Question Banks

Questions in Moodle are organized into categories. A category is just another name for “bank” or group or questions. A new course starts out with one category named “Default for [course name].” To make it easier to find questions, and to facilitate the use of random questions, organize your questions into additional categories. You can create a hierarchy of categories by creating subcategories inside parent categories. The more organized you make your question categories during the initial setup of your course, the easier it will be to reuse questions in future quizzes and exams.

1. Add & Manage Question Bank Categories

1. On your course page, select the Course Management (gear icon), the Course Management panel will open.
2. On the panel, under Quiz Questions, click Question bank. The Question bank page opens to the Default category for the course you are in, and on this page you will also see Questions, Categories, Import and Export tabs.
3. To add a new category, select the Categories tab. The Edit categories page will open.
4. On the Edit categories page, under Add category, define the new category that you want to add:
   • Parent Category (Optional)
     Select a Parent category for the new category. (By default, the new category will be added as a sub-category of the course’s default category.)
   • Name (Required)
     In the Name field, enter a name for the new category.
   • Category info (Optional)
     Enter a description for the new category in the Category info field.
5. Click Add category to add the newly specified category.
6. (Optional) To delete, edit, move, or indent a category, click the configuration icons  next to each category listed.

2. Add Questions to a Category (Question Bank)

You can add questions to a category by creating new questions within a category or moving questions you have already created from one category to another. You must create categories before you can populate them with questions.

To add a new question to a category:

1. On your course page, select the Course Management (gear icon), a Course Management panel will open.
2. On this panel, under Quiz Questions, click Question bank. The Question bank page will open.
3. Select a category from the Select a category drop-down menu. The page will update to show you the list of questions within that category.
4. Next, select Create a new question…. The Choose a question type to add window will open.
5. Choose the type of question you want to add, then select Add.

3. Add Questions to a Quiz from the Question Bank

1. On your course page, click the Quiz name. The Quiz summary page will open.
2. On the Quiz summary page, select the Actions menu (), a drop-down list will open. From the Action menu drop-down list select Edit quiz. The Editing quiz page will open. If the Quiz already contains questions, they will be listed here.
3. On the Editing quiz page, click Add (at far right) and from the drop-down menu select + from question bank. The Add from the question bank… pop-up will open.
4. In the Add from the question bank… pop-up, from the Select a category drop-down menu, select the category from which to add questions to the Quiz. The list of questions within that category will appear.
5. You can add questions to the quiz in any of the following ways:
   • To add a single question to the Quiz, click the Add icon (+) located before the question name. You will be returned to the Editing quiz page and the question you added will be listed.
   • To add multiple questions, select the checkboxes (left of the question), then click Add selected questions to quiz (at bottom). You will be returned to the Editing quiz page and the questions you added will be listed.
6. To preview a question click the Preview icon (). The question will open in a pop-up window.

4. Add Random Questions to a Quiz from the Question Bank

Note: To successfully add random questions to a quiz you must have enough unused questions in your question bank to avoid reusing questions already added to the quiz. A question can only appear once in any quiz, so the more questions in the category you are drawing from, it is more likely for students to receive different questions on each attempt. When a quiz with random questions is retaken, the random questions will be different from the ones in previous attempts.

1. On your course page, click the Quiz name. The Quiz summary page will open.
2. On the Quiz summary page, select the Actions menu (), a drop-down list will open. From the Action menu drop-down list select Edit quiz. The Editing quiz page will open. If the Quiz already contains questions, they’ll be listed here.
3. Click Add (at far right), and from the drop-down menu select + a random question. The Add a random question window will open.
4. In the Add a random question window, under Existing category, use the Category drop-down menu to select the category from which to draw questions.
5. From the Number of random questions drop-down menu, select the number of questions the quiz should pull from this category. For example, if the category has ten questions and you select “5”, each quiz attempt will take a random five questions from the ten questions in this category.
6. Click Add random question. The Editing quiz page will open listing the question(s) as Random (category name).
7. On the Editing quiz page, each time you click the Preview icon () for the question, you should see a different question.