Tag: Setup

Blackboard Tests (Ultra): 1.1: Question creation & organisation

Posted on by peter.peasey
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A Question Bank is a database of questions you can reuse in multiple assessments. You can import and export Question Banks between your courses. It is recommended that you finalize your questions within your Question Bank(s) before adding them to an assessment.

  1. Navigate to the Blackboard course where you are using a Blackboard Test.
  2. Select Manage Banks under the Question Banks header in the Details & Actions side menu. This will open the Question Banks.Screenshot of the Details and actions menu. The Question Banks option is highlighted.
  3. Select the + sign to open a context menu and select New. This will start a new bank of questions and take you to a new screen.An image of the "+" button in the question banks screen of Blackboard ultra
  4. By default, your question bank will be called “New Question Bank [DATE]”. To change this, click in the title at the very top of the screen.
  5. If you wish to, you can add a description of the question bank for your own or colleagues’ reference by clicking on Description in the top-left of the screen and typing in the text box provided.
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Info: Descriptions added to Question Banks are for staff reference only and are not displayed to students.
  1. Click on the + button to open a list of available questions that you can add to your Question Bank. To explore the question types you can add and how to configure them, please refer to the Adding, scoring and configuring questions (question types) section below.
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Warning: Reusing questions from another test or Question Bank will create a copy of that question in your new test. This can lead to errors, with questions being duplicated and the wrong versions being changed. For more information, please read Blackboard’s guidance on reusing questions.


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Wait and Check: Before proceeding with this section of the guidance, coordinate with administrative staff (or whomsoever adds and manages assessments). There may be specific tests you need to add your questions to so that marks are transferred to SITS correctly.
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Info: If you wish students to see a random selection of questions from a wider group (e.g., a random selection of 5 from 10 possible questions), you must add questions as a Pool.
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Warning: DEO RECOMMENDS adding Question Banks to tests via “Add a question pool” rather than as individual questions. This helps organize content and ensures updates to questions affect both the original question stored and any test it is used in.


Once a test has been created and you have created a Question Bank (or several), you can add your questions to a test.

    1. If you are not already in the test:
      1. Navigate to the Blackboard course and locate it in the Course Content feed. Normally, summative assessments are located in the Assessment, submission and feedback area.
      2. Once you have located the test, select the course’s title to enter the test.
    2. Click on the + sign under Create your assessment to start adding content and select Add a question pool. This will open the Add Question Pool screen.
      1. In the left-hand Filter Criteria menu, scroll down the list to the Question Banks section and toggle the tick-box next to the Question Bank you wish to use. This will list only the questions in that bank on the right-hand side of the screen.
    3. If you wish to use all of the questions in this bank, select Select all. Alternatively, scroll through the list of questions and select only those you wish to add by toggling the tick-box next to the question.
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Info: You should only add questions to a pool that share a common points value. You can add any number of questions to a pool (including 1) and add multiple pools to the same test, offering broad configuration options. For example, if you want to add 20 MCQ questions with a points value of 1 per-question, these can all go in one pool. If you then want to add one Fill-in-the-Blanks question with a points value of 3, this can go in another pool on its own.
    1. Once all of the questions you want to add to this pool have been selected, click Add Questions. This will return you to the test setup screen.
    2. Set the points value per question in the pool by clicking on the ovoid in the top-right of the Question Pool section.
    3. Set the Number of questions to display to students from this pool. This will be set to all of the questions by default. If you would rather students encounter only some questions from this pool at random, you can decrease this number. This operates as “Random Blocks” did in Blackboard Original.
    4. Once you are happy with the configuration, click Save.
    5. You can now add additional Question Pools if you wish to. You can also add additional individual questions (see ADDING INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONS TO A TEST AND REUSING QUESTIONS) or organize the content of your questions (see OPTIONS FOR ORGANISING CONTENT AND ADDING ADDITIONAL MATERIALS).
    6. Toggle Allow students to add content at the end of assessment to off if you do not want to use this feature. Leaving this on can provide a space for students to upload working documents they used to complete the test, although these cannot be marked.
    7. Once you have finished, click the X in the top-left of the screen to return to the content feed.


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Warning: To ensure content is correctly assigned and updated, the DEO recommends creating Question Banks and linking these to the test using the “Add a question pool” option. The other options provided below may lead to errors or old information from prior tests being copied into new content. The alternatives listed below should be used with caution and attention made to the advisories for each.
  1. If you are not already in the test:
    1. Navigate to the Blackboard course and locate it in the Course Content feed. Normally, summative assessments are located in the Assessment, submission and feedback area.
    2. Once you have located the test, select the course’s title to enter the test.
  2. Click on the + sign under Create your assessment to start adding content. Choose between:
    1. Add a question type. This will allow you to add a question to the test itself, not attached to any specific Question Bank. You should bear the following in mind:
      1. If you intend to randomise the order of questions within a test, you should not add numbers to reference questions in the question description.
      2. If you add questions directly to the test, they can only be amended or updated via that test. If you then reuse this question in another test in the future (as per Reuse questions below), this will produce an individual copy that cannot be centrally updated or stored. This is not recommended as it may lead to error and/or duplication of exam or test questions.
      3. You cannot randomise a student’s chance of encountering an individually added question when they take a test. You can randomise this chance in Question Pools added alongside individual questions, but the individual question is guaranteed to be encountered.
    2. Reuse questions. This option allows you to add questions to the test from other tests or question banks. You should bear the following in mind:
      1. If you intend to randomise the questions within a test, you should not add numbers to reference questions in the question description.
      2. The Reuse questions option should be thought of as a ‘copy questions’ feature. It creates a duplicate of the question from the Question Bank or test you are copying it from. Changing the question in the original question bank will not update the copy in the test. This is not recommended as it may lead to error and/or duplication of exam or test questions.
      3. You cannot randomise a student’s chance of encountering an individually added question when they take a test. You can randomise this chance in Question Pools added alongside individual questions, but the individual question is guaranteed to be encountered.


Alongside adding questions to a Test, you can also add other items, text and images, and organize your test into a selection of pages (perhaps around a theme or around specific included reference materials that speak to those questions). To explore these options:

  1. If you are not already in the test:
    1. Navigate to the Blackboard course and locate it in the Course Content feed. Normally, summative assessments are located in the Assessment, submission and feedback area.
    2. Once you have located the test, select the course’s title to enter the test.
  2. Click on the + sign under Create your assessment to start adding content. Choose between:
    1. Add text to add instructions, information, images, links, and media. This is only visible once the student has started the attempt, so should not be used for any pre-exam/test guidance.
    2. Add local file, to upload a file.
    3. Add a page break, this will allow you to group questions together in a section (page) and control what students see first. You can randomize the questions within a page as well as the pages themselves. Some things to consider include:
      1. This option cannot be used in combination with the setting, Display one question at a time.
      2. You should consider how many questions and other content to add to a page. 10 items as a maximum (depending on the volume of materials and complexity of the questions) is likely a workable limit.
      3. Why this option makes better pedagogic sense than displaying one question at a time. Perhaps questions are grouped around a theme, or you want students to view questions in context with other materials or media added to that page.