Item banks for course assessments

Overview

Item Banks allow you to create a repository of assessment questions to use within course assessments.

The current version of Items Banks gives instructors the ability to:

• Create an item bank in resources.

• Add questions to item banks.

• Add questions from an item bank to an assessment.

• Add a random selection of questions from item banks to an assessment.

• Convert an existing test or quiz question bank to an item bank.

Create an item bank

Item banks can be created in Personal and Group Resources.

1. Navigate to Resources and choose Personal or Group.

2. Click the Collection or Group in which you'd like to add an item bank.

3. Click Add Resources.

4. Select Add Item Bank.

5. Enter a title and description for the item bank and click Create.

Edit an item bank

1. Navigate to Resources and choose Personal or Group.

2. Click the item bank’s title.

3. Select Actions and choose:

   1. Edit Name and Description to change the name and description.

   2. Move to to move the item bank to another collection in Resources.

Create assessment questions in an item bank

There is a limit of 200 questions per item bank.

1. Navigate to Resources and choose Personal or Group.

2. Click the item bank name.

3. From Create Items, choose a type.

4. Fill out the question form.

5. Click Create Question.

Edit assessment questions in an item bank:

1. Navigate to Resources and choose Personal or Group Resources.

2. Click the item bank name.

3. Click the item’s gear icon and choose Edit.

4. Enter any changes.

5. Click Save.

Changes made to questions within item banks do not automatically update assessments containing that question. Delete the question in the assessment and re-copy the question from the item bank after you have made your changes.

Add questions from an item bank to an assessment

When you have an item bank in Schoology, you can use it to build assessments. Add individual questions or create a randomized block of items from one or more banks.

• There is a limit of 200 questions per assessment.

• Questions added to assessments from item banks are copied, not linked. Changes made to questions within item banks do not update the copies in assessments.

1. In your course, create an assessment or select the assessment name into which you want to add items.

2. Select Questions.

3. Select Add From Item Bank.

4. Navigate to the item bank you would like to import items from.

5. Select all items or choose specific items to import.

6. Enter the Set Points for each item. If none is set, it defaults to 1.

7. Click Add Items.

8. To reorder items, drag and drop any item to the desired order.

Add items from one or more item banks to an assessment

1. In your course, create an assessment or select the assessment name into which you'd like to add items.

2. Select Questions.

3. Select Add From Item Bank.

4. Navigate to the item bank you would like to import items from.

5. Click Add Randomized Items.

6. From Add Randomized Items, enter the information.

7. Click Add Items.

   • After selecting randomized items, you can’t add individual questions in the same step. To add individual items, first finish adding the randomized set, and then follow the steps to add questions from an item bank.

   • You can include both randomized and individual items from the same bank. However, if an item appears in both, it will display an error in the preview and student view. To fix this, remove the duplicate from the assessment or remove it from the item bank before adding it individually.

8. Click Add Items. Each set of randomized items is displayed as a single block in the Questions area.

Each assessment will include the set number of items from the selected item banks. Every student receives a unique set of items. Even if some items overlap, they appear in a different order, so no two assessments are exactly alike. This helps maintain the validity of your results.

To make adjustments, select the item’s More Options menu and choose:

• Edit to change the number of items generated from the bank or the points per item.

• Delete to remove items from the assessment. Deleted items cannot be restored.

A clear item bank strategy and labeling system can make your assessments more effective. Consider organizing items by lesson unit, question type, learning objective, or learner type.