Examplary for language subjects

With Examplary, language tests can cover speaking, conversation and sentence analysis too. With Voice recorder students answer out loud, with Persona chat they hold a conversation with a character the AI plays, and with Sentence analysis they break down a Dutch sentence. Set the test to the language you teach, and the AI writes questions and feedback in it.

Below, you'll find which question type suits each skill, and the settings worth checking for a language test.

Set the language of the test

In the test, click Settings and, under General settings, pick the language you're testing at Language. A new test starts in the language of your own account.

The test's language decides which language the AI writes questions in and which language students get their feedback in. Set the test to French, and the AI writes the questions, the feedback and its explanation of the points in French. Give the test a title in that language too, since the AI looks at the title as well. The buttons and menus students see stay in English or Dutch.

Would you rather give feedback in English on a French test? Ask for that under Grading and feedback AI instructions, on the Grading & feedback tab. Check the first few answers to see if it works.

Test speaking with Voice recorder

With Voice recorder, students answer a question out loud. They click Start recording, speak, and click Stop recording. Not happy with it? Replace recording lets them try again, and Remove recording deletes it.

Under the question's Settings, set the Maximum recording length. It's in seconds: 300 by default, anywhere from 10 to 900. One or two minutes is usually enough for a short spoken answer.

What does the AI do with a spoken answer?

The AI listens to the recording itself. Nothing is transcribed. Based on what the student says, the AI suggests a grade, and you review it and decide. Pronunciation and fluency only count if you ask for them in the question or the rubric. Background noise or a slow start doesn't count against the student. How AI-assisted grading works in Examplary explains the rest of AI grading.

Practice conversations with Persona chat

With Persona chat, students hold a conversation with a character the AI plays. Think of ordering at a bakery in Paris, or a job interview in German. The conversation is typed, not spoken.

1. Under Persona, choose who the AI plays. For languages, useful ones include Language tutor, Native conversation partner, Writing coach, Story partner, Job interviewer and Customer.
2. Under Instructions, describe the scenario and when the conversation is complete, ideally as a list of what the student needs to show. Students never see the instructions. If the field is empty, Generate with AI writes a first draft from your question's title and description. If you've already written something, the button says Improve with AI and finishes your draft. You use the button once, then edit the text yourself.
3. Put the task for the student in the question itself, without giving away the criteria.
4. Under Settings, choose whether the AI opens the conversation (AI starts conversation, off by default) and how many times the AI can reply at most (Maximum number of responses, 10 by default, from 2 to 20).

When it suggests a grade, the AI only looks at what the student writes, based on your instructions and the rubric. It ignores spelling and typos unless your rubric asks for them. If grammar, word choice or register count, put them in the rubric explicitly too. Anything a student only says after a lot of help from the character counts for less. If the maximum number of responses runs out before the conversation reaches a criterion, the student doesn't lose points for it. You review the suggestion and decide on the points.

Dutch sentence analysis with Sentence analysis

Sentence analysis is for Dutch. Students split a sentence into sentence parts, give each part a label such as OW, WG, LV or BWB, and mark the finite verb (persoonsvorm). This question type is off by default. An admin turns it on, see Managing question types in Examplary.

1. Type the sentence under Sentence to analyze.
2. Click Analyse with AI, or build the Model answer yourself with Split and Merge. Always check the model answer.
3. Under Labels students can choose, pick the labels students see. By default these are OW, WG, LV and BWB. You can also turn on NG, MV, VV, BVB, DB and VW.
4. Under Settings, turn Mark finite verb on or off. It's on by default.

You only set the number of points. Examplary grades the answer automatically, based on your model answer. Once the question type is on, the AI can also generate these questions itself.

Fill in words with Fill in the blanks

With Fill in the blanks, students type words into the gaps in a text. Examplary compares each answer letter by letter with what you filled in, without AI. The question is correct when every gap is correct, and wrong otherwise.

• Ignore spaces/capitals is on by default. If capitals matter, as with German nouns, turn it off.
• Accents always count: ecole is wrong if you filled in école.
• More than one correct answer? Add an alternative answer to that gap.
• With Dropdown options (optional), you turn a gap into a dropdown, for example with est and sont. That's handy when you want to test whether students recognize the right form.

Test listening

Upload an audio clip or video as source material (up to 50 MB), and the AI writes questions about it. The clip itself isn't part of the questions. If students should be able to listen to it during the test, add it to the question with Add attachment. Students open it through a link. There's more about sources in Adding source materials in Examplary.

Choose which question types the AI uses

Want a test with only speaking and writing questions? Click Settings, open AI context and choose under Question types which types the AI may use. The default is Let AI decide.

Write without spell check

Want students to write without their browser's spell check? Click Settings, open Online assessment and, under Appearance, turn on Disable browser spell check. It isn't watertight: an extension or app on the student's computer can have a spell check of its own.

If you deliver the test in Safe Exam Browser, you won't see that setting. Turn off Allow spell check there instead, which is on by default. Remember that Voice recorder doesn't work in Safe Exam Browser.

Troubleshooting

A student can't record. They probably haven't given the browser access to the microphone. Have them allow it through the icon on the left of the address bar and reload the page. Recording doesn't work in Safe Exam Browser.

The character speaks English, but it should be French. State in the instructions which language the character speaks, and write the instructions themselves in that language too.

The AI writes questions in the wrong language. The test is set to another language. Check the language under Settings → General settings → Language.

I don't see Sentence analysis. It's off by default. Ask an admin to turn it on.

Further reading

• Managing question types in Examplary
• Adding source materials in Examplary
• Creating a rubric or scoring criteria
• Using Safe Exam Browser with Examplary