Item and Stimulus Attributes

The Item Attributes and Stimulus Attributes panels list the different attribute fields for an item or stimulus. An attribute is a characteristic or feature of an item or stimulus, such as the grade for which an item or stimulus is applicable, whether the item is a field test item or an operational item, whether the content is available in a secondary language, the point value of an item, and whether an item has alternate assessment content (known as AltDoc Content).

The attribute values provide details about the item or stimulus. For certain attributes, such as Markup for FT and Additional Markup for Operational, validation checks are set in place to ensure that an item cannot progress beyond a certain level and cannot be included in test packages until the item meets the necessary criteria. For example, if an item’s attributes indicate that the item requires text-to-speech (TTS) and braille content, ITS ensures that an item cannot progress beyond a predetermined review level until the text-to-speech and braille content has been created and approved. If an item has alternate assessment content turned off, the Item Authoring Tool (IAT) does not allow that content to be created.

While some attributes are standard across all subjects and item banks, others vary based on the subject and item bank. For information about attributes specific to your item bank, please contact your project lead or the ITS Help Desk.

To specify the item or stimulus attributes:

  1. From the available attribute fields, select or enter the required values as applicable. Some important things to note about item attributes are:

    • Attribute fields with asterisks are mandatory. The option None is not an acceptable value for mandatory attributes.

    • Depending on how an attribute is set up in ITS, you can select multiple values for some attribute fields.

    • The values for the Markup for FT and Additional Markup for Operational fields are automatically populated based on the selected grade and subject. However, you may choose additional or different values if necessary. When selecting values for the Markup for FT and Additional Markup for Operationalfields, ensure that you have selected all additional content requirements, such as Wordlist, TTS, and Paper. ITS’s inbuilt validation checks will ensure that the item cannot progress beyond a certain level and cannot be included in test packages until the item meets the necessary criteria. Note that when selecting values for the Additional Markup for Operational field, you will only be able to select values that have not already been selected for the Markup for FT field.

    • If an attribute field is grayed out or displays “Auto,” the value for the field will be automatically provided after the item content is created in IAT.

    • For items that have been imported into ITS from a legacy OpenOffice item bank, there may be legacy read-only attribute fields.

  1. Click Save at the bottom of the attributes panel to save the specified attributes. A confirmation message appears, notifying you that the item or stimulus has been saved successfully. Click OK.