how to import multiple choice questions from word to blackboard & moodle

How to Import Multiple Choice Questions from

Microsoft Office Word Files to Blackboard &

Moodle LMSs

By: Alireza Hejazi, PhD

Online Course Developer & Instructor

hejaziar@gmail.com

http://goo.gl/ST6zbY

What is Respondus?

Respondus is a powerful tool for creating and managing exams that

can be published directly to Blackboard Learn, Brightspace, Canvas,

Moodle, and other learning systems. Exams can be created offline

using a familiar Windows environment, or moved from one LMS to

another. Whether you are a veteran of online testing or relatively new

to it, Respondus will save you hours on each project.

www.respondus.com.

About this instruction

If you have a fully operating (licensed) version of Respondus installed

on your PC, you can import multiple choice questions from Microsoft

Office Word files to Moodle and Blackboard LMSs easily by following

this step by step instruction.

Step 1

Open the Microsoft Office Word file that contains multiple choice

questions. Now, redesign the questions as following:

Each question must begin with a question number, followed by a

period “.”

The question wording must follow the question number. (Note: at least

one space should be between the question number and the question

wording.)

Each answer choice (distractor) must begin with a letter (A-Z) followed

by a period “.”

The correct answer must be indicated by placing an asterisk (*)

directly in front of the answer choice (do not put a space between the

asterisk and the answer choice).

“General Feedback” must appear immediately after the question

wording and before any of the answer choices. The line must also

begin with the @ symbol, and there must be at least one space

between the @ symbol and the feedback text.

Your second question must appear after a blank line. Go on this way

to the final multiple choice question and save your Microsoft Office

Word file. Now, go to [File] and select [Save As]. Save the file as a

plain text in “.txt” format.

Step 2

Run Respondus program. From the Start menu, select the [Import

Questions] task.

The following dialog will appear:

Now, you must select the type of file that will be imported. The

“Standard Format” for organizing questions is Plain Text (.txt) file.

Next, use the [Browse] button to locate and select the file to be

imported.

Specify the name of new file where the questions should be added.

Click the [Preview] button to preview the file being imported and to

see if there are any warning messages. If warning messages are

shown at the bottom of the screen, you need to determine whether to

make changes to the text file or whether to continue with the import.

Be aware that some warning messages don’t actually require you to

make a change to the file being imported. For instance, Respondus

will generate a warning message if two questions being imported

have the same title (Respondus will place the number “2” at the end

of the second title to make it distinct from the first). But if you don’t

care about this issue, you can ignore the warning message.

If you are satisfied with how the results look in Preview, click [Finish]

to complete the import. The Respondus file has now been created

and saved.

Step 3

Now, go to Start tab and choose Blackboard 7.X – 9.X in the “Current

Personality” box.

To keep “General Feedback” of each question in the output file and

having randomized questions in your quiz, go to Settings tab, choose

Other Settings and check all Feedback Options boxes and Randomize

Questions.

Next, click on Preview & Publish tab and click [Publish Wizard] button.

The following dialog will appear:

Select “Save pool to local file for manual uploading” and click the

[Next] button.

Now you should save the pool file by saving it as a new .zip file.

Type the name of your Blackboard quiz zip file and save it. Then click

the [Finish] button.

It is done and you can import it to your Blackboard LMS easily.

Step 4

This step must be taken by Moodle users. If your LMS is Moodle, then

you can import the generated zip file to your question bank. To do

this, click on “Question Bank” when you sign in your Moodle site as

the administrator of the system and select “Import.”

Choose your desired category or make a new category and select

“Blackboard” file format. Then, click on [Choose s file…] button.

Finally, click on “Import” button.

When all questions are imported, click on [Continue] button down the

page. It is done. Enjoy it!

How to Import Multiple Choice Questions from

Microsoft Office Word Files to Blackboard &

Moodle LMSs

By: Alireza Hejazi, PhD

Online Course Developer & Instructor

hejaziar@gmail.com

http://goo.gl/ST6zbY