VIU Campus

Question Library

The Question Library is an area in the background of your course. It is accessible from 3 different tools in VIULearn: Quizzes, Self Assessments, and Surveys. It is similar to the Manage Files area, except that it organizes your questions and not your files. The Question Library allows you to create folders, called sections, to organize all of your questions.

The Question Library is also the ideal location to import questions from publishers or other sources external to VIULearn. This ensures you can make the appropriate changes to questions before presenting them to students. Additionally, if you do run into importing issues, there is no chance of damaging your existing Quizzes, Self-Assessments and Surveys.

It is recommended that you build your quiz questions in the Question Library first rather then inside your quiz. The Question Library can act as a backup for your quiz questions. If you need to delete a quiz from your course, you can do so safely if you have built your questions in the Question Library. Whereas, if you create your questions in the quiz itself, if the quiz is deleted you will loose any quiz questions inside it that were not created or exported to the Question Library. 

Sections

If you plan on creating many questions in your VIULearn course, you can use Sections like folders to organize your questions in the Question Library. Sections can also help you find questions when importing question into a quiz from the Question Library. You can also use sections within a quiz to control question shuffling or to add internal organization to the quiz with section titles and descriptions. 

  1. From the course navigation bar, click Assessment. Select Quizzes from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Click the Question Library tab. 

  3. Click the New button. Select Section from the drop-down menu.

  4. Give your Section a title and edit the following settings:
    • Hide Section Title from Learners: Selecting this option will mean that learners will not see the Section Title if you add the Section into a quiz.
    • Section Text: Add a description for the contents of your section.
    • Hide Section Text from learners: Selecting this option will mean that learners will not see the Section Text if you add the Section into a quiz.
    • Shuffle questions in this section: Selecting this option means that all the questions inside this section will be shuffled and displayed to learners in a random order.
  5. Once you have finished editing, click the blue Save button.

Questions

Questions you create in the Question Library can be used in any quiz, survey, or self assessment in your course. If you want to use Question Pools to randomly present different questions to each student who takes the quiz, the questions must be in the Question Library.

  1. From the course navigation bar, click Assessment. Select Quizzes from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Click the Question Library tab. 

  3. Navigate into the Section you would like to create your quiz question inside. 

  4. Click the New button. Select the Question Type you wish to create from the dropdown menu.

  5. Create your question and edit any necessary settings. Once you have finished, click the blue Save button.
    • If you wish to create another question of the same type, click the downward arrow next to the Save button and select Save and New from the dropdown menu.

Question Types

There are 12 different types of questions that you can create in VIULearn. Some Question Types can be automatically graded while others will require an instructor to manually assign students a score. While there are certain commonalities between question types, each type of question will have it's own unique functionality and settings.

The True or False Question Type provides students with two potential answers (one correct choice and one incorrect choice). Students will need to select the answer they believe is correct. This Question Type can be automatically graded. 

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select True or False Question (T/F) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Insert your question in the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.
     
  3. Select whether the question in the Question Text field is either True or False by clicking the checkboxes beside these headings. 

  4. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Default Points input field. 

  5. Edit any additional settings by clicking the blue Options button.

    • Add Feedback: Select this option if you wish to provide general feedback to students. You can provide specific feedback to students based on the answer that they choose by selecting this option and typing in the Add feedback for this answer field below the answer. You can also provide more general feedback on the question in the Overall Feedback field. 

      Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View so that students can view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided.

      If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct answer was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

    • Add Hint: Select this option if you wish to provide a Hint to your students before they select and submit an answer to the question. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

    • Add Short Description: The Short Description field will allow you to add a customized description to your question. The Short Description will not be visible to students. It is however a helpful tool if you have multiple questions in your Question Library that are formatted very similarly, as the Short Description field will be the field that is displayed when you are viewing the question in your Question Library. If no Short Description is inserted, the display name of your question in the Question Library will be the Question Text you have inserted. 

    • Add Enumeration: Select this option if you wish to have enumeration (a. b. c.) beside the question answers.  

  6. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Multiple Choice Question Type provides students with multiple answers to choose from. Students will need to select the correct answer from the list of available choices. This Question Type can be automatically graded. 

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Multiple Choice Question (MC) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Insert your question into the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.
     
  3. By default, VIULearn will give you 4 fields to put in potential answers. Insert your answers into the input fields provided.

    • If you wish to have more than 4 answers, click the Add Answer text. 

    • If you wish to remove an answer, click the X icon on the right hand side of the answer.  

  4. Click the checkbox next to the correct answer.

  5. Click the checkbox beside Randomize answer order if you wish for students to receive the answers to your Multiple Choice question in a random order. 

  6. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Default Points input field. 

  7. Edit any additional settings by clicking the blue Options button.

    • Add Feedback: Select this option if you wish to provide general feedback to students. You can provide specific feedback to students based on the answer that they choose by selecting this option and typing in the Add feedback for this answer field below the answer. You can also provide more general feedback on the question in the Overall Feedback field. 

      Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View so that students can view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided.

      If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct answer was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

    • Add Hint: Select this option if you wish to provide a Hint to the student before they select and submit an answer to the question. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

    • Add Short Description: The Short Description field will allow you to add a customized description to your question. The Short Description will not be visible to students. It is however a helpful tool if you have multiple questions in your Question Library that are formatted very similarly, as the Short Description field will be the field that is displayed when you are viewing the question in your Question Library. If no Short Description is inserted, the display name of your question in the Question Library will be the Question Text you have inserted. 

    • Add Custom Weights: This option will allow you to give full or partial credit to more than one answer in your Multiple Choice question. For example, you could give students full points on the question if they choose either answer 1 or answer 2. 

      To do so, insert a percentage of the points you would like to assign to students for choosing this answer into the % input field. 

    • Add Enumeration: Select this option if you wish to have enumeration (a. b. c.) beside the question answers.  

  8. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Multi-Select Question Type provides students with multiple answers that they can choose from. Students will need to select all of the correct answers from the available choices in order to get full points on the question. This Question Type can be automatically graded. 

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Multi-Select Question (M-S) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Insert your question into the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the HTML editor options.
     
  3. By default, VIULearn will give you 4 fields to put in potential answers. Insert your answers into the input fields provided.

    • If you wish to have more than 4 answers, click the Add Answer text. 

    • If you wish to remove an answer, click the X icon on the right hand side of the answer field.  

  4. Click the checkbox next to the correct answer(s). 

  5. Click the checkbox beside Randomize answer order if you wish for students to receive the answers to this Multi-Select question in a randomized order. 

  6. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Default Points input field. 

  7. Choose your preferred Grading Method. There are four different Grading Methods that can be used:

    • All or Nothing: Learners earn full points only when all correct answers are selected and all incorrect answers are left blank. Learners cannot earn partial points. If learners miss a correct answer or selects an incorrect answer, they will be given 0 points for that question. 

    • Correct Selections: Points are evenly distributed across all answers. Learners earn partial points for each correct answer selected and for each incorrect answer not selected. 

    • Correct Answers, Limited Selections: Points are evenly distributed across correct answers only. The number of selections students are allowed is limited to the number of correct answers. Learners earn partial points for each correct answer selected. 

    • Right Minus Wrong Selections: Points are evenly distributed across all answers. Learners earn partial points for each correct answer selected and will loose points for each incorrect answer not selected. Learners cannot receive less than 0 points. 

  8. Edit any additional settings by clicking the blue Options button.

    • Add Feedback: Select this option if you wish to provide general feedback to students. You can provide specific feedback to students based on the answer that they choose by selecting this option and typing in the Add feedback for this answer field below the answer. You can also provide more general feedback on the question in the Overall Feedback field. 

      Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View so that students can view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided.

      If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct answer was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

    • Add Hint: Select this option if you wish to provide a Hint to students before they select and submit an answer to the question. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

    • Add Short Description: The Short Description field will allow you to add a customized description to your question. The Short Description will not be visible to students. It is however a helpful tool if you have multiple questions in your Question Library that are formatted very similarly, as the Short Description field will be the field that is displayed when you are viewing the question in your Question Library. If no Short Description is inserted, the display name of your question in the Question Library will be the Question Text you have inserted. 
       
    • Add Enumeration: Select this option if you wish to have enumeration (a. b. c.) beside the question answers.  

  9. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Written Response Question Type provides students with a prompt or a question that they must respond to be typing in some text into the input field provided. Students can also upload documents in their response. This Question Type cannot be automatically graded. Students will automatically receive 0 points for their responses to this question. An instructor will need to review and assign each student a score based on their response to the Written Response question. 

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Written Response Question (WR) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Insert your question into the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.
     
  3. Click the checkbox beside Enable HTML Editor for learner responses if you wish for learners to be able to format their written response or if you would like them to be able to embed a VIUTube video in their response. 

    Please Note: Students will not be able to embed images into their response using the Insert Image button. If you would like students to be able to upload images or other documents to their response, please make sure that you have Enabled inserted images and attachments (see below). 

  4. Click the Enable inserted images and attachments if you wish for learners to be able to upload documents (such as image files, PDF documents, etc) as a part of their answer to this question.

  5. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Default Points input field. 

  6. Edit any additional settings by clicking the blue Options button.

    • Add Feedback: Select this option if you wish to provide general feedback to students. You can provide specific feedback to students based on the answer that they choose by selecting this option and typing in the Add feedback for this answer field below the answer. You can also provide more general feedback on the question in the Overall Feedback field. 

      Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View so that students can view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided.

      If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct answer was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

    • Add Hint: Select this option if you wish to provide a Hint students before they select and submit an answer to the question. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

    • Add Short Description: The Short Description field will allow you to add a customized description to your question. The Short Description will not be visible to students. It is however a helpful tool if you have multiple questions in your Question Library that are formatted very similarly, as the Short Description field will be the field that is displayed when you are viewing the question in your Question Library. If no Short Description is inserted, the display name of your question in the Question Library will be the Question Text you have inserted. 

    • Add Answer Key: The Answer Key field will allow you to write a few sentences or prompts to help guide you when grading student's responses to your Written Response question. Any text inserted into the Answer Key field will be displayed below the student's answer when grading their Quiz Attempt in the Grading area. Students will not be able to view the text written in the Answer Key field at any point.

    • Add Custom Response Box Size: This setting will allow you to change the default size of the text input field that students will receive to type their response into. Students can always write as much text as they would like regardless of its size. However, this setting can be helpful if you would like to visually guide students on how much text they should be writing for their response.

      There are 3 different sizing options: Default size, about a paragraph, A bit shorter, just a sentence, and Much longer, expecting an essay. 

    • Add Initial Text: This setting will allow you to insert text into the text input field that students will be writing their response into. This text will disappear once students begin writing their response. 

  7. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Short Answer Question Type provides students with a question that they must respond to by typing into the input field(s) provided. In order for students to answer this question correctly, they must type in what you have inserted as the answer. This Question Type can be automatically graded.

In order to ensure accuracy in the automatic grade, the Short Answer Question Type is best used for 1-2 word responses. If you would like students to respond by typing in 1-2 sentences, consider using the Written Response Question Type instead. 

When using this Question Type, it is recommended that you review student's responses, as there may be responses that are automatically marked incorrect that you may want to give students points on. For example, if the answer was color and the student typed co;or, you may want to override the automatic grade and give the student a point for this answer.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Short Answer Question (SA) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Insert your question into the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.

  3. Insert your answer into the Answers for Blank 1 input field. You can insert multiple acceptable answers for that blank by pressing the Enter key on your keyboard in-between words. 

    For example, if the answer to your question is color, you may want to insert colour, color, colours, colors as all correct choices. 

  4. You can also insert another answer that students must input in order to get full marks on the question by clicking the Add Blank button. You can delete the new blank answer you have created by clicking the X icon on the right hand side of the answer. 

  5. You can edit the following Comparison Settings by clicking the downward arrow to the left of the answer: 

    • Text: VIULearn will mark students answer as correct as long as their answer contains all the same characters as your written answer. For example, if the answer to the question was colour, both colour and Colour would both be considered correct. 

    • Case-Sensitive Text: In order for VIULearn to mark a student's answer to this question as correct, their answer must contain all the same cases and characters as your answer. For example, if the answer to the question was colour, Colour would not be considered a correct response. 

    • Regular Expression: With this setting, you can use special characters to direct VIULearn to compare a student's answer against a set of acceptable answers. For example, with this setting if you typed colou?r as the answer, both color and colour would be considered correct. You can learn more about Understanding Regular Expressions on our vendor's webpage. 

  6. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Default Points input field. 

  7. If you have more than one blank answer, you will also be given the option to choose how the points are calculated on that question. There are two different options:

    • Learners receive part marks: Points are evenly distributed across all answers. Learners earn partial points for each correct response to the Blanks. 

    • Learners must answer all blanks correctly: Learners earn full points only when all responses to the Blanks are correct. Learners cannot earn partial points. If learners guess incorrectly on one or more of the Blanks, they will be receive 0 points for that question. 

  8. Edit any additional settings by clicking the blue Options button.

    • Add Feedback: Select this option if you wish to provide general feedback to students. You can provide specific feedback to students based on the answer that they choose by selecting this option and typing in the Add feedback for this answer field below the answer. You can also provide more general feedback on the question in the Overall Feedback field. 

      Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View so that students can view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided.

      If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct answer was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

    • Add Hint: Select this option if you wish to provide a Hint to your students before they select and submit an answer to the question. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

    • Add Short Description: The Short Description field will allow you to add a customized description to your question. The Short Description will not be visible to students. It is however a helpful tool if you have multiple questions in your Question Library that are formatted very similarly, as the Short Description field will be the field that is displayed when you are viewing the question in your Question Library. If no Short Description is inserted, the display name of the question in the Question Library will be the Question Text you have inserted. 

  9. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Multi-Short Answer Question Type provides students with a question that they must respond to by typing into the input fields provided. VIULearn will then give students points for this question based on how many of their answers match with the correct answers you have inserted. This Question Type can be automatically graded.

The Multi-Short Answer Question Type is similar to the Short Answer. The main difference between these two Question Types is that with the Multi-Short Answer Question type, you will be able to create multiple Input Boxes for students to put their answers into and these Input Boxes are all connected to the same set of potential Answers. Whereas, with the Short Answer Question type, each Input Box relates to a set of specific Answers. 

For example, you may want to use the Multi-Short Answer Question if you are giving students the question "Name 5 Canadian Provinces". Students will be presented 5 different Input Boxes and will need to insert a province into each box. They can insert any of the 10 potential answers into the 5 input fields provided in any order they wish. Whereas, the Short Answer Question types is best used when students need to write a very specific answer in a specific order (For example, "Spell the numbers 1-5 in French"). 

When using this Question Type, it is recommended that you review student's responses, as there may be responses that are automatically marked incorrect that you may want to give students points on. For example, if the answer was color and the student typed co;or, you may want to override the automatic grade and give the student a point for this answer.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Multi-Short Answer Question (MSA) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Give your question a title if you wish. 

  3. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly into the Points input field. 

  4. Insert your question into the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the HTML editor options.

  5. By default, students will be given 3 Input Boxes and you will be able to provide 3 different Answers for those Input Boxes.

  6. If you wish to create another Input Box, write the total number of Input Boxes you wish to create in the Input Boxes field. Then click the Save button at the bottom of the screen. 

  7. Write all the potential answers for the Input Boxes in the Answers fields. 

    • If you would like more then 3 Answers, write the number of new Answers you wish to create underneath the Answers heading. Then click the Add Answer button.

    • If you wish to remove an answer, click the Trash icon on the right hand side of the answer.

  8. Choose how much each potential Answer is worth by typing in the percentage of the points you wish to assign to students for providing this answer in the Weight (%) field. 

  9. You can edit the following Evaluation Settings related to your answers by clicking the appropriate checkboxes next to the answer: 

    • Case Insensitive: VIULearn will evaluate this answer as correct as long as the student's answer contains all the same characters as your recorded answer. For example, if the answer to the question was colour, both colour and Colour would both be considered correct.

    • Case-Sensitive Text: In order for VIULearn to evaluate this answer as correct, the answer must contain all the same cases and characters as your recorded answer. For example, if the answer to the question was colour, Colour would not be considered correct.

    • Regular Expression: With this setting, you can use special characters to direct VIULearn to compare a student's answer against a set of acceptable answers. For example, with this setting if you typed colou?r as the answer, both color and colour would be considered correct. You can learn more about Understanding Regular Expressions on our vendor's webpage. 

  10. If you wish to provide a Hint to students before they select and submit an answer to the question, type your hint into the Question Hint input field. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in your Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

  11. If you wish to provide some general feedback to your students, type into the Question Feedback field.

    Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View and allow students to view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided in this field. 

    If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct answer was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

  12. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Fill in the Blanks Question Type requires learners to fill in one or more missing words from an incomplete sentence, statement, or phrase. This Question Type can be automatically graded.

It is recommended that you only insert 1-2 words per blank answer and that you review student's responses for inaccuracies in the automatic grading. For example, if the answer was color and the student typed co;or, you may want to override the automatic grade and give the student a mark for this answer.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Fill in the Blanks Question (FIB) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Give your question a title if you wish. 

  3. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Points input field. 

  4. Insert your question into the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.

  5. By default, you will be given 2 Text Input fields and 2 Blank Input fields. In the Text #1 Input field, begin writing your question. Once you get to the location in the sentence, statement, or phrase you wish to insert the blank stop writing. Then, write the 1-2 word answer you wish for students to insert into the blank into the Answer input field. Then if necessary, continue writing your sentences in the Text #2 input field. 

    • If you wish to add more Blank Input fields or Text Input fields, then write how many fields you wish to create beside the correlating heading. Then click Add Blank or Add Text to create a new Blank or Text Input field. 

    • If you wish to delete a Blank or Text Input field, click the Trash icon on the right hand side of the Blank or Text you wish to delete. 

  6. In the Blank Input fields, you can also choose to provide more than one correct answer to the blank. You can do so by inserting the number of new potential answers you would like to create into the input field provided. Then, click the Add Answer button to create those new answers. 

  7. Choose how much each potential answer is worth towards the overall point value by typing in a percentage into the Weight (%) field. 

  8. You can edit the following Evaluation Settings related to your answers by clicking the appropriate checkboxes next to the answer: 

    • Case Insensitive: VIULearn will mark students answer as correct as long as their answer contains all the same characters as your written answer. For example, if the answer to the question was colour, both colour and Colour would both be considered correct responses. 

    • Case-Sensitive Text: In order for VIULearn to mark a student's answer to this question as correct, their answer must contain all the same cases and characters as your answer. For example, if the answer to the question was colour, Colour would not be considered a correct response. 

    • Regular Expression: With this setting, you can use special characters to direct VIULearn to compare a student's answer against a set of acceptable answers. For example, with this setting if you typed colou?r as the answer, both color and colour would be considered correct. You can learn more about Understanding Regular Expressions on our vendor's webpage. 

  9. If you wish to provide a Hint to your students before they select and submit an answer to the question, type your hint into the Question Hint input field. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

  10. If you wish to provide some general feedback to your students, type into the Question Feedback field.

    Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View and allow students to view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided in this field. 

    If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct answer was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

  11. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Matching Question Type will present learners with a list of Matches that users must correctly pair with another list of potential Choices. This Question Type can be automatically graded.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Matching Question (MAT) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Give your question a title if you wish. 

  3. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Points input field. 

  4. Choose your preferred Grading Method. There are three different Grading Methods that can be selected:

    • Equally weighted: Points are evenly distributed across all answers. Learners earn partial points for each choice that they correctly match. 

    • All or Nothing: Learners earn full points only when all choices are correctly matched. Learners cannot earn partial points. If learners incorrectly match a choice, they will be given 0 points for that question. 

    • Right Minus Wrong: Points are evenly distributed across all choices. Leaners earn partial points for each choice correctly matched and will loose points for choice incorrectly matched. Learners cannot receive less than 0 points. 

  5. By default, you will be given 2 Choices and 2 Matches. Insert your first term into the first Choice input field. Then, insert the definition for that term in the corresponding Match input field. When students take the quiz, the Matches will be displayed in a randomized order so you do not have to worry about the fact that the choices and matches appear sequential to you. You can also embed videos or images into your Choices or Matches by using the HTML editor.   
    • If you wish to add more Choices or Matches, then write how many fields you wish to create beside the correlating headings. Then click Add Choice or Add Match to create the new Choices or Matches.

    • If you wish to delete a Choice or a Match, click the Trash icon on the right hand side of the Choice or Match you wish to delete. 

  6. If you wish to provide a Hint to the student before they select and submit an answer to the question, type your hint into the Question Hint input field. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

  7. If you wish to provide some general feedback to your students, type into the Question Feedback field.

    Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View and allow students to view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided in this field. 

    If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct matches were, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

  8. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Ordering Question Type will present learners with a list of items that they will need to sort into the correct sequence. This Question Type can be automatically graded.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Ordering Question (ORD) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Give your question a title if you wish. 

  3. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Points input field. 

  4. Insert your question into the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.

  5. Choose your preferred Grading Method. There are three different Grading Methods that can be selected:

    • Equally weighted: Points are evenly distributed across all answers. Learners earn partial points for each item that they insert into the correct sequence. 

    • All or Nothing: Learners earn full points only when all items are put into the correct sequence. Learners cannot earn partial points. If learners do not select the right sequence number for one or more of the items, they will be given 0 points for that question. 

    • Right Minus Wrong: Points are evenly distributed across all items. Leaners earn partial points for each item that they insert into the correct sequence and will loose partial points for each item they put in the incorrect sequence. Learners cannot receive less than 0 points. 

  6. By default, you will be given 4 Items. Type your sentence, phrase, or statement into the Value input fields. Underneath the Correct Order heading, choose the order that the Items should be listed in. The Items in your Ordering question will be randomized to students, so you do not need to worry about putting the items in a random order yourself. 

    • If you wish to add more Items, then write how many Items you wish to create beside the Add Item heading. Then click Add Item to create your new Item(s)

    • If you wish to delete an Item, click the Trash icon on the right hand side of the Item you wish to delete. 

  7. If you wish to provide a Hint to the student before they select and submit an answer to the question, type your hint into the Question Hint input field. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

  8. If you wish to provide some general feedback to your students, type into the Question Feedback field.

    Students will be able to review this feedback once their quiz attempt has been submitted and set as Published. You will also need to edit the Submission View and allow students to view the questions on the quiz in order for them to be able to see the feedback you have provided in this field. 

    If you are creating questions in the Question Library for a Self Assessment, it is important that you add Feedback to your questions and let students know what the correct sequence was, as students will not be able to see if they got the question right or wrong if you do not manually add any feedback to the question.

  9. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

The Arithmetic Question type allows you to build formulas into a quiz to test students' understanding of how to use and apply them. They can be used for basic functions like addition & multiplication and can also be more complex such as calculating voltage of a circuit, solving trigonometry problems, etc. VIULearn will generate new variable values when the question is loaded, so each respondent will see a different version of the question. This increases the randomization of graded quizzes, and can provide valuable experience in practice quizzes. There are options to set an acceptable range of answers and to adjust the score achieved based on these ranges. This Question Type can be automatically graded.

You can use the following operations and constants in your formulas:

Enumerations Description 
 +,-,*,/,\,^ Basic mathematical operators
% Modulo (remainder) operator
{x}^{y} x to the power of y
abs({n}) Absolute value of n
cos({n}) The cosine of n (in radians)
sin({n}) The sine of n (in radians)
sqr({n}) The square root of n
tan({n}) The tangent of n (in radians)
log({n}) The log base 10 of n
ln({n}) The log base e of n
atan({n}) The inverse tangent of n
sec({n}) The secant of n
cosec({n}) The cosecant of n
cotan({n}) The cotangent of n
Factorial Factorial of n, or (n!)
exp The power of natural log (e)
 pi  pi 3.14159 (accurate up to 50 decimal places)
 e  e 2.71828 (accurate up to 50 decimal places)

Before you begin creating an Arithmetic Question, confirm that your formula can be built with the available features. You may prefer to create a Written Response Question if you do not need to generate different variables for each respondent, or if showing work & calculations is more important than the final response.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Arithmetic Question (2+2) from the dropdown menu.

  2. (Optional) Enter a question title into the Title field.

  3. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Default Points input field. 

  4. Use the Difficulty drop-down menu to set the default difficulty of the question.

  5. Insert your question in the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.

    • Referring to variables used in the formula: Use 1 to 2 characters for variable names and be consistent when referring to their names. When you would like to display the actual values instead of the variable name, place variables inside curly brackets (e.g. {x}+{y}, where 'x' and 'y' are the names of the variables). These are replacement strings. When a student views the questions, VIULearn will display the actual generated variable values instead of the replacement string. The equation editors cannot directly reference your variables but can be used to display the formula to students if you wish.

    • Insert an Image: Use this option to upload an image related to your question, such as a labeled diagram. Add Alternative Text in the text box below to describe your image for users using screen readers.

  6. (Optional) If you would like to allow students to upload a document showing their work, fill the checkbox next to Allow attachments to support answers.

  7. Insert your formula into the Formula field. Remember to be consistent with variable names and to place variables inside curly brackets {}. Review the table above for available built-in operations and constants, and use the same formatting to refer to them. Other constants can be written directly into the formula as a number. Do not enter units into the formula field.

  8. Use the Precision drop-down menu to select how many decimal places you would like students to provide in their answer.

    • Enforce precision: Select this option if you would like to automatically mark answers with an incorrect number of decimal places as wrong. It will not prevent the student from entering an answer with an incorrect number of decimal places.

  9. Use the Tolerance settings to define the range of acceptable answers. You can use Units or Percents to set this range.

  10. (Optional) Use the Units setting to define the units that should be included in a student's response. If you use this setting, students will be given a second response box to write units in.

    • Worth: ___ % of Points: If you choose to require units, you can also set a percentage of the question's points to be granted for correct units. There may be variations that you would accept so we recommend manually checking units as you would for other written question types.

    • Evaluation Options: If you are using the optional Units setting, use Evaluation Options to choose how VIULearn interprets the unit string that students enter. Units can be Case Insensitive, Case Sensitive, or Regular Expressions.

  11. Use the Variables table to define the variables used in your formula. You can click Add Variable to create more variables and you can click the trashcan icon to delete a variable.

    • Name: Enter the name of a variable into this column. Variable names can be 1 or 2 characters long (e.g. x, y0, y1, MX) and are case sensitive. If you name a variable lowercase "a", you cannot refer to it as uppercase "A"; VIULearn would view the uppercase "A" as a new undefined variable.

    • Min and Max: Enter minimum and maximum values to define the range of numbers that this variable can be generated from. Make sure these ranges match what you would expect in a typical example.
      E.g. for a variable that represents a percentage you might define a range from Min=0 to Max=1.

    • Decimal Places: Use this drop-down list to set the number of decimals to be displayed for this variable.

    • Step: Use this setting to define the incremental steps used to generate the variable within the defined range.
      E.g. with Min=0, Max=1 and Step=0.5, the variable generated could be 0, 0.5, or 1.

      • Please Note: Make sure that your Decimal Places display at least as many decimals as your Step uses, otherwise students will not see the entire generated variable.

  12. Scroll back up to the Formula field, and click Test to confirm that your formula is working correctly, that variables are being generated as expected, etc.

  13. (Optional) At the bottom of the page, enter other information that you may want to share with students:

    • Question Hint: Use this option if you wish to provide a Hint to your students before they select and submit an answer to the question. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

    • Question Feedback: Use this option if you wish to provide general feedback to students.

  14. Click the blue Save button to create your question.

The Significant Figures question type also allows you to build formulas into a quiz to test students' understanding of how to use and apply them. Significant Figures questions work the same as Arithmetic Questions, but require variables and student responses to be entered with proper significant figures and scientific notation. They can be used for basic functions like addition & multiplication, and can also be more complex such as calculating concentration of a solution, population growth etc. VIULearn will generate different variables when the question is loaded, so students will see different values each time. This increases the randomization of graded quizzes, and can provide valuable experience in practice quizzes. There are options to set an acceptable range of answers and to adjust the score achieved based on these ranges. This Question Type can be automatically graded.

You can use the following operations and constants in your formulas:

Enumerations Description 
 +,-,*,/,\,^ Basic mathematical operators
% Modulo (remainder) operator
{x}^{y} x to the power of y
abs({n}) Absolute value of n
cos({n}) The cosine of n (in radians)
sin({n}) The sine of n (in radians)
sqr({n}) The square root of n
tan({n}) The tangent of n (in radians)
log({n}) The log base 10 of n
ln({n}) The log base e of n
atan({n}) The inverse tangent of n
sec({n}) The secant of n
cosec({n}) The cosecant of n
cotan({n}) The cotangent of n
Factorial Factorial of n, or (n!)
exp The power of natural log (e)
 pi  pi 3.14159 (accurate up to 50 decimal places)
 e  e 2.71828 (accurate up to 50 decimal places)

Before you begin creating an Significant Figures question, confirm that your formula can be built with the available features. You may prefer to create a Written Response Question if you do not need to generate different variables for each respondent, or if showing work & calculations is more important than the final response.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Significant Figures (x10) from the dropdown menu.

  2. (Optional) Enter a question title into the Title field.

  3. Assign how many points students will receive for answering this question correctly in the Points input field. 

  4. Use the Difficulty drop-down menu to set the default difficulty of the question.

  5. Insert your question in the Question Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.

    • Referring to variables used in the formula: Use 1 to 2 characters for variable names and be consistent when referring to their names. When you would like to display the actual values instead of the variable name, place variables inside curly brackets (e.g. {x}+{y}, where 'x' and 'y' are the names of the variables). These are replacement strings. When a student views the questions, VIULearn will display the actual generated variable values instead of the replacement string. The equation editors cannot directly reference your variables but can be used to display the formula to students if you wish.

    • Insert an Image: Use this option to upload an image related to your question, such as a labeled diagram. Add Alternative Text in the text box below to describe your image for users using screen readers.

  6. (Optional) If you would like to allow students to upload a document showing their work, fill the checkbox next to Allow attachments to support answers.

  7. Insert your formula into the Formula field. Remember to be consistent with variable names and to place variables inside curly brackets {}. Review the table above for available built-in operations and constants, and use the same formatting to refer to them. Other constants can be written directly into the formula as a number. Do not enter units into the formula field.

  8. Use the Significant Figures drop-down menu to select how many significant figures you would like to be used in the solution.

    • will be automatically deducted from responses with an incorrect number of significant figures.

  9. Use the Tolerance settings to define the range of acceptable answers. To set this range, you can use Units (in scientific notation), a Percent, or the default tolerance of +/– 0.5 from the least significant figure.

  10. (Optional) Use the Units setting to define the units that should be included in a student's response. If you use this setting, students will be given a second response box to write units in.

    • Worth: ___ % of Points: If you choose to require units, you can also set a percentage of the question's points to be granted for correct units. There may be variations that you would accept so we recommend manually checking units as you would for other written question types.

    • Evaluation Options: If you are using the optional Units setting, use Evaluation Options to choose how VIULearn interprets the unit string that students enter. Units can be Case Insensitive, Case Sensitive, or Regular Expressions.

  11. Use the Variables table to define the variables used in your formula. You can click Add Variable to create more variables and you can click the trashcan icon to delete a variable.

    • Name: Enter the name of a variable into this column. Variable names can be 1 or 2 characters long (e.g. x, y0, y1, MX) and are case sensitive. If you name a variable lowercase "a", you cannot refer to it as uppercase "A"; VIULearn would view the uppercase "A" as a new undefined variable.

    • Min and Max: Enter minimum and maximum values in scientific notation to define the range of numbers that this variable can be generated from. Make sure these ranges match what you would expect in a typical example.
      E.g. for a variable that represents a population you might define a range from Min=1.1*104 to Max=9.9*107

    • Step: Use this setting to define the incremental steps used to generate the variable within the defined range.

  12. Scroll back up to the Formula field, and click Test to confirm that your formula is working correctly, that variables are being generated as expected, etc.

    • Please Note: If the generated variables don't have enough significant figures VIULearn will display extra trailing zeros that should be treated as significant (even though trailing zeros are usually ignored in scientific notation). This is to ensure that the response will have the required number of Significant Figures that you set.
      E.g. If VIULearn displays variable x=1.000*104, it should be treated as though it has four significant figures.
  13. (Optional) At the bottom of the page, enter other information that you may want to share with students:

    • Question Hint: Use this option if you wish to provide a Hint to your students before they select and submit an answer to the question. You will need to make sure that you have allowed hints in the Quiz Settings or else students will not be able to see these hints. 

    • Question Feedback: Use this option if you wish to provide general feedback to students.

  14. Click the blue Save button to create your question.

The Likert Question Type will present learners with a statement that they must then measure their personal opinion, knowledge, or attitudes towards. Likert questions cannot be added to Quizzes or Self Assessments. They can only be used in a VIULearn Survey.

  1. In the Question Library, click the New button. Select Likert Question (LIK) from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Give your question a title if you wish. 

  3. Insert your statement into the Introductory Text field. You can also embed VIUTube videos, images, and more by using the options in the HTML editor.

  4. Choose your preferred Scale Method. There are 8 different Scale Methods that can be selected:

    • One to Five (1-5).

    • One to Eight (1-8).

    • One to Ten (1-10)

    • Agreement Scale (Disagree - Agree).

    • Satisfaction Scale (Dissatisfied - Satisfied).

    • Frequency Scale (Never - Always).

    • Importance Scale (Unimportant - Important).

    • Opposition Scale (Oppose - Support).

  5. If you would like students to be able to select Not Applicable (NA) as a choice, click the checkbox beside Include an N/A option. 

  6. By default, you will be given 2 Options. Type the statement(s) that you would like students to answer using your preferred Scale Method into the Value fields provided. 

    • If you wish to add more Options, then write how many Options you wish to create beside the Add Option heading. Then click Add Option to create your new Option(s)

    • If you wish to delete an Option, click the Trash icon on the right hand side of the Option you wish to delete. 

  7. If you wish to provide some general feedback to the student, type into the Question Feedback field. In order for students to see the Feedback you have written in this field, you must enable the give instant feedback setting in your Survey. Students will then be able to review the feedback you have written once they submit their Survey. 

  8. Click the blue Save button to create your question. 

Preview a Question in the Question Library

The preview page allows you to view the appearance of an individual question, as well as the comments and hints you might include with the question. If the question appears in more than one place, the preview page also displays a list of the other places the question is in use (e.g. quizzes, surveys, and self assessments).

On the Question Library page, use the drop-down arrow to the right of the question title and click Preview. When you are finished viewing the question, click Done.

Reorder Questions or Sections in the Question Library

Change the order of how the questions display in the Question Library by reordering them in the question list.

  1. From the course navigation bar, click Assessment. Select Quizzes from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Click the Question Library tab. 

  3. Navigate into the area you wish to reorganize. Then, click Order.

  4. Select the check box beside the question(s) or section(s) you want to reorder, then click the Up or Down arrows to move them through the list.

  5. Click Save.

Moving a Question or Section in the Question Library

Sometimes you want to reorganize your questions into different sections, or move a question that was created in the wrong section.

  1. From the course navigation bar, click Assessment. Select Quizzes from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Click the Question Library tab. 

  3. Navigate to the location where the question(s) or section(s) you want to move are. Select the check box beside the question(s) or section(s) you want to move.

  4. Click Move.

  5. You will see a tree of all available sections. Click on the section you want the question(s) or section(s) moved into.

    If you want to move the question(s) or section(s) to the root level, click on Collection Root.

Delete a Question or Section from the Question Library

You can delete questions or sections from your Question Library. This will not delete that question from any quiz where the question is used. If you delete a Section, this will delete all questions inside that section. Deleted sections and questions cannot be restored. However, if these questions have been used in a quiz, you can import question from your quiz back into the Question Library.

  1. From the course navigation bar, click Assessment. Select Quizzes from the dropdown menu. 

  2. Click the Question Library tab. 

  3. Find and select the check box beside the question(s) or section(s) you want to delete.

  4. Click Delete.

  5. Click Delete again to confirm.