Overview of the Short text task

In the Short text task learners respond to questions that have short, definite answers, for example, a few words, or a number.

When should I use a Short text task?

The Short text task is useful for when you want learners to enter something that’s longer than a word or two but shorter than a paragraph. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Example 1: Simple short answer

In this example, we have one clear answer to the question.

Question: What is the name for the part of a computer network that blocks unauthorized access from external networks? Answer: Firewall

Example 2: Keywords

In this example we are looking for one of two possible key words in learners’ answers “matter” or “energy”.

Question: The universe is made up of two basic components. Name one of those components.

Example 3: Open-ended question

You don't have to set a correct answer, which leaves the question open-ended. You can set a maximum number of characters for learners' responses (up to a maximum of 250) so you may wish to also let learners know how long an answer to give.

Question: In your experience, which project methodology have your teams responded to the most positively?

The short text task has some obvious similarities to a cloze type response task. This task is the clear winner when you have responses longer than 1-2 words and when you’re looking for a “keyword” within a response rather than an exact match (see the description of Any text containing below). If your response has only 1-2 words, it’s totally up to personal preference whether you use the cloze type response or short text task.

How do I create a short text task?

All tasks load with an example task to give an idea of what each field is for. To add your own task details, you can type over the existing content in the fields or select Clear task content, to start completely fresh.

Screenshot showing Clear task content button, that will allow author to clear all content from the example

Standard fields

This task has the standard fields/options that all tasks have.

At the top:

Question: Where you set the main question/task which tells learners what to answer or do.

And at the bottom:

Hint: Add a hint to give pointers or clues to give learners extra guidance to complete the task. Learners can choose to See hint so it allows them to get this help “on demand”.
Feedback: Add feedback to give learners an automated response when they submit the task. See Writing feedback for tasks for pointers and ideas.

In between the top and bottom standard fields we have the following areas and fields.

Setting the correct answers

You can choose between two options for automarking.

Exact match where a learner’s response must exactly match the response set.
Any text containing where the learner’s response is marked correct if it contains the text set in the correct answer. Any other text included in the learner’s response is ignored.

Note: A comma-space and period-space are also ignored in learners' responses to ensure the response is scored correct if the answer required occurs in a pause in the learner's response or at the end of their sentence. All other punctuation or special characters included in the validation are required to be entered by the learner to score a correct result.

In the Value field, enter the correct response.

If there is more than one response that can be considered as correct, select the + to add an alternative correct response.

As seen in the example earlier, you can also choose to not set a correct answer. If you don’t want the question to be automarked, Do not enter any text in the Value field. In this case, the task will not be automarked and the task will be allocated the complete/incomplete with feedback marking template to allow facilitators to manually mark the task (if desired).

Other options

You can also specify additional options:

Maximum length specifies the maximum number of characters learners can enter in the response box. The maximum value is 250 characters.
Font size controls the size of the font for this question. Options are: "small"(11px), "normal"(14px), "large"(17px), "extra large"(20px) and "huge"(24px).
Special characters allows authors to add non-typical letters and symbols. When enabled, the default Alpha character map will be shown to learners (shown below). Otherwise, authors can specify a specific set of special characters to be shown to learners.
Case sensitive sets whether learners should be marked incorrect if they miss any capitalisation.
Spellcheck and text correction enables spellcheck in the text entry area. When this box is unchecked, browser spellcheck will be disabled, along with auto-correct, auto-complete, and auto-capitalise on iOS devices.
Note: This is a browser feature and may not always be available or supported.
Placeholder sets the placeholder text in the response area. It disappears when the learner starts typing.

Alpha character map