The STG Test Content Authoring System, a module of STG 's Test Development Platform, is used by Item Authors to create, edit and format test items (questions) for a specific test/assessment. After the item has been created, it can be attached to either an online rendering engine or a paper-rendering engine to preview the end user experience.

Items support the cloning, versioning and revisioning capabilities and they can include images and Math equations, which can either be embedded or referenced. Items can be banked and then classified to different taxonomies. Statistics and metadata such as annotations, difficulty index, and discrimination index can be associated with the items.

Items created in the Test Content Authoring System are stored in the standard Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) XML format, so that assessments containing these items can be delivered using STG 's Test Delivery Platform or any other delivery engine that supports QTI XML items.

• Easy to use:
  • User friendly interface with WYSIWYG features
  • Since Microsoft Word® is embedded in the Item Editor; authors who are currently using Microsoft Word can easily migrate to this tool.
• Convenient management of item bank through a comprehensive user-access–role management.
• Implements Program Neighborhood features so other authors in the same project can view other items in the group.
• Supports Multiple Choice, Drag and Drop, Constructed responses item types and Complex Behaviors such as Audio, Video and Math inline equations.
• Polymorphism: Same item can be used with different rendering engines, as the formatting information is stored separately in the data bank.
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that allows easy integration with Assessment Authoring and Test Delivery System .

Scope:
The Test Content Authoring System can be used to create test items for:

• Formative Assessments for K-12 (Class room tests)
• High Stakes Summative Assessments for K-12 (End of instruction assessments)
• High Stakes Professional Testing
• Student surveys
• Employee surveys

Platform/Operating System requirements :

•  Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000, XP or Vista
•  Application: Microsoft Word 2000, 2003 or 2007
•  Backend: SQL Server 2000/ 2005 or Oracle 9i/10i
•  Optional Oracle 9i/10i workflow implementation