Blackboard Tests for Exams creation guidelines (Staff)

Blackboard Tests for In-Person Exams 

• Create, Edit and Organise your questions
• Create the Test
• Test Settings
• Take and Check the Test

Questions 

Question Banks

A question bank is a collection of questions that can be re-used in multiple tests and in other Courses. They are an effective way of organising your questions, for example, by topics.  

To access the question pools in your Course, go Details & Actions > Question Banks > Manage banks

  

Here you will see any existing question banks. From this area you can search for questions, edit or export any existing question banks and create or import a new bank. 

Creating/Editing Questions 

Here you will see any existing questions. To change the question display to see the full text of the question, click on the arrow down. To create new questions in an existing bank, click on the centered purple plus sign and choose your question type. In this menu, you can also choose to reuse questions from other banks. To edit or delete existing questions select the three dots next to the required question. From this area you can also re-name your question bank and add a description.

Importing Questions

To import existing question banks from an Original Course, go to the course content section, click on the plus icon and choose > Copy Content.

Select your course and click on the title. To copy all the question banks tick the check box or to copy selected question banks, click on the title Question Banks, select the banks you want to copy, and click Start Copy. Once the copy has completed all your Question Banks will be available from the Manage banks link.

Create the Test

Once you have created your question banks, you can build your test. To create a new test click on the centered purple plus sign, scroll down the menu to Assessment > Test.

These are the questions types available to create new questions. You can also add and reuse questions either from your question pool, from a local file or a file in the cloud storage.

All tests should be created in the Assessment and Feedback folder. Place the tests used for exams at the top of the folder to make it easy for students to find. See the Blackboard help site for guidance on creating a test using questions from your question bank.

When you create your test, you will notice that the Allow participants to add content at end of assessment option is ticked by default. Please UNTICK this option unless you want students to be able to upload a file. Note that you cannot amend this setting until a question has been added and saved to your test:

 

Test Settings

To the right of the question bank, you will see your test settings options:

Set the Due date. The date should be the date of the exam and the time should be 30 minutes after the last candidate could submit remembering to include candidates with extra time in your calculations.

• Make Visible to Students
• Click on Release Conditions:
  • Select All participants
  • Under Set additional conditions – select Date / Time:
    • Access from Date (date of exam) and Time (30 minutes before the official start of the exam)
    • Access until Date (date of the exam) and Time (choose at least 1 minute after the Due Date) 
    • Click Save
  • When will content appear? – select Hide
• Click Save once again

Click on the settings cog for additional settings menu: 

• The Due Date should have already been set in the previous menu, but you can also amend here 
• Prohibit late submissions – TICK 
• Prohibit new attempts after the due date – TICK 
• Allow class conversations – UNTICK 
• Collect submissions offline – UNTICK 
• Display one question at a time – TICK 
• Prohibit backtracking – UNTCK 
• Randomise Questions – TICK (due to the spacing of monitors in exam rooms) unless questions follow in a specific order and build on the previous answer or you're using Question Pools. 
• Randomise Answers – TICK, unless answers follow in a specific order 
• Randomise Pages – TICK (if you have used pages), unless pages follow in a specific order 
• Mark Category – Test  
• Attempts allowed – 1 
• Mark using – Percentage 
• Anonymous marking – UNTICK for tests that are marked automatically 
• 2 markers per student  - UNTICK
• Peer review - UNTICK 
• Post Assessment marks automatically – UNTICK
  
• Submission Results – under Submission View click on Available after Submission to access the options: 
• Allow students to view their submission – UNTICK
• Click Save  

Add an Access Code from the Assessment Security section. The code, which is automatically generated, (in the form of a 6-digit numerical code), is shared with students in the examination room. This prevents absent students from gaining access to the test.

• 30 minutes after the test starts the code should be changed so that anyone who leaves the exam room early can't communicate the code to others. 
• If there are two sittings of the exam, use the second code from the first sitting to start the second exam. Change this code in the Blackboard test settings 30 minutes after the second sitting begins. 
• Access codes created 30 minutes after the start of the exam should be shared with the exam supervisors via a 'chat' message on MS Teams. 
• The access code that starts each test should be shared with the Examinations Office on eosstaff@aber.ac.uk  
• Do not add a Time Limit for an in-person online exam – this is managed by invigilators in the room. 

Take and check the Test 

Once you have created your test it is important to try it out yourself and access the results as a student.  

Select a member of staff (or PG student) who is not as familiar with the content of the exam to take the test, to spot any issues that the lecturer may not (for example, with time allotted to complete the test). You can do this in your Practice Organisation: 

• Go to your practice Organisation 
• Copy the test from your course (see the Blackboard help site for how to copy a test) 
• You will need to make the test available, and change the Show On date so that it is available 
• You can take the test using the Participant preview option (see the Blackboard help site for how to use Student Preview) Remember to Save the preview data when you exit Preview, so that you can view the results in the Gradebook 
• If you want someone else to take the test, add them to the Organisation as a Participant (see the Blackboard help site for how to add people to your Organisation)
• Information on how to take a test is available from the Blackboard help site.  

When taking the test and viewing the results, check the following points: 

• The accuracy, clarity and comprehensibility of the question and possible answers. 
• The questions cover all relevant topics and sub-topics.  
• The difficulty level of the exam. 
• The skill levels being tested (higher order thinking or just knowledge recall?)  
• The feasibility of the exam timing. 
• The wrong answers are plausible. 
• The question does not give away the correct answer (e.g. wording or grammatical cues). 
• The marks and scores are set correctly (check any questions you answered incorrectly). 
• The correct answers are set.  
• Spelling and grammar. 
• The formatting of the exam is standard, and the questions and images display properly.