03.H.5. Passages 101: Adding Passages Within an Assessment

In eDoctrina, a Passage is defined as contextual information that is used to help students respond to a question, but more often a series of questions. A passage can be a short story, a paragraph, an image, and many other things.

WARNING: When creating a passage in eDoctrina, there are many moving parts and it is vital to read all contents of the help guide to solidify understanding before trying to add a passage.

There are many ways to create a passage in eDoctrina. Our recommended way is to create an assessment first, then add the passage(s) to the created assessment. If unfamiliar with our assessment module, please visit our help guide on Answer Key Only Assessments or Building Questions before trying to build a passage. It is also possible to create a passage without creating an assessment first. Going this route will add the passage directly to a district test bank so the passage can be later pulled into any assessment.

Adding a Passage from the Assessment Editor and Linking Existing Questions

Many times users find it easiest to first build questions within the assessment and then link them to a passage.
Selecting the icon will prompt users to select which questions they want to link to:

Please note that you also have the option to select all questions by using the icon.

Selecting "Proceed" will prompt the passage editor to open, where there are two mandatory steps to follow before the passage can be linked (Please note that the visibility state will default to visible).

Every passage must be linked to a grade level.
Once a grade level has been linked, the passage can be entered below. Passages can be created using the WYSIWYG editor or copy and pasted from another document. Passages can also be added as images, but please not that the highlight feature does not work on text copied as an image.

There are also other fields within the passage editor that are not mandatory, but are important to remember.

Subject: The subject pull-down will usually default to the subject selected for the assessment, but should always be verified. NOTE: This selection will help find the Passage at a later date.
Type: Although the Type is not a required field, selecting it from this pull-down menu will help to easily find the passage in the Question Bank. The type can categorize a passage as a Chart, Fiction Passage, Graph, Map,Non-Fiction Passage, Persuasive, or Political Cartoon.
Lexile: Lexile is a scale for measuring both reading ability of an individual and the text complexity of materials he or she encounters. Entering a Lexile level will help identify this passage as eDoctrina can use a range of lexile levels to help idenitfy relative passages.
The "Show 'Use the information above/below to answer questions x to y' note" checkboxes allow the user to modify the verbiage of the passage to tell the reader to "Use the information above/below to answer the selected range of questions.
Line Height Multiplier: This tool allows the user to control the spacing of the lines on the passage. If a user enters a "2" in this field, it means the passage will display as double-spaced.
Tags: Tags show up in many modules within eDoctrina, but their basic function is to allow users to add keywords to any element. Doing so will allow the user to search for these keywords to easily locate the passage at a later date.

Once the passage has been set up, scrolling down the page will show the questions that have been linked.

Selecting "Save & Close" will finish linking the passage and bring users back to the assessment editing page.

Adding a Passage from the Assessment Editor (when questions need to be created)

Once an assessment is created, a passage can be added from within the Assessment Editor by selecting the Add Passage button located in the main toolbar.

NOTE: If assessment questions have already been created and need to be linked to a passage, please refer to the latter part of this help guide.

Selecting the Add Passage button will open a new browsing window and navigate the user directly to the Passage Editor (shown below).

To add a question, select the Insert+ button in the "Linked Questions" section of the Passage Editor. This navigate the user to the Question Editor in a new browsing tab. The Question Editor has some variations on how to enter questions in comparison to entering questions directly through the assessment editor. For more information on how to use the Question Editor, please visit our help guide.

Once the question has been entered and saved in the Question Editor, it will now become one of the "Linked Questions" to this passage.

To add another question, select the Insert+ button and repeat the process until all desired questions have been added to the passage.

Linked Passages Within the Question Editor

When questions have been added to a passage within the Passage Editor, these question will automatically be added as the next questions within the Assessment Editor (shown below).

NOTE: To add another passage, repeat the above explained process until all desired passages have been added.

To edit an existing passage, select the Edit Passage button above any one of the linked questions in the Questions View within the Assessment Editor. This will navigate the user back to the Passage Editor where the passage linked questions can be modified with ease.

NOTE: If a passage has already been created, additional questions can be added from within the Passage Editor or Assessment Editor. See our Passages 201 Help Guide for more details

If a question has been linked to a passage and it needs to be removed, select the Unlink Passage button to remove the question from the passage. This task cannot be done from within the Passage Editor.