The main activities in the question bank are the administration, search and publication of test questions, and the compilation of items for test purposes. To this end, the question bank offers two different entry points. Each user has his own individual question database containing questions, favourites and lists. In addition to that, the question bank offers the public section, which can contain one to several pools and group shares. While all items in the question database are private and only visible to the owner, the public shares contain all those items shared by other authors in order to be freely used.
My Questions
The question database is your personal collection of test questions to be re-used as you wish. To use items, they must therefore be found in your question database under "My questions". Your question database is empty though the first time you enter the question bank. There are four ways to transfer items into your personal database:
- Copy questions from the catalog, other pools or from group shares. Simply open a pool in the public shares in order to have access to the table view of all shared items. In the "Select" column, tick those questions you wish to copy into "My questions" and click the "Copy" button. The items will then be copied with the suffix "(Copy)" into your database. Click the preview icon of an item on the left side of the table, the eye, in order to preview a question. The preview opens directly beneath that item.
If the pool is empty, or if no pool exists, please contact your pool administrator. - Import questions from test learning resources, IMS QTI Tests in zip file format or Excel files. Click the "Import" button and select whether you want to import questions from a file, a learning resource or an Excel file using copy & paste.
- Import learning resource: Choose from the available learning resources the test or questionnaire you wish to import. Then click the link "Import learning resource" in the corresponding line. All questions of the selected learning resource will be imported directly into the question bank. Depending on whether you import questions in your question database or into a pool, the items are either copied solely into "My Questions" or into your database and the in the corresponding pool.
- Import file: You can import tests as well as sets of questions from zip files. Please note that you can only import questions or tests in the IMS QTI 1.2 format.
- Import from Excel: Prepare the Excel file corresponding to the file template also available in the import wizard. Select the first three columns in the Excel file and copy them to the data input field. You can only import Single Choice, Multiple Choice and Gap text questions.
- Create questions directly in the test editor by clicking the "Create Question" button. Once you have determined the title and the question type, the test editor will open in a pop-up window. More information on test creation can be found in the chapter "Creating Tests and Questionnaires", section „Test and Questionnaire Editor in Detail".
- In addition to that, you can also export individual questions, test sections or whole tests directly from the test editor into the pool. In order to do that, select "Export to pool" in the "Editor tools" menu in the test editor. Depending on the level selected in the test menu to the left, either individual questions, whole sections or the entire test will be exported to the question pool.
Once an item is in your question database, this item can be edited.
Favourites & Lists
Favourites and lists are two ways to arrange and sort items in your personal database. Items that have been tagged as a favourite in "My Questions", appear once again in the "My favourites" table.
Items marked as a favourite in pools or groups do not appear under "My Favorites".
Lists allow you to compile items into topics or collect them according to various criteria. To do this, select all items you wish to compile in the question bank, a pool or a group and click the "Lists" button. Select "Create list" and enter a descriptive name for the list. The selected items will then be added to the newly created list. Lists can be deleted or renamed at any time through the "Lists" button.
More information on available functions and features in the question bank can be found in this chapter, section „Data management".
Items are not stored separately on lists. If you remove items from lists, these items are not deleted from the database.
Pools & Groups
While lists contain items compiled according to personal requirements, pools on the other hand are repositories for all items shared by authors. Before an item is listed in a pool, it must either be shared first from an author, or imported directly into a pool. Items can be shared multiple times with pools and groups. The menu item "Public shares" lists all pools and groups a user has access to.
Group shares are only visible to group members.
The pool administrator can create an unlimited number of pools. These can be either public, and thus be visible to all users, or private. The number of displayed pools may therefore differ from user to user. Contact your pool administrator if there is no public pool available.
Items that can not be edited in the group or pool can be edited once they are copied into "My questions".
