Create Hot Spot Items

Hot Spot items require students to select one or more designated regions on an image. A rectangular border appears around each region the students select.

For example, a Hot Spot item could show a map of the United States and ask students to identify where Washington, DC is located.

1.To fill out the template, in the Compose Item Prompt section, replace the sample text with the content for the item's question. You can use the toolbar in this box to format text and insert media elements.

2.In the Upload Image and Set Hot Spot Region section, upload an image for the item.

a.Select Upload Image.

b.In the Image Properties window, select Browse Server. Then do one of the following:

• If the image you want to use for the item is already available in the File Manager window, select it and select Add to Item. You can use the buttons at the top-left corner to view the images as small thumbnails, large images, or a list.
• If the image you want to use is not available in the File Manager window, select Upload File and choose an image file from your computer. Then select the image and select Add to Item once the image is uploaded. The image must be 600×600 pixels or smaller and under 1.4 MB. The file may take a moment to upload.

c.In the Image Properties window, select OK.

3.To create the selectable hot spot regions on the image, do the following:

a.Select the point on the image where you want to set the first corner of the selectable rectangle, then select the point where you want to set its opposite corner. Do not click and drag. A red box appears, but this will not be visible to students.

b.Optional: To move a selectable region, select that region and drag it to the desired location on the image.

c.Optional: To copy a selectable region, select that region’s box and then select Copy. A new region with the same shape will appear. You can drag that region to the desired location.

d.Optional: To remove a hot spot region, select that region's box and then select Delete.

4.Optional: To add additional selectable regions, repeat steps 3.a–d.

5.In the Construct Answer Keys section, enter the item’s highest possible score in the Maximum Score field.

6.Optional: To limit the number of hot spot regions students can select at a time, enter a value in the Maximum Selections field.

7.To create the answer key for the item, do the following:

a.In the Point field, enter the score for a correct (or partially correct) response.

b.In the provided response area, select the image regions that students would need to select in order to earn the score entered in the Point field.

• If a sample response is already entered, you may need to unselect that hot spot first.

c.Optional: In the Explanation field, explain why the entered response is worth the score you specified.

8.Optional: If the item has more than one correct or partially correct answer, you can select beside the Point field to create additional answer keys. Repeat step 7 for each answer key you add.

a.Optional: To remove an answer key, select in the tab for that answer key.

9.Optional: If you want to provide a description of the scoring criteria to view in reports for the item, mark the Include Scoring Description checkbox. Then fill out the Description and Exemplar fields that appear.

10.To save the item, select Save above the template.