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Blackboard Ultra: Faculty Resource: Question Pools

 

Blackboard Ultra: Faculty Resource

Question Pools

 

About Question Pools

When you create an assessment, you can use question pools to be sure each student receives a different version of the assessment.

On the Add Question Pool page, you can browse, preview, filter, and select questions from other assessments and question banks in the course you're currently in.  You can view the questions but can't make edits until you add the question pool to your assessment.

  • You can use a keyword search to find questions to add.
  • You choose the number of questions from a pool to display to students.  For example, you can show 3 questions out of 50.  The questions are then randomly distributed, so each student sees a different set of 3 questions.
  • You can display all the questions in a pool.  Questions appear in a random order for each student.
  • After making your selections, you set the same points for all questions in the pool.
  • You can delete questions in a pool.  The question is removed from the pool but not deleted from your course.
  • In the student view, questions randomly selected from a pool appear like other questions.  Students won't know the questions are from a pool.

Add a Question Pool

In an assessment, select the plus sign wherever you want to add a question pool.

Select Add question pool from the menu.

Image of Add Question Pool

On the Add Question Pool page, select the assessments, question banks, and question types you want to include in your pool. In the Filter Criteria panel, you can also perform a basic search by keyword.  

Filter questions

In the active filter area on the right, select the questions you want to add. You can view how many items you've selected at the bottom of the screen.

Select Clear all to clear the Filter Criteria selections. Any questions your have selected will remain selected.

To remove selected questions, use Select all and Clear all to remove all questions at one time.

Image of add question pool filter

View Questions

On the Add Question Pool page, you can expand questions to view them.  You can't edit the questions or the points on the Add Question Pool page.

Image of Viewing question details

Once you have selected all the questions, click Add Questions. This is to insert the question pool into your assessment.

Image of add question pool to assessment

Select Add Questions. The question pool appears in your assessment. Type the points and the number of questions to display to students.  The points are assigned to each question in the pool.  You can't assign separate points for individual questions in the same pool.

Select Save to add the question pool to your assessment.

Image of adding questions to the assessment

 

Edit Question Pools

You can edit the points assigned to each question in the pool even after submissions.

Image of Editing Points

Before students open an assessment, you can add, remove, and edit individual questions in a question pool.  When you remove a question in a pool, the question isn't deleted from your course.  You can also delete a pool or move a pool to a new location in the assessment.

A. After you save the question pool, press the Drag to reorder icon in a pool's row to move it to a new location.  The question numbering updates automatically.  Open the menu and select Edit to make changes to the pool, such as the questions' points.  Select Delete to remove the pool from the assessment.

B. You can view the questions in a pool and add, remove, or edit questions.

  • To view questions in the pool, select View questions.  On the Question Pool page, the number of questions in the pool is listed in the top-left area.  The source assessment for each question in the pool is listed.

C. Select the plus sign wherever you want to add another question pool.

Image of editing a Question pool

When you select Edit/Regrade, a notification states how many other assessments are affected. If you edit a question in a question pool, the edits appear everywhere the question is used. The same is true for edits you make in a source assessment's questions. Those edits affect all the question pools where the question appears.

Image of editing a question in a Question Pool

Image of message if question is used in other assessments

After students open an assessment or make submissions, you can't add or remove questions from a pool or delete a pool from an assessment. You also can't move the pool to a new location in the assessment. You can edit, regrade, and give full credit for questions when submissions exist. For example, if you change the correct answer, the question is regraded in all assessments where the question is used.

Give full credit option

You can give everyone full credit for a question you didn't explain clearly or doesn't accurately reflect your lecture or textbook material.

You can give full credit for a question from the View questions link in a pool or a student's submission page. If you apply full credit for a question in a source assessment or a question pool, full credit is applied to that question everywhere it appears.

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.

You can't change student scores for an individual question when you give full credit. You can override each student's assessment score to adjust the points.

Student view of full credit

After grading is completed and you show students the correct answers, they can see which questions you've awarded full credit. Full credit given appears next to the grade pill and is also noted in the answers section.

Image of student view of full credit

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