.. _Adding Feedback and Hints to a Problem:

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Adding Feedback and Hints to a Problem
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.. tags:: educator, reference

You can add feedback, hints, or both to the simple problem types.

By using hints and feedback, you can provide learners with guidance and help as
they work on problems.

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Feedback in Response to Attempted Answers
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You can add feedback that displays to learners after they submit an answer.

For example, the following single select problem provides feedback in
response to the selected option when the learner selects **Submit**. In this
case, feedback is given for an incorrect answer.

.. image:: /_images/educator_references/multiple_choice_feedback.png
 :alt: Image of a single select problem with feedback.
 :width: 600

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Best Practices for Providing Feedback
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The immediacy of the feedback available to learners is a key advantage of
online instruction and difficult to do in a traditional classroom environment.

You can target feedback for common incorrect answers to the misconceptions that
are common for the level of the learner (for example, elementary, middle, high
school, college).

In addition, you can create feedback that provides some guidance to the learner
about how to arrive at the correct answer. This is especially important in text
input and numeric input problems, because without such guidance, learners might
not be able to proceed.

You should also include feedback for the correct answer to reinforce why the
answer is correct. Especially in questions where learners are able to guess,
such as single select and dropdown problems, the feedback should provide a
reason why the selection is correct.

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Providing Hints for Problems
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You can add one or more hints that are displayed to learners. When you add
hints, the **Hint** button is automatically displayed to learners. Learners can
access the hints by selecting **Hint** beneath the problem.  A learner can view
multiple hints by selecting **Hint** multiple times.

For example, in the following single select problem, the learner selects
**Hint** after having made one incorrect attempt.

.. image:: /_images/educator_references/multiple_choice_hint.png
 :alt: Image of a single select problem with the first hint.
 :width: 600

The hint text indicates that it is the first of two hints. After the learner
selects **Next Hint**, both of the available hints appear. When all hints have
been used, the **Hint** or **Next Hint** option is no longer available.

.. image:: /_images/educator_references/multiple_choice_hint2.png
 :alt: Image of a single select problem with the second hint.
 :width: 600

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Best Practices for Providing Hints
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To ensure that your hints can assist learners with varying backgrounds and
levels of understanding, you should provide multiple hints with different
levels of detail.

For example, the first hint can orient the learner to the problem and help
those struggling to better understand what is being asked.

The second hint can then take the learner further towards the answer.

In problems that are not graded, the third and final hint can explain the
solution for learners who are still confused.

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Create Problems with Feedback and Hints
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While editing a problem block, you can apply **Answer-specific feedback**
for all problem types. **Group feedback** can only be applied to
**multi-select** problems.

Any number of **hints** can be added for all simple problem types.

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Adding Answer-specific Feedback
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**Answer-specific feedback** can be added under each answer by pressing
the feedback icon to the right of the answer text. Feedback entered in
these fields are given when the learner selects that answer or when the
learner does not select that answer.

.. image:: /_images/educator_how_tos/problem_editor_feedback_box.png
 :alt: Image of the answer-specific feedback settings.
 :width: 600

.. note::
   The “is not selected” feedback field shown above is only available
   for the **multi-select** problem type.

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Adding Group Feedback for Multi-Select Problems
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This setting can be found on the collapsible settings to the right of
the problem editor. Feedback entered in this field will display if and
only if the learner selects all of the checked answers. Click the
**Add group feedback** button to add additional feedback for different
groups of checked answers. **Group feedback** can only be applied for
the **multi-select** problem type.

.. image:: /_images/educator_references/problem_editor_group_feedback_box.png
 :alt: Image of the group feedback settings.
 :width: 300

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Adding Hints
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This setting can be found on the collapsible settings to the right of
the problem editor. Click the **Add hint** button to add additional
hints for learners.

.. image:: /_images/educator_references/problem_editor_hints_box.png
 :alt: Image of the hints settings.
 :width: 300