Thee staff of King

K Khalid Universsity, Abha,, Saudi Arrabia is exttensively involved

i in
n
online quizzes and exams
e overr the Univeersity’s Blackboard eLearning
e Managemeent System
m
(LMS). T
This is a reeady reckooner to hellp the teacchers in eff
ffectively conducting
c the onlinee
exams. This presenttation detaails, each and
a every aaspect of the
t methodds of prepaaration andd
smooth coonduct of online
o exam
ms. Also briefed
b aree the pros and
a cons of
o such type of examss
and updatte about the
t difficuulties encoountered duuring thesse online exams and ways to
o
overcome them.

Thee followingg points aree explainedd in detail here

h in thiss reckoner.

Sl. PAGE
TOPIC
T
No. No.

I Prreparation of simple online

o exam
m 2

Ways of Hid
W ding / Pressenting the exam from
m / to the students
s an
nd Setting
II 4
upp of the optimal onlinne exam opptions

III V
Various metthods of addding questtions to thee exam 5

IV R
Reusing queestions from
m a pool 5

V Im
mporting quuestions frrom a word
d processinng applicatiion 8

VI Exxporting th
he exam froom one secction to thee other secttion 11

VII Checking an
nd preventiion of miscconduct byy the studennts during the
t exam 12

VIII Liink to videeos on prepparing an onnline exam

m over blacckboard 13

Note:
N Clicck on a topic in the taable above to jump too that partiicular secttion
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 I. PREPARATION OF SIMPLE ONLINE EXAM

1) Login to Blackboard Management system through : https://lms.kku.edu.sa

2) Enter your username and password
3) Select the course in which you want to conduct the exam – click on that course name and
number.
4) In the menu items, on the left hand side of the course box, under the course management
tools open the control panel and click on course tools. Here you will find the item
“Tests, Surveys, and Pools”.
5) Click on “Tests, Surveys and Pools”.
6) When the page opens you will find 3 items (a) Tests (b) Surveys (c) Pool click on
“Tests”.
7) Then click on “Build test”.
8) Test building options will be displayed
9) Give a name to the test
10) Give the description of the test
11) Inscribe the instructions for the students before they start the exam
12) Finally click submit
13) The exam test canvas is ready but without any questions in it. To add questions-
14) Point on “Create Question” menu and from the dropdown list select the appropriate type
of question you desire to place in the canvas.
15) Most of the departments uses MCQ, so select “Multiple Choice” and click on it in the
dropdown menu.
16) While building the questions you will be asked for: - Question title which is not needed.
17) In the “question text” box type or paste the stem of the question.
18) Under “options”
Select the (a,b,c)
Answer orientation – Vertical
Allow partial credit – No (leave it blank)
Show answers in random order – Yes (select it to a right  mark)

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19) Number of Answers – 4
20) Correct answer 1 – type or paste the correct answer in the box under this.
21) Type or paste the other answers in the boxes under answer 2, 3, and 4.
22) If your correct answer is in boxes other than the first box, then select the appropriate
answer and tick mark it.
23) If you have only three answers to give, then remove one of the options by clicking on the
“remove” button.
24) No - FEEDBACK
25) NO - CATEGORIES AND KEYWORDS
26) NO - INSTRUCTOR NOTES
27) Then click on the “Submit and Create another” button to keep adding question one by
one.
28) When you are done adding all the questions, then finally click on the submit button.
29) The exam is ready, but by default each question will be allotted 10 Marks each and if
you have 10 questions; the total marks for the exam will be 100, which is not suitable for
us. So we need to change the marks allotment. So for this:-
30) Click on “Select – All” button, which you can find above the first question or at the end
of the last question.
31) In the box next to “Points” type “1” and then click on “Update” button
32) This will change the marks for all the questions to 1 each and the total marks for the 10
questions will be 10 – suitable for us.
33) You may be wanting to change the mark for an individual question, so in that case select
the question for which you want to change the marks, by clicking the check box before
the question number and then move to the right hand side (extreme end) of the page
where you will find “points” box. Click inside the box and type the new marks you want
to give to this question and click on “submit” button.
34) Carefully check and verify each and every question in the canvas of the exam for the
correctness of the question stem, the correct answer, other options given, is the correct
answer authentic or not, are there two or more correct answers, are the given choices
good distractors or not, are there sufficient number of hard, medium and easy questions.
35) If you are satisfied with each and every aspect of the test canvas, don’t forget to click the
“OK” button at the bottom right corner of the page to make the test ready for the
students.
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 II. WAYS OF HIDING / PRESENTING THE EXAM FROM / TO THE
STUDENTS AND SETTING UP OF THE OPTIMAL ONLINE EXAM OPTIONS
1) When you create an exam under the control panel, the exam is not available for the
students. Thus, it is hidden from the students.
2) To present the exam available for the students the following steps have to be taken.
3) In the main menu on the left hand side of the course, select and click on “Assignments &
tests”.
4) Point on the “Assessments” menu at the top
5) From the dropdown menu select “Test”.
6) “Add Test” canvas will open with two options, either “create a new test” or “add an
existing test”.
7) In the box against “Add an existing test” you must be able to see the name of the test you
created.
8) Click on the name of the test to select it and then click submit.
9) A dialogue will display as “Success: (name of your test) created.
10) Under this a range of “test options” will be available.
11)  Show test description to students before they begin the test - YES
12) Open test in new window : Yes No
13) Make available to students : Yes No
For the time being let the availability of the test be hidden from the students, you can
make it available on the day of the exam.
14) Add a new announcement for this test: Yes No
15) Multiple Attempts : NO (You should allow only one attempt for the quiz or final exam)
16) Force Completion: YES (Once started, this test must be completed in one sitting).
17) Set Timer: Set expected completion time. Selecting this option also records
completion time for this test. Students will see the timer option before they begin the
test.
60
Minutes for 50 to 60 questions depending upon the type of questions. If the stem of the
question is long, more time should be given.
18) Auto-Submit: OFF ON: Test will save and submit automatically when time
expires.
19) Display after : Set the start date and time of exam
20) Display until: Set the display until date and time.
This display until date will be the same as the date of the exam but the time
will be 30 minutes after the start of the exam if the exam is for 3 hours duration; 20
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 minutes after the start of the exam if the exam is for 2 hours duration; 15 minutes after
the start of the exam if the exam is for 1 hour duration; and 10 minutes after the start of
the exam if the exam is for 30 to 40 minutes duration.
This is to control malpractice by the students, wherein if a student waits for
another student to complete the exam, so that he can note down all the questions and
then start his own exam. But he will not be able to access the exam because the “display
until” time would have surpassed.
21) You can set a password of your choice and send this password to all the students through
WhattsApp group. Some students taking the exam from remote places will not have
proper access to internet in time. So monitor the progress of the students under grade
center and when you find that about 80 to 90% of the students have accessed the exam
then release the password.
22) If about 40 – 50 % of the time has lapsed and you notice that some students have not
logged in or accessed the exam, you can immediately change the password, so that
he/she cannot take the exam without your permission. If you find his/her excuse is
legitimate, then pass on the new password to him/her.
23) Restrict Location: None (This option is used when you are conducting the exam in the
campus and is invigilated).
24) TEST AVAILABILITY EXCEPTIONS: NIL (This is used when making a reset or
missed exam, wherein you have to select the user who is taking the exam).
25) DUE DATE: NONE (This is used when an assignment is given to the students)
26) Include this Test in Grade Center score calculations: YES (Automatically a column
will be created in the grade center with the name of the test and the marks scored by the
students are immediately added in this column, as soon as the student submits the exam)
27) Hide results for this test completely from the instructor and the Grade Center: NO
28) SHOW TEST RESULTS AND FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS: NO (remove all the
selections under this and also go to the grade center later and hide the column from the
students, so that the students cannot see their score. This is particularly important for the
final exam. Also hide the total and weighted total in the grade center).
29) TEST PRESENTATION: SELECT THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS
One at a Time: YES : Present one question at a time.
Prohibit Backtracking: YES : Prevent changing the answer to a question that has already
been submitted.
Randomize Questions: YES : Randomize questions for each test attempt.
30) Finally click on submit and you can see your exam under Assignments & tests.
31) Your test / exam is still not available to the students until and unless you edit the test
options on the day of the exam and select the “Make available to students” as YES

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 III. VARIOUS METHODS OF ADDING QUESTIONS TO THE
EXAM CREATED UNDER THE TEST CANVAS
1. Open the Assignments & tests menu and click on the down arrow at the end of the name of
the exam you have created above.

2. Select and click on the “edit” menu.

3. The test canvas will open and there you can find 3 menu items to add questions (a) Create
Question (b) Reuse Question (c) Upload Questions.

The Method for creating a question has been described in details above under item
No. I. The two other options are being described here under.

IV. REUSE QUESTION

When you point over the reuse question menu, you will again have three options (a)
Create Question set (b) Create Random Block (c) Find questions

(a) Create Question set: Question sets are groups of questions that can be presented in a
random fashion determined by the instructor. Instructors can create a question set by
searching and selecting questions, determining the number of points per question and
then choosing the number of questions to display to the user. If the number of
questions to be displayed is less than the list of questions (example: 3 out of 50), then
the questions are randomly distributed so that each user may be viewing a different set
of three questions. An instructor can choose to display the same questions to all users
by selecting all the questions listed.

(b) Create Random Block: A random block is a group of questions retrieved from a
question pool. Questions are randomly retrieved from the selected question pool based
on the question type and the number of questions available in the selected pool. Create
a random block by selecting one or more pools, the question types to include (for
example, True/False and Matching), enter the number of points per question, and the
number of questions to display to users. If the number of questions to be displayed is
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 less than the resulting list of questions (example: 3 out of 50), then the questions are
randomly distributed so that each user may receive a different set of three questions on
the test.

About Pools: A pool is a repository for a group of stored questions. Questions in pools do
not have point values associated with them. When a question from a pool is added to a test, it
is then assigned a point value (marks).

1. How to Create a Pool: In the menu items, on the left hand side of the course box, under
the course management tools open the control panel and click on course tools. Here you
will find the item “Tests, Surveys, and Pools”.

2. Click on “Tests, Surveys and Pools”.

3. When the page opens you will find 3 items (a) Tests (b) Surveys (c) Pools, click on
“pools”.

4. In the pools canvas that opens click on build pool and once again a canvas box opens
which will be similar to “create test” described in the item No. I above.

5. Give a title to the pool, describe it and inscribe instructions for your own reference in
future. Click on submit to create the pool.

6. Created pool will ask you to add questions into it. Please proceed to add questions using
any one of the option being described under “methods to add questions”.

7. Create one pool of at least 30 – 50 questions for each topic in your course. For example
one pool will be for Carbohydrate chemistry, another pool for Carbohydrate Metabolism,
another for Lipid chemistry and metabolism and yet another for protein chemistry and
metabolism.

8. You can add questions to a test or a pool using find questions option. Under this option
you can pick up questions from another test or yet another pool you created previously.

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 V. IMPORTING QUESTIONS FROM A WORD PROCESSING APPLICATION

1. UPLOAD QUESTIONS: You might be having a question bank in any of the word
processing application and you would like to bring those questions into your test canvas
or the pool over the blackboard. But you cannot directly upload the Microsoft word® file
into your test or pool. You will have to convert this file into a format that is acceptable
by blackboard. For this please click on this link:
https://ed.oc.edu/blackboardquizgenerator/ to open “BLACKBOARD TEST
GENERATOR”.

2. So you are converting a word file compatible to be uploaded in the blackboard so for this:

3. Give a name to the test in the “Blackboard Test Generator” page you opened just now.

4. Select the type of questions you are going to generate.

5. Type or paste your questions into the main text area.

6. Questions must start with a number followed by a period or parenthesis.

7. Answers should start with a letter followed by a period or parenthesis.

8. There should be an asterisk (*) mark before the correct answer.

9. If you enter questions/answers without numbers/letters, then questions must be tagged

(MC for multiple choice, TF for true/false, MA for multiple answer, etc).

10. Separate your questions with one blank line.

11. Avoid leaving blank rows, except when you're going on to the next question or answer.

12. Click the Generate Test Questions button.

13. A dialogue is displayed indicating that the test generation was successful. Note: All the
questions you added with are in green colour otherwise if any of the questions is in red
colour you have to edit its formatting.

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14. If you click on the “download test questions” button then a text file is downloaded that
can be added to any test or a pool. But if you click on “download test pool” a zip file is
downloaded which you can add only to a pool.

15. Then go back to your test canvas and click on “upload questions” button.

16. A dialogue opens asking you to “browse” your computer for the compatible file. Select
the file you just downloaded from the “Blackboard Test Generator” and enter the marks
you want to allot for each question.

17. Finally submit it.

18. You will find that the submitted questions have some edits to be made. (a) You need to
add the numbering to the answer option as a,b,c,d and have to randomize the answers.

19. You can do this manually be editing each and every question individually.

20. But if you have large number of questions then do the following:-

(a) Go back to “Tests, Surveys, and Pools” under the control panel in the menu items, on
the left hand side of the course box, under the course management course tools.

(b) Click on “Tests”

(c) Find your test

(d) Click on the down arrow at the end of the name of the exam

(e) Select “Export to local computer” and click on it.

(f) A “.*zip” file is downloaded to your computer.

(g) Open that “Zip” folder.

(h) Here you will find a number of files.

(i) Select the first “.dat” file with the largest file size.

(j) Copy it to your desktop or any other place in your computer.

(k) Change the extension of this tile from “.dat” to “.txt”

(l) Open this “.txt” file

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(m) You will find that the file is beyond your understanding. Don’t worry, just click on
the “Edit” menu at the top in the text file.

(n) Select and click on “replace” button.

(o) In the dialogue box that opens, type “shuffle” against the “Find” box.

(p) Then click “find”.

(q) At a place in the text file the “shuffle” word will be highlighted and beside this you
will find “No”. Copy the complete phrase - shuffle="No" and paste it back into the
“find” box.

(r) Then in the “replace” box type - shuffle="Yes" and click on “replace all”.

(s) That’s the randomization done for all the choices.

(t) Then to add numbering to the choices.

(u) Type <bbmd_numbertype>none< in the “find” box

(v) In the replace box type <bbmd_numbertype>letter_lower<

(w) Click on replace all.

(x) All your choices are now numbered as a,b,c,d.

(y) Save and exit the file

(z) Go back to the place where you saved this file on your computer.

(aa) Again change the extension of the file from “.txt” to “.dat”.

(bb) Copy and paste (replace) this file back into the zip folder which you downloaded from
blackboard.

(cc) Then go back to the test and “import test”, select the “Zip” file and upload and submit
it.

(dd) Open the file and you can find the numbering and randomization of all the questions.

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 VI. EXPORTING THE TEST / EXAM FROM ONE SECTION TO THE OTHER SECTION

There may be more than one section either for boys or for the girls, taking the same
course. So you may want to copy an exam / test prepared in one section into the other.
Follow these steps to achieve this task.

(1) Click on “Assignments & Test” in the course tools in the section where you have
created the test and the one that you need to copy to another section.

(2) Click on the arrow at the end of the name of the test you created.

(3) Select and click on “Export to local computer”

(4) A “Zip” file will be downloaded to your computer. Note down where it has been
downloaded (in your downloads or your documents or to your desktop – generally it
will be downloaded to the place where you have specified the last download, but if you
have not specified any folder before where to download the files, then by default it will
be downloaded and saved in the “downloads” folder of your computer).

(5) Then click on “My Institution” menu at the top.

(6) The page that opens will display all the courses you are teaching and the various section
under each course (one may be for boys and the other for the girls).

(7) Click on the course / section of the course in which you want to copy the test / exam
you have just downloaded on to your computer.

(8) When this course page opens – select and click the “Assignments & Test”.

(9) Here you will find two menus – (a) Build a new test (b) Import test

(10) Select and click on “Import test”

(11) A dialogue will open asking you to “Browse your computer”, click on it, select the
downloaded “ZIP” file from the previous section and upload it, by clicking on the
“submit” button.

(12) Your test is now available in this new section, same as you have created in the previous
section for the same course.

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(13) Though the test is copied from one section to the other section, you will find that only
the set of questions you prepared in the previous section are copied, but the test option
are not copied. Hence, you will have to set the test options again in this section.

(14) To set the test option, click on the down arrow next to the name of the test you have just
imported (generally, the test options will be asked automatically as soon as you import
the test and click on submit).

(15) Select and click on “Edit test options”.

(16) Test options canvas will open.

(17) Fix the test options as described above under section I.

VII. CHECKING AND PREVENTION OF MISCONDUCT BY THE STUDENTS

DURING THE EXAM

(1) Students are universally prone to mischief / misconduct / cheat during the exams.

(2) There are more chances of such misbehavior during online exams from home.

(3) Copying in an online exam from home involves the following:-

a. Keeping the handouts, notes, text books open in front of them.

b. They may be having previous set of questions for the same course with answers handy
(especially if the exam is MCQ’s).

c. Keeping the internet search engines (Google, Bing etc.) handy and ready on another
system to search for the answers to the questions.

d. Students of the same group taking the same exam may sit together, discuss and give
the answers.

e. Some senior students who have already taken and passed the same subject course may
sit with them and help them.

f. There can also be a subject expert, helping the students at the time of online exam.

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(4) We cannot control all the activities of malpractice during online exam from home
mentioned above, but to some extent we can overcome most of these activities.

(5) The best and the most appropriate option is to have the duration of the quiz / exam / test
very short and tight (just enough to answer all the questions), so that the students will not
dare to waste time contacting each other or searching the notes or the web. However the
students should be notified and warned about it, that the time given will be sufficient just
to attempt all the questions by themselves using their mind and intelligence, and if they
try to indulge in any type of malpractice they will lose marks.

(6) The questions must be from a large pool of questions so that very few students get the
same question. It’s always better to have a pool of 150 to 200 questions for a batch of
students of 50 taking the exam for 50 questions.

(7) All the questions should not be direct, such that the answers to these questions will not be
available either in the notes, text books or the web. These questions will be logical,
thought provoking and problem solving type of questions, but within the scope of the
course specification and at the undergraduate level. In such case a student who
understood the subject will be ahead of others, thus we can differentiate between
meritorious students from others.

(8) Thus the division of question in an online exam from home will be – 80% of the question
will be direct, easy and easily available from the notes, text books and web. 10% of the
questions will be little hard questions, the answers for which will be traced by the
students will difficulty. The remaining 10% of the questions should be logical, thought
provoking and problem solving type, which needs time to think.

(9) In spite of all the flaws, try to make the exam such that the student is not put into trouble
(as directed by the university administration).

VIII. LINK TO VIDEOS ON PREPARING AN ONLINE EXAM OVER

BLACKBOARD:-
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0ivuwtqfsb293y1/AADPgWf0IKN
OHJmpaCmPRQd4a?dl=0
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