Manage Tests & Surveys [migrated]

From the “Tests” page in Blackboard, instructors will find the functionality for building and importing new tests, as well as a way to add questions to, edit, deploy and make available to students, and delete tests already created.

In order for a student to take a test on Blackboard, the instructor must perform three distinct actions:

1. Create a new test
2. Add the test as course content
3. Make the test available to students (can be done in previous step or later)

Note: Surveys are created much the same way tests are created. Use the “Surveys” page instead of the “Test” page and click to “Build Survey” or “Import Survey” and follow a similar process as creating a test. The main difference between Tests and Surveys is that Surveys are anonymous. A green checkmark will appear in the Grade Center spreadsheet to indicate when a student has submitted a survey, however no student data is associated with student responses.

Create a New Test

1. From the “Control Panel”, expand “Course Tools” and click on “Tests, Surveys, and Pools”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Click “Tests” to go to the “Tests” page.

 

 

 

 

3. Click “Build Test” to go to the “Build Test” page.

 

 

 

 

4. Populate the test metadata, including the name, description, and instructions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Click “Submit” to create the test and enter the “Test Canvas” page where questions are added.

Add Questions to a Test

From the “Test Canvas” page, questions can be added to a test by creating new questions in Blackboard, selecting from previously created test questions or questions pools, or uploading questions from the local machine.

Select from a List of Question Types
To select from a list of question types, expand the “Create Question” dropdown menu and select from the various question types.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a Random Block of Questions/Find a Question from a Pool or Test
To create a random block of questions or to find a question from a pool or test previously created, expand the “Reuse Question” dropdown menu and select the desired option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upload Questions Prepared Offline
To upload questions prepared offline, click the “Upload Questions” menu item and select the prepared file from the local machine.

 

 

Note: Questions will appear as part of the upload process. If a question in the file has an error, only that question will fail to upload. Questions from a file can be modified after the upload like ones created directly within Blackboard.

Create Test Questions Offline

Tests can be created offline in a spreadsheet application, exported as a comma-separated or tab-delimited file, and imported to Blackboard.

Note: Microsoft Excel is the spreadsheet application used in the instructions below, but any properly formated text file can be imported.

 

1. In a new spreadsheet, enter the question information into rows and columns. Each row will represent a question.

 

 

Column 1 — Enter an abbreviation representing the question format. See the table of question types & abbreviations.

Column 2 — Enter the question text.

Note: Exclude all formatting: It will be not be honored in the exported file.

Column 3 —
For MC,MA,ORD: Enter the text of a potential answer.
For TF: Enter the answer, either “true” or “false”.
For ESS: Optional Enter an example essay.
For MAT: Enter a value in the first matching pair.
For FIB: Enter the text before the first blank.

Column 4 —
For MC,MA: Enter the validity of the answer, either “incorrect” or “correct”.
For ORD: Enter the next answer in descending order.
For MAT: Enter the other value in the first matched pair
For FIB: Enter the solution to the first blank

Additional Columns —
For MC,MA: Repeat Column 3 & 4 as necessary.
For ORD: Enter additional answers in descending order.
For MAT: Repeat Column 3 & 4 as necessary.
For FIB: Alternate text and blank solutions as necessary.

Question Types & Abbreviations

Abbreviation	Question Type
MC	Multiple Choice
MA	Multiple Answer
TF	True/False
ESS	Essay
ORD	Ordering
MAT	Matching
FIB	Fill in the Blank
FIL	File response
NUM	Numeric Response
SR	Short response
OP	Opinion
FIB_PLUS	Multiple Fill in the Blank
JUMBLED_SENTENCE	Jumbled Sentence
QUIZ_BOWL	Quiz Bowl

2. In Excel, select the “File” menu and then choose “Save As”. Enter a name for the file and use the “Format” dropdown menu to select “Tab Delimited Text (.txt)”.

A sample excel file [xls] containing model questions and the table of question types is available for download.

Manage Existing Tests

1. From the “Control Panel”, expand the “Course Tools” and click on “Tests, Surveys, and Pools”.
2. Click “Tests” to go to the “Tests” page.

 

 

 

 

3. Click the down-arrow icon next to the test’s name to expand the contextual menu and options for edit, export, copy, and delete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: The “delete” function will not be available for a test once students have begun taking the test, or for tests which have questions associated with the question sets of other tests.

Import a Test

Only tests that exported from Blackboard can be imported.

1. From the “Control Panel”, expand the “Course Tools” and click on “Tests, Surveys, and Pools”.
2. Click “Tests” to go to the “Tests” page.

 

 

 

 

3. Click “Import Test” and select the prepared file from the local machine.

 

 

 

 

4. Once the file is uploaded, click “Submit”.
5. The imported test will be visible in the list of tests.