Use MS Excel to Create Test for Upload to Blackboard

Use MS Excel to Create Test for Upload to Blackboard Find the “create test” in Blackboard to cumbersome? Need to create a test / quiz but don’t have access to the Internet/Blackboard? Create your questions / answers locally on your computer in Excel and upload into Blackboard!

How do I do this? 1. 2. 3. 4.

Open Excel spreadsheet Format and enter each question in a unique row/cell Save the worksheet as a MS Excel Worksheet (so can reuse) then Save the worksheet (Save As) a Text, Tab Delimited file (select Yes when warned about txt format compatibility) 5. Upload into Blackboard How do I format and Enter Questions in Excel? You can create the following types of questions in Excel, below is the format that you use for each type of question. Question Type Multiple Choice True/False Multiple Answer Essays Ordering Matching Fill-In-Blanks Fill Numeric Response Short Response Multiple Fill-In-Blanks

Format MC TF MA ESS ORD MAT FIB FIL NUM SR FIB_PLUS

What is the format that I use? Cell A1 = question type “MC” Cell B1 = question; “What was the name of the current English Queen?” Cell C1 = possible answer “Queen Mary” Cell D1 = result if C1 was selected “incorrect” Cell E1 = possible answer “Queen Elizabeth I” Cell F1 = result if E1 was selected “incorrect” Cell G1 = possible answer “Queen Elizabeth II” Cell H1 = result if G1 was selected “correct”

Example of a Multiple Choice Question (Max number of answers = 20) MC | Question | answer | correct or incorrect |

Example of a True/False Question TF | Question | true or false |

Example of a Multiple Answer Question MA | Question | answer text | correct or incorrect |

Example of a Essay Question ESS | Question | Sample of suggested response |

Save the worksheet Suggest you save the worksheet in both Excel format and Text format (allows easier edit).  

Save as normal worksheet: File, Save, Location, Filename Save as text file: File, Save As, Location, Filename, Save as Type - click down arrow to open more options select Text (tab delimited)

Upload into Blackboard Create the test

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Control Panel; Course Tools, Test Surveys and Pools, Tests; Build Test o Type in name for the test and any description and/or instructions o Click Submit On the Test Canvas page, select Upload Questions Select Browse to the locate the Excel file (text, tab delimited format) you saved above Enter the points to be assigned to each question Click Submit You should now see your test questions reformatted for Blackboard; click OK to accept

Test is now ready to be deployed!