delete standards that you have selected when aligning assignment items to standards, those alignments will be lost. Make sure you know which standards you have used for alignments before deleting standards.

1. Click the Preferences menu and choose Libraries/Standards.

2. Click the Standards tab.

3. Select the standards you want to delete:

• To choose one, click on it.

• To choose more than one, hold down the Ctrl key

(Windows) or the  key (Macintosh) as you click the standards.

• To choose a group of adjacent standards, click the first

standard in the group, hold down the Shift key and click the last one in the group to highlight the whole group.

4. Click Delete.

5. When the program asks if you are sure you want to delete the standards, click Yes.

6. Click Close to close the preference.

S TANDARDS

Deleting Standards

. . . . .

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A Click this drop-down list to choose which

assignments you want to see. You can list assignments from all subjects or just specific subjects. Choosing one subject helps shorten the list you are viewing if you have many assignments.

B Click New Assignment to start creating a

new assignment or score key. (Score keys are for an assignment that you already have outside AccelTest. Although the assignment is not in the program, the score key will let you score it using AccelTest.)

C The list shows how you plan to present

and score each assignment. It also shows you the total points students can earn on the assignment and the date when you last saved changes.

D The symbols in this column show whether

items in the assignment have been aligned to standards. means all items on the assignment are aligned. means some items are aligned. No symbol means no items are aligned.

ETTING

UP A

SSIGNMENTS

This section explains how to create, print, change or delete assignments or score keys that you will use for your class.

Viewing the List of Assignments

To view the list of assignments you have created so far, or to create new ones, start by clicking the Assignments tab.

When you create assignments, you choose the types of items (questions) to include, the number of items and the point value for each item. If you want to use assignments that you already have outside of AccelTest, you can create a score key to score them quickly within the program.

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S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Preferences That Affect Assignments

When you create assignments, you can choose from the categories and subjects listed below. If you would like to add other categories or subjects, you can use the Categories preference (see page 139) in the Preferences menu.

A (see page 136) or the Subjects preference B

. . . . .

Default Categories:

Default Subjects:

The Devices preference Responder, NEO 2, projected, scanner and/or printed.

The Assignment Creation preferences set the default (standard) font for your assignments, the layout and the default values for each type of item that you might include on assignments. For example, for multiple-choice items, you can choose the number of points you would normally give for each item, the number of choices you use most often and the number of columns. For more on these preferences, see page 145.

• Homework

• In Class

• Quiz

• Art & Design

• Design & Technology

• English/Literacy

• Geography

• History

• ICT

• Mathematics/Numeracy

• Music

• PE

• PSHE

• RE

• Science

C lets you choose the types of assignments you will have:

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Item (Question) Types

Score keys and points-only assignments. On the

Assignments tab, you can also create score keys for scoring assignments that exist outside AccelTest; see page 46. In the Record Book, you can create points-only assignments when you add assignments to the Record Book; see page 71.

When you create assignments in AccelTest, you can choose from the item types listed below. You choose the number of items to include from each type and the point values. The item types that are available for a specific assignment depend on how you have chosen to present the assignment to students and score the assignment.

Assisted Response Item Types

• Multiple Choice (MC)

•Matching (M)

• Ranking (R)

•True/False (TF)

•Yes/No (YN)

Free-Response Item Types

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Item (Question) Types

. . . . .

•Essay (E)

• Short Answer (SA)

• Numeric Response (NR)

Creating Assignments in AccelTest

In AccelTest, you can create assignments with different types of items. For example, an assignment may include both multiple-choice items and true/false items, and it may include both assisted-response and free-response item types. When you create your assignment, you specify the item types, decide how many items to add and enter the number of points students can earn for each item.

The available item types depend on the method you choose for presenting and scoring the items. If you choose to present items with the Responder or NEO 2, the available item types are limited to multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no, numericresponse or short-answer. If you choose to present items on a NEO 2, short answer is available in addition to these item types. If you choose a printed assignment with any scoring method, all item types are available; however, if you use the Responder or NEO 2 as the scoring method, students may need to answer some items on paper for manual scoring (such as essay items).

If you are planning to align items on your assignments to standards, it is helpful to add the standards first so you can align items to standards as you create assignments. See page 31.

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Follow these steps to create a new assignment:

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab

2. Click New Assignment B.

Assignment and scoring options: The

Devices preference determines which options are available in the New Assignment window. To see the NEO 2 and Scanner options, you may need to change the preference. The scoring methods available in the second list depend on the type of assignment you chose in the first list.

Extended ASCII

characters, such as

international characters, are supported in

NEO 2 assignments if your NEO 2s have been updated to system 3.9 or higher using the NEO Manager software.

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Creating Assignments in AccelTest

. . . . .

3. Enter information about the assignment. Then, click

OK.

a. Enter the title

b. Choose the subject

from the Subject drop- down list

c. Click the option that

shows how students will see the questions

E: on the Responder

or NEO 2, projected on a screen or on a printed copy. (If you want to choose a Score Key, see the steps on page 46.)

If you choose Responder or NEO 2 Only in the left column, you can include multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no, numeric-response and short-answer items on the assignment. Printed assignments can include all item types.

d. Click the option that shows how the assignment will be scored

If students enter answers using the Responder or NEO 2, or if they scan cards with their answers using an AccelScan scanner, their responses will be scored automatically. If you choose manual scoring, you must enter the points earned or the students’ answers in the software.

If you choose Responder as the scoring method, students can use either a Responder or NEO 2 to complete the assignment, but if you choose NEO 2 Only as the scoring method, only NEO 2 may be used.

=F.

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You can only use one tab in this window. When you

click OK, AccelTest will only apply your selections from the tab you have selected. Any selections you have made on other tabs will not be used.

Points for matching and ranking items:

On the Template tab, when you add matching or ranking items, note that the total points for those items is calculated by multiplying the number of items you add by the default number of answers to match or rank.

Creating Assignments in AccelTest

4. In the Add Items dialog box, click one of the tabs at the top G to decide

whether to specify the number of items and point values (Template), use sample items that are in the AccelTest libraries (Library), use items from an assignment you have already created (Assignment), or use items that you have aligned to standards (Standards):

• Template: If you choose this tab, enter the number of items of each type that you want to include on the assignment

H, and enter the points per

item for each item type I. Some item types may not be available depending on the type of assignment you chose. If you want to add instructions before the items (for printed assignments only), tick the box To finish, click Add.

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• Library: If you choose this tab, click + next to a library K. Then, open the subject and category L and select the item(s) to add to this assignment

M. After choosing the items, click Add and go to step 6 on page 41.

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You can choose more than one item to add from the

Library, Assignment or Standards tabs. To do this,

hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the



key (Macintosh) as you click the items. To select a group of items, click the first one, hold down the Shift key and click the last one. If you select just one item, you will see the item to the right of the list. If you select more than one, you will not see the items. You can click and drag the border between the two panes in this window to change the size of each.

Creating Assignments in AccelTest

•Assignments: If you choose this tab, click + next to the assignment that

has the items you want to use N. Then, select the items in the list O. After choosing the items, click Add and go to step 6 on page 41.

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P. Expand categories as needed until you see the standard for which you

want to add items. Then, select the items associated with that standard in the list Q. After choosing the items, click Add and go to step 6 on page 41.

To add standards to your database, see page 32. You can align each item on an assignment to standards by clicking the item and then clicking Align Item; see page 56.

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R The options depend on the item

type. For multiple-choice items, you can choose the number of answer choices you want to give the student, the number of columns for answer choices and which answer choices to shuffle (or rearrange) for students. (The default shuffle option is “All.”)

S If you chose to add instructions

before items, you can edit the instructions here.

T Enter the question here. U Enter the correct answer. For

multiple-choice questions, you must also enter the incorrect answers; then, specify the letter of the correct answer. For matching and ranking items, you must enter all choices. For short answer items, choose whether answers must be case-sensitive; enter each possible answer and press Enter or return after each one.

V Enter the number of points

students can earn by choosing the correct answer.

W If you want to change the format of

the text (for printed or projected assignments only), use the dropdown lists to choose the font and/or size, and use the buttons to make the text bold, italic or underlined.

X Use the buttons on the right if you

want to add a graphic, equation or plot to the assignment. For more information, see page 42.

Y Click Next > to go to the next

question, or click < Previous to go back. In some cases, < Previous will take you back to the assignment instructions.

Z Click OK after entering the last

question.

Responder and NEO 2 assignments do not have all options

available. If students will view

questions on the Responder or NEO 2, you cannot change the number of columns or the font, and you cannot add a graphic, equation or plot. Be sure to limit the questions for Responder assignments to 150 characters if possible (including spaces and punctuation) so students do not need to scroll to read the question.

Creating Assignments in AccelTest

5. If you entered the number of items and point values on the Templates tab, a wizard will open to help you create the questions in the assignment. Enter the information for each question or item; then, click Next >. (If you chose to add instructions, you will also be asked to enter or edit those instructions.) When you finish the last item, click OK

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Printed or projected assignments

A B C D

Responder assignments

B C D E

A^ Click Add Items if you need to add

more questions/items to the assignment. Then, enter the information for the new item(s). In the dialog box that appears, enter the number of each item type that you want to add and the points for each item. Then, click OK. (You can also click the Assignments menu, click Add Item and click the type of item.) To enter the text for each item, click it and click Edit Item.

B^ To change an item, click it first to

highlight it; then, click Edit Item.

C^ To change the assignment’s title,

subject, fonts, page layout or options, click Properties. The layout includes the page margins and where answer spaces (if any) will be located. The options determine whether the point values are shown on the assignment.

For assignments that will be viewed on the Responder or NEO 2, you can only change the title and subject.

D^ Click Align Item to associate a

standard with a specific item. See page 53.

E^ For assignments that will be viewed

on the Responder or NEO 2, click Preview to see how the questions will look on the device. In the preview window, use the arrow buttons to go to the next and previous questions. When you have finished, click OK.

F^ Use the and buttons to go to

the next or previous page or question. Click or to go to the first or last page or question. To go to a specific page or question, enter the page or question number and press the Enter or return key on your keyboard.

You can also move items. Click an item

that you want to move, click the Assignments menu and choose Move Up or Move Down. You can only move one item at a time; the menu options are not available if you choose more than one item.

Creating Assignments in AccelTest

6. After you enter the questions, the assignment will open in the assignment editor. How the assignment looks in the editor depends on whether students will see a printed page or view the assignment on the Responder or NEO 2. If necessary, use the buttons to change or preview the assignment as described below. When you are ready to finish the assignment, click Done.

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7. Click Save when the program asks if you want to save the assignment. The assignment will be added to your list on the Assignments tab.

After you create an assignment, you can print it (see page 72) to check it carefully before assigning it to students. To add the assignment to a Record Book so it is assigned to your class, see page 77.

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To limit the size of your assignment files, choose graphics

with a small file size.

Adding Graphics, Equations and Plots to Assignments

. . . . .

Adding Graphics, Equations and Plots to Assignments

As you add questions for a new assignment or edit them for an assignment you have already created, you can add a graphic, equation or plot; the following sections explain how. You cannot add graphics, equations or plots to

Responder or NEO 2 assignments.

Adding Graphics to Assignments

1. As you edit the question, position your cursor where you want to place the

graphic

A. Then, click Graphic B.

2. Find the graphic file in the folder where you have stored it. Click the graphic to select it; then, click Open.

3. The graphic will now appear in your question. If you decide to delete the

graphic at any time, simply click the graphic and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

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Adding Equations to Assignments

1. As you edit the question, position your cursor where you want to place the equation

A. Then, click Equation.

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Adding Graphics, Equations and Plots to Assignments

. . . . .

2. In the equation editor, type text and use the buttons to select the components of the equation that you would like to use. For more detailed information, refer to the help in the equation editor’s Help menu.

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Adding Graphics, Equations and Plots to Assignments

3. When you exit the equation editor, the equation will be inserted. If you decide to delete the equation at any time, simply click the equation and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

. . . . .

Adding Plots to Assignments

1. As you edit the question, position your cursor where you want to place the plot

A. Then, click Plot.

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Cartesian Plot

Number Line Plot Polar Plot

Adding Graphics, Equations and Plots to Assignments

2. The function plotter will appear. Start by choosing the axes type. This will determine what other options will be available.

. . . . .

Cartesian Plots: These plots have X and Y axes. When you add these plots, you can choose whether to view the axes or up to 3 plots. If you choose one of the plots, you can then choose what to show, such as a line, segment, point, sine, etc. The remaining options depend on what you choose.

Number Line Plots: These plots show positions on a standard number line. When you add a number line, you can choose whether to view the axes, a point or a segment. For the axes, you can enter the limits—that is, the range of numbers shown on the line. You can also choose the value of each tick mark on the line and the intervals for labeling tick marks (for example, 2 would mean every second tick mark would be labeled). For a point, you can enter the value of the point on the number line, the size (diameter) of the point and whether to make it black, white or transparent. For a segment, you can enter the value of each end of the segment, the symbol you would like to use on each end, the weight (thickness) of the line and the type of line.

Polar Plots: When you add a polar plot, you can choose whether to view the axes or one of three plots. If you choose one of the plots, you can then choose what to show: a point, text, circle or cardoid. For the axes, you can enter the limits in terms of the radius, the ring interval (that is, how far apart the rings are) and the ring interval label. (For example, 2 would mean every second ring is labeled.) For a point, you can choose the location, size (diameter) and color. For text, you can choose the location, enter the text and choose the justification (left, center or right). For a circle, you can choose the radius, line weight, range/location, line style and units (radians, degrees or revolutions).

3. Click Update after changing your plot settings.

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Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

4. Click Close to go back to your assignment item, where the plot will be inserted. If you decide to delete the plot at any time, simply click the plot and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

. . . . .

Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

If you are using assignments that were created outside of AccelTest, you can still use AccelTest to score them. To do this, create score keys for the assignments. The assignments themselves will not be in AccelTest, but the score keys will provide the correct answers to the software.

The steps for creating a score key depend on how you will score the assignment. If you will have students enter their answers on Responders or NEO 2, follow the steps on page 46. If you want students to mark their answers on a scan card and then scan each card to score the assignment, see page 50.

Creating a New Score Key for Assignments That Will Be Done on Responders or NEO 2

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab A.

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2. Click New Assignment B.

Responder versus NEO 2 Only assignments:

Responder assignments can be viewed and completed on either a Responder or a NEO 2. They can include multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no, numeric-response and short-answer items. (Short-answer items can only be answered on Responders with firmware version 3.0 or higher; see page 14.) NEO 2 Only assignments can include the same item types, and they can only be viewed and completed on NEO 2.

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Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

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3. Enter the title of the assignment

C and

choose the subject from the drop-down list

D. Then, click Score

Key

E and click

Responder or NEO 2 Only for the scoring

method choose manual scoring.) Click OK.

F. (You cannot

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Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

4. Enter the number of items of each type you want to include G and the number of points students can earn for each of these items multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no, numeric-response and/or short-answer items. When you have finished, click Add.

H. You can choose

. . . . .

5. Next, AccelTest will show you a sample scan card on which you can choose or enter the answers and set the points for each question.

To delete an item from the score key, click the item to highlight it; then, press Delete on your keyboard. You can select more than one item at once by holding down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the  key (Macintosh) as you click the items. You can select a group of items by clicking the first one in the group, holding down the Shift key and clicking the last one in the group.

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LONM

H For multiple-choice, true/false and yes/no

questions, click the correct answer to fill in the circle.

I When you click in the answer area for a

numeric response question, you can enter or change the answer.

J When you click a short answer question,

the item wizard opens so you can enter correct answers and choose whether answers must be case-sensitive.

K To change a point value, click it to see a

text field; then, type the new point value.

L To add more items or questions to the

score key, click Add Items. Enter the

number of items of each type you would like to add and the point values for those item types; then, click Add to return to the score key.

M The Edit Item button is not available for

most score key items; however, it is available when you have a short answer item highlighted so that you can edit the possible answers.

N To change the assignment title or subject,

click Properties, enter your changes and click OK.

O To choose or change the standards aligned

with the items, click the item and click Align Item. See page 53.

Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

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6. Click Done when you have finished.

7. Click Save to save the score key.

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Short answer items cannot be scored with the scanner.

When the cards are scanned to score the assignment, AccelTest assumes students earned all points on the short answer items until the teacher scores them manually (see page 85).

Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

. . . . .

Creating a New Score Key for Assignments That Will Be Scored with Scanners

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab.

2. Click New Assignment.

3. Enter the title of the

assignment choose the subject from the drop-down list Then, click Score Key

C and click the

Scanner scoring method

4. Enter the number of multiple-choice and short-answer items you want to include the number of points students can earn for each of these items

A and

E and

F. When you have finished, click OK.

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5. Next, AccelTest will show you a sample scan card on which you can choose the answers. You can either select the answers or scan a card that has the correct answers to the assignment. If you plan to scan a card, see the next step for more detailed instructions.

To delete an item from the score key, click the item to highlight it; then, press the Delete key on your keyboard. You can select more than one item at once by holding down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the  key (Macintosh) as you click the items. You can select a group of items by clicking the first one in the group, holding down the Shift key and clicking the last one in the group.

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K L M H

G Multiple-choice items are labeled AR

(assisted-response). Click the correct answer to each of these items. Correct answers will be darker; to remove one so you can select another answer, click it again. You cannot enter answers for freeresponse (FR) items.

H Click Scan Form to scan a card that

has the correct answers. (See page 52.)

I To change a point value, click it and

enter a new value in the text field.

J To add more items or questions to the

score key, click Add Items. Choose

the type of items you want to add, the number and the points for each item; then, click OK to return to the score key.

K Since score keys do not include the

actual assignment items, the Edit Item button is disabled for scanner

score keys.

L To change the assignment title or

subject, click Properties, enter your changes, and click OK.

M To choose or change the standard

aligned with an item, click the item and click Align Item. See page 53.

Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

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To continue, go on to the steps on page 52.

Scanning a Card with the Correct Answers

You can only mark answers to assistedresponse items.

Free-response items must be scored manually in the Record Book; see page 85.

Scanner settings: If the Scan Answer Key

window shows you that the scanner has not been found, click Scanner Settings and make sure you have selected the correct port (the one that the AccelScan scanner is connected to on this computer).

6. If you want to enter the answers on a scan card and then scan it to mark the correct answers in the score key, first fill in the answers on a card like the one below. Be sure to fill in the assignment title for your records. When the card is ready, click Scan Form in the score key window in AccelTest.

7. When this window appears, insert the card in your AccelScan scanner.

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Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

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For AccelScan model 2110 or 2210 (shown):

Insert the card face up, with the AccelTest name going into the scanner first as shown to the right.

For AccelScan model 1100 USB: Insert the card face down, with the AccelTest name going into the scanner first.

For AccelScan model 1100 Serial: Insert the card face up, with the AccelTest name going into the scanner first.

8. When you have finished, the message will close, and you will return to the score key. If necessary, change the points, add items, delete items or change the assignment properties as described above. Then, click Done.

9. Click Save to save your score key.

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If you change your mind and want to remove a standard

you have chosen to align the item to, simply click the

standard in the bottom list to highlight it and click Remove.

Aligning Items to Standards on an Assignment or Score Key

. . . . .

Aligning Items to Standards on an Assignment or Score Key

By following the steps below, you can align items on your assignments to any standards you have added. (To add standards to your database, see page 31.) Once you have done this, you can use the Assignment Standards Report to see the alignments you have set up, and when students have completed the assignment, you can use the Class Standards and Student Standards reports to see how students performed on the aligned standards. (For more about reports, see page 129.)

1. If the assignment is already open, go to step 2. If not, click the Assignments tab and double-click the assignment for which you want to set alignments.

2. Click the item that you want to align to highlight that item align one item at a time.)

A. (You can only

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3. Click Align Item item.)

4. In the list at the top of the window, click the + next to the standards group you are interested in to see the standards in that group. Continue to expand the standards or categories until you see one standard that you want to align this item to. Then, click that standard and click Add. The standard will appear in the list at the bottom of the window. Repeat this step for each standard you want to add.

B. (This button is not available if you select more than one

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Importing Assignments

5. When you have finished choosing standards, click OK. When you return to the assignment, the symbol will appear next to the item

. . . . .

Importing Assignments

AccelTest can import two types of assignments:

• Assignments that another user exported from AccelTest. Since everyone who logs into the computer has a unique database, this is a way to share assignments with teachers who have a different database. Note: If the assignment that you are importing has items aligned to standards, those alignments will be imported with the assignment; if you have not already added those standards to the database, the program will ask if you want to import them with the assignment.

• XML assignment files

To import a file, follow these steps:

1. Click the Assignments menu in AccelTest and choose Import.

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If you already have an assignment with the name you have

chosen, the program will

notify you. Click OK and change the name for the newly imported assignment.

Changing (Editing) Assignments

2. Find and open the file that you want to import.

Note: For Windows computers, you may need to click the drop-down list at the

bottom of the window and choose the file types that you want to import, such as AccelTest 2.x or 3.x or XML assignment files.

Click the file name to highlight it; then, click Open.

3. If you chose an XML assignment file, click the scoring method you want to use. Then, click

OK.

4. If the assignment’s items are aligned to

standards that you have not added, the program will ask if you want to import the standards too. Click Yes if you want to keep the alignments or No if you do not want to keep them or import the standards.

5. The assignment will open. You can use the options on the screen to make changes, just as you would when you create an assignment (see page 36) or change one (see page 55). When you have finished, click Done.

6. Click Save when the program asks if you want to save the assignment.

7. Enter a name for the assignment and choose a subject; then, click OK.

. . . . .

Changing (Editing) Assignments

Important: You cannot change assignments once you have added them to a class Record Book. If you want to create another version of the assignment, you can make a copy; see page 65.

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab

2. Double-click the assignment you want to change

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Printed or projected assignments

Responder assignments

C D E F

D E F

C To add items, see page 57. D To change an item, see page 59. (To move one, see

page 60.)

E To change the assignment properties, see page 60. F To set the standards for an item, click it and click

Align Item. See page 53.

G For assignments that will be viewed on the

Responder or NEO 2, click Preview to see how the questions will look on the screen. In the preview

window, use the arrow buttons to go to the next and previous questions. When you have finished, click OK.

H Use the and buttons to go to the next or

previous page or question. Use the and buttons to go to the first or last page or question. To go to a specific page or question, enter the question or page number and press the Enter or return key on your keyboard.

Changing (Editing) Assignments

3. When the assignment opens, you can add, edit, move or delete items, change the assignment properties (title, subject, fonts, layout and whether points are shown), change the mode (how the assignment is presented or scored), or change the standards alignments that you have set for the items in the assignment. See the instructions on the following pages.

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Adding Items to the Assignment

You can only use one tab in this window. When you

click OK, AccelTest will only apply your selections from the tab you have selected. Any selections you have made on other tabs will not be used.

Points for matching and ranking items:

On the Template tab, when you add matching or ranking items, note that the total points for those items are calculated by multiplying the number of items you add by the default number of answers to match or rank.

There are two ways to add items to an assignment:

Adding One Item to the End of the Assignment

To add one new item, click the Assignments menu, select Add Item and then choose the item type. (The item types available depend on how you chose to present and score the assignment.) The new item will be added to the end. To edit it, see page 59.

Adding Multiple Items, or Adding Items from the Libraries or

Other Assignments

Click Add Items while viewing the assignment. Then, use one of the tabs at the top

A to decide whether to specify the number of items to add and the

point values (Template), add sample items from the AccelTest libraries (Library), add items from an assignment you have already created (Assignment), or add items you have already aligned to standards (Standards):

• Template: If you choose this tab, enter the number of items of each type that you want to add to the assignment each item type C. If you want to add instructions before the items, tick the box D. (Note: The item types available depend on how you chose to present and score the assignment. Only printed assignments allow you to add instructions.) To finish, click Add. A wizard will appear to help you create the questions in the assignment. Enter the information for each question or item; then, click Next. (If you chose to add instructions, you will also be asked to enter or edit those instructions.) When you finish the last item, click OK.

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Changing (Editing) Assignments

. . . . .

B, and enter the points per item for

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You can choose more than one item from a library or

another assignment. To do

this, hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the



To add standards to your database, see

page 31. You can align each item on an assignment to standards by clicking the item and clicking Align Item; see page 53.

Changing (Editing) Assignments

• Library: If you choose this tab, click + next to the library E. Then, open the subject and category F and select the item(s) that you want to add to this assignment G. After choosing the items, click Add.

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•Assignments: If you choose this tab, click + next to the assignment that has the items you want to add H. Then, select the items in the list I. After choosing the items, click Add.

•Standards: On this tab, you can select items that have already been aligned to standards in other AccelTest assignments. If you choose this tab, click the + next to the standards agency that relates to the assignment. Expand categories as needed until you see the standard for which you want to add items. Then, select the items associated with that standard that you want to add to the assignment and click Add.

Changing (Editing) an Item on an Assignment

Some items cannot be edited right away. If you cannot

edit an item, it may be a dynamic library item. If so, you can substitute another, similar, library item by clicking New Instance. You can change the item by clicking Edit. These buttons are only available for dynamic library items.

A For multiple-choice, matching and ranking items,

choose the number of answer choices you want to give the student. For matching items, you must also choose the number of items to match.

B For multiple-choice items, choose the number of

columns for answer choices (printed assignments only).

C For multiple-choice items, choose which answer

choices to shuffle (or rearrange) for students.

D You can edit the question here. E You can edit, enter or select the answers to the

question. For short-answer items, enter each possible correct answer and press Enter or return after each answer. Then, use the tick box to choose whether answers must be case-sensitive.

For multiple-choice questions like the one shown above, you can edit the correct answer and each

incorrect answer. Enter the letter of the correct answer.

F Enter the number of points students can earn by

choosing or entering the correct answer.

G If you want to change the format of the text for

printed or projected assignments, use the drop-down lists to choose the font and/or size, and use the buttons to make the text bold, italic or underlined.

H Use the buttons on the right if you want to add a

graphic, equation or plot to the assignment. For more information, see page 42.

I Click Next > to go to the next question, or click

< Previous to go back. In some cases, < Previous

will take you back to the assignment instructions.

J Click OK after editing the last question.

There are two ways to begin editing an item:

• Click the item to highlight it; then, click Edit Item.

• Double-click the item.

When you do this, a wizard will open to help you edit the questions in the assignment. The item you chose will be the one shown. Make your changes to the question, the answers or the options for the question. If you want to change another item, click Next or Previous to go to that item. When you have finished your changes to all items, click OK.

Responder and NEO 2 assignments do not have all options available. If students will view questions on the Responder or NEO 2, you cannot change the number of columns or the font, and you cannot add a graphic, equation or plot. Be sure to limit the questions for Responder assignments to 150 characters if possible so students do not need to scroll to read the question.

S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Changing (Editing) Assignments

. . . . .

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Moving Items on an Assignment

Click an item that you want to move to highlight the item. Then, click the Assignments menu and choose Move Up or Move Down. You can only move one item at a time; the menu options are not available if you choose more than one item.

Changing Assignment Properties

S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Changing (Editing) Assignments

. . . . .

Click Properties while viewing the assignment. Then, click the tab that shows what you want to change.

Title/Subject: On this tab, you can change the title or click the Subject drop-down list to choose a different subject.

Fonts: On this tab, choose the font name and font size for the title and the body (the questions and instructions). You cannot change fonts for Responder or NEO 2 assignments.

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Layout: On this tab, enter the top, bottom, left and right page margins in inches. Then, click an option for answer spaces: you can leave them out (no answer spaces), put them on a separate sheet, or leave space beside the questions. These options are not available for Responder or NEO 2 assignments since they are not printed.

Options: Tick the Show item points on assignment box if

you want students to see how many points they can earn for each question. Leave the box empty if you do not want students to see the point values. This option is not available for Responder or NEO 2 assignments.

S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Changing (Editing) Assignments

. . . . .

After changing the assignment properties, click OK to save your changes.

Changing the Assignment Mode

You can change how the assignment should be presented to students and how it should be scored. Before you do this, please note:

• You can only change the mode for assignments that have not been added to a class Record Book.

• You cannot change the mode for score keys.

• When you change the assignment mode, some items that are not appropriate for the new mode may be removed from the assignment. For example, if you change the scoring option to Responder, items with more than five answer choices, matching items, ranking items, items with graphics or plots or instructions may be removed.

To change the mode while viewing the assignment, follow these steps:

1. Click the File menu and choose Change Mode.

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S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

The Devices preference determines which

options are available for

presenting and scoring the assignment.

Changing (Editing) Assignments

2. If you want to change how the assignment will be presented to students, click a different option

3. If you want to change how the assignment is scored (and also how students record their answers), click a different option in the right side of the window (The presentation method that you choose may limit the scoring methods available.)

4. Click Next.

5. If your new method of presenting or scoring the assignment does not support

some items that are already on the assignment, the next screen in the wizard will list the unsupported items. Those items (including instructions) will be removed from the assignment. (For example, if you changed from a printed assignment to a Responder assignment, matching items will be removed.)

Read through the list to make sure you would like to continue changing the mode and allow the program to remove these items. If you would like to continue, click Next. (If not, click Cancel.)

6. Click Done to finish changing the mode.

A in the left side of the window that opens.

. . . . .

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Changing (Editing) Score Keys

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab A.

2. Double-click the score key you want to change

S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Changing (Editing) Score Keys

. . . . .

3. Next, AccelTest will show you a sample scan card on which you can choose the answers. You can add or delete items, changes your answers or change the point values.

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S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Responder or NEO 2 score key

Scanner score key

G H

G H I J K

C To change the correct answer for an assisted-

response question (multiple-choice, true/false or yes/no), first, click the answer that is filled in so it is empty again. Then, click the new correct answer.

D To change the correct answer for a numeric-

response item (Responder and NEO 2 assignments only), click the answer and type the new answer in the text field that opens.

E To change the correct answer for a short-

answer item (Responder and NEO 2 assignments only), double-click the item, enter the correct answers and choose whether answers should be case-sensitive (in other words, they must match the case of the correct answers you have entered).

F To change a point value, click it to open a text

field where you can type a new value.

G To add more items or questions to the score

key, click Add Items. Choose the type of items you want to add, the number of items and the points for each item; then, click OK to come back to the score key.

H The Edit Item button is not available for most

score key items; however, it is available when you have a short-answer item highlighted so that you can edit the possible answers.

I To change the assignment title or subject, click

Properties, enter your changes and click OK.

J To choose or change the standard aligned with

an item, click it and click Align Item. See page 53.

K To scan a form with the correct answers so that

these are changed in the score key, click Scan Form. For detailed instructions, see page 52.

Changing (Editing) Score Keys

. . . . .

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4. Click Done.

5. Click Save when the program asks if you want to save the score key changes.

Copying Assignments

By following the steps below, you can copy an assignment or score key that you have created. This can be helpful if you want to create a variant of an assignment that is already in a class Record Book. You cannot change the original assignment once you have added it to the Record Book, but you can edit the new copy that you have not used yet.

S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Copying Assignments

. . . . .

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab

2. Double-click the assignment that you want to copy

open.

B. The assignment will

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3. Click the File menu and choose Save As.

4. Enter a new name for the assignment. (You can also change the subject if necessary.) Then, click OK.

5. You are now working in the copy of the assignment. If necessary, make

changes to the items or properties. When you have finished your changes, click Done.

6. If you have made any changes, click Save when the program asks if you want to save the assignment.

S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Opening the assignment ensures that you

can select the printer. If you

simply select the assignment in the list before choosing File and Print, some operating systems use the default printer without allowing you to select the printer.

Printing a Single Copy of an Assignment

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab A.

2. Double-click the assignment that you want to print

open.

B. The assignment will

. . . . .

3. Click the File menu and choose Print.

4. Choose a printer in your computer’s print dialog box. Then, click OK or Print.

5. Click OK when the program notifies you that the assignment has been printed.

6. Click Done to close the assignment.

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S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Previewing Responder or NEO 2 Assignments

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab A.

2. Double-click the Responder or NEO 2 assignment that you want to preview

The assignment will open.

. . . . .

3. Click Preview. The Preview window will show you how the first question will look on the Responder or NEO 2 screen. Click the left and right arrows go to the next or previous question. Click the up and down arrows to scroll up and down within a question. When you have finished previewing the assignment, click OK.

4. Click Done to close the assignment.

C to

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S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

If items on the assignment are aligned to

standards, those alignments

are exported with the assignment. If the teacher who imports the assignment does not have those standards added, the program will give the teacher the opportunity to import the standards with the assignment.

If you export an assignment from the latest version of

AccelTest, and you try to

import it into an older version of the software, the assignment may be incompatible. Update AccelTest before importing the assignment.

Exporting Assignments or Score Keys

Follow these steps to export assignments. Exporting can be helpful when you want to share an assignment you have created with someone who is using another database or when you want to import the assignment into AccelTest at another computer. (To import assignments, see page 54).

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab.

2. Click the assignment that you want to export

3. Click the Assignments menu and choose Export

. . . . .

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4. In the dialog box that opens, go to the drive and folder where you want to save the exported assignment or score key. If necessary, change the file name. Make sure it ends with an “.at3” extension, especially if the assignment will be imported using a Windows computer. Click Save.

5. Click OK when the export is complete.

Deleting Assignments

Follow the steps below to delete assignments you do not want to use again. If the assignment has been added to the Record Book for any of your classes, you must remove it from the Record Book before you can delete it (see page 99).

S ETTING UP ASSIGNMENTS

Deleting Assignments

. . . . .

1. In AccelTest, click the Assignments tab

2. Click the assignment that you want to delete

3. Click the Assignments menu and choose Delete C.

4. Click Yes when the program asks if you are sure you want to delete the

assignment.

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You can choose the time period to show and whether to show

percentage scores or points. To choose the time

period, click the Record Book menu and choose either Show Entire School Year or a specific term. To choose the score type, click the Record

Book menu and choose either Show Scores as Points or Show Scores as Percentages.

GIH

A Click the Record Book tab to

view a class Record Book.

B Click this drop-down list to

choose the class.

C This drop-down list lets you

choose to see assignments from one subject or all subjects. It can help you shorten the list you are viewing if you have many assignments.

D Click Add to add a new

assignment to the Record Book for this class. See page 71.

E Click this button to assign

assignments. See page 77.

F Click the Record Book menu for

more options.

G You set the ID when you add

students. IDs are important when you assign Responders to students. See page 11.

H The status tells you if students

need to retrieve homework (H) or Notes (N) with their Responders.

I You will see a column for each

assignment in the Record Book.

SING THE

ECORD

This section explains how to add or assign assignments, print them, score them and monitor marks in your Record Book. It also explains how students complete the assignments.

OOK

Viewing a Class Record Book

1. Click the Record Book tab in AccelTest A.

2. Click the left drop-down list

want to view.

3. Click the second drop-down list C to choose the subject for the assignments you want to view, or choose All Subjects.

B to choose the class whose Record Book you

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

You do not need to create points-only assignments before

adding them. You can simply

follow these steps to add them to the Record Book.

Adding Assignments to the Record Book

Follow the steps below to add assignments to a class Record Book. Before you do this, you must do the following:

• Create your classes (see page 17) or import them from Renaissance Place (see page 20)

• Add your students (see page 17) or import them (see page 22)

• Create assignments (see page 36) or import them (see page 54)

• Set up your school year (see page 139)

You can add assignments or score keys. (For more about score keys, see page 46.)

Be sure to check your assignments before you add them to a Record Book because you cannot change assignments once they have been assigned to

students.

Important note for teacher-paced sessions: Do not add assignments that you will use with teacher-paced sessions on the Responder or NEO 2 or projected assignments. When sessions are complete, AccelTest adds the assignments (with scores) to the Record Book, so you should not add the assignments separately. Projected assignments are always teacher-paced and are only used with in-class sessions, so you cannot add them as described below.

. . . . .

1. View the Record Book for a class (see page 70).

2. Click Add.

3. Click the type of assignment you want to add:

• AccelTest assignments are assignments you have created on the

Assignments tab in this software (see page 36). They include the questions and answers.

• Score keys allow you to use AccelTest to score assignments that exist outside of the program. They include only answers, not the assignment questions. Score keys are also added on the Assignments tab (see page 46).

• Points-only assignments are not on the Assignments tab in this software. They are simply a record of points you award students for an assignment. You do not need to create these assignments before adding them.

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4. Click Next. Then, follow the instructions for the type of assignment you chose

You can add assignment categories using the

Categories preference; see page 136.

to add:

• If you are adding an AccelTest assignment or a score key, see the next section.

• If you are adding a points-only assignment, see page 74.

Adding an AccelTest Assignment or Score Key

5. Click the drop-down list A and choose the assignment’s subject, or choose All

Subjects. Then, click the assignment that you want to add

U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Adding Assignments to the Record Book

. . . . .

B and click Next.

6. Now, choose options for the assignment:

• Click the Term drop-down list (

when students will take the assignment. The program chooses the current term by default.

• Click the Category drop-down list D and choose whether the assignment will be homework, In-Class work, a test, a quiz or extra credit.

• Use the tick boxes E to choose other options for the assignment:

Assignment is extra credit: You can tick this box if the assignment is

extra credit; however, you do not need to tick it if you chose the Extra Credit category from the Category drop-down list D; for more information, see “Two Ways to Choose Extra Credit Assignments” on page 93.

Assignment is an exam: Tick this box if the assignment is an exam. This helps determine the weight of the assignment’s score. (See the Exams preference on page 137.)

Each student gets his/her own variation: Tick this box if you want the questions to be in a different order for each student. (This box is not available for score keys.)

Turn on student feedback: For assignments that require students to use the Responder or NEO 2, tick this box if you want students to see their score at the end of the assignment.

After choosing the options, click Next.

C on the next page) and choose the term

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Adding Assignments to the Record Book

7. Next, click Yes if your assignment needs a start date, or No if it does not.

Then, click Yes if your assignment needs a due date, or click No if there is no due date.

If you choose Yes for either date, enter the date

F, or click the calendar button

G and click a date on the calendar that appears. You can use the arrows in

the calendar to move to a different month. If you want to make today the start or due date, click Today under the calendar.

If you choose No for the due date, you will not be able to assign the assignment now; if you assign it later, the program will ask you to set a due date.

When you are ready to continue, click Next.

. . . . .

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8. If you chose a due date for the assignment, choose whether to assign the assignment to all students or just some. Then, click Next. (This choice will not appear if you did not choose a due date for the assignment.)

U SING THE RECORD BOOK

You can add assignment categories using the

Categories preference; see page 136.

Adding Assignments to the Record Book

If you chose to select the students, on the next panel, tick the box next to each student who needs the assignment, or click Select All to choose all the students. Then, click Next.

. . . . .

9. Read the Summary. If the information is correct, click Done. (If not, click Back to make changes.) If the assignment is a printed assignment, a copy will be printed for each student after you click Done.

If the assignment is a score key, and the score key is meant to be scored with the AccelScan scanner, the Form Numbers Report will be generated so that you have each student’s number for scoring. Depending on the setting of the Form Numbers Report preference, you may be asked whether you want to preview or print; click one of the options. To print the report on your own, see page 129.

Your assignment will appear in the Record Book to the right of previously added assignments. The students that you assigned it to will have “Waiting” in the column under your new assignment (or “Pending” if the assignment has not yet started).

Adding a Points-Only Assignment

5. Enter the information for the points only assignment:

• Enter a title (

• Choose a subject from the Subject drop-down list

• Enter the total points that can be awarded for the assignment

• Choose the term when students will complete the assignment

• Click the Category drop-down list E and choose whether the assignment

will be homework, In-Class work, a test, a quiz or extra credit.

• Click the tick boxes F to set whether the assignment is extra credit or an

exam. If you chose the Extra Credit category, you do not need to tick the extra credit box; for more information, see “Two Ways to Choose Extra Credit Assignments” on page 93.

Click Next after entering the information.

A on the next page).

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Adding Assignments to the Record Book

6. Next, click Yes if your assignment needs a start date, or click No if there is no start date.

Then, click Yes if your assignment needs a due date, or click No if there is no due date.

If you choose Yes for either date, enter the date G, or click the calendar button

H and click a date on the calendar that appears. You can use the arrows in

the calendar to move to a different month. If you want to make today the date, click Today under the calendar.

If you choose No for the due date, you will not be able to assign the assignment now; if you assign it later, the program will ask you to set a due date.

When you are ready to continue, click Next.

. . . . .

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Adding Assignments to the Record Book

7. If you chose a due date for the assignment, choose whether to assign the assignment to all students or just some. Then, click Next. (This choice will not appear if you did not choose a due date for the assignment.)

If you chose to select the students, on the next panel, tick the box next to each student who needs the assignment, or click Select All to choose all the students. Then, click Next.

. . . . .

8. Read the Summary. If the information is correct, click Done. (If not, click Back to make changes.) Your assignment will appear in the Record Book to the right of previously added assignments. The students that you assigned it to will have “Waiting” in the column under your new assignment (or “Pending” for future assignments).

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Before you assign assignments, you

must create the assignments, add your students and enrol students in classes.

Assigning Assignments to Students

When you add an assignment to a class Record Book, you can choose the students that you would like to assign it to. By following the steps below, you can assign the assignments to more students in the class.

1. View the Record Book for a class (see page 70).

2. Select the student(s) who need the assignment:

• To select one student and assignment, click where the column for the

assignment and the row for the student meet A. To select more than one student and assignment, select the square(s) where the assignment column and student row meet. Hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the  key (Macintosh) as you click the students’ squares in the column for that assignment.

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• To assign all available assignments to students, select one or more student names instead.

U SING THE RECORD BOOK

If you did not set a due date for the assignment when

you added it to the Record Book, the program will ask

you to set a due date when you assign it. Choose or enter a date and click OK.

Printing Assignments for Students

To assign a specific assignment to the whole class, click the assignment name at the top of the column.

. . . . .

3. Click Assign. If students require printed copies of the assignment (based on the choices you made when you created the assignment), student copies of the assignment will automatically be printed at your default printer.

Printing Assignments for Students

When you create an assignment (see page 36), you choose whether printed assignments will be used. When you add the assignment to the Record Book (see page 71), or when you assign it to individual students (see page 77), AccelTest prints the assignment automatically for each student. You do not need to print assignments separately.

If you need to reprint an assignment for a student, go to the Record Book and click the square at the intersection of the student’s name and the assignment; then, click Assign again. Since the assignment is already assigned, the program will simply reprint the assignment. (The program will only print the assignment if you chose to present it to students using a printed copy; Responder assignments, NEO 2 assignments and projected assignments will not be printed for students.)

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Changing the Dates, Category and Other Properties for Record Book Assignments

. . . . .

Changing the Dates, Category and Other Properties for Record Book Assignments

After you add an assignment to the Record Book, you can still change the assignment’s term, category, whether it is extra credit and/or an exam, start date, due date and whether student feedback is on. Follow these steps:

1. View the Record Book for a class (see page 70).

2. Click the name of the assignment for which you want to change the dates

3. Click the Record Book menu and choose Assignment Properties.

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

B Choose the term when the

assignment will be done.

C Choose whether the assignment

will be Homework, In-Class work, a test, a quiz or extra credit. This can affect how the student can complete the assignment and/or the weight of the mark. (See the Categories preference information on page 136.)

D Choose whether to make the

assignment extra credit and/or an exam. To see how this affects marks, see page 93.

E Tick the boxes if you want start

and due dates for the assignment. Then, enter the date or click the calendar button and click a date in the calendar.

F For Responder and NEO 2

assignments, you can tick this box if you want your students to see their scores after completing assignments.

How Students Complete Assignments

4. Make changes to the Record Book assignment properties as needed. Then, click OK to save the changes.

. . . . .

How Students Complete Assignments

Using the Responder or NEO 2

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When you create assignments (see page 36), you choose how each assignment will be presented to students and how it will be scored. This information determines whether students will use the Responder, a NEO 2, an AccelScan scan card, or simply an answer sheet to complete the assignment.

If you chose Responder for scoring the assignment, students can use either Responders or NEO 2 to complete the assignment. If you chose NEO 2 Only, students must use NEO 2. When you add the assignment to the Record Book (see page 71), you choose the category of the assignment (In Class, Homework, Test, Quiz or Extra Credit).

U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Some Responder firmware versions do not support

homework or notes. For

more about Responder firmware versions, see page 14.

The Responder remembers the last Receiver it was

connected to in order to save you time. If the

Responder asks whether it should stay connected, you can press yes to stay connected or press no to see a list of Receivers that you can connect to.

More information about short-answer items and

Responders: For more about

the firmware version required, see page 14. For more information about answering short-answer questions on Responders, see page 125.

How Students Complete Assignments

Completing In-Class Assignments, Including Quizzes, Tests and Exams, Using a Responder or NEO 2

For these assignments, you must start a session so students can take the assignment in class. For more information, see page 104.

Completing Homework Using the Responder Only

When a teacher adds assignments to a class Record Book, the teacher chooses the assignment category. One of these categories is Homework. Any homework in your Record Book that is set up to use the Responder as the scoring method is available to students on their Responders (but not NEO 2s, which do not support homework). If you are not sure what scoring method is selected for a specific assignment, click the Assignments tab, find the assignment and check the Score With column.

Students can follow these steps to retrieve and complete homework on their Responders. Students must own their Responders to follow these steps;

see page 11.

. . . . .

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1. If the Responder is not already on, press the On/Off button.

2. The student enters his/her Personal Identification Number (PIN) and presses Enter or Select. The default PIN is 1212; you may have changed it or set a

different one.

3. On the menu, the student must press



to scroll down to Synchronise; then, press Select or Enter. When synchronization is finished, the Responder will show how many new homework assignments and notes were downloaded and how many files were submitted from the Responder.

4. The student presses any key.

5. In the menu, the student presses



to scroll up to Homework; then, the

student presses Select or Enter.

6. The Responder lists the homework assignments. The student uses the arrows to scroll to one assignment; then, the student presses Select.

7. The student answers each item and presses Enter:

• For multiple-choice items, the student presses a letter key to choose an

answer and then presses Enter.

• For true/false items, the student presses yes True or no False and then

presses Enter.

• For numeric response items, the student enters the number and presses

Enter.

• For short-answer items, students with version 3.x firmware use texting

techniques to enter the answer and press Enter.

• For other free-response items (short answer and essay), the Responder

tells the student to enter an answer on paper.

8. After the student answers the last question, the Responder asks the student if the homework is complete.

If it is, the student presses yes True, then Select, and the Responder shows the main menu.

If not, the student presses no False, then Select, and the Responder goes back to the first question so the student can enter additional answers or check the answers he or she has already entered.

The student can repeat steps 6–8 to complete other homework assignments. (In the list of Homework, ticked assignments are complete.) When the student has finished all homework, the student must return to the menu, highlight Synchronise again and press Select to send the completed homework back to the teacher’s computer for automatic scoring. Any homework that was not completed will not be turned in during the synchronization.

Using the AccelScan Scan Cards

When you create assignments (see page 36) and choose the Scanner scoring method, you must also choose to use printed assignments. When you assign the assignment to students in your Record Book, the program prints a copy of the assignment for each student. Each student has a unique form number at the top of that assignment.

Make sure each student has a blank AccelTest scan card for this assignment. Students follow the steps below to complete the assignment.

1. The student fills in his or her unique form number at the top of the card and fills in the circles for the form number as shown below.

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How Students Complete Assignments

. . . . .

For Manual Scoring

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2. Next, the student fills in an answer for each multiple-choice question. If the assignment has some free-response questions, the student must answer them on a separate piece of paper.

3. The student or teacher scans the card for scoring as described on page 83.

When you created an assignment (see page 36), you may have chosen the Manual scoring method. For this method, you can have students fill in their answers on the assignment itself or a separate sheet of paper, or even an AccelTest scan card. Then, the teacher must score the answers as described on page 85.

Scoring Assignments

There are four ways to score AccelTest assignments:

• Responder scoring: If students used the Responders to enter their answers, either for homework or an In-Class assignment session, the software will score answers to assisted-response, numeric-response and short-answer items automatically. (For homework, this will happen when the student synchronises the Responder again.)

• NEO 2 scoring: If students used NEO 2 to enter their answers for in-class assignments only, the software will score assisted-response and numericresponse answers automatically. Short answer questions are also scored automatically.

• Scanner scoring: Students can fill in their answers on scan cards, and teachers or students can scan the cards for scoring. See the instructions on page 83.

• Manual scoring: Students can fill in their answers on the assignment or a separate sheet of paper, and teachers can score them manually; see page 85.

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Scoring Assignments

. . . . .

Scoring Assignments with the Responder

When students use Responders to complete assignments, the software automatically scores answers to assisted-response, numeric-response and shortanswer items in those assignments. However, if the assignments also include other free-response items such as essay questions, you must score those items manually; see page 85.

Scoring Assignments with the NEO 2

When students use NEO 2 to complete assignments, the software automatically scores assisted-response and numeric-response answers in those assignments, and it can score short-answer responses if you entered correct answers when you created the assignment. However, if the assignments also include essay questions, you must score those items manually; see page 85.

Scoring Assignments with the AccelScan Scanner

When students have filled in their answers on scan cards (see page 82), the students or the teacher can scan the cards for scoring. Before you follow these steps, make sure the AccelScan scanner is connected to the computer as described in the AccelTest Software Installation Guide.

AccelTest

User Manual

Starting the Scanning Session

1. In the AccelTest, the teacher must first click the Record Book menu and choose Start Scanning Score Cards. (You can select this menu and item no

matter which tab you are viewing in the software.)

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Scoring Assignments

2. The program will search for the scanner and will notify you when it is ready to start scoring.

. . . . .

Scanning Cards

Now, students or teachers can scan their cards by following these steps:

3. Make sure the correct form number is filled in at the top of the card, both in the squares and in the circles. Each student’s form number is unique for each assignment; it is printed on that student’s assignment.

4. Make sure answers are filled in properly:

• Make sure that all answers have been filled in and marked next to the

correct problem numbers.

• Erase any stray marks.

• If any answers were changed, be sure the old answers are completely

erased.

5. For AccelScan model 2110 (shown) or 2210: Insert the card face up, with the

AccelTest name going into the scanner first as shown to the right.

For AccelScan model 1100 USB: Insert the card face down, with the AccelTest name going into the scanner first.

AccelTest

User Manual

For AccelScan model 1100 Serial: Insert the card face up, with the AccelTest

If you need to change the AccelTest password,

use the Password preference; see page 137.

Free response items are numeric-response

questions, shortanswer questions and essay questions. Assisted-response items are multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no, matching and ranking questions.

name going into the scanner first.

6. The program will tell you that the results have been sent; click OK. The card will come out behind the scanner. Save it so you can use the other side. If the

assignment also has free-response items, you must score those items manually; see the instructions below.

7. Now, the teacher or the next student can scan the next card.

Ending the Scanning Session

When you or your students have finished scanning cards, click Done. The program will ask you to enter a password to unlock AccelTest. (This is so students cannot access the Record Book or other parts of the program.) Enter the same password that you use to log in to the software (the default is admin); then, click OK.

Scoring Assignments Manually

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Scoring Assignments

. . . . .

Manual scoring is required when:

• You chose “Manual” as the scoring method when you created the assignment (see page 36). The teacher must score both assisted-response and free-response questions manually.

• The assignment has free-response items that were not scored by the scoring method you chose. AccelTest will score the items that can be scored automatically using the method you chose (Scanner, Responder or NEO 2); for the other items, such as essay questions, the software will assume the student earned all points unless you score those items manually. If you used the Scanner for scoring, and the assignment has numeric-response items, the program will mark them incorrect unless you use manual scoring to enter the student’s answers to those items.

Follow the steps below to score an assignment manually. You can also follow the steps to change scoring that was already done.

1. Click the Record Book tab and choose your class (see page 70).

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Scoring Assignments

2. Double-click the name of the assignment you want to score (the top of the column)

. . . . .

3. A window will open that shows each item number and each student’s name. For one student, double-click the square for the first item in the assignment B.

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Some answers will already be entered in this wizard if you

scored the assisted-response items using the Responder, NEO 2 or the AccelScan Scanner.

Free Response Grading Worksheet.

Teachers can use the Free Response Grading Worksheet in the AccelTest Reports to keep track of the points they are awarding for free-response items until they enter the points in the Record Book. See page 132.

Scoring Assignments

4. The Score Items Wizard lets you score each item in the assignment:

• For multiple-choice, matching and ranking items, tick the box next to the

student’s answer(s)

• For true/false and yes/no items, click the student’s answer

• For numeric-response items, enter the student’s answer if necessary E.

• For short-answer items on NEO 2 or Responder assignments only, you can

view the student’s answer and change how it is scored if necessary

• For free-response items that cannot be automatically scored using the

method you chose, enter the number of points the student earned G.

After entering the information for each item, click Next. To go to a previous item, click Back. When you have finished, click Done.

. . . . .

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Scoring Assignments

5. Notice the student’s scores have been entered H. Repeat steps 3–4 for each

student.

. . . . .

6. When you have finished editing scores for students, click Done I. The

students’ scores for the assignment will be shown in the Record Book. If you did not score the assignment for some students, you will see “Waiting” in the Record Book instead of a score.

Scoring Points-Only Assignments

When you add a points-only assignment (see page 74), the assignment itself is not in AccelTest, and you do not have a score key. Points-only assignments are assignments that only require you to award a certain number of points to a student without scoring specific items. To score these assignments, follow the steps for overriding a score in the next section.

Overriding Scores in the Record Book

By following these steps, you can override the overall score for a student’s assignment in the Record Book. You can also follow these steps to score pointsonly assignments.

1. Click the Record Book tab and choose your class (see page 70).

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Scoring Assignments

2. Double-click the student’s score. (If you are scoring a points-only assignment, double-click the word Waiting in the row for that student.) When you do this, you will see the score in a text field so you can change it

. . . . .

3. Type the new score that you want to override the old one. Then, click elsewhere in the Record Book. For most assignments (except points-only assignments), the student’s original score will be shown in the upper-left corner of the cell; then, you will see a / and the student’s override score in the lower-right corner of the cell

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Viewing Assignment Scores in the Record Book

About the Scores and Status Messages in the Record Book

The Record Book shows students’ scores for each assignment A and their overall scores for the time period you have chosen to view score in a cell with a / between the scores original score and the overriding score that you entered by double-clicking the cell (see page 88). Median or mean scores appear at the bottom of the window; you can click the word Mean or Median to switch between mean or median scores

C, the Record Book is showing you the

B. If you see more than one

. . . . .

If an assignment has not yet been scored, but it has been assigned to the student, you will see Waiting if the assignment is not due yet, Pending if it has not started yet, or Overdue if it is past due. Important: Unlike assignments marked Waiting, Overdue assignments will be scored as a 0.

For homework, you will see Sent if the student has retrieved homework on his or her Responder, but the student has not finished the homework yet.

Changing How Scores Are Shown

At the bottom of the Record Book, you will see either mean or median scores. If you want to switch from mean scores to median scores or from median scores to mean, click the word in the lower-left corner of the Record Book (

D above).

To view students’ scores for a different time period, click the Record Book menu and choose either Show Entire School Year or a specific term.

AccelTest

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U SING THE RECORD BOOK

Viewing Assignment Scores in the Record Book

To change how the scores are shown (either in percentages or points), click the

Record Book menu and choose either Show Scores as Points or Show Scores as Percentages.

Viewing Students’ Scores for Each Item on an Assignment

To see the scores that students achieved on each item, double-click the assignment name (

E on the previous page). You will see a table of the items on that

assignment and the students in the class. The table will show the student’s score for each item. If the square for each item is blank, the item has not been scored yet; if you want to start scoring the assignment for a student, double-click the first item for that student (see page 85).

. . . . .

AccelTest

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Notice that there is a column for each item on your assignment. The points per item and an abbreviation for the item type are at the top of each column. These abbreviations are used:

• MC: Multiple-Choice

• YN: Yes/No

• TF: True/False

• M: Matching

• R: Ranking

• NR: Numeric-Response

• SA: Short answer

• E: Essay

When you have finished viewing the scores for each item, click Done.

How Marks Are Calculated

The Exam preference is

ignored if there are no exams in the grading period.

In the last column of the Record Book, you will see the overall mark for the time period you are viewing (the entire school year or a specific term).

By default, AccelTest calculates marks by dividing points earned by the points possible on each assignment. The software then chooses the appropriate letter mark based on the scale you have chosen in the Grading Scale preference.

Term, Semester and Final Grades (Marks)

Term marks are derived from the assignment scores. Semester marks (if used) are computed by averaging term marks. Final grades (marks) for the year are computed using semester or trimester marks if there is no final exam. (If there are no semesters in the school year, only term marks are used.)

For example:

1st Term Mark 81%

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How Marks Are Calculated

. . . . .

2nd Term Mark 75%

3rd Term Mark 82%

Final Grade (Mark) (81% + 75% + 82%)

The Exam preference settings determine how final exam marks are included in the mark calculation. (See page 137). For example, if final exams are 30% of the term mark, and a student earned 75% on the exam:

Term Mark 81% Final Exam 75% × 30 = 22.5%

Mark (including exam) 56.7% + 22.5% = 79.2%

If final exams are 20% of a semester mark (if available), and a student earned 72% on the exam:

Semester Mark 78% Final Exam 72% × 20 = 14.4%

Mark (including Exam) 62.4% + 14.4% = 76.8%

You may choose different categories, weights and grading options for each term in the school year. This gives you the flexibility to change how you compute marks during the course of the school year.

× 70 = 56.7%

× 80 = 62.4%

÷ 3 = 79%

AccelTest

User Manual

Renaissance Learning 2Know! User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Copyright Notice

How the 2Know! Classroom Response System Works

How AccelTest Works

Using AccelTest to Create, Assign and Score Assignments

Using AccelTest to Score Assignments You Already Have

Using AccelTest with Teacher-Paced Sessions (for In-Class Assignments)

Programs You Will Use

AccelTest Software

Renaissance Wireless Server Utility

Other Programs that You May Use with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

Learning AccelTest

Online Manuals

Online Help

Need More Help?

Before You Start

Getting Started with the AccelTest Software

Starting the AccelTest Software

Checking for Updates to the Software

Getting the AccelTest Version and Serial Number

Navigating the AccelTest Software

Tasks to Be Completed for AccelTest

Closing the AccelTest Software

Getting Started with the 2Know! Classroom Response System

Setting Up the 2Know! Classroom Response System

Assigning a Unique Name to Each Receiver If You Have More than One

Changing the Administrator PIN

Assigning a Student Owner to Each Responder

Changing a Student’s Personal Identification Number (PIN) for a Responder

Displaying a Forgotten Student PIN

Resetting the Student Owner of a Responder

Responder Firmware Versions and Updates

Using the Classes Tab

Adding a Class

Adding a Student

Enrolling Students in a Class

Removing Students from a Class

Importing Classes from Renaissance Place

Importing Student Names from a File

About Comma Separated Value (CSV) Files

About Importing Data from Other Desktop Renaissance Learning Programs

How to Import Students from a CSV File or Another Desktop Program

Editing a Class Name

Editing Student Names or IDs

Deleting a Class

Exporting Student Information

Deleting a Student

Adding Standards to Your Database

2. Click the Standards tab

Adding Standards from the Renaissance Learning Web Site

Adding Standards from a File

Deleting Standards

Viewing the List of Assignments

Preferences That Affect Assignments

Item (Question) Types

Creating Assignments in AccelTest

Adding Graphics, Equations and Plots to Assignments

Adding Graphics to Assignments

Adding Equations to Assignments

Adding Plots to Assignments

Creating a New Score Key for an Existing Assignment

Creating a New Score Key for Assignments That Will Be Done on Responders or NEO 2

Creating a New Score Key for Assignments That Will Be Scored with Scanners

Scanning a Card with the Correct Answers

Aligning Items to Standards on an Assignment or Score Key

Importing Assignments

Changing (Editing) Assignments

Adding Items to the Assignment

Adding One Item to the End of the Assignment

Changing (Editing) an Item on an Assignment

Moving Items on an Assignment

Changing Assignment Properties

Changing the Assignment Mode

Changing (Editing) Score Keys

Copying Assignments

Printing a Single Copy of an Assignment

Previewing Responder or NEO 2 Assignments