Blackboard Test and Question Pools in Blackboard November 2010

Blackboard – Test and Question Pools in Blackboard –November 2010

Creating a Test

Tests can be created very quickly in Blackboard. They can be added via the Course Tools menu in the control panel or directly into a content area. The instructor can see the test results in the grade centre. Students can view their results via the ‘my grades’ tool.

This handout includes

Basic steps to creating a test
Creating a Question Pool
Creating a Test from a Question Pool
Questions Types

Basic steps to creating a test

Step 1: With edit mode on go to the content area where you want to add a test. Click on the ‘Create Assessment’ drop down menu and choose Test. /
Step 2: The Create Test screen now appears. Tests in your site that haven’t been deployed (made available to students) will be listed in the add test menu. Click on ‘Create’ to start making your new test. /
Step 3: The Test Information screen appears. Give the test a name (required field), a description and some instructions (optional) / tests3

Step 4: The Test Canvas now appears. This is where you add the questions either by creating new questions, reusing questions from a Question Pool or uploading questions from a word file. Click on the Create Question menu and choose a question type. /
Step 5: The Create/Edit screen now appears. Enter your question text, answers and feedback. Click on Submit. /
Step 6: The Test Canvasfrom step 4 reappears with your new questions. You can edit the points assigned to each question on this screen. Repeatsteps 4 and 5 to add more questions. Click on Ok at the bottom of the Test Canvas once you have added all your questions. / points tiff

Step 7: You are now directed back to theCreate Test screen. Your new test will appear in the ‘add test’ list, Select your test and click ‘ Submit. / create2 tiff

Step 8: The Test Options Screen: Ensure that you click yes next to the 'make the link available' option. If you don't do this your students will not be able to access this test.
Other options allow you to control the presentation of the test and its feedback as well as how many attempts a student can have.
You can also specify dates that the test will available between. If you set a 'display until' date you must make sure that you set a 'display from' date. /

Creating a Question Pool

ThePool Manager allows instructors to store questions for repeated use. Generally, it will contain more questions than you would include on any one assessment. For example, you could have 30 questions in the pool, and you could then create an assessment in Blackboard that would randomly select 20 questions for each student.

Step 1: From the Control Panel of your course select Tests, Surveys & pools /
Step 2: Click on Pools / testsurpool tiff

Step 3: The Pool manager screen now appears . Click on Build Pool. /
Step 4: The Pool Information screen now appears; give the Pool a name, a description and instructions. Then click Submit. /
Step 5:The Pool Canvas now opens( figure 10). You can now start adding questions to your pool. From this point on, the process of creating the questions is exactly the same as the process for creating a stand-alone test.
You can either create new questions to include in the Pool or add questions that have been created in other Tests or Pools by using the ‘Find Questions’ option.
After you have created the last question, click OK at the bottom of the Pool Canvas. You can additional questions later. / poolcanvas2 tiff

Creating a Test from a Question Pool

Step 1 + 2: Create a test and then name it in the test options screen. /
Step 3: In the Test Canvas Screenclick on the Reuse Question menu and select Create Random Block. This option will allow you to randomly select questions from aQuestion Pool. /
Step 4: The Create Random Block screen now appears. Select the Pool and Question types you want to include. Click on Submit. / randomblock

Step 5: Fill in the number of questions to display and the points per question. /

Question Types

No matter what question type you choose, you must set a point value for each question. The total points for a test do not have to equal 100. Blackboard will calculate a % based on the correct responses and the total possible points.

Multiple Choice – Students select 1 correct answer from a list of choices.

Multiple Answer – Identical to Multiple Choice except there can be more than 1 correct answer. Students are not told now many correct answers there are.

Fill in the Blank – With this question you type a sentence where you put a “______” in the text of the question. You can only have 1 blank per question. You are allowed to have multiple right answers. The students are not given a choice of answers but must type their answer.

Fill in Multiple Blanks – Allows you to have a sentence with multiple blanks in it. Type the text of the question and in the places you want a blank type a new variable name. Each blank can have multiple right answers. When taking the test students are not presented with choices for the blank, they must type in the answer themselves.

Jumbled Sentence – Students are given choices of words to put in each blank. Put a new variable in the question text where you want the blanks to appear. Students will get to pick from a list of choices for each blank. All of the answers appear as options for each blank. Not all of the answer options have to be correct.

True/False – The student must respond either true or false to a statement.

Either /Or – Instead of a simple true/false answer, the answer can take the following forms:

Yes/No
Agree/Disagree
Right/Wrong
True/False

Essay – Allows students to give longer typed responses to questions. Blackboard will not automatically grade these answers for you so you must grade them through the Gradebook.

Short Answer – Is similar to the Essay question type. It allows students to type a short response to a question. The length of the response is limited to 4000. Again Blackboard will not automatically grade these answers.

Matching – Students match up an item in the left hand column with an item in the right hand column. Each item on the left can only have 1 match on the right. The right column can contain answers with no corresponding match in the left column.

File Response – Students answer this question by uploading a file.

Hot Spot – The students select an answer to the question by clicking somewhere on an image that you upload. JPEG and GIF files are the preferred formats for image uploads. Only 1 hot spot on the image can be chosen per question.

Calculated Formula– allows you to enter a formula for students to solve.

Calculated Numeric – allows you to enter a question that students must give a numeric response to.

Ordering – Allows you to place a list of items in order. The students must place a 1,2,3 etc by each item indicating its correct order.

Quiz Bowl – The response a student gives must be in the form of a question.

Opinion Scale /Likert – allows you to ask a question where the answer will lie somewhere on a scale that you provide.

Random Block – Blackboard will randomly choose a question from a pool of questions that you specify. You can specify how many questions you want Blackboard to insert from the random pool. To use this question type you must have questions already in a question pool.

From a Question Pool or Assessment – Allows you to pick a question you have already written, either in a question pool or in another test.

Once the test has been created, it needs to be deployed into a content area and then made available for students.

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