Use Question Datasets in Atomic Assessments

CSV (comma-separated values) data sets can be used in most question types. Datasets are useful in assessments with math and plain text when you would like questions to pull from a bank of options. Currently, data sets will not accommodate special characters.

On This Page

How to Access the Data Table

Accessing the Data Table can be a little confusing and is a necessary step in being able to follow along with each of the following sections that follow.

To access the Data Table you:

1

Navigate to the assignment in Atomic Assessments

If you do not already have an assignment in Atomic Assessments, create one.

Preview of assignment list in Atomic Assessments.

 
2

Navigate to the Edit tab

Edit tab highlighted with "Edit" tooltip.

 
3

Click on the Content tab

Arrow pointing at the Content tab.

 
4

Click + Create item

Arrow pointing at + Create item button.

 
5

Select a question type

For this example, we are going to proceed with selecting a Multiple choice - standard question.

Preview of Question Items in Atomic Assessments.

 
6

Click Save before filling out the question information

Preview of an incomplete Multiple choice - standard question.

 
7

Click Settings

Arrow pointing at Settings button.

 
8

Navigate to the Data table tab

Arrow pointing at Data table tab.

Plain Text Problems

You can use the Data Table feature if you want a random subset of data to be selected for a question that is plain text and doesn't involve math. For the following example, we will show you how to do this with a set of data if you were testing students on the state capitals. If you haven't already, follow the instructions in the section above to get to the Data Table, which is where you will start.

1

Enter your data

For your first row, enter in your column names. This will be how you know which variable to select from.

  • We recommend that in addition to the variables that you use for your question and answer, that you include columns for the remaining incorrect answers.
  • In our example, we included a State variable to be used within our question, a Correct City variable to be used for the correct answer, and three Incorrect variables.
Currently, Atomic Assessments processes all commas within the dataset as a column seperator. If you have any commas within your data, you will need to remove to get it to process the data table correctly. If this causes an issue you will get a warning that the rows need to have the same number of columns in them.

Example of CSV data that could be entered.

 
2

Click Continue

Arrow pointing at Continue button.

 
3

Review the table and click Apply

When pulling your data, Atomic Assessments will pull all of the information from a single row.

Let's say that Atomic Assessments randomly grabs the second row of values. That would mean that when you include the State variable, it will display "California". When you include the Incorrect City 2 variable it will display "Hollywood" for the student for all of the questions with those variables in the item.

Data table preview and an arrow pointing at Apply button.

 
4

Click Edit

Arrow pointing at Edit button.

 
5

Write your question with your variable

You can access your data variables through the Data dropdown. The column headers from row 1 of your data table will be available in the dropdown menu to select as a placeholder variable. Each student will get a random row from the data in the table.

In the example below, we will use the State variable in our Data Table.

Arrow pointing at State option in the Data dropdown.

 
6

Fill out the answer options

You do this in the same manner that you added your variable in your question.

It is not required that you have variables for every one of your questions, but if you do decide to type in distractors, we encourage you to review each of the rows in your data table to make sure that you don't duplicate any of the variables.

Multiple choice options with variables in each field.

 
7

Set the correct answer and enable any other desired settings

You can see additional settings by expanding the More options dropdown.

Set correct answer(s) setting with Correct City highlighted and selected.

 
8

Scroll to the top and click Save

Arrow pointing at blue Save button.

 
9

Review the question by clicking on the Preview tab

The Preview will display what the question will look like with the actual value of the variables.

Arrow pointing at Preview button in upper-right hand corner, below the Save button.

Math Problems

The most common type of problems that Data Tables are used for are for Math problems. The Data Tables feature makes it easy to be able to randomize the variables and solutions the same that a question bank would, but within the problem itself.

Multiple Choice

To create multiple choice math questions, follow the instructions found in the Plain Text section of this page. Similar to the example used in that section, we recommend that you create several columns that contain the values of your distractors. You may notice that in the Fill in the Answer section below, you can include variables within the formula for the answer, but that functionality does not work the same in the Multiple Choice question type.

Fill in the Answer

These steps are for Math problems where the students have to enter in the solution as their answer as opposed to a multiple choice. You may notice in the steps below that it is not necessary for you to create a column that contains the answer, it will be able to calculate it for you.

1

Follow the steps in the How to Access the Data Table section and select the Math question type 

Math tab highlighted with an arrow pointing at the Math question type option.

 
2

Enter your data

For your first row, enter in your column names. This will be how you know which variable to select from.

It is not necessary for you to include a column that contains the answer. Atomic Assessments can calculate the answer for you.

Preview of data table tab with data entered in the field.

 
3

Click Continue

Arrow pointing at blue Continue button.

 
4

Review the table and click Apply

Arrow pointing at Edit button.

 
5

Click Edit

Arrow pointing at Edit button.

 
6

(Optional) Compose your question

This field is where you would write out a question for context, not where you will put in your formula. See the image below for an example.

Compose question box highlighted with the text "Solve the following equation:" entered within.

 
7

Create your formula with the variables you created in the Data Table

To do so:

  1. Double click the formula box
  2. Write out your formula
  3. Add in your variables by clicking on the Data Table dropdown (see image)
  4. Click OK

Formula box highlighted with [Variable 1] + [Variable 2] and with an arrow pointing at an expanded dropdown to the right side of the formula.

 
8

Expand the Response 1 dropdown

Arrow pointing at dropdown that says Response 1.

 
9

Select Numerically equal to (equivValue) in "The response is" field

The response is field highlighted with "Numerically equal to (equivValue).

 
10

Complete the Value field by entering in the same formula you entered in for the Formula Template (without the '=')

Preview of the Value field with the formula options open and the Data Table dropdown expanded.

 
11

Enable any other desired settings, then scroll up to the top and click Save

You can access more settings by expanding the More options dropdown.

Arrow pointing at blue Save button.

 
12

Review the question by clicking on the Preview tab in the top-right corner

To make sure that the formulas work correctly, you can enter the answer in the box, where it will confirm that your input is correct.

Arrow pointing at Preview tab.

Advanced Features

If you have some coding background and would like to incorporate JavaScript into your Data Tables to help you generate data within your columns, you can use the Script feature to accomplish this.

Item Data Table Scripts

An item data table script is a script associated with an Atomic Assessment item that can be run to update the data table for the item. Atomic Assessment data table scripts support Javascript format and provide functions to specify the names of the data table columns (setColumns) and to add rows to the table (addRow).

To create and use a datatable script for an item:

1

Access the Data Table

 
2

Click Add Script

Arrow pointing at Add Script button.

 
3

Enter a script that specifies the columns and rows for the data table

For more information, see the information found in the Data Table Script API and subsequent sections below.

Example of code written inside of the script editor.

 
4

Run the script

Arrow pointing at Run button below the script editor.

 
5

Click on the Preview tab to review the results

Arrow pointing at Preview tab in Data Table.

 
6

Click Save if the data appears to be correct

Arrow pointing at blue Save button found below the Data Table editor.

 
7

Click Copy

Doing so will copy CSV results into the field that says "Add CSV data below" and will automatically put it into a data table form.

Arrow pointing at Copy button found below the script preview field.

 
8

Click Apply

Arrow pointing at blue Apply button at the bottom of the Data Table settings.

Data Table Script API

Data table scripts can use most Javascript functions. In addition, Atomic Assessments defines functions that you need to use to specify the column names and the row values for a data table:

  • setColumns(column_names) - Specifies the names of the data table columns.
    • column_names must be an array of strings specifying the names of the data table columns.
  • addRow(row_cell_values) - Adds a row to the data table.
    • row_cell_values must be an array of values for the row being added. It must have the same number of elements as the array passed to setColumns.

In addition, it defines two functions for generating random values.

  • getRandom() - Generates a random number between 0 and 1.
  • seed(seed_value) - Specifies the seed for the random number generator.
    • seed_value value to seed the random number generator with. It must be a number.

If you do not call the seed_value function or call it with different values, each time you run your script, the randomly generated values will be different. It is important to use the same seed each time so that your table values will remain the same. It is important to not change your data table values between the time when students take an assessment and when you score or rescore it.

Simple Script Example

When you run this script, it will generate a data table with two columns, named slope and intercept and two rows with values 3,5 and 7,-2.

Random Generation Example Script

More commonly, you will use loops to generate multiple rows by randomly generating numbers or selecting from lists. For example:

Running this table will generate a table with three columns named color, slope, and intercept and 10 rows, with randomly generated values.

Course Level Scripts

To avoid repeating and maintaining the same code in multiple item scripts, you can write code at the course level that will be prepended to your item scripts before they are run. This can be a good place to put helper functions. You can also bulk test and run all item scripts in a course from this screen.

To use course level scripts:

1

Navigate to the Content Manager in Atomic Assessments

More options (the three circle dot) menu highlighted and with a dropdown where an arrow is pointing at the Content Manager option.

 
2

Click More Options (the 3 dot menu) and select Bulk Update Item Scripts

More options (three dot menu) expanded with an arrow pointing at Bulk Update Item Scripts option.

 
3

Enter your script into the editor

Preview of Course Level Data Table Script with example code in the editor.

 
4

Click Save

Arrow pointing at blue Save button below the Course Level Data Table Script editor.

Additional Resources