Assessment tiles let learners practice and reinforce lesson material, and they give instructors a way to measure progress. Add them within a lesson or build a lesson made entirely of questions as a standalone exam.
Try it yourself in the interactive lesson below:
Jump to Section
Types of Assessment Tiles
Methods of Creating Assessments
Adding Assessments Within a Lesson
Creating Assessments with the Mindsmith Agent
Grading Settings
Lesson-Level Grading Settings
Tile-Level Question Settings
Accessing Assessment Analytics
Types of assessment tiles
Mindsmith offers scored assessment tiles, ungraded feedback, and an ungraded Sorting interactive for checking understanding and gathering responses. Scored assessment results appear in grading analytics; Feedback responses appear without contributing to the score, while Sorting activity is tracked as engagement.
Multiple Choice
Learners select one correct answer from a list. Useful for testing recall and checking comprehension of key facts. You can also add images directly to your answer options.Select Multiple
Learners select all correct options from a list. This works best for scenarios where several answers could be right, such as identifying all steps in a process.Short Answer
Learners type their response into a text field. You can use AI-assisted grading to evaluate answers against key concepts and allow partial credit, or use Text Match grading for exact wording.Ranking
Learners arrange items in the correct order. Use ranking for workflows, step-by-step procedures, or prioritization exercises.Matching
Learners pair items from two lists. Matching is commonly used for definitions, terminology, or pairing concepts with examples.Sorting Learners drag items into the correct categories. Use it for classification, comparison, and do/don't activities. Sorting is ungraded and does not appear as a scored question in grading analytics.
Feedback
Learners provide a rating on a 1-to-5 star scale or a 10-point scale, with an optional written response. This tile is ungraded and works well for end-of-course surveys or gathering learner opinions. The rating must still be submitted before the tile is complete; only the written response is optional.
Ways to create assessments
You can create assessments in two ways:
Adding assessments within a lesson
Add assessment tiles within a lesson to place practice or graded questions beside the material they cover.
To add an assessment tile to a lesson:
Open your lesson in the Editor.
Add a new page or click the + icon within an existing page.
Choose one of the assessment tile types (multiple choice, select multiple, short answer, ranking, matching, sorting, or feedback).
Write your question and add answer options.
Configure feedback, scoring, or retry options in the tile settings as needed.
For example, after explaining a new policy, add a multiple-choice or ranking question so learners can check their understanding.
Creating assessments with the Mindsmith Agent
You can also ask the Mindsmith Agent to add assessments instead of building each tile manually. Enter the request in the Agent bar at the bottom of the editor.
For example, you might type:
"Create a five-question multiple-choice and ranking assessment based on the information on this page."
"Add a short assessment to reinforce the concept of workplace safety introduced here."
The Mindsmith Agent generates question tiles based on the existing lesson content. You can edit, reorder, or remove them.
Use this approach to add practice for one page or concept without planning a full exam.
Grading settings
Mindsmith gives you two layers of control over how assessments are scored and how learners receive feedback: lesson-level grading settings and tile-level question settings.
Lesson-level grading settings
You can configure overall grading rules in the Lesson Settings (⚙️) panel located in the top-right toolbar. Under Scoring, these settings apply across the entire lesson or assessment:
Passing Percentage: The minimum score required to pass (or "No requirement").
Question Retries: How many times a learner can retry a question: none, 1-4, or unlimited.
Scored Content: Whether the whole lesson counts toward the score (All Content) or only a Specific Section you choose.
Completion Criteria: What a learner must do for the lesson to count as complete:
Assessment Only: pass the assessment
Assessment and View: view all pages and complete the assessment (default)
Require Interactives: Optionally require learners to interact with every interactive tile (flashcards, accordions, hot buttons, sorting, and the like) before finishing.
To issue a certificate when learners pass, use the Certificate tab in the same Settings panel.
These controls set standards for the entire lesson or exam. For example, you can require an 80% passing score and completion of every interactive tile.
Tile-level question settings
You can also customize how each individual question behaves. To access these options, click on the assessment tile in the Editor and open the Options menu.
General tile-level settings include:
Question Mode (Assessment or Form): Switch a tile to Form mode to convert a scored question into an ungraded survey or practice question. The response is not marked right or wrong and does not count toward the learner’s score. Form mode does not make the question optional: the learner must still answer and submit it before the tile is complete.
Contributing to Score: Choose whether a graded question counts toward the learner’s overall lesson grade.
Final Feedback Mode: Decide how much feedback learners get after answering:
Silent: The learner receives no visual indication of whether their answer was correct or incorrect. No checkmark, no feedback text, and no correct answer reveal. The submit button is also hidden after answering.
Wrong Only: Incorrect answers show a red X icon and feedback text (if available) while the learner still has retries. Correct answers receive no visual indicator: no green checkmark and no feedback text. The correct answer is never revealed.
Full: Learners see a green checkmark for correct answers, a red X for incorrect answers, and a yellow question mark for partially correct answers (short answer tiles). Feedback text is shown when available. After all retries are used, the correct answer is revealed.
Tile-specific settings include:
Multiple Choice Feedback Mode: Choose between Correct / Incorrect (basic right/wrong feedback) or By Option (custom feedback tailored to the specific answer choice they selected).
Short Answer Grading Type: Choose AI to have the system evaluate concepts and allow partial credit. Choose Text Match to require an exact or close spelling match.
AI Grading: The AI reads the learner's response and evaluates it against the correct answer you've provided, as well as any grading examples. It understands synonyms, paraphrasing, and partial answers. Use this when learners should explain a concept in their own words.
Text Match: The system compares the learner's input directly to your accepted answers. It supports close matches (minor typos, case differences). Use this for factual answers with a single correct response, like a specific term or number.
Short Answer Grading Examples: Add examples of correct, partial, and incorrect responses to help train the AI on how to grade learner inputs accurately. When using AI grading, provide at least 2-3 examples across the correct, partial, and incorrect categories. The more examples you add, the more consistently the AI will grade responses that fall into gray areas.
Tile-level controls let you adjust each question separately. One multiple-choice question might give feedback for each option while another gives no feedback, like a formal exam.
When you submit a Feedback tile while previewing from the editor, Reset appears so you can clear that sample response and test the tile again. This control is part of author preview and is not shown to learners in a normal launch.
Conditional logic
Question tiles can route learners to different pages based on whether an answer is correct. You can send an incorrect answer to a review page or let a correct answer skip ahead.
To set up conditional logic:
Click on the question tile in the Editor.
Click the Logic button in the tile editor menu.
Set the If Correct Go To dropdown to choose which page the learner navigates to when they answer correctly. The default is "Next Page."
Set the If Incorrect Go To dropdown to choose the destination for incorrect answers. You can select any page in the lesson, or choose "Retry Page" to keep the learner on the same page.
Note: Conditional logic only applies when there is a single question tile on the page. This feature requires a paid plan and is currently marked experimental in the editor.
Use lesson-level settings for the overall assessment rules and tile-level settings for exceptions on individual questions. This supports both high-stakes testing and low-stakes practice.
Accessing assessment analytics
Once learners complete an assessment, you can track performance through the Analytics panel in the Editor. Analytics help you measure how well learners understand content, identify where they struggle, and evaluate the overall effectiveness of your training.
How to open analytics
From the Editor, navigate to the top-right menu bar.
Click the bar chart icon labeled Analytics.
A new panel will open showing two tabs:
Results: Learner progress, completions, average scores, and question performance.
Engagement: Data on how learners interacted with the lesson, including starts, completions, and unique viewers.
Business or Enterprise plans can use the Export menu to download CSV or PDF reports.
Plan tiers and analytics access
Analytics availability depends on your plan:
Free: Build and share lessons, but analytics aren't available.
Professional and up: View the full Results and Engagement tabs, including completions, average scores, per-page engagement, and per-learner detail.
Business or Enterprise: Everything above, plus export your results to CSV or PDF.
For more about interpreting data and tracking learner progress, see Analytics and Reporting.
The Free plan does not include Analytics, but each question tile can still give feedback. Use Feedback Modes in the tile settings to explain why an answer is right or wrong.