Introduction
In your platform, you can create and store test questions in a global question Bank so they can be saved and reused across multiple tests in multiple courses.
You can add questions to this central repository directly from the question Bank or while creating tests for courses, selecting the Add this question to the question bank option.
Creating question categories in the question bank
Being a central repository for your platform, the question bank may collect a large number of questions. Creating categories is a useful way to organize questions into groups, so that you can find them quicker in the question bank and when adding them into tests in courses. It is not mandatory to create categories, but can definitely be a good option when working with large numbers of questions.
In order to create categories, access the question bank, by reaching the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Question bank. From the main page of the question bank, move to the Question category vertical tab, and click the New category button.
Add a name and a description for the category, then press Save changes to confirm its creation. Once created, the category is listed in the Question category page. Click on the pen and paper icon to edit the category name or description, and on the X icon to delete the category. You cannot delete a category with questions assigned to it.
Creating questions in the question bank
In order to create a new question in the question bank, access the question bank from the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Question bank and click on the New question button in the action bar at the top. Then, in the pop-up box, select the type of question you want to create.
Press Continue and create your question according to the selected option. Optionally select the question level of difficulty and the category of belonging. Press Save changes to complete the creation process.
Once you’ve created questions, they will be listed on the question bank main page. You can refer to the Manage questions in the question bank section of this article to learn more about managing this list.
Adding question bank questions to a test
Once questions are available in the question bank, you can import the questions, either one at a time or in bulk, to any tests in your platform. Begin by accessing the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses. Click on the description of the course you are interested in, then move to the Training material tab.
Either create a test or find the test in the list of training materials and press the menu icon in the corresponding row. From the dropdown menu, select Edit. On the Edit page for the test, press the Add question button, then select the Import from question bank option from the dropdown menu.
In the pop-up box, select the questions you want to insert into the test, check the answers to the question you are importing by pressing the arrow icon at the end of the question’s row, and press Save changes to complete the import. You can filter questions by category or search for specific questions using the Search bar. Remember, when you import a question from the question bank, you are also importing all of its attributes such as score, answers policy, and category.
Please note! Questions from the question bank can only be edited within the question bank itself. You cannot edit a question from the question bank from a test.
The questions you have imported are now listed on the test Edit page. You can rearrange the sequence of the questions by pressing the cross icon in the question’s row, then dragging and dropping the question to your desired location in the list. You can also remove a question bank question from a test by clicking on the unlink icon at the end of the question’s row. When you unlink a question imported from the question bank from a test, the previously recorded answer will no longer be shown in the course report.
Managing questions in the question bank
When a question is associated with one or more tests, you will be able to see the number of the tests associated in the Assigned to column.
By pressing the number, you will see the answers associated with the question, specifying the correct one, and the name of the tests, and the courses associated with this question. Click on the pen and paper icon in the question's row to be redirected to the question's Edit page. Questions can be deleted only if not associated with any test, but you can only archive them by clicking on the eye icon in the question’s row.
When you archive a question, you can no longer assign it to tests, but it will be still visible in the tests where the association is already established, and answers are still recorded by the platform. Click again on the eye icon to undo the archive, and reactivate the question in your platform.
If a question has not yet been associated with a course, you can delete it by pressing the X button in the question’s row. Click on the pen and paper icon in the question’s row to edit the question. Please note that when you edit a question in the question Bank, changes will apply to all tests in which the question has been imported.
You can filter the questions in the questions list by selecting a category from the corresponding dropdown menu, or flagging the options to view only unarchived or archived questions. You can search for specific questions by using the search bar at the top of the list.
Importing a question from a test into the question bank
You can create questions directly into a test within a course, then import them into the question bank by flagging the Add this question to the question bank option during the question creation process.
This option is only available when you create the question, and cannot be selected afterward.
All the questions that have been added to the question bank are identified as questions available in the question bank in the test page.
Question bank and Power Users
If you have Power Users managing courses, here follow some suggestions on how to configure their permissions:
- Without any permission on courses, Power Users cannot see the question bank, hence, they cannot manage any questions in it
- With View and Edit permissions on courses, Power Users can view and edit courses, and they can import questions from the question bank in tests, even if they cannot see the question bank management area
- With Create and Edit permissions on courses, Power Users can see the question bank page, and they can manage the questions in it. Still, they cannot manage the questions assigned to at least one test in the central repository
Best practices
Please keep the following in mind before using the question bank tool in your platform:
- When you add a question from the question bank into a local test, you will no longer be able to configure some options in that test in order not to generate conflicts with the settings configured in the question bank.
- The score obtained by a user for a question from the question bank will only apply to the test the question is associated with. It will NOT apply to all of the tests in which the question is placed.
- Editing a question from the question bank will not alter the score calculations for tests in which users have already answered this question.
- Questions cannot be created in multiple languages. If you need to create questions in different languages, you need to create several tests for every needed language.