Create Tests
Tests are always available to instructors but anonymously submitted surveys aren't supported at this time.
You can create tests alongside the other content students need as they prepare. On the Course Content page, select the plus sign wherever you want to add a test. In the menu, select Create to open the Create Item panel and select Test. The New Test page opens.
Feel free to experiment! Students can't see what you add until you make your tests visible.
You can also expand or create a folder or learning module and add a test.
When you create a test, a gradebook item is created automatically. A test's score consists of the sum total of all the questions' points.
After you post test grades, students can view their scores on their grades pages or in the activity stream. They can also access a test, associated rubrics, their submissions, your feedback, and their grades from the test link on the Course Content page.
See the Create Tests help article or view the Create a Test video for more information.
Question Types
At this time, you can create these question types in tests and assignments in your course.
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.
True/False Questions - With True/False questions, students choose true or false in response to a statement question. True/False questions are graded automatically. You can't change the points an individual student earned for an automatically graded question.
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. You can provide a text question that requires a numeric answer. Calculated Numeric questions resemble Fill in the Blank questions where correct answers are numbers.
Hotspot Questions - Hotspot questions present students with an image that requires them to drop a pin on one or more hotspots created by you, the instructor, within that image. Hotspot questions are great for a variety of disciplines. In an anatomy course, for instance, you might ask students 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, you might ask your students to identify which animal species or individuals belong to the corresponding habitat described by the main image, or don't. Possibilities are endless.
Essay Questions - Essay questions require students to type an answer in a text box, and you need to grade these questions manually.
Fill in Multiple Blanks Questions - In the Ultra Course View, use the Fill in the Blank question type to create a question with multiple blanks.
For Fill in Multiple Blanks questions, students view text that contains multiple blanks. Students type the appropriate word or phrase for each blank.
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.
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 you 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 instructors use distractors so students can’t guess at answers by the process of elimination.
Multiple Answer Questions - Multiple Choice and Multiple Answer questions are graded automatically. If an assessment only has these types of questions, the assessment scores are posted automatically for students to view.
Multiple Choice 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.
Edit Tests and Questions
See the Edit Tests and Questions help article for additional details and instructions for the following options.
Add, Edit and Delete Questions
After you add the first question to a test, select the plus sign wherever you want to add another question, type text, or upload a file. You can add as many text blocks and files as you want.
Students see the content just as you see it, without the editing options or the correct answers.
Tests and Questions can be edited before students have opened an assessment. Some changes can be made after students have opened an assessment, but there are several things that are not able to be changed.
Give Full Credit
You can give everyone full credit for a question you didn't explain clearly or doesn't accurately reflect your lecture or textbook material.
After you select Edit/Regrade in a question's menu, you can select the check box for Give full credit for question. After you give full credit, you can clear the check box to revert to the automatic grade or a previously assigned manual grade.
Your update affects existing attempts, attempts in progress, and subsequent submissions. Student grades are updated, but the new grades or reversal may not appear immediately.
When you give full credit, you can’t change student scores for an individual question. You can override a student’s assessment score to adjust the points if needed.
Reorder Questions, Text and Files
Questions are numbered automatically in the order you add them. The question numbers update when you reorder. Before students open the test, you can reorder the elements of your test.
Edit, Reorder, and Delete Tests
You can make changes to existing tests and change where they appear on your Course Content page. Be aware that if you change an existing test that
Delete Tests - You can delete a test from your course and if no student submissions exist, the gradebook item is also deleted. For tests with submissions, you must confirm that you want to permanently remove the test, all submissions, and grades from your course.
Or, hide the test from students to preserve the submissions and the scores in the gradebook. Students can't access hidden tests on the Course Content page or on their grades pages even if you've graded submissions.
Grade Tests
You can choose where you want to start grading! Some options are from the left navigation bar, the course Gradebook, and the Activity Stream.
Want to see how many tests are ready to grade in all your courses? In the list where your name appears, you have immediate access to all your courses' grading tasks on the global Grades page. All your grading tasks are organized by course. You can quickly scan your progress, set priorities across the board, and even begin grading. No need to navigate to each course to see what's ready for grading.
The page only displays information if you need to take action. You see tests that are ready to grade or which tests are overdue for how many students.
Want to narrow your focus? In a course, you can access the course gradebook on the navigation bar. You can see who has made submissions and start grading.
From the activity stream, you're alerted when student submissions are ready for grading. Select the link to go to the gradebook. Or, select a test on the Course Content page to see how many students have made submissions.
See the Grade Tests help page for more information.
Proctoring Services
When you create an assessment you have many options to promote academic integrity and honesty in student submissions. However, online submissions allow students to submit work outside of a physical classroom. Students may have the opportunity to refer to disallowed materials when drafting submissions. Academic integrity can be difficult to protect without additional tools.
You can deliver proctored assessments to make sure students aren’t influenced by external sources when drafting and submitting attempts.
See the Exam Security web page for UND's proctoring options.
Question Analysis
Question analysis provides statistics on overall performance, assessment quality, and individual questions. This data helps you recognize questions that might be poor discriminators of student performance. Question analysis is for assessments with questions. You can run a report before all submissions are in if you want to check the quality of your questions and make changes.
Uses for question analysis:
- Improve questions for future assessments or to adjust credit on current attempts
- Discuss assessment results with your class
- Provide a basis for remedial work
- Improve classroom instruction
See the Question Analysis help article or view the Download Test Results video for more information.
Resolve Student Issues with Tests
When special circumstances arise, you have two options to remedy submission issues. You can clear a test attempt or add an assessment exception. Go to the submission, open the options menu and selection an option.
Clear an attempt
If you choose, you can clear a student's test attempt. The submission is cleared from the gradebook and the student can retake the test.
Assessment exceptions
You can give an individual student an exception on a specific test. An exception includes additional attempts or extended access, even if the test is hidden from other students. An exception overrides the two settings applied to everyone else for only that specific test.
See the Resolve Student Issues with Tests help article or view the Grant Assessment Exceptions video for more information.
Respondus LockDown Browser
Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard. When students use Respondus LockDown Browser they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other applications. When an assessment is started, students are locked into it until they submit for grading. Compatible with Mac and Windows.
See the Exam Security web page for more information.
Reuse Questions
In the Ultra Course View, you can reuse questions and other content from all existing tests, assignments, and question banks in your course. You can also copy question banks from other courses and import questions into your course to add to your assessments.
See the Reuse Questions help article or view the Reuse Questions video for more information.
Test and Survey Options
See the Test and Survey Options help article for additional details and instructions for the following options.
Show Correct Answers on Test Submissions
Allow students to see the correct answers to automatically scored questions after they submit. Or hide answers until all students complete their submissions.
In the test settings panel, the Correct answers and Question scores aren't selected by default, so correct answers and scores per question are hidden from students. When you want students to review the answers with the assessment content, return to the settings panel and select Show correct answers. Show question scores will be selected automatically. When you show correct answers, you need to also show the question scores. To show only the score per question but not the correct score, clear the check box for Show correct answers.
The due date you set for the test doesn't affect this setting. You set when to reveal answers in the Assessment results timing panel.
After students complete an assessment and return to review it, a banner appears at the top of the assessment. They're informed that their instructor will reveal the correct answers after all students have submitted. Any feedback you've provided won't appear until grades are posted.
If you don't want students to see the banner for assessments without questions, select the check box for Show correct answers during creation.
Give Automated Feedback on Test Submissions
Automated feedback allows you to provide pre-scripted feedback on individual auto-graded question types. Students automatically receive the feedback based on the timing release settings you provide.
You can also select the toggle under questions as you create them to enable automated feedback. Type your feedback for Correct answer feedback and Incorrect answer feedback. Incorrect answer feedback also displays for partial credit answers. By default, automated feedback displays after the student submission. Select the edit icon to change the release timing settings. Display the feedback after submission or on a specific date. If you're selected Show correct answers, your automated feedback settings need to display at the same time or before your show correct answers date.
Add Security to your Tests with Access Codes
Add a layer of security to your assessments with an access code. Issue an access code to control when students and groups take an assessment. At this time, access codes are generated randomly by the system. You can't customize the access codes.
In a test or assignment's Settings panel, select Add access code in the Assessment security section.
Turn the access code to On. The system randomly generates a 6-digit access code that you can't customize. Use the icons next to the access code to copy it or refresh to change the code. Only instructors can refresh and change the access code. If you turn the code off and on again, the code remains the same.
Select Continue. The access code appears in the Settings panel. You can select the trash can icon to remove the code. Students will no longer need a code to start or continue the assessment.
Reminder: Instructors or proctors provide the access code to students.
Add a Timer to Your Test
You can add a time limit to a test in the Ultra Course View. A time limit can keep students on track and focused on the test because each person has a limited amount of time to submit. The test attempts are saved and submitted automatically when time is up.
You can also allow students to work past the time limit. Additional time allows students to reconnect if they lose connectivity during their attempts. You can allow extra time to see if the original time you set is enough for students to read and answer all the questions. When you grade tests, you can see how much extra time each student used to complete the test. You can also see which questions were answered after the initial time limit. Students also see this same information when they access their graded tests.
View the Timed Assessments video for more information.
Allow Multiple Attempts on a Test
In Test Settings, you can choose to let students submit more than one attempt. Multiple attempts change how the test's final grade is calculated.
The Grade attempts setting determines how the final grade is automatically calculated, but you have the option to override the grade. Each attempt is subject to the due date you set for the test. If a student submits an attempt after the due date, the attempt is marked late. Attempts submitted before the deadline are shown as on time.
You can only override the final grade, not the grades for each attempt.
Randomize Questions and Answers
You can randomize questions and their answers to support practice/drilling activities and help students avoid academic dishonesty.
You can use one or both settings so tests appear differently for each student. A message appears on the test's Content Settings page about your randomize answers selection.
Questions appear in order as you create the test. Each time a student begins a test attempt, the questions appear in a different order. If you include references to the question numbers as they appear on the Content and Settings page, don't use the Randomize questions option. The random order changes the question numbering and may cause confusion.
After students start their submissions, you may select or clear the Randomize questions setting.
Enable Anonymous Grading on Tests
When you create a test without questions, you can enable anonymous grading in the Test Settings panel. Student names are hidden while you grade. You may only add text and files to anonymously graded tests.
View the Enable Anonymous Grading help article for more information.
Enable Parallel Grading on Tests
When you create a test without questions, you can enable parallel grading in the Test Settings panel.
The system randomly assigns graders you choose so each student has two graders for the test. The grading workload is distributed evenly among the graders. Graders can only open the submissions for the students assigned to them. Instructors or reconcilers determine the final grades for students.
View the Parallel Grading help article for more information.
About Assessments Exceptions
When special circumstances arise, you can give an individual student an exception on a specific test or assignment. An exception includes additional attempts or extended access, even if the assessment is hidden from other students. You can extend access with the show on and hide after dates which is different from the due date.
An exception overrides the two settings applied to everyone else for only that specific assessment. Students don't see the exceptions you've added.
You set test and assignment exceptions from the assessment's Submissions page or an individual submission. You might use exceptions for students who have internet issues, disabilities, or technology and language differences.
Exceptions vs. Accommodations
Exceptions are different from accommodations you set in the course roster. An accommodation applies to all due dates or time limits in your course for an individual student. Exceptions aren't allowed for due dates and time limits for an individual student or group at this time. Exceptions are only allowed for the show on and hide after dates and additional attempts.
See the Accommodations help article or view the Grant Student Accommodations video for more information about accommodations.
Create an Assessment Exception
From an assessment's Submissions page, you can add exceptions for students individually. You can also add exceptions from a student or group's individual submission page. You can't add an exception for an anonymously graded assessment.
After you allow an exception for a student's assessment, you'll see an icon next to the student's name. The assessment exception icon is the same icon that appears for accommodations. If a student has an accommodation and an exception for an assessment, only one icon appears.
Add an Exception After a Grade is Posted
You can offer a student an exception for an assessment you've already graded and posted. For example, if you want a student to redo an automatically graded test that has no more attempts, you can add an additional attempt. You'll need to inform the student of the additional attempt as the system doesn't send a notification.
Display One Question at a Time
Careful assessment design is important. You desire flexibility in question presentation. For example, you may select a one-question-at-a-time presentation so that students:
- Focus on a single question at a time without feeling overwhelmed by all the questions
- Enhanced browser performance for student access on older computers
- Enhanced experience for students in remote areas with poor network connections
- Have an improved user experience when test taking from a mobile device, where touch scrolling can lead to mistakes
View the Display One Question at a Time video for more information.
Enable No Backtracking on Questions
Instructors can also force a sequence through questions in an assessment with the no backtracking option. A sequence is important when upcoming questions provide hints or reveal answers to earlier questions.
Once the student answers the question and continues to the next, the student cannot go back. If a student skips a question, an alert informs the student that they cannot go back to the question.
Allow Students to View Their Submissions
Supporting academic integrity and protecting assessment content is important. We know you need controls and flexibility for sharing assessment results with students. Go to Test Settings and for Assessments results timing choose when you want to release the results.
If selected, the instructor defines when the student can view their assessment submission:
- after submitting the assessment,
- after the instructor posts the individual student's grade for the assessment,
- after the assessment due date,
- after the instructor posts all the grades for the assessment, or
- on a specific date.
When not selected, students cannot view:
- assessment content such as the title, videos or images, text sections,
- the assessment questions,
- answers,
- automatic feedback, or
- the additional content section at the end of the assessment.
View the Student Feedback Display Controls video for more information.