To get the most out of the site you need your own personal ID. If you are a single subscriber you will already have this. If you are a student at school or college, then you should log on using the school ID and then create your own personal log-on details.

You will then be able to access the forum, conferencing and on-line assessment.

User guide
Assessment guide
Lesson plan for OFSTED inspection

How do I use the assessment facilities?

A prominent and continually developing feature of the site is on-line assessment. A system is provided whereby all students can undertake on-line tests of various kinds and receive instant feedback. A detailed downloadable guide is available here (pdf format). A suggested lesson plan for an OFSTED style observed lesson based on using the assessment system is available here (pdf format).

Getting started

For a student to access the on-line assessment, you must be logged on using your personal account details. For individual subscribers, this will already be the case. For students using a school account, if you do not have your own personal account, then you should set one up. See here for more on how to do this. Teachers can access the student results by logging on using their teacher account details.

Using on-line assessment

Look for any of the 897 pages called "O-tests". If the page is set up to record your marks, then a message at the top will confirm that. If no such message appears, then you can complete the test, but your marks will not be stored. These pages are each one of the following types:

• Multi-choice test
• True/false test
• User input test
• Drag and drop test
• Cloze procedure test

Each test is randomised and coded to some extent so that it is different each time it is taken. Each test is individually levelled using GCSE grades (G through to A*) to give some guidance on its difficulty within the course. Each test is also individually scored, so that in some cases wrong answers will incur negative marks, as might questions left unanswered too.

Results and feedback for the student

Each test will provide feedback immediately upon completion. Each question is marked right or wrong, and a score given as a percentage. This score is graded with a colour ranging from red (0%) to green (100%). The test can be taken again but the questions, and therefore answers, will change. The page will "remember" all percentage marks attained and display them at the top of the page when you return to that page at a later date. You can review all your results by clicking on your user name and then on test scores. In addition you can view a profile of your progress in comparison with the other students in the same class.

Results and feedback for the teacher

By clicking on your user name or "Your account" you will taken to the management area of the site. There are many6 options here. For example click on "Manage student accounts" and you will see a list of all students registered to your school account. Any student whose name appears in bold will have completed some "O-tests". To see the results, click on the student's name. You can then view all available test results by various groupings, either by student name, or by module or by specific question (identified by its ID number). The listing by specific question will, in addition, show marks for each individual part of the test, which will allow the teacher to identify specific areas that are causing difficulty. In addition you will be able to see data comparing your school's results with all other schools using the site.

Where you see this logo, you will be able to download the data shown directly to Excel and thereby added in to your electronic mark book. Simply click the button.

For complete details, download the Assessment guide.