From your dashboard, navigate to the Assessment Builder by clicking either Get Started, or New Assessment.

Go to the Uploaded tab.

Click the button to Upload Your Own Phenomena and Questions.

The Assessment Builder will start on the Phenomena tab. Here, add a title for your assessment and select the relevant NGSS performance expectation(s) using the dropdown menu.

We recommend adding an image or GIF to the phenomenon page. You can drag and drop a file (jpg, png, gif) from your computer into the box on the right.

Once your image is uploaded, you can add it to your assessment by dragging it from the gray box on the right to the white box on the left.

We also recommend adding a few sentences to provide students with context about the phenomenon they're going to examine.

Click Save Phenomena and Continue to move forward to the Questions tab in the Assessment Builder.

Copy and paste all the questions from your existing assignment into the space on the left. You will need to format your questions according to the formatting guidelines for the site (click How-To Import Guide to review InnerOrbit's formatting guidelines).

Once your questions are uploaded, you'll need to categorize open-ended questions as either free response or drawing questions by clicking either the Free Response or Drawing box underneath the question.

Move forward to the Answer Key tab of the Assessment Builder.

For multiple-choice questions, mark the correct answer(s) by clicking the blue check box next to the answer choice. To edit the question or answer choices, click on the text.

For free response questions, add bullet points as grading criteria. We recommend adding between 1-3 bullet points to help graders understand what to look for – or to remind yourself what to look for – when grading student responses.

You can also add words or phrases that will automatically be highlighted in student responses as you can see in the example below:

Move forward to the Standards Tagging tab of the Assessment Builder. Click on a performance expectation to open a dropdown of each of the standards within the performance expectation.

Drag and drop specific elements from the NGSS that align to each assessment question, including:

Move forward to the Preview tab of the Assessment Builder, where you can preview your assessment cluster to make sure there are no errors in the text or formatting of your questions.

Lastly, move forward to the Publish tab of the Assessment Builder. You can choose whether you would like to make your cluster visible to all teachers at your school, all users on InnerOrbit, or private to just you.

Once you are ready to publish, click Publish My Cluster.

The team at InnerOrbit is also happy to give you feedback on your NGSS assessment uploads. To opt-in to receiving feedback, click "Yes, please give me feedback."

Send us a message on the site chat (purple bubble on bottom right corner) or email us support@innerorbit.com.