Introduction to the Item Authoring Tool (IAT)

The Item Authoring Tool is a tool for developing items and stimuli.

What IAT Does

IAT allows you to do the following:

• Create the item and stimulus interactions that will appear on students’ tests.
• Create a rubric for each item, instructing the machine scoring system and/or human scorer on how to assess the student’s response.

• Translate items and stimuli into non-English languages.

Who Uses IAT

IAT is used by item writers, who create items and stimuli for online assessments. It is also used by translators, who create translations of those items and stimuli, and by human voice script writers and recorders, who create audio recordings of the same.

IAT's Role in the Cambium Assessment, Inc. (CAI) Online Systems

IAT manages the content for items and stimuli, which are themselves managed in the Item Tracking System (ITS). When the content has been created in IAT, it is reviewed and approved in ITS, where the items and stimuli are then added to test forms, and the forms added to the test packages used for assessments. The Test Delivery System (TDS) subsequently delivers the assessments.

Introduction to IAT Features

IAT has three main features:

• The interaction editors that allow you to create an item or stimulus.
• The rubric editors that allow you to enable scoring. Each scored interaction must have a rubric, unless it uses a scoring template.
• The Translation Tool (also known as the Common Translation Editor (COTE)) that allows you to translate item and stimulus text into non-English languages.

Accessing IAT

IAT is accessible within ITS. To access IAT, you must have the ITS user roles required for editing item content.

To open IAT:

1.Log in to ITS.

2.Select the appropriate item bank and user role.

3.Do one of the following:

• Create a new item or stimulus.
• Locate an existing item or stimulus.

For information about creating and locating items and stimuli in ITS, refer to the ITS Guide.

4.On the View\Edit Item page, do one of the following:

• To edit the item or stimulus, click Compose or in the Content Files section. The IAT homepage for the item or stimulus opens in a new browser tab or window. For more information on the homepage, refer to Getting Started with IAT Tools.
• You can translate the item or stimulus once it's in the correct review stage. Click beside the target language in the Content Files section. The Translation Tool (COTE) for the item or stimulus opens in a new browser tab or window. For more information on COTE, refer to Appendix G.