What you'll learn in this article:
- how different student access methods create records in our system
- how these different methods impact the student experience when they take tests/quizzes
- how this impacts your assessment data
- how end-users can view and email their results
InfoLit content can be delivered to students via deep links, embed codes, or LTI links, depending on the integration(s) that you have set up. (Not sure what these links are? See here.) Deep links and embed codes can be used anywhere you would normally link to content, such as a library website, LibGuides, or an LMS page. LTI links are used for an LTI integration within an LMS.
The student experience is similar for all of these, particularly for videos and tutorials. However, there are a few key differences to note in how these access methods work, particularly when students are taking assessments (test or quiz).
Note: regardless of the access method, student assessment scores are logged in reports available via your admin account. Assessment reports can be found in the Insights reporting tool - to access, log in to your admin dashboard and navigate to Instructor > Credo Insights. For more information about retrieving assessment data see Assessment Reports Overview.
A note about student privacy
Credo is FERPA-compliant and considers data privacy and security to be a matter of utmost importance. If you have any concerns about what data Credo stores, who has access to that data, and how to configure your integration to comply with your institution's data privacy standards, please do not hesitate to ask our support team for assistance. Options for anonymous access are available and we are more than happy to advise you on the best way to configure this for your account. We can be reached at support@credoreference.com.
LTI
LTI is an integration option that can be used in a Learning Management System. When students access Credo content via LTI, there is a record created for that student in our system using their name and email address, which is passed to our platform from your LMS. When students complete a graded content item (test or quiz), our system passes their score back to your LMS, where it is synced to the course gradebook.
The LTI connection allows us to recognize students, based on the email associated with their LMS account, each time they access the material. This allows us to associate all their scores with the same user record in our system. When you retrieve your account's assessment data from the InfoLit platform, students' name and email address will be associated with their scores, so that you can identify each individual user's performance.
LTI saves a student's work to a unique record for that student. In some cases, if a student needs to take a quiz a second time (as a retake in the same class, or in a second course), Credo support may need to clear their previous saved answers from that quiz. See our FAQ for more information on how to request this.
For more information about LTI and how to set up this integration, see LMS Integration Options.
Direct Access (Non-LTI)
When students access Credo via a deep link or embed code, they are authenticated into Credo via proxy, IP, or referring URL authentication, depending on which method(s) you use for your account. This kind of access is "anonymous"--the InfoLit platform does not automatically receive any information that would identify the student, such as their name or email address. Therefore, an anonymous record is created for that user for the length of their session. Each time the student returns to the platform, a new record is created for them; they are not recognized as the same user each time.
If a student takes a quiz or test during their session, it is necessary for them to provide information identifying themselves; otherwise, it would not be possible for admins to identify their scores on the grade reports. And, because there is no LTI connection for grade syncing, individual student grades must be retrieved from the reports on the InfoLit platform.
Therefore, before an anonymous student takes a test or quiz, they will see a brief form, called the Quiz Form, prompting them to enter their name, email address, course, and instructor's name, and/or any custom fields you have requested for your account. This information is then associated with their score in the assessment reports, so that admins can identify which scores belong to which students.
Please note that a student seeing this is already authenticated -- the form does not log them in, it simply identifies who they are.
The standard form includes mandatory fields for Student Name, Email Address, Course, and Instructor. We have also recently added the ability to add text to the top of the page to give instructions or explanation to students. Our default text is:
In order to receive credit for your work, please complete the below form before taking the test or quiz. This is not a log-in or account creation step.
This can be customized in the following ways:
- fields can be renamed, added, or removed
- fields can be made optional or mandatory
- drop-down menus can be created so that students pick their course or instructor's name from a list, rather than an open text entry
- explanatory text can be added to the top of the form to give specific instructions to the students; this text can be customized or the default can be used
Viewing and Emailing Assessment Results for End-Users
This feature was released on Jan 22, 2019.
It is now possible for InfoLit users to view their overall score and a summary of their performance immediately after taking a test or a quiz. This results page can be emailed to themselves for future reference or to their instructors so that they can receive credit for their grades.
This option will appear regardless of authentication method, whether users are accessing via LTI or deep link/embed code. If you wish to turn off this option for your account, please contact Credo support and we will be happy to disable the feature for you.
When a student begins an assessment, a "Get Scores" button will appear above the quiz content, with the message "Click here to see details and email your score." Note: Students can click this at any time while taking the assessment to see their performance so far, but they should make sure to fully submit all answers before emailing their final score to themselves and/or their instructor.
Once the student has completed the assessment, they can click the Get Scores button to view their results in a modal window. The results modal displays the following:
- The student's total score on the assessment, as a percentage and as the number of questions answered correctly.
- A list of each question, the answer the student provided, and an indication of whether their answer was correct or incorrect. Beside each question there is an indicator of the number of points the student achieved out of the number of possible points. The default number of points per question is 1, so 0/1 is an incorrect answer and 1/1 is a correct answer.
- Instructions prompting the student to email their results to themselves and/or their instructor, a field for entering a list of email addresses, and an Email My Results button.
If the student entered an email address in the Quiz form before starting the quiz, or if their email address was passed to our system via an LTI integration, this email address auto-populates in the email address field. If no email address has already been provided, the field is blank by default. Students can write in their email address if it is not populated automatically, modify the email address, or include additional addresses, such as their instructor's email. Multiple addresses should be separated with a comma. The student can then click "Email My Results" to send.
Text reading "Email was successfully sent" should appear indicating the send was completed.
Recipients will receive an email containing the same information displayed in the results page. If the student provided their name in the Quiz form or if it was synced to Credo's system via LTI, their name will also appear on the emailed results so that instructors can easily distinguish which results belong to which students. They will also be able to see the question-by-question breakdown of the students' scores. All assessment results will still be available in Credo Insights for account admins to view. If students are taking assessments via LTI with gradebook syncing enabled, their scores will still sync to the LMS course gradebook as well.
(Note: the example in the screenshot below is a demonstration created by our support team and not a real student's data.)
