Searching for an Item or Stimulus

ITS enables you to search for items and stimuli in the item bank and perform different actions on them depending on your user role.

The Actions panel available on the search results pages allows you to perform additional actions.

To search for an item or stimulus:

From the Search task group of the Item or Stimulus menu, select the subject associated with the item or stimulus that you are searching for. The Item Search or Stimulus Search page appears.

Enter or select your search criteria. Table 4 describes the different search fields.
- Some fields, such as Review Status, allow you to select all options using the button on the right side. You can clear all by clicking the button again.
- To remove existing search criteria, click Reset in the Actions panel.

From the Actions panel, click Search. The Search Results page appears, displaying the matching items or stimuli.

To work on the retrieved items or stimuli, do one of the following:
- To view information about an item or stimulus, use one of the available buttons/links next to it. Table 5 describes the buttons/links.
- To perform actions on one or more items or stimuli, mark the checkboxes beside them and, from the Actions panel, select the appropriate link. For detailed instructions on performing these actions, please refer to Action Center.
- To sort the items or stimuli, select a column header. By default, they are sorted by ID.

To perform another search, do one of the following:
- To modify your search criteria, click Modify Search. The search page reappears, displaying the previously entered search criteria. You can modify the necessary search criteria and perform a different search.
- To enter new search criteria, click New Search. The search page reappears. Enter or select search criteria to perform a new search.
- To refresh the search in order to retrieve any new matching items, click Refresh Results.

Table 4 describes the search fields on the Item Search and Stimulus Search pages.

Table 4: Item and Stimulus Search Criteria
Panel	Field	Description
Item Search	Entity Type	Indicates the entity type you are searching for. You can choose to search for Item or Stimulus from the drop-down list.
	Subject	Indicates the subject whose entities you are searching for. You can select a different subject if required from the drop-down list.
	Review Status	Indicates the review status of the entities you are searching for. You can either enter or select one or more review statuses from the drop-down list. The review statuses that are available for selection are based on your user role.
	Sub-Review Status	Indicates the sub-review status of the entities you are searching for. Similar to Review Status, you can select or enter multiple sub-review statuses simultaneously.
	Pending Status	These radio buttons enable you to specify the type of entities you wish to view. You can only select one radio button at a time. The available radio buttons are as follows: All items in selected status: Displays all the entities that belong to the selected review statuses. Only pending items in selected status: Displays only entities that are marked as pending for the selected review statuses. Without pending items in selected status: Displays all entities that belong to the selected review statuses excluding those marked as pending.
	Review Lane	Refers to the review lanes (swim lanes) that an item or stimulus goes through during its lifecycle before it gets to the operational pool and is ready to be included on test forms. This field should be used in conjunction with the Lane Status field below.
	Lane Status	Indicates the entity’s review level or levels within the lane or lanes specified in the Review Lane field above.
	ID	Indicates the item or stimulus ID. You can only enter one ID at a time.
	Description	Searches the description of the entity. You can only enter one description or partial description at a time.
IAT Content	IAT-specific attributes	Refers to the item or stimulus attributes that are automatically generated from the content created in IAT, such as interaction type and scoring type. Select the required values from the different attribute fields.
Share/Clone Info	Shared From	Enables you to search for entities that have been shared from another item bank. You can select one item bank at a time. For more information, refer to Share/Clone to Other Bank.
	Shared To	Enables you to search for entities that have been shared with another item bank. You can select one item bank at a time. For more information, refer to Share/Clone to Other Bank.
	Cloned From	Enables you to search for entities that have been cloned from another item bank. You can select one item bank at a time. For more information, refer to Share/Clone to Other Bank.
	Cloned To	Enables you to search for entities that have been cloned to another item bank. You can select one item bank at a time. For more information, refer to Share/Clone to Other Bank.
Item Attributes	Subject-specific attributes	Refers to the different attributes of an item (such as grade, standard, topic, and benchmark) or stimulus (such as grade, word count, length, and author) that are set up in ITS. Select the required values from the different attribute fields. You may select multiple values simultaneously for some of the attribute fields. For example, you may select the values 3, 4, and 5 simultaneously for the grade attribute.
Content Standards / Socks	Subject-specific content standards and SOCKs	This section only appears in item search, not stimulus search. Refers to the different content standards and SOCKs specified for the attributes. You can select the required contents from the respective content standard and SOCKs categories.

Table 5 describes the buttons/links for viewing item or stimulus information on the Search Results page.

Table 5: Buttons/Links on the Item Search Results Page
Link Name	Description
ID	The ID link opens the View\Edit Item or View\Edit Stimulus page in a new browser tab or window.
	This button opens a new browser tab or window with a summary of the entity’s attributes, content standards, and item/stimulus associations.
	This button opens a new browser tab or window that shows how the entity is displayed to the student in the TDS. You can use the buttons and action items available on the web preview page to review or approve content. You can web-preview multiple entities simultaneously using the links in the Actions panel (as described in Action Center).
	This link opens a new browser tab or window that displays a history of the edits made to an entity’s attributes.

For detailed instructions on performing actions in the Actions panel, please refer to Action Center.