Automated Item Generation

Automated Item Generation (AIG) is a new technology that helps you rapidly expand the size of your item bank.  There are two approaches:

1. Human authors develop cognitive models and content templates that can be used to generate new items.

2. Algorithms can read texts and simply create test questions for you.

Number 2 is still a future technology in progress, but Number 1 is a recent technology that is recognized in the scientific literature.  Assess.ai provides a module with an easy-to-use interface that makes this accessible by educators and other assessment professionals.  For a brief intro to the topic of AIG, please check out this blog post.

Implementing Automated Item Generation

To use AIG in Assess.ai, go into your item bank, and on the top you will see a tab - Automated Item Generation.  Click on the AIG button and a list of existing templates will be displayed.  If this is your first time, create a new template.

You will then see the Item Template Editor screen, as shown in the screenshot below.  Create the text of your item, including answers, on the left.  Create dynamic fields on the right.  In the example below, we have a field for Age that can have three values: [3,4,5].  Then insert the fields into the text by typing a dollar sign $ and a drop-down will appear for you to select the field you want to insert.  The fields will be displayed in bold text.  You can Save & Exit at any point and return to this task to complete.

Once you are done authoring, you can click the Export button to export all permutations into a spreadsheet.  Here, this is 3x2x2x3x2x2 = 144 permutations!  You can then review these before importing into the item bank as active items.  This review is recommended in case you produce a situation that is unlikely or doesn't make sense.