If exercises are created outside of Ans or found in external question banks, they can be imported in Ans in batch. Ans provides different import formats, which are all explained below. Some of the import formats are beta features and need to be enabled by your school administrator via the beta features.
To import exercises into a question bank, follow the steps below.
- Click domain School name in the menu on the left.
- Click folder Question banks in the menu at the top.
- Click on your question bank or use the search bar.
- Click on the extension Exercises tab.
- Click on the dropdown menu Import.
- Select the format you like. More information on each import format is described below.
- To upload your file, click Browse for a file and select the file, or drag and drop the file into the dialogue that appears. This step is equal for all import file types.
When you import a file, you will notice the Successfully scheduled dialogue appear in the bottom left corner. This means the platform will import the given data in the background. Click view to navigate to your background jobs. In the background you can see the status of the exercises being imported. You can also follow the status of background job if you follow the instructions in the background job article. Navigate back to your question bank to view your imported exercises. Below, you can find additional information per import file type.
Question Test Interoperability (QTI) is an international standard for exchanging questions between different online learning platforms. Ans supports QTI version 2.1. QTI files contain 'interactions', which are different content- and question types which are imported to Ans. Below you can see how QTI interactions are converted into Ans when imported.
| QTI interaction type | Imported in Ans as |
| choiceinteraction | Multiple choice question |
| inlinechoiceinteraction | Fill-in question |
| matchinteraction | Match question |
| categorizationinteraction | Match question |
| extendedtextinteraction | Open question |
| orderinteraction | Order question |
| selectpointinteraction | Hotspot |
| shorttextinteraction | Fill-in question |
| textentryinteraction | Fill-in question |
| uploadinteraction | Upload question |
| mediainteraction | Description with media |
It is also possible that textual descriptions are added in Ans via the QTI import in case a description is added to the question. In that case, Ans will create an exercise with a description and the question.
Question Markup Language (QML) is a standard to exchange questions between different online learning platforms. It is mainly used by Questionmark perception. QML files contain abbreviations which indicate a QML question type. Below you can see how QML question types are converted into Ans when imported.
| QML question type | Imported in Ans as |
| open | A general description, followed by open question(s) |
| essay | Open question |
| fib | Fill-in question |
| hot | Hotspot |
| match | Match question |
| mc | Multiple choice question |
| mr | Multiple choice question (with multiple correct answers) |
| num | Numeric question |
| rank | Order question |
| sab | Fill-in question |
| tf | Multiple choice question |
| tm | Fill-in question |
| yn | Multiple choice question |
If a file is imported with different QML question types, they will be imported as descriptions in Ans.
It is possible to import via a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file with the Respondus format. Ans uses the format of Respondus version 4. Please note that it is not required to have Respondus. Our import file is using the same import format. The following question types can be imported to Ans:
| Respondus question type | Imported in Ans as |
| Multiple choice (MC) | Multiple choice question |
| Fill in the Blank (FB) | Fill-in question |
| Essay (ES) | Open question |
| Multiple response (MR) | Multiple choice question (multiple correct answers) |
| Equation (EQ) | Mathematical equation |
| Hotspot match (HM) | Hotspot Match |
| Code (CD) | Code editor |
| Hotspot (HS) | Hotspot |
| Numeric (NM) | Numerical question |
| Worksheet (WS) | Worksheet |
| Drawing (DR) | Drawing |
| Match (MT) | Match |
| Statement (ST) | Statement |
| File (FI) | File upload |
| Order (OR) | Order |
The CSV file contains 34 columns, to support all different question types. Not all columns are used for every question type, but all columns need to be present. Leave columns empty if they are not used for a question type or if you don't want to use it. The order of the columns is set and the columns with an asterisk are mandatory to be filled. We have provided an import template with an example per question type to show how questions can be imported.
| Column | Description | Explanation how it is used in Ans |
| 1 | Type* | Determines the question type. Use the two letter abbreviations of the table above. |
| 2 | Title/ID* | Title of the exercise in Ans. |
| 3 | Points* | Number of points for the correct answer. |
| 4 | Question wording* | Text of the question. |
| 5 | Correct answer | Reference to the correct answer. This differs per question type. See specific information per question type. |
| 6 - 15 | Choice 1 - 10 | The answer alternatives. This differs per question type. |
| 16 | General feedback | Imported as model answer, in the grading scheme. |
| 17 | Correct feedback | Imported as 'Feedback when the question is answered correctly'. |
| 18 | Incorrect feedback | Imported as 'Feedback when the question is answered incorrectly'. |
| 19 - 28 | Feedback 1 - 10 | Imported as feedback for the corresponding choice. For example, feedback one is imported for choice one. |
| 29 | Topic | This is a default tag which can be filled. The 'key-field' of the tag will be named "Topic". The 'value-field' is filled with what is in the import file. |
| 30 | Difficulty level | This is a default tag which can be filled. The 'key-field' of the tag will be named "Difficulty level". The 'value-field' is filled with what is in the import file. |
| 31 - 34 | Meta 1 - 4 |
These will be imported as tags where you can set both the 'key-field' and the 'value-field' of the tag (separated by a comma). |
* Mandatory for every question type
If you use the Respondus CSV import, some things should be taken into account. There are general best practices and question specific best practices which you should take into account. We have listed these below.
General best practices
- The columns Type and Question Wording need to be filled for each row. Some other columns are mandatory for one or more questions, which is explained under the question specific best practices.
- The Points value can range from 0 to 100. If it is empty, Ans assigns a value of one.
- For all question types, the general-, correct- and incorrect feedback columns are supported.
- For all question types, the topic, difficulty level and metadata columns are supported.
- Embedded line breaks are not supported. For all columns (if applicable), text is imported on one line.
- If choice specific feedback is used, it must match the answer alternatives. So the first column of feedback will be imported at the first answer alternative.
- HTML is supported. For example, if you import text which is put between <em> text </em>, the text is imported italic.
- You can't import exercises with the same title. This is due to the fact that Ans needs at least one column to be unique.
- Ans provides an import template. The first row of the import template is ignored, as this row contains the column names.
Numerical question best practices
- The 'Correct answer' column is supported for the numerical question.
Multiple choice question best practices
- In the 'Correct Answer' column you can use numbers 1-10 or letters A-J to refer to the correct alternative column.
- Choice specific feedback is supported for this question type
Multiple response best practices
- It is possible to indicate the correct answers by separating them with a comma in your file. Make sure your columns are separated with semicolons to prevent the correct answers to be imported in the wrong columns.
- Choice specific feedback is supported for this question type
Fill-in question best practices
- The fill-in question in Ans contains a question field and an answer field. The column 'Question wording' will be imported in the question field (just as with the other question types). If one or more choices are provided, a gap will be created in the answer field.
- Ans supports one gap per question. The name of the gap is always "Gap" or the translation, depending on the language settings of your account.
- In the columns 'Choice', the answer alternatives are entered.
- All answer alternatives get the value in the column Points assigned. If you want to give part of the points to a specific alternative, you need to adjust this after importing the question in Ans.
- Alternative specific feedback is not supported, just as in the platform.
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