ExamView: An Assessment Tool with Access to 12,000 Textbooks

Teachers and professors tend to be partial to the textbooks they use in their courses, and it's easy to see why. If instructors are intimately familiar with the book they are using, it's easier for them to point students toward the information they need to overcome a learning obstacle. Likewise, instructors trust the exercises in the books they choose as a proven assessment tool to help their learners pursue their academic goals.

Unfortunately, even the best textbooks may not have enough practice questions to reinforce key concepts and that's where ExamView comes into play. ExamView is a test creation tool developed by the experts at Echo360 to make test-making and test-taking relatively fun. It is distributed by more than 65 academic publishers and includes a question bank with items aligned to more than 12,000 textbook titles, providing access to more questions from the resources that instructors already rely on. We're still talking about tests, so we're not going to say that you're suddenly going to start looking forward to choosing test items. We can make life a little easier for every instructor though, and that seems worthwhile to us.

What Is an Assessment Tool?

An assessment tool has been defined as “any technique used to measure a student's academic abilities, skills, and/or fluency in a given subject or to measure one's progress toward academic proficiency in a specific subject area” by Vanderbilt University's Fuchs Research Group. Most of us automatically think of standardized exams and other formal assessments when we think about tests, but informal homework assignments, classroom observations, and worksheets also qualify under this definition.

Huge Chapter Tests Don't Have to Be the Only Assessment Tool in My Arsenal?

Of course not! ExamView gives instructors access to multiple questions written by the textbook authors they know and trust, making it easier to create study guides, worksheets, practice tests, and formative assessments that are all aligned to the same content standard without repeating questions. Better yet, ExamView includes bimodal functionality to automatically convert multiple-choice questions into a free-response format, further increasing the breadth of items available to instructors. You can instantly generate up to 26 versions of a particular exam as well, allowing for randomization and true equity in test-taking.

ExamView isn't just a question bank either. Instructors can also use it to write their own original questions and easily distribute them to students, ensuring that learners are always working on fresh items.

Can I Use Any Other Echo360 Products as an Assessment Tool?

Yes, you can. Our learning engagement platform, Dojo360, allows instructors to add inline quizzes to their courses to help ensure that learners have completely grasped one concept before moving to the next. Echo360 is a video content management platform that leverages automatic speech recognition technology to create a searchable index of video information, making it easier for self-paced students to go back and review their specific areas of opportunity without solely relying on their notes. Most importantly, our suite of Point Solutions products supports Anywhere Polling, allowing instructors to track student performance in real-time. All of these products combine well with ExamView, giving instructors the evidence they need to identify which content areas are solid and what could use a bit more work.

Who Knew that a Simple Assessment Tool Could Be so Powerful!?

You came here asking “What is an assessment tool?” but now it's time to take the next step. Reach out to us right now for more information on ExamView and the rest of our educational products to help your learners develop the skills they'll need in the future. We look forward to playing a part in your organization's quest for academic success!