Manage question bank exercises

Create a question bank exercise

There are different ways to create exercises in a question bank. You can create exercises from within your question bank, save them from a course assignment into your question bank or import them into your question bank.

In all cases, you will have access to the same options and settings for the exercise in your question bank. Below, creating new exercises and saving existing exercises into a question bank is explained. For importing exercises please refer to import an exercise into a question bank.

Create an exercise in a question bank

 To create an exercise from within your question bank, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to your question bank.
2. Click extension Exercises in the menu at the top.
3. Click New exercise in the top right corner. 
4. Fill in a name for your question bank exercise.
5. Optionally, fill in the time limit (beta) and enable 'Exercise can be viewed once'.
6. Click Save.

After creating your question bank exercise, you can enhance it by adding a content block, including individual questions, incorporating metadata, or defining a grading scheme, for example. You can read more about the different question bank exercise options in this article.

Save an exercise from your course assignment to your question bank

Saving an exercise from your course assignment into your question bank will allow you to update or reuse the exercise. This will create a link between your course assignment and your question bank, which means you can edit the exercise in either the course assignment or the question bank and synchronise them. 

To save your exercise from a course assignment to your question bank, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to your assignment.
2. Scroll down to the exercise you want to save in your question bank. 
3. Click on the more_vert-icon in the top right corner of the exercise. 
4. Click Store in question bank. 
5. Select the question bank from the dialog.
6. Click Save. 

After saving the exercise to your question bank, a link to the question bank is displayed under the exercise name in your course assignment. If you click on the link, you will be directed to the editing screen of the question bank exercise within your question bank.

Edit a question bank exercise

After creating an exercise, you have the option to return to the editing screen of your question bank exercise to edit it.

To edit a question bank exercise, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to your question bank.
2. Click extension Exercises in the menu at the top.
3. Click on the exercise you would like to edit by clicking the name of the exercise (marked in blue).

From here, you can add a label, tags and relations. You can also add a new content blocks and questions to your exercise. If the exercise is used in a course assignment, it will be linked. This means that when you edit the exercise, both in the question bank and in the course assignment, Ans will recognise that there is a new version. You will then be given the option to synchronise the exercise from the course assignment. For more information, please check out the 'Synchronise question bank exercises' dropdown further in this article.

Copy a question bank exercise

The copy functionality allows you to duplicate an exercise within the same question bank or copy it to another question bank. 

Copy an exercise out to another question bank

Copying the exercise to another question bank gives you the option to share it with members of that question bank. These members can use the exercise in their assignments without needing access to the original question bank. Copying the exercise within your own question bank creates an exact duplicate, useful when you want to create a modified version while retaining most of the original content.

To copy a question bank exercise, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to your question bank.
2. Click extension Exercises in the menu at the top.
3. Check the box next to the exercise you want to copy.
4. Click content_copy Duplicate in the menu at the top.
5. Select the question bank you want to copy the exercise to (You can also select the same question bank as the exercise is in.)
6. Click Duplicate.

After selecting the question bank, a pop-up will appear in the bottom left with the message 'Exercises are being copied. This could take a moment.' When the action has finished, you will see the copied exercise if you refresh the page. The exercises will always be added with the term '(copy)' added to the name of the exercise. This is how you can distinguish the copied version. You can choose to change the name through the settings in the question bank exercise. 

A copied question bank exercise is always a new version of the exercise, meaning it is not linked to the original exercise and/or any linked assignment. This means that edits to this exercise will not reflect as new versions in the original exercise. 

The following information will be copied: 

• Name of the exercise
• Description(s)
• Question(s)
• Grading scheme
• Tag(s)
• Objective(s)
• Code created with the code editor 

Add a question bank exercise to an assignment

Question bank exercises can be added to a course and question bank assignment directly. If the assignment contains sections, it is also possible to select a specific section. The list of options is divided under two headers:

• Add within this question bank: the question bank you are currently in and all its question bank assignments. 
• Add to a course assignment: all course assignments of courses you have an instructor role in.

Add an exercise to a course or question bank assignment

It is possible to add a question bank exercise to a course or question bank assignment, by copying it to the assignment. When copying to an assignment that contains sections, you can select an existing section to place the exercises in. By default, the last section is selected. The exercises are added after any existing exercises in that group. For assignments without sections, exercises are added to the end of the assignment. 

To copy a question bank exercise to a course or question bank assignment, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to your question bank.
2. Click extension Exercises in the menu at the top.
3. Check the box next to the exercise(s) you want to add to a course or question bank assignment.
4. Click + Add to in the menu at the top.
5. Select the question bank assignment or course assignment that you want to copy the exercise to.
6. Optionally, select the section you want to add the exercise to.
7. Click Add.

Remove a question bank exercise

Removing exercises from your question bank can be useful for instance when you do not want to use the exercise in future assignments. Deleting a question bank exercise will also remove it from any question bank assignment it was added to.

To remove a question bank exercise, follow the steps below. 

1. Navigate to your question bank.
2. Click extension Exercises in the menu at the top.
3. Check the box next to the exercise you want to remove.
4. Click delete Put in the trash.
5. Click Confirm. 

Restore a question bank exercise

If you have accidentally removed the wrong exercise from your question bank, you can always restore it from within the settings.

To restore a question bank exercise, follow the steps below. 

1. Navigate to your question bank.
2. Click settings Settings in the menu at the top.
3. Click Removed exercises in the menu on the left
4. Click Restore next to the exercise you want to restore. 
5. Click on the extension Exercises tab to see the restored exercise. 

error_outline Only contributors with the publisher role can restore exercises. 

Synchronise question bank exercises

If you have created a question bank assignment and copied it to your course, a link is created between the exercises in the question bank assignment and the exercises in the course assignment. This means that when you edit an exercise either in the question bank or the course assignment, the exercise will be out of sync. This will be displayed with a yellow banner around the exercise in the course assignment, and the message Latest version or Outdated version, depending on where the exercise was edited. If the exercise was edited in the course assignment, the message 'Latest version' will be displayed. If the exercise was edited in the question bank assignment, the message 'Outdated version' will be displayed.

To make sure the exercises are in sync, you can either use the latest version from the question bank or save the version from your course to your question bank. Both options are explained below. Both options can only be initiated from within the course assignment.

error_outline Exercise attachments are not part of the synchronisation. When you unlink an exercise or remove the attachment from either of the places, the attachment disappears.

Use the version from the question bank

When you edit a linked exercise in either the question bank or the course assignment, it is possible to synchronise the exercise so you can either use the newer version from the question bank, or restore the version from the question bank. If the assignment has results, only changes to the grading scheme and learning objectives will be synchronised.  

To use the newer version from the question bank after editing the exercise in the question bank, follow the steps below. 

1. Navigate to the exercise in your course assignment that you want to synchronise. 
2. Click the dropdown menu Outdated version.
3. Click Use the newer version from the question bank. 
4. Click Confirm.
5. The exercise will be overwritten by the newer question bank version.

To restore the version from the question bank after editing the exercise in the course assignment, follow the steps below. 

1. Navigate to the exercise in your course assignment that you want to synchronise. 
2. Click the dropdown menu Latest version. 
3. Click Restore the version from the question bank. 
4. Click Confirm. 
5. The exercise will be overwritten with the question bank version.

Use the version of the course assignment

Similar to using the version of the question bank, it is also possible to synchronise the linked exercise with the version of the course assignment. This can both be the newer version after editing the exercise in the course assignment, or the older version after the exercise is edited from the question bank. If the assignment has results (including archived), only changes to the grading scheme and learning objectives will be synchronised. 

To save the newer version of the exercise to the question bank, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to the exercise in your course assignment that want to synchronise. 
2. Click the dropdown menu Latest version.
3. Click Save this newer version to the question bank. 
4. Click Confirm.
5. The question bank exercise will be overwritten with the newer course assignment version.

To save the outdated version of the exercise to the question bank, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to the exercise in your course assignment that you want to synchronise. 
2. Click the dropdown menu Outdated version.
3. Click Save this version to the question bank. 
4. Click Confirm. 
5. The question bank exercise will be overwritten with the course assignment version.

Filter on exercises in your question bank

When creating a question bank assignment by manually adding exercises, you can use the filtering options in the exercises overview to easily find exercises that match the demands of your assignment.

To apply filters, follow the steps below. 

1. Navigate to your question bank.
2. By default, the page will open on the extension Exercises tab.
3. Adjust the filters to your specific requirements. Add extra filters by clicking on + Filters. 

Filter options

Below you can find the different topics you can filter on. The parameters depend on the filtering type. 

• Labels
  By default, we provide the labels Draft, Review Needed, Revision Needed, and Accepted, which allow for the creation of a construction process. Additionally, it is possible to add custom labels to fully personalise this process.
   
• Tags
  Tags can be added to exercises within a question bank. You can use tags to give exercises more metadata.
   
• Objectives
  Objectives can be added to questions within a question bank. You can use the analytics of Ans to check whether the students acquired the right level of the learning objectives. 
   
• Authors
  The author tells you who created the exercise. 
   
• Last taken
  This filter allows you to find exercises taken within the last year or taken over a year ago. When you use this filter, a date parameter is added to the URL in your browser’s address bar, which you can manually edit to set a custom date.
   
• P-value
  The p-value indicates the difficulty of the question. A p-value closer to zero means that a question is difficult, while a p-value closer to one means a question is easy.
   
• Rit-value
  The Rit-value indicates the relation of the question to all questions in the test. The higher the Rit-value, the better the question fits the test. 
   
• Rir-value
  The Rit-value indicates the relation of the question to all other question in the test. The higher the Rir-value, the better the question fits the test.
   
• Question type
  This filter lets you choose between different types of questions. For example, open or multiple choice questions.
   
• Appears in assignments
  There is an option to filter exercises based on whether they are used in certain assignments. Select the filter Appears in selected assignments and click or search for the assignment where the exercises should appear in.
   
• Does not appear in assignments
  This filter allows you to filter for exercises that do not appear in certain assignments. Select the Does not appear in assignments and click or search for the assignment where the exercises should not appear in.
   
• Custom fields
  It is possible to filter for exercises based on values of custom fields. 

Selected filters remain applied until the filters are cleared manually or via the Clear filters button next to + Filters. 

Customise question bank columns

The columns in the table of the question bank exercises overview can be customised. Click on the tune -icon at the top left of your exercises overview to choose your preferences. These column settings are saved per user and are applied for all question banks the user visits.

Apply tags, learning objectives, and custom fields from the exercises overview

In addition to customising this overview, you can also adjust the tags, objectives, and custom fields of a specific exercise. In the example below, tags are selected for a particular exercise.

The dropdown for adjusting objectives in the question bank shows each objective's points relative to the total, clarifying if it applies to the entire exercise or specific questions.

Add a comment on a question bank exercise

play_circle_outline  Check out how to add a comment to a question bank exercise on our  YouTube channel.

In order to aid with the creation process of question bank exercises, you have the possibility to add comments on exercises within your question bank. If Notifications is enabled, you can also assign comments to other contributors that are part of your question bank. If this feature is not enable, you can still add comments, however they cannot be assigned to another contributor. Adding comments provides for a more collaborative environment where teachers can work together and provide feedback on exercises. To add a comment to a question bank exercise follow the steps below. 

1. Navigate the exercise you would like comment on.
2. Click the tab Comments.
3. Click on New Comment.
4. Fill in the content with your comment.
5. If enabled, click on Assignee to select the contributor that you wish to assign the comment to from a dropdown menu. This step is optional.
6. Click Save.

You can also navigate to the assignment Question bank assignments tab if you wish to add comments to exercises within a specific question bank assignment.  

If Notifications is enabled, the contributor which has been selected as the assignee will receive a notification in Ans. Notifications can be checked by clicking the circle_notifications-icon in the top right corner. You will be directed to your Inbox where you will see the link to the corresponding comment. After clicking on the link, you will be directed to the Comments tab of the related exercise. You can then reply to the comment by clicking on Reply. The contributor who first posted the comment will also receive a notification if there is a response.

You can also click on Resolve if you wish to resolve the comment. This will effectively close the discussion and indicate that the comment has been addressed. If you wish to reopen a comment that has been resolved you can do so by clicking on Reopen.