Working with Media Files in Respondus 4.0
If you regularly use Respondus 4.0 to add images, videos, spreadsheets, or web links to exams, you could easily write this article.
But if you’re like the other 99%, who feel that exams are meant to be “black and white and text all over,” then this article might inspire you to try something new. Who knows, you might even include a YouTube movie in your next online exam (gasp!).
The Possibilities
Let’s start by listing a few reasons why an instructor might add media files or attachments to an exam.
• A business instructor wants to include a spreadsheet so answers can be calculated by students
• A philosophy instructor wants students to read a PDF before answering an essay question
• An art professor wants to link to images located on a museum's website
• A mass media course wants to include video snippets located on YouTube
• A foreign language instructor wants to provide audio clips that students translate
Think about your own courses for a moment? Do ideas come to mind where media files or attachments might enhance an exam?
The Media Wizard
Once you know what you want to accomplish, the rest is pretty easy with Respondus 4.0.
1) From the Edit tab, select a question type and enter the text as you normally would. When you get to the part where you add “the thing” (an image, a web link, an attachment, etc.) take a deep breath and click the “Media Wizard” icon on the toolbar. It looks like this:
2) The Media Wizard begins and you are asked whether you’ll be uploading the media file or attachment from your computer, or whether you will link to it from a web server. Make your selection.
3a) If you select the first option, Upload a media file from my computer, the next screen guides you through the process of selecting an image, an audio/video file, or attaching a document like a .docx or .pdf.
3b) If, instead, you select the second option to Link to a media file located on a web server, you’ll be presented with these options:
This may come as a shock, but that’s about all there is to it. Just make your selection and complete the final step in the wizard. When Respondus publishes the exam to your learning system, it takes care of the underlying HTML and techie stuff for you.
Give the Media Wizard in Respondus 4.0 a try. It’s easy to use, and the possibilities are limited only by your creativity.
