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Enterprise Portal: Prepare a Question File to Import

  • Updated

As an alternative to creating questions in ExamSoft, you can import questions from a Word or RTF file. To ensure that the questions are imported successfully, make sure that your file meets the requirements described in this article.  

Note: If you are importing questions from your Canvas or Blackboard LMS instance, you do not need to make any changes in the file before importing it. You can immediately begin the import process. See: Enterprise Portal: Import Questions from an LMS or a Question File

 

Guidelines for Word and RTF Question Files

 

General Formatting Guidelines

Enter the question (along with any related elements such as title, type, and category tags) in one paragraph, followed by the rationale (optional), and the answer choices. Enter a blank paragraph before the next question.

Example: Questions Entered in a Word File
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Question Numbers and Question Text

  • All questions: Designate each question with a number, followed by a period or a closing parenthesis. The importer will not recognize a question if it is not numbered.  


    Examples

    1. What is 2+2?

    2) Is 2x3=3x2?

 

  • Fill in the Blank Questions: Use _a_ to denote the first blank in the question text. If you need to include additional blanks in the question text, use the next letter of the alphabet. 


    Example 

    1. Two nations border the United States: _a_ on the north and _b_ on the south.

    Note: The "blanks" in the question stem must be properly formatted, as shown above, or the question will not be imported. A question can include up to 15 blanks.

 

  • Drag and Drop Questions: After typing the question number, followed by a period or closing parenthesis, enter the code DD, followed by a colon, as shown here:

    DD: This code enables the file parser to identify this question as a Drag and Drop question.


    Note: For this type of question, there is a partial credit option, which you can apply after you upload the import file. If you intend to use this option, we recommend that you include instructional text advising the exam-takers not to guess.


    Example 
    1. DD: Which colors in the Possible Colors box are primary colors? Drag each correct answer to the Primary Colors box. Don’t guess! There are penalties for incorrect selections.

  • Ordering Questions: After typing the question number, followed by a period or closing parenthesis, enter the code ORDERING, followed by a colon, as shown here:

ORDERING: This code enables the file parser to identify this question as an Ordering question.

Note: For this type of question, there is a partial credit option, which you can apply after you upload the import file. If you intend to use this option, we recommend that you include instructional text advising the exam-takers not to guess. 

 

Example

1. ORDERING: Drag and rearrange the following colors in alphabetical order.

 

  • Matrix Questions: After typing the question number, followed by a period or closing parenthesis, enter the code MATRIX, followed by a colon, as shown here:

MATRIX: Include instructional text to help the exam-takers understand what to do in the Matrix interaction, including whether a single correct response is required or multiple correct responses are allowed.


Example
1. MATRIX: The following countries have ocean coastlines. For each country, click to specify which ocean or oceans border the country.

 

Rationale (Optional) 

It can be helpful to include rationale, either for your own reference or to share with the exam-takers after the exam. If you want to include a rationale with this question, make a new line after the question text, enter a tilde ("~") and then enter your comments.

Example
1. Which of the following colors is a primary color?
~The color wheel includes 3 primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. Review Chapter 1 of the textbook.

 

Answer Choices and Correct Answers

  • True/False: Enter two answer choices, one for True and one for False. Label one choice a. and one choice b., and denote the correct answer with an asterisk before the answer choice selection.


    Example
    1. 2+2=4
    *a. True
    b. False

  • Multiple Choice: You can list up to 26 answer choices. Indicate each answer choice with a letter and a period. Denote the correct answer(s) by entering an asterisk before the answer choice letter.


    Example
    1. Which of the following are primary colors?
    a. purple
    *b. blue
    c. green
    *d. red
    *e. yellow

  • Drag and Drop: These answer choices are formatted the same as in Multiple Choice questions. Optionally, you can designate the titles (using the codes Title1 and Title2) to appear above the possible answers list and the selected answers list. (If you do not include this optional information, the titles will be Possible Answers and Correct Answers.) 


    Example
    1. DD: Which colors in the Possible Colors box are primary colors? Drag each correct answer to the Primary Colors box. Don’t guess! There are penalties for incorrect selections.
    Title1: Possible Colors
    Title2: Primary Colors
    *a. red
    b. orange
    *c. yellow
    d. green
    *e. blue

  • Matching: Designate the prompts with letters, followed by a colon. Designate the answer choices with numbers, followed by a colon. After each prompt, insert three dashes followed by the number of the correct answer.


    Note: Enter an equal number of prompts and answer choices. For example, if you have three prompts, you must also have three answer choices.

    Example
    1. Match the Greek goddesses to their realms.

    a: Aphrodite---3
    b: Artemis---1
    c: Nike---2

    1: Goddess of the Hunt
    2: Goddess of Victory
    3: Goddess of Love and Beauty

  • Fill in the Blank - Basic Text Box: Use this approach if you want the exam-taker to type the answer in a text box. Below the question, denote the correct response(s) with letter(s) that correspond to the blank(s) in the question text. If you want to allow alternate versions of a correct answer, separate the responses with a pipe character: |


    Examples
    1. The color _a_ includes primary colors,  secondary colors, and _b_ colors.
    a. wheel
    b. tertiary

    2. Saudi Arabia is bordered on the east by Qatar, Oman and the _a_.
    a. United Arab Emirates | UAE

    Note: The "blank" in the question stem must be properly formatted, as shown in the above examples.

  • Fill in the Blank - Numeric Range: This approach is similar to the Basic Text Box, but the answer is handled differently. The exam-taker's response is considered correct if it is within the specified numeric range. For example, if the range is 0.3 to 0.5, and the exam-taker enters 0.4, then the answer is correct. You'll enter the range in this format: minNum:maxNum


    Example
    1. China's population is estimated to be _a_ percent of the total world population.
    a. 18.4:18.9

    Note: The "blank" in the question stem must be properly formatted, as shown in the above example.

  • Fill in the Blank - Drop-Down List: Use this approach if you want the exam-takers to fill in the blanks by selecting a response from a drop-down list rather than typing. Use curly brackets to enclose the items in the list, and denote the correct response by entering an asterisk after the response. 


    Example
    1. The _a_ Ocean is the largest body of water in the world.
    a. {Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific*, Southern}

    Note: The "blank" in the question stem must be properly formatted, as shown in the above example.

  • Ordering: These answer choices are formatted the same as in Multiple Choice questions. Designate a section title to appear above the possible answers list. (The list on the right is automatically titled Correct Ordering.) Designate the prompts with letters, followed by a colon. After each prompt, insert three dashes followed by the order in which the answers should appear.

    Example
    1. ORDERING: Drag and rearrange the following colors in alphabetical order.
    Title-Ordering: Colors
    a: Yellow --- 4
    b: Orange --- 2
    c: Green --- 1
    d: Red --- 3

 

  • Matrix: You can list up to 26 prompts (rows), and between 2 and 5 answer choices (columns). Include text for the title row. Designate the prompts with letters, followed by a colon. Designate the answer choices with numbers, followed by a colon. After each prompt, insert three dashes followed by the number of the correct answer.

    Example
    1. MATRIX: The following countries have ocean coastlines. For each country, click to specify which ocean or oceans that country borders.
    Title-Matrix-Row: Bordering Oceans
    a: China --- 1
    b: United Kingdom --- 2
    c: United States --- 1,2
    d: India --- 3
    1: Pacific
    2: Atlantic
    3: Indian

    Note: If you want the question type to allow Multiple Response, you can add multiple correct answers to one or more prompts separated by commas.

Inline Images

If you wish to include images within your import file, it must be a Word file. Images in RTF files will not be imported.

Images can be placed anywhere within a Word file. We recommend placing them at the end of your file. After you import the file, you can indicate which images go with which questions or answer choices.

If you are using an RTF file, you can edit the questions to add the images after you import the file.

The following image file formats can be uploaded: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG.

 

Category Tags

When importing questions, you can add category tags to your questions.

Note: The categories must exist in your ExamSoft Portal. The import process will not create any new category types or sub-categories.

Enter the category before the question number and stem. Provide the full category path. If you want to include multiple categories, separate them by enter a comma, followed by a space.

Example
Category: Geography/Continents, Geography/Oceans 1. The Indian Ocean is bounded by which continents?
*a. Africa
b. Antarctica
*c. Asia
*d. Australia/Oceania
e. South America

Sample File

For more examples of the question and answer formats, download our sample file.

 

Next Steps

After preparing your file, you're ready to import your questions. See:  Enterprise Portal: Import Questions from an LMS or a Question File

 

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