Blackboard: Working with Question Pools
Creating a Question Pool
You may want to create question pools if you plan to reuse questions for assessments. Once you have created a question pool, you can select any of the questions from that pool when you create individual assessments. Using a question pool allows you to save all of your questions without making them a part of an assessment. You can also import and export question pools from one course site to another.
1. In the Control Panel, click Pool Manager. The Pool Manager page opens.
2. Click the Add Pool button.
3. Enter the pool's Name (required) and Description (optional) of the pool and then click Submit. (The inclusion of Instructions here is a bug: any that you enter cannot not be added to a test.) The Pool Canvas opens.
4. Using the Add Question drop-down list, select the type of question you would like to add:
a) If you'd like to begin creating questions, select a specific question type.
b) If you would like to add questions from a specially-formatted text file, select Upload Questions.
c) If you would like to select one or more questions from an already existing assessment or pool, select From a Question Pool or Assessment from the drop-down list.
5. Click the GO button.
6. If you chose to
a) Add a specific question type, you will create questions just as you did for a test (see How do I create a test in Blackboard?).
b) Add question(s) from a Question Pool or Assessment: the Search Pools and Assessments page opens. See directions in the next section, Using Existing Assessments to Create a Question Pool for further instructions.
Using Existing Tests or Pools to Create a Question Pool
After you've created several tests, you might decide that you would like to combine the questions from them into a single question pool. You could then export this pool for use in another Blackboard site or even share assessment questions with your colleagues who use Blackboard.
Note that surveys questions cannot be imported into a question pool.
After you reach the Search Pools and Assessments page (see Creating a Question Pool), you must select the assessments you will use to create a question pool:
1. Under Search the pools and assessments below, select a pool or assessment by clicking its name. You can select multiple assessments and pools by holding down the Control button while clicking.
2. Under Question Types, either click the checkbox for ALL questions or one or more specific question types. If you assigned keywords to your questions, you can search these by clicking the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Search button. The Search Pools and Assessments page displays.
4. Check the boxes next to the questions you want to add. To view a question and its answers, click the question's Preview button to the far left. After you've finished previewing a question, click OK to return to the Search Pools and Assessments page.
5. When you have finished selecting all of the desired questions, click Submit.
6. After a moment, the Pool Canvas page refreshes to display the questions that you added.
Exporting and Importing Question Pools
To share question sets across several courses, you can export question pools from one Blackboard course site and import them into another one. You can then use the imported pool to create one or more assessments.
Exporting a Question Pool
1. Click Pool Manager in the Assessment section of the Control Panel. The Pool Manager window opens.
2. Locate the pool to export, and click its Export button to the right.
3. The web browser will open a dialog box prompting you to open or save the file. The file name will end in *.zip. Do not change the file name, and save the file to a memorable location on your computer.
4. The exported file can now be imported into another Blackboard site. Note that this file is both compressed and specially formatted for use in Blackboard. Do not edit the compressed files in any way, because they will not import back into Blackboard successfully.
Importing a Question Pool
1. Navigate to the destination site. Enter its Control Panel, and click Pool Manager. The Pool Manager window opens.
2. Click the Import button. The Pool Import window opens.
3. Click Browse. A dialog box opens, prompting you to locate the exported pool file saved to your computer. (The default name begins with PoolExportFile.) Once you locate the file, click its filename, and then click Open. If the export file does not appear in the list of files, make sure that Files of type is set to All Files.
4. Click Submit. After the pool has finished importing, it will appear at the bottom of the list of pools in the Pool Manager window.
Creating a Test with Questions Drawn at Random from a Pool
Refer to How do I create a Blackboard test that assigns questions randomly?
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Tags: BlackboardSubjects: Blackboard
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