Manage question bank exercises

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.

Once you have created your question bank exercise, you can add a description and/or question(s), add metadata or add 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

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_horiz-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 exercise ID (blue numbers).

From here, you can add a label, tags and relations. You can also add a new description 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.

The copy-functionality makes it possible to copy your exercise to both another question bank and to the same question bank. Copying the exercise to another question bank allows you to share the exercise with members of another question bank. They will be able to use the exercise in their own assignment without having access to the first question bank. Copying the exercise to your own question bank allows you to create an exact copy of the exercise in your question bank. For instance, when you want to create a slightly different version of the exercise but keep most information the same.

 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 the dropdown menu More and click Copy.
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.) 

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 

Removing exercises from your question bank can be useful for instance when you do not want to use the exercise in future assignments.

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 More and click Remove.
5. Click Confirm. 

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 members with the publisher role can restore exercises. 

If you have created a question bank assignment and if this assignment is planned into a 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 something in this exercise, either in the question bank or assignment, you will have the option of synchronising this change between the two. This will allow you constantly improve the exercises in your question bank, without losing the connection with your already planned assignment. 

There are two ways this can be done. The first option is to adjust the exercise in your course assignment and send the new version to your question bank. The second option is to adjust the exercise from within your question bank and then you can retrieve this new version of the exercise from within your assignment. Both options are explained below. Both options can only be initiated from within the course assignment.

Send version to question bank

When changing a copied exercise from question bank, the button New version available appears at the top of the exercise within the assignment. You then have the option to send this new version to the question bank. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to your assignment. 
2. Scroll down to the exercise you want to synchronise. 
3. Click the dropdown menu New version available and choose Send version to question bank. 
4. Click Confirm.

The new version will now be available in your question bank. You then also have the option to synchronise this new version with other assignments. You can do this by following the steps in the following section. 

Get version from question bank

When you edit an exercise in your question bank, you have the option to use this new version of the exercise in your assignment. You can do this by following the steps below. 

1. Navigate to your assignment.
2. Scroll down to the exercise you want to synchronise. 
3. Click the dropdown menu New version available and choose Get version from question bank. 
4. Click Confirm.

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. 

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.
  
  
• Authors
  The author tells you who created the exercise. 
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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. 
  
  
• Filter by assignments
  There is a possibility to filter exercises on the fact whether or not they are used in certain assignments. Click on the drop-down button Filter by assignments and choose Appears in selected assignments or Does not appear in selected assignments. Select the assignments and click Apply.

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

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 to your question bank.
2. Click extension Exercises in the menu at the top.
3. Click on the exercise you would like comment on.
4. Click the tab Comments.
5. Click on New Comment.
6. Fill in the content with your comment.
7. If enabled, click on Assignee to select the contributor that you wish to assign the comment to from a drop down menu. This step is optional.
8. 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.