Before you begin
Open the Tests section of your dashboard and click into the assessment you want to customize. Inside, you'll see the question list with three controls visible on each row.
- A drag handle on the left, used to reorder the question.
- A preview icon (eye), used to see what the candidate will experience.
- An edit icon next to the preview icon, used to open the Edit Question screen.
There's also a three-dot menu on the right that opens the Edit Question screen as well. You can edit assessments anytime, including after you've sent them to candidates.
Reorder questions
To reorder questions in your assessment, click and hold the drag handle on the left of any question row, then drag the question into its new position.
The order you set is the order candidates will encounter the questions during their assessment.
Preview a question
Click the eye icon on any question to preview exactly what the candidate will see when they reach that question.
This is the fastest way to confirm a question reads the way you want it to before sending the assessment out.
Context
A composite wing spar from a regional turboprop has been returned for failure analysis after a hard landing. The aircraft had completed 14,200 flight cycles.
Given data
- Material: CFRP, [0/45/90]ₛ layup
- Service life: 14,200 cycles
- Recovery temp: 22 °C, 45% RH
Constraints
- NDT inspection only, no destructive sampling
What is the most likely root cause of the observed delamination, and how would you confirm it?
Edit an existing question
Click the edit icon (or the three-dot menu) on any question to open the Edit Question screen. Most properties of a question are configurable from here.
You'll see the following fields:
- Question title. The name of the question.
- Question type. Set when the question was created.
- Intro text. An optional intro shown to candidates before the task starts.
- Estimated time. The expected time, in minutes, for a candidate to complete this question.
- Left panel sections. The content panel candidates see on the left side of their assessment screen during the task. Sections are organized as blocks (Context, Given Data, Load Case, Constraints/Assumptions, and others), each holding multiple items in either Written or Numerical formats. Use Add item to add a new entry inside a section, Add section to create a new block, and Remove to delete a section.
- Writing prompts. The question or prompt that candidates respond to, including the question text and an optional answer-box placeholder.
Save your changes with Save question to land back in the assessment view.
A note on editing library questions
When you edit a question that came from the Colare question bank, your changes create a company-only copy of that question for the current assessment.
The original library version is unaffected, so other tests in your workspace continue to use the standard version of the question. You'll see a banner inside the Edit Question screen confirming this behavior.
For questions your team has created in My Library, editing modifies the original directly, so changes will apply across any assessments that use that question.
Add a question from My Library
My Library is the page where all of your questions live. Your company's own questions are kept separate from the Colare question bank, so you always know which is which.
From My Library you can filter by question type and by skill, sort the list, and open any question to preview its instructions. You can also create a new question there directly, without opening an assessment first.
To bring a library question into an assessment, open the assessment, click Add Question, and choose Add from library. This opens the same library so you can pick questions for that test. If you select several questions at once, all of them are added.
Create a custom question
If your team has its own questions you'd like to use, you can write them directly inside Colare. Click Add Question and choose Create custom.
You'll be able to choose from the following question types:
- Multiple choice. A question with a fixed set of answer options and one correct answer.
- Project. A hands-on question the candidate completes in a professional engineering workspace, such as CAD or circuit design, inside the assessment.
- Long answer. A free-response question the candidate answers in writing.
Configure the question's content for the type you've selected, then save it. Custom questions are added to the current assessment automatically and saved to My Library for reuse on future assessments.
What's next
Once your questions are configured, you're ready to move on:
- For more on building assessments, see How to create an assessment.
- For sending an assessment to candidates, see How to send an assessment.