26Course Question Banks
Updated on 2023-08-15
A question bank is a collection of questions that is stored for repeated use across assessments. Teachers can use banks to create a database of questions they can reuse in multiple assessments. Teachers can create new question banks or import existing ones to use in their courses.
26.1 Question Types
-
26.1.1 Calculated Formula Questions
Calculated Formula questions present students with a question that requires them to make a calculation and respond with a numeric answer. The numbers in the question change with each student and are pulled from a range that you set. The correct answer is a specific value or a range of values.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Calculated Formula Questions
-
26.1.2 Calculated Numeric Questions
With Calculated Numeric questions, students are presented with a question that requires a numeric answer. The question doesn't need to be a mathematical formula. Teachers can provide a text question that requires a numeric answer. Calculated Numeric questions resemble Fill in the Blank questions where correct answers are numbers.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Calculated Numeric Questions
-
26.1.3 Essay Questions
Essay questions require students to type an answer in a text box, and you need to grade these questions manually.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Essay Questions
-
26.1.4 Fill in the Blank Questions
A Fill in the Blank question consists of a phrase, sentence, or paragraph with a blank space where a student provides the missing word or words. Teachers can also create a question with multiple blanks.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Fill in the Blank Questions
[Blackboard Official Website]
Fill in Multiple Blanks Questions
-
26.1.5 Hotspot Questions
Hotspot questions present students with an image that requires them to drop a pin on one or more hotspots within that image. Hotspot questions are great for a variety of disciplines.
In an anatomy course, for instance, students might be asked to identify parts of a body. In a geography course, a specific location on a map. In a foreign language course, specific articles of clothing. In an ecology or biology course, students might be asked to identify which animal species or individuals belong to the corresponding habitat described by the main image, or don't. Possibilities are endless.
Types of hotspot questions
-
Standard Hotspot
: Presents students with an image that requires them to drop a pin inside of one or more hotspots created by you within the image. Students aren't aware of where the hotspots are located.
-
Multiple Choice Hotspot
: Presents students with an image that requires them to drop a pin inside of one or more hotspots created by you. Students are aware of where the hotspots are located. One hotspot is correct and the other hotspots are distractors.
-
Multiple Answer Hotspot
: Presents students with an image that requires them to drop a pin inside of one or more hotspots created by you. Students are aware of where the hotspots are located. One or more hotspots are correct and the remaining hotspots are distractors.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Hotspot Questions
-
26.1.6 Matching Questions
With Matching questions, students pair items in the prompts column to items in the answers column. The number of items in each column doesn’t have to be equal because teachers can reuse answers and add additional answers. Additional answers are distractors that don’t match any of the prompts and increase the question's difficulty. Some teachers use distractors so students can’t guess at answers by the process of elimination.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Matching Questions
-
26.1.7 Multiple Choice Questions / Multiple Answer Questions
With Multiple Choice questions, students select one or more correct answers from several choices. Students aren't told if they need to choose one or multiple answers.
Multiple Choice and Multiple Answer questions are graded automatically. If you include multiple correct answers for a question, you can choose to give partial or negative credit.
Note
Teachers can only randomize answers for Matching and Multiple Choice questions. If teachers want to randomize answers for True/False questions, use the Multiple Choice question type with True and False answer choices.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Multiple Choice Questions
[Blackboard Official Website]
Multiple Answer Questions
-
26.1.8 True/False Questions
With True/False questions, students choose true or false in response to a statement question. True/False questions are graded automatically. Teachers can't change the points an individual student earned for an automatically graded question.
Note
Teachers can only randomize answers for Matching and Multiple Choice questions. If teachers want to randomize answers for True/False questions, use the Multiple Choice question type with True and False answer choices.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
True/False Questions
-
26.1.9 Extra credit questions
Teachers can add extra credit questions to allow students to overachieve on an assessment or earn back points lost on other assessments or activities.
A correct answer results in adding the extra credit question points to the points earned for the assessment. Students are not penalized for incorrect answers to an extra credit question. In other words, points are not deducted because the question is excluded from the assessment’s possible points. If a student answers extra credit questions correctly, it may be possible for the student to earn a score greater than 100% on the assessment.
Students can discern how many extra credit points are available on the assessment. While students are taking an assessment, they can identify questions designated as extra credit. Students can also filter the test to find extra credit questions if present.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Extra credit questions
26.2 Question Pools
Teachers can choose the number of questions from a pool to display to students. For example, show 3 questions out of 50. The questions are then randomly distributed so each student sees a different set of 3 questions.
In the student view, questions randomly selected from a pool appear just as other questions do. Students won't know the questions are from a pool.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Question Pools
26.3 Upload Questions
Teachers can write questions offline in a text file and upload it into tests, surveys, and question pools. After uploading the file, teachers can edit and use the questions exactly like the questions that you create inside your course.
Please refer to the Blackboard Official Guide for details:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Upload Questions
Blackboard Reference Materials:
[Blackboard Official Website]
Question Banks
[Blackboard Official Website]
Question Types
