Blackboard Learn: Make a Fill‐In‐The‐Blank(s) Questions Office of Distance Education & Educational Technology College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University November, 2011 [ See more tips at http://www.hs.iastate.edu/tips/ ] Blackboard allows for many different types of questions on surveys and tests, including single and multiple fill‐in‐the‐blank style questions. These are viable formats when the required answer(s) are very short and well defined (not ambiguous). Students must enter something into ALL of the blanks in a multiple blank question ‐‐ they cannot submit it if it is only partially answered. To students, the two question formats display as: Fill‐in‐the‐blank questions can be confusing to set up because the question text is written differently for single blank versus multiple blank questions. Since it’s always advisable to create your questions in a pool before adding them to an activity, begin as follows: 1. Go to the Course Management menu and click “Course Tools” to expand the menu. 2. Click “Tests, Surveys, and Pools” then click on “Pools”. 3. Either click “Build Pool” to create a new storage place for the question(s) or enter an existing pool by clicking the arrow after the pool name then selecting “Edit”. 4. Click “Create Question” and select either “Fill in the Blank” or “Fill in Multiple Blanks”, based on the number of answers required to the question you wish to create. Fill in the Blank (single answer) 
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Enter a short reference title for the question. Enter the question text, making sure to indicate where the blank is. o For single blank questions, you can enter whatever indicator you wish. It will appear to the students exactly as you type it. Indicate how many variations of the answer will be accepted. You will then get a corresponding number of answer key entry boxes to fill in. o Letter case will be ignored in your key and in the students’ submissions. o Anticipate common spelling and punctuation errors. o You can easily remove or add acceptable answer options up until the time a student submission has been receive. Fill in Multiple Blanks (multiple answers) 
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Enter a short reference title for the question. Enter the question text. Wherever you want students to enter a response, enter a set of SQUARE brackets, [ ], with a variable name between the brackets. o Avoid using spaces before, after, or within the variable name. 
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In part 2, click the check box if partial credit is to be given when a student fills in some, but not all, blanks correctly. o Partial scoring is proportional to the number of blanks filled in correctly. Indicate how many variations of each answer blank will be accepted. Each answer blank is identified by the variable name you provided. The question will display for you to refer to. When entering acceptable answers: o Ignore letter case. o Anticipate common spelling and punctuation errors. o Remember that you can remove or add acceptable answer options up until the time a student submission has been receive.