Creating an Essay Question
The Essay Question type gives the student room to compose a few sentences or paragraphs in response to a question. This must then be scored manually by an instructor. For more information, see Manual Grading.
NOTE: For longer essays, it is recommended that instructors use the Assignment Activity as the Essay question is intended for no more than a couple of paragraphs of text.
- Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu)
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If you haven't already created a quiz (see the CLE Quiz page to review the steps for adding a quiz), go to Course administration>Question bank and click the 'Create a new question' button, then select 'Essay'.
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If you've already created a quiz, go to the Edit quiz screen and select 'Add a new question' from the Add drop down menu, then 'Essay'.
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Give the question a descriptive name so that you can find it in the Question bank.
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Fill in the 'Question text' field with your question. This will be the title and details of the essay you want them to write.
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Set the 'default mark' as well as any 'General Feedback' if necessary. This is the text that the student sees after you have graded their essay.
Response options
- You can select a maximum and minimum word count for the Essay question in the CLE.
- If students write too few or too many words, they will receive an alert.
Essay Question Resources