Introduction to authoring

In the Insights authoring area, you create your tests. The system is organised into entities, allowing you to easily structure your tests into specific topics. This design streamlines test management, providing a user-friendly experience as you develop and organise your assessments.

Note that Janison tests and many items are QTI 2.1 compliant.

This is how the entities fit together. In this example there is one discipline and two modules. Module one has two tests and module 2 has just one. If you scroll down the page, we’ve applied this structure to a real life scenario.

Discipline – a discipline is the top level entity used to organise your modules into topics, for example science, maths or history. You can create an unlimited number of disciplines.
Module – modules are the second level, used to categorise your disciplines into sub-topics, for example sub-topics of the science discipline; biology and physics.
Tests – tests are the third level in the structure and are used to categorise tests within the module, for example biology tests such as ecology and evolution. Read more in our topic on tests.
Test sections – test sections are the fourth level used to organise a test into further sub-topics, for example sub-topics of ecology; applied ecology and Arctic sea ice ecology. Read more in our topic on test sections.
Items (questions) – Items, also referred to as questions. You add items to test sections. Items may contain stimuli material used to provide additional information or context to the test-taker. Read more in our topic on items.

This is an example of how you could use the structure to organise science topics.

These entities are created and managed by selecting the relevant item from the Author menu.

Please note that Janison Insights is customisable and therefore your entities may have been renamed and the menus customised.

Disciplines

You can view and create disciplines from the Discipline menu item.

To create a new discipline, select Author > Disciplines and then Add Discipline.

The New Discipline screen displays.

Enter the Description and Identifier. In this example we’ve used Science.

The next step is to optionally set the module workflow defaults.

Module defaults

Workflows allow for quality control of test entities. The system gives the authoring team the option to send their items through a set of workflow approval stages before publishing the test. You can read more about workflows in our documents on quality control and workflows. Setting the workflows at a discipline level will set these workflows as the default when new modules are created in this discipline. Authors can however change these workflows at the module level if required.

Setting workflows at the discipline level is optional, if required, select the workflows for the required entities.

You have two options available for the above workflows if set:

Items follow Test Sections – This sets the defaults for newly created modules. When enabled, workflow transitions performed on the test section are applied to all the items in that section. For example, if the test section is approved then all of the items will be approved. This does require that the same workflow is used for both.

Test Sections Follow Tests – This sets the defaults for newly created modules. When enabled, workflow transitions performed on the test are applied to all the test sections in that test. For example, if the test is approved then all of the test sections will be approved. This does require that the same workflow is used for both.

Select Save Discipline.

Once created, you have the option to add Custom attribute sets and Psychometric data sets to the discipline. You can read more about this topic in our document on Custom attributes.

Modules

You can view and create disciplines from the Modules menu item.

To create a new module, select Author > Modules and then Add Module from the Actions dropdown.

The New Module screen displays. In this example, we’ve selected the Science discipline we created above, and called our module Biology.

If you select Module is open for searching, when adding items to a test in other modules (but in the same discipline), items in this module will display in search results.

Note that the workflows and related settings are set to the options we selected at the discipline level but can be edited if required.

Once saved, the module details screen displays. Additional sections are available for configuration, but these may differ depending on the configuration of your site.

Paper settings

Paper settings gives you the option to print your tests. Printouts can be handy if you need to deliver the test in a paper-based format, or if you would like to review the test in paper format. You can read more about this topic in our document on paper settings.

Blueprint settings

Blueprint settings allow you to specify a set of tag types that can be used as dimensions for building test blueprints. You can read more about this topic in our document on test blueprints.

Introduction to authoring

Disciplines

Module defaults

Modules

Paper settings

Blueprint settings

Topics on this page

Help sites

Janison Remote - Proctortrack