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Evidence-Based Selected Response

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This lesson provides step-by-step guidance on creating an Evidence-Based Selected Response (EBSR) item in the Item Bank. This item type requires students to answer a two-part question, in which Part B provides text evidence for the answer in Part A. Parts A and B can be a combination of Multiple Choice and Multiple Response items. This question type can be administered online or on paper, does not offer partial scoring, and is automatically scored.

Before You Begin

This lesson begins assuming that users have the permissions to create new Item Bank items, and are familiar with the item creation process. To learn more about creating Item Bank items, take a look at the Create Items article.

Create Evidence-Based Selected Response Item

General Item Settings

An example Evidence-Based Selected Response item creation screen, with the Item Type labeled as step 1, the item types for Part A and B labeled as step 2, Passage labeled as step 3, Student Instructions labeled as step 4, Include Teacher Instructions labeled as step 5, and Total Possible Points labeled as step 6.
  1. Select the Evidence-Based Selected Response item type.
  2. Once EBSR is selected, select the item type, either Multiple Choice or Multiple Response, for both Part A and Part B of the question.
  3. (Optional) Choose one or more passages by selecting Link Passage.
    • Passages must be published and located in the same Work Space to be available for linking.
  4. Student Instructions are included by default, but can be removed or edited as desired.
  5. Use the slider to determine if the item should Include Teacher Instructions.
    • If the slider is set to Yes, enter teacher instructions into the text box.
  6. Enter the maximum number of points students may earn on this item into the Total Possible Points field.

Part A

An example EBSR item creation screen, with the Part A edit icon labeled as step 7, Question labeled as step 8, # and Type of Choices labeled as step 9, Include Rationale labeled as step 10, the Answer choices labeled as step 11, Answer Choices labeled as step 12, the trashcan icons labeled as step 13, and Add Choice labeled as step 14.
  1. (Optional) Select the edit pencil icon to rename Part A, if desired.
  2. Enter the Question for Part A in the text box.
  3. Select the # of Choices to include, between 2 and 9, and the Type of Choices, letters or numbers.
  4. Use the slider to Include Rationale, if desired.
    • If set to Yes, a Rationale column appears next to each answer choice. A rationale for each answer choice must be entered into the text boxes in order to save the work.
  5. Enter an Answer into each answer choice field.
  6. After completing the answer choices, select one or more circle in the Answer Choices column to indicate the correct answer(s).
  7. Use the trashcan icon to delete an answer choice.
  8. Select Add Choice to add an answer choice.

Part B

An example of the EBSR item creation screen, with the editing options for Part B labeled as step 15, and the Save and Next buttons labeled as step 16.
  1. Repeat steps 7-14 for Part B, with the options to rename the Part, type the Question, select the # and Type of Choices, Include Rationale, enter the Answer and Rationale text, select the correct Answer Choices, use the trashcan icon to delete choices, and Add Choices.
  2. Select Save to save the item progress, or select Next to save and continue to the next step.

Next Steps

To learn more about creating different item types, take a look at the other articles in the Item Types manual.

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