Creating Questions in Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessment

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Brightspace Support > Adding course Content & Activities > Create/Add activities in a course > Creating Questions in Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessment

Creating Questions in Quizzes, Surveys and Self-Assessments

On this page you learn how create Questions in Brightspace and what type of questions there are.

Creating Questions

There are two ways to create questions in Quizzes, Surveys and Self Assessments:

  • Add new questions directly
  • Build a Question Library (and import them into your Quiz, Survey or Self Assessment).
    Tip: The advantage of using the Question Library is that all questions that you create will be saved there and can be reused later in any new Quiz, Survey or Self-Assessment.

Add new questions directly

  1. Go to Course Admin
  2. Click on Quizzes, Surveys or Self-Assessments
  3. Make sure you  created your Quiz, Survey or Self Assessment.
  4. Click on the Quiz, Survey or Self Assessment to which you wish to add a new question.
  5. Click on select Add/Edit Questions
    If you create a new Self Assessment you first need to save it before you can Add/Edit Questions.
  6. Optionally add a Section. Sections are folders that help you sort questions from the Question Library.
    1. Click on Add > Section
    2. Give the Section a Title
    3. Optionally Hide Selection Title from learners
    4. Optionally add a Section Text and Hide the Text from learners
    5. Optionally check Shuffle questions to randomize the order in which students get the question within the section.
    6. Click Save
  7. To add questions you have 2 options:
    1. Create and add new questions:
      1. Click on Add > New Question and choose a Question Type.
      2.  Compose the question
    2. Import existing questions  from a Question Library or a CSV file.
  1. Repeat the steps above until you added all Questions and/or Sections.
  2. Click on Back to [name Quiz, Survey or Self-Assessment]

Build a Question Library

The Question Library is a central repository that stores and archives questions which can be reused within a course. It allows you to create a variety of questions, organize them into sections (folders) and reuse them in Quizzes, Surveys and Self Assessments.

  1. Navigate to Course Admin and click on Quizzes, Surveys or Self Assessments.
  2. Click on the Question Library-tab.
  3. Here you have 4 options:
    1. New question: click on Add > New question, select a question type and compose your question.
    2. Section:  Click on Add > Section and fill the fields.
      Sections are folders that help you sort questions from the Question Library.
    3. Import questions using a .CSV file
      1. Click on Import and select Upload a File.
      2. Choose the File you wish to import. It wil start uploading automatically.
        There is a CSV Sample File link which you can click on to download an example of the correct format to use for your questions.
      3. Once uploaded, click on Save.
    4. Import Existing Questions.
      1. Change the Source to the Quiz/Survey/Self Assessment you want to import the question(s) from.
      2. Select the question(s) you want from the source collection.
      3. Click Import and select the right destination for your questions. You can import to a quiz or choose a section to import to.
  4. When done, click Done Editing Questions.
  5. Add your questions to a Quiz, Survey or Self Assessment
Note: It is well worth the time to build a strong Question Library. Take note of any questions that you come up with during the year. This will take some pressure off when the time comes to set up quizzes for your students.

For most question types you will follow more or less the same steps to add questions:

Composing Questions

  1. Select which type of question you wish to create.
  2. Optionally add a question Title
    The Title is not mandatory because it will only be displayed to the instructor to make finding questions easier.
  3. Add the question to the Question text area.
    • Optionally add an image using the Camera-button:
  4. Add one or more Answers.
    • For Written response, Arithmetic and Significant figures questions, students can add files (max 100MB) to their answers.
      • For Written response questions, check Enable inserted images and attachments
      • For Arithmetic and Significant figures questions, check Allow attachements to support answers
  5. Determine the Points students get for the correct answer.
  6. Optionally add Hints or Feedback by clicking on Options on the top.
    Tip: For Surveys and Self Assessments (not graded) we recommend that you provide feedback comments for each question.
    Tip: Use feedback comments to indicate correct and incorrect answers, where a correct answer can be found in the course content and what details an ideal answer should include.
  7. Check the other Options (very different per question type)
  8. Preview your question on the right or click on the Preview button.
  9. Click Save and New, in case you wish to add another question. Otherwise, click Save.
  10. If the next question is almost identical to the one before, you can simply click Save and Copy. This action will create a copy which you can edit accordingly.
Note: When setting up questions that are not-mandatory, Brightspace might show a warning message at the end of the survey, mentioning to the survey participants that they still have questions left unanswered.

Question types

First something about Automatic Grading. After that the questions types are categorized in accordions as followed:
Textual: Written Response, Short answer, Multi-short answer, Fill in the blanks.
Organizing: Matching, Ordering.
Checking Boxes: True-false, Multiples Choice, Multi-select.
Calculation: Arithmetic, Significant figures

Automatic grading

Most Question Types allow for Automatic Grading so that you do not have to grade them manually. This can save a lot of time. Only Written Response question cannot be auto graded.

However, when you have more complicated answers (like “vectors(1,0,0)”) you have to ‘program’ different versions of correct answers by using Regular Expressions. This can be useful, but be aware this can also require quite some work and mistakes are easily made.

Warning: when you use automatic grading you can only give full or no points. If you have large questions, either split them into smaller questions, grade them by hand or use question types that must be graded by hand anyway.

Look at the question types below to see what the options are.

Extra functionality in Quizzes

Textual questions

  • Written Response (no automatic grading possibility)
    Students can type in a longer text, and you can add instructions for graders on how to give students full or partial points. Students can also add files to their answers (max 100MB). Check Enable inserted images and attachments to make this possible.
  • Short answer
    Questions that require a short answer, like 1 word, that can be automatically graded. Answers can be case-sensitive or not. If you have more complicated answers (like “vectors (1,0,0)”), you can ‘program’ different versions of correct answers by using Regular Expressions.
  • Multi-short answer
    Same as short answer, but now you can have multiple short answers.
  • Fill in the blanks
    Same as short answer, but in with this type you ask multiple shorts answers because to let students fill in the blanks of a question.

Organizing questions

  • Matching
    Matching items on a list to the left of the screen to items on a list to the right. This type can be Automatically graded.
  • Ordering
    Putting a list of items in the correct order. This type can be Automatically graded.

Checking boxes questions

Very sensitive to fraud and therefore not recommended when using Question for an Exam.
  • True-false
    Statement that can either be true or false. Can be atomically graded.
  • Multiples Choice
    Question were one answer is correct. Can be atomically graded.
  • Multi-select
    Question where multiple answer can be correct; often without telling the student how many to select. Can be atomically graded. There are three possible grading options:
  • All or nothing – Users receive full points for the question only if they select all the correct answers and none of the incorrect answers. Users receive zero points for the entire question if they miss any correct answers or select any incorrect answers.
  • Right minus wrong – Users receive points equal to the number of right answers they choose minus the number of incorrect answers they choose. Users can receive a minimum of zero on a question; they cannot receive a negative mark. To calculate how much each answer is worth, the system takes the total number of points assigned to the question and divides it by the total number of answer choices. For example:
    If a question is worth 10 points total and has 5 answer choices, each choice is worth 2 points (10/5=2). Correct answers are worth +2 points each and incorrect answers are worth -2 points each. If the user selects 3 correct answers and 2 incorrect answers, they would receive 2 points for each correct answer and lose 2 points for each incorrect answer, resulting in a total score of 2 points for the question [3(2)+2(-2)=2].
  • Correct answers – Users receive points for each correct answer they select and for each incorrect answer they leave blank. Incorrect answers selected, and correct answers left blank, are not counted.

Calculation questions

These questions types can only be used in Quizzes and Self Assessments.  For Arithmetic and Significant figures questions students can add files (max. 100MB) to support their answers.
  • Arithmetic
    For questions where the answer has to be calculated. To allow students to upload files (i.e. to support their answer) check Allow attachments to support answers.
    Tip: When using this for an exam you can use parametrization. With this option all students get random values for variables, all chosen from a range that you set.
  • Significant figures
    Same as Arithmetic, but with EXP(10^) notation to force students to determine the precision of an answer. To allow students to upload files (i.e. to support their answer) check Allow attachments to support answers.

Regular expressions and examples

You can use regular expressions to determine whether short answers are true or false. Here is a list of syntax you can use. Be careful that you test them well (first in https://regex101.com/ to check for syntax errors and later with a colleague in your Brightspace Sandbox). It is not possible to do automatic regrading after your students took the test. You would have to go over the incorrect responses and manually increase the points for answers that were correct any way.

Vector

Question:

Give/describe the vector, by using solely ‘0’ and ‘1’, which is orthogonal to the vectors (1,0,0) and (0,1,0).
Do not insert blanks in your answer.

Answer using Text:
(0,0,1).

However, if you are forgiving students to insert blanks, you could use the following code in RegEx:
\(\s?0\s?,\s?0\s?,\s?1\s?\)

  • \ – escape sign that indicates that the next character should be treated like a character.
  • \( – character (
  • \s – a space
  • ? – indicates that the proceeding character may or may not be there.
  • \s? – a space or no space

If you want them to be able to use multiple spaces:
\(\s*0\s*,\s*0\s*,\s*1\s*\)

  • \ – escape sign that indicates that the next character should be treated like a character.
  • \( – character (
  • \s – a space
  • * – indicates that the proceeding character may or may not be there multiple times.
  • \s* – a space, multiple spaces, or no space

Number

Question:
How many levels of Bloom are there?

Answer using RegEx:
(6|six|Six|SIX)

  • | – or
  • () – brackets contain options that can be separated by | )

List of items in a specific order

Question: Name all levels, separated by a semicolon and a space (; ), starting with the lowest level, without capitals.

Answer using RegEx:
(/([Rr]emember)(; )([Uu]nderstand)(; )([Aa]pply)(; )([Aa]naly[sz]e)(; )([Ee]valuate)(; )([Cc]reate)/)

  • () – brackets contain options (groups)
  • / – escape sign, indicates that the next character should be treated as a character
  • /( – the symbol (
  • [] – Square brackets contain characters. One of them should be present.
  • [Rr] – either R or r should be present, so both Remember as well as remember are considered correct.

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