Case Study: Thomas Edison State College keeps independent learners on track and scales online assessments with Questionmark

Questionmark Quizzes Keep Independent Learners on Track at Thomas Edison State College

Thomas Edison State College, an institution serving over 10,000 adult learners in every U.S. state and nearly 80 countries, relied on independent-study e-Pack™ courses that use Questionmark quizzes to give students chapter-by-chapter practice and feedback. The college faced a major operational challenge: faculty supplied 400–500 quiz questions per course in varied formats (Word files, publisher test banks, even handwritten), and manually entering item-level feedback was time-consuming, error-prone, and impractical for a small assessment team.

To address this, the college combined Questionmark’s quiz features (randomized delivery, item-level feedback, ASCII import and QTI XML export) with an internal Item Preparation Application that imports diverse source files, auto-generates boilerplate feedback, and produces Questionmark-ready import files. The approach cut data-entry work and errors, enabled quality control via single-point topic entry, and allowed export of courses to CD (via Lectora) so submarine-based military students could access full feedback offline. Questionmark’s capabilities also supported expanded uses—surveys, course evaluations, Army exams, and a pilot TECEP® proctored testing program—helping the college scale its distance-learning offerings.

Thomas Edison State College

Emily Carone

Assistant Director Center for the Assessment of Learning