Author content with a spreadsheet component

A spreadsheet instructional component allows the author to enter data and perform calculations in Möbius, with the details to be made available for students to interact with during their activity attempt.

This component is ungraded, and can't be manually updated in the Gradebook to add points to a student's grade.

The spreadsheet instructional component is helpful if you want to provide the student with tabulated data, and the student can change data or perform spreadsheet calculations within Möbius.

The Gradebook and the post-submission feedback for the activity will show a read-only static rendering of the component, including any changes made by a student during their activity attempt.

TIP: All content is authored using the Question Editor. Check out Author a question to learn how to access the Question Editor.

To add a spreadsheet instructional component

To author a question with a spreadsheet instructional component:

1. Enter the question statement in the Question Text pane of the Question Editor.

1. Click Möbius component.

1.  Click Spreadsheet from the list of instructional components.

TIP: This instructional component doesn't count towards the grade for the question. Check out Author a spreadsheet question for how to include a spreadsheet for which the student response can be assigned a grade.

1. In a cell of the spreadsheet, right-click to use the context menu. You can do any of the following:

• Insert row/column — Add a row or column to the table, either before or after the selected row or column.
• Remove row/column — Delete the selected row(s) or column(s) from the table.
• Undo/Redo — Undo the most recent change to the table, or redo the most recent change that was undone.
• Read only — Lock the contents of the selected cell(s) so they can't be changed by students answering the question.
• Alignment — Change the horizontal or vertical alignment of text within the selected cell(s).
• Copy/Cut — Copy or cut the contents of the selected cell(s).

IMPORTANT: There is a limit of 20 rows and 20 columns on the spreadsheet, to ensure it remains navigable for students and instructors.

TIP: You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to cut, copy and paste the contents of the selected cell(s).

NOTE: Students won't have the options of inserting or deleting rows or columns when they attempt the spreadsheet question in an activity. Check out Navigate a spreadsheet to see what menu options and keyboard shortcuts are available to the student.

1. Enter text or formulas into cells as desired, using the Read only option in the context menu to prevent students from changing the cells.

TIP: Formulas are written starting with an equal sign (=). Cell references are written as either an upper-case or lower-case letter followed by a number (Example — write A2 or a2 to reference the value in the first column and second row).

NOTE: Check out the documentation for built-in functions for a full list of pre-built functions available with the spreadsheet component.

1. Click Insert to add this instructional component to the question.

1. The instruction spreadsheet is inserted into your question.

NOTE: A question can have multiple parts, with each question part using a different type of component. Example — A question could contain two components; the first part using a document upload student response, and the second part a multiple choice student response component.

1. Click Preview to trial your content to ensure that it behaves as expected.

TIP: You first have to click the save iconif you're creating this question from within an Activity Editor. After the question has been saved, you can then click the preview iconto ensure that your new question behaves as expected.

1. Click Save to save your new question. Your new question is now stored in the Questions pane of the Content Repository.

TIP: Click the save iconif you're creating this question from within an Activity Editor. This saves your question to the activity and the Content Repository.