This article explains how questions with variations work in FlatWorld Homework, how to use them, and what different settings are available with them.

If a question has variations, that means that there are multiple versions of the question, usually of the same format, but with different numeric values. For example, if the initial question is "2x=4, what is the value of x?" and the correct answer is "2", a variation might be "3x=12, what is the value of x?" with the correct answer being "4".

Note: Only some titles have questions with variations. They are most commonly available in Math, Chemistry, and Finance books, and your FlatWorld rep can tell you if a particular title includes variations.

Questions with variations can be added to assignments during the "Add Questions" step of assignment creation by checking the box next to them like any other question.

Questions with variations can be identified by the box on the right side of the question list which shows two numbers; if the second number is 2 or more then the question has multiple variations:

The first number is how many variations are set to be included in the assignment if the box on the left is checked and the second is how many variations exist total. You can edit the first number once you select a question on the left side of the page to add it to an assignment:

The settings shown in the image above mean that each student will be shown three variations of the question as separate questions on the assignment (so if no other questions were added to the assignment it would have a total of three questions).

You can enter any number in the left side of the box up to the total number of variations available for a given question, including one, if you only want to have one variation of the question in the assignment. In step 4 of assignment creation you will have the option to decide whether different student will see the same variations as each other, or if they will all see different variations and to decide if they will see different variations upon subsequent attempts (if multiple attempts are allowed for the assignment).

You can see multiple variations of the question in the question preview. To view the preview click on the text of the question in the question selection screen. The full question preview will load on the right side of the screen. To see a different variation than the one initially shown click the "change values" button on the left side of the preview:

If the questions added to an assignment include at least one question with variations you will see "Questions Settings" between the "Attempts" and "Hints & Feedback Settings" categories under Step 4 Preview and Publish:

You can choose to either "Give each student randomly selected question values" which will give each student a random variation of the question or "Give all students the same question values" which will give the same question to each student. Under each of those options, there is an optional checkbox that reads "Follow-up attempts have randomly selected question values". This setting will make it so that students see different questions on any subsequent attempts. If you leave it unchecked students will see the same questions on subsequent attempts that they saw on their first attempt.