How do I use the Question Library? 

Table of contents: 

1. Creating sections
2. Import existing questions
3. Import questions from existing Brightspace quizzes
4. Import questions from your desktop
5. Create questions
6. Add media in questions
7. Create Questions: Additional Options

Each course has its own Question Library: A central storage space to store, sort and archive questions. This makes it easy to access them and reuse them in quizzes and surveys. Go to ‘Tools’ in your course’s navigation bar and click on ‘Quizzes’.You will be taken to an overview page of quizzes, in which you have to click on the second tab ‘Question library’ to get to the question library.You will be taken to the following page:In case your Question Library is still empty because you haven’t created or imported quizzes yet, you can read how to complete your Question Library in the steps below. Below is just a short overview to consult if you already have quizzes.

In your Question Library, you’ll see the following options: 

1. The folder structure of the Question Library is displayed on the left side of the screen. The folders you see are the sections you created (see next steps).
2. Click on ‘New’ to create a new section/question. Click ‘Import’ to add questions you’ve already created and saved.
3. The tabs at the top…

• • … Move questions or sections to another section (Move).
  • Delete selected questions or sections (Delete).
  • change the order of the questions and sections in your Question Library (Order).
  • change the maximum number of points a student can obtain, the level of difficulty and/or whether the question is mandatory or not (Edit Values).
  • give the option to share quizzes, quiz sections or individual questions by publishing them in the Learning Object Repository (Publish to LOR). The LOR is a centralized library within Brightspace designed for storing, managing, and sharing learning resources between courses and with other instructors.

4. Click on the arrow behind a question to open the shortcut menu:

• Choose Edit to customize the question.
• Preview to view the question as a student, or, if you view the question as an assessor, see if there is any feedback or a hint with the question.
• Choose Attempts to see how many times a question has been answered and how well it has been made.

5: This icon before a title indicates that this folder is a section. For more information on sections, follow the rest of this guide. 

1. Create new sections 

With the help of Sections, you can organize questions into folders, which provides more overview and structure. The use of sections provides the following benefits: 

• Creating an overview in the Question Library: 

You can group questions by placing them in separate folders (sections). This makes your question library clearer and more efficient. 

• To import sections into a test or survey: 

You can import entire sections, including titles, questions, extra information, images, and feedback, directly into a quiz or survey. This saves time and ensures that all linked content is preserved. 

• Use of subsections for structure: 

Within a section, you can create subsections to keep an overview. For example, the Quizzes section may contain subsections such as Semester 1 and Semester 2. 

• Using sections for introductory texts or cases: 

You can use sections to provide additional information without questions. This could be an introduction to the structure of a quiz, for example: 

• • Part 1 tests knowledge and contains 10 multiple-choice questions.
  • Part 2 tests insight and contains 5 open questions. 

• To show information at specific points in a test: 

Sections are ideal for adding information that should only become visible once students have arrived at a certain part of the test. 

With these features, you can not only make your question bank and quizzes easier to use, but also easier to use for both teachers and students. 

To create a new section, go to ‘Tools’ in your course’s navigation bar, choose ‘Quizzes’ and click on ‘Question Library’ (second tab).Then click ‘New’ and then on ‘Section’ in the drop-down menu.You will then be taken to a page where you have the following options: 

1. Give a name to your section under Section Title. 
2. Under Section Text, you can add a description or note.
3. Check Hide Section Text from learners if you want the description under Section Title or Section Text not to be visible to students, but only visible to you.
4. Check Shuffle questions in this section if you want to shuffle questions in sections.
5. Click ‘Save’ to save the section. You will be redirected back to the question library. 

2. Import existing questions 

You can import existing quizzes to the Question Library. This applies to questions that you have previously created yourself in a quiz existing on Brightspace (see step 3 below); Or that are stored as a separate file on your computer, these are only CSV or ZIP files (see step 4 below). 

3. Import questions from existing Brighstpace Quizzes 

In your Question Library, click ‘Import’, then ‘Browse Existing Questions’.You will be taken to a page where you can select which quiz or survey you want to import questions from to your Question Library by checking or unchecking the boxes. Click ‘Import’ to import the selected questions into your Library.

4. Import questions from your computer

Quiz questions that are stored as a separate file on your computer and have not yet been imported into Brightspace can be imported by clicking on ‘Import’ in your Question Library, and on ‘Upload a File’ in the drop-down menu.A menu will appear where you can use the drag-and-drop option or click on ‘Browse Files’. Optionally, click on ‘Download template CSV’ to open an Excel file with an example of how to design questions in such a way that you can import them successfully. 

5. Create questions

In Brightspace you can create eleven different question types. Go to the Question Library and click on the drop-down menu next to ‘New’ if you want to create a new question. Choose the question type you want to create; These question types and their functions are briefly explained below.

• True or False (T/F):question that can be both true and false.  For example: another word for peanut is groundnut. True or false?
• Multiple Choice (MC): Question with multiple options, one of which is correct. For example: Which one is not a nut: (a) candlestick (b) tiger nut (c) hazelnut
• Multi-Select (M-S): Question with multiple options, several of which may be correct. For example: Select the legumes: (a) peanuts (b) soybeans (c) tiger nut (d) tamarind
• Written Response (WR):Open question whose answer can be as long as you indicate. You can use the initial text to write the beginning of the answer. For example: Why are green legumes such as green beans classified as a vegetable? – That’s because …
• Short Answer (SA): Question where the answer consists of one word or a short sentence. For example: An almond is not actually a nut, but a …
• Multi Short Answer (MSA): question where the answer consists of several words or a short sentence. For example: Name the three fattest nuts (per 100g):….
• Fill in the Blanks (FIB): question in which the participant has to fill in the blanks of a text. For example: Nuts contain a lot of …. fats, and eating unsalted nuts lowers ….-cholesterol.
• Matching Questions (MAT): Question where the participant must link answers to other items. For example: match the right pairs with each other: walnut, tiger nut, peanut, X-nut, turnip, legumes.
• Ordering Question (ORD): Ask where the participant should place the answers in the correct order. For example: Which nuts have the least carbs per 100gr? (from < to >): Brazil nuts, cashews, cashews, pecans, chestnuts, etc.
• Math questions:
  • Rekenkundig (Arithmetic) (2+2): question that challenges the mathematical knowledge and/or understanding of mathematics. For example: A squirrel eats 25 nuts a day. How many nuts do 10 squirrels eat together in a week?
  • Significant Figures (x10): question to which the participant must answer in a certain scientific notation and where the answer consists of a specific number. For example: The nut harvest per year is on average 150,000 grams. Express this weight in scientific notation. 

• Likert Question (LIK): question in which the participant gives an opinion on a statement by making a choice on a scale. For example: To what extent do you agree with the following statement? “I regularly eat unsalted nuts as part of my diet.” 1 – Strongly Disagree, 2 – Disagree, 3 – Neutral, 4 – Agree, 5 – Strongly Agree

When creating a question, you will be taken to a separate menu. Here…

• … you often have the optio to give a title to the question, but this is not mandatory. The title is an extra handy tool to organize your Question Library and to easily find the question. The title only appears in the Question Library, so students don’t see it.
• … you enter the question in the Question Text (another word for peanut is groundnut. True or false?) and select the correct answer under Answers. (True or False)
• … Some question types don’t have a title field (T/F, MC, WR en SA), but even then you can give a question a description/title by clicking on Options in the top right corner of the creation screen and then on Add Short Description. 

After filling in the desired information, click ‘Save’ to save your question. If you want to edit it later, go to ‘Edit’ in the drop-down menu of the question in question. 

6. Add media in questions

It is possible to add media such as images or video to the quiz question text. Create a new question or click ‘Edit’ in the question’s drop-down menu to get back to the next menu:Click on the text you have in Question Text. Once you click on it, a small menu bar will appear with various text editing options. The options that are important here are: 

1. Insert Stuff. With this function it is possible to upload all kinds of files directly to the question text, but also YouTube links and embed codes can be entered directly.
2. Fullscreen Editor. This button opens the Fullscreen Editor, which allows you to use all the text editing options that Brightspace has to offer, apart from the limited templates that were already there. The previous two options can also be found here.

7. Create questions: additional options

A number of useful tips that can be applied to the different question types. You can find this under ‘Options’: 

1. Add Feedback: You can provide feedback to questions in two different ways.
2. You can give general feedback (Overall Feedback) on the question itself (for example: tigernut does not refer to Duyvis’ starter), and/or;
3. Answer Feedback for correct and/or wrong answers (for example: Correct! Peanuts are in fact called groundnuts, because the pod grows underground). In both cases, the feedback will appear automatically when the student completes the question.

• • Please note: if you mention the correct answer in the feedback, make sure that the students only have one quiz attempt, otherwise it will be very easy to give the correct answer on the second attempt.
  • The following question types have a feedback option: True/False, Multiple Choice, Multi-Select, Written Response, Short Answer, Multi Short Answer and Fill in the Blanks.

2. Add Hints: In some cases, it can be helpful to provide questions with a hint (for example: a visual representation of the relationship between the variables can be helpful) or when you want to point the students to a particular resource that can help them (for example: use the articles from module one in your answer to this question). You can add hints to all question types.

3. Add Short Description gives the option to add an extra text box to the question.

4. Add Enumeration gives the option to choose a different way of listing answers (A: true, B: false, or I: true, II: false, etc.).