Blackboard
Faculty Tutorial
Using Question Pools
Question Pools allow Instructors to create and store questions for repeated use in tests and exams.
There are basically four methods available for getting questions into a pool:
1. Build a question pool from scratch in the Pool Manager area.
2. Re-use questions from an existing Pool and/or Test within the same course.
3. Import existing Pools and/or Tests from other Blackboard courses or other programs (Respondus,
publishers test banks, course cartridges, etc.)
4. Upload questions from an external .txt file (not recommended).
Building a Question Pool from Scratch
1. From the Control Panel, expand the Course Tools area and click
Tests, Surveys and Pools.
2. On the next page, select Pools.
3. Click on the Build Pool button to begin.
4. The Pool Information screen will appear (see screenshot next page). Provide a name and if desired,
enter an optional description and instruction information for the pool.
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5. Click Submit to continue.
6. The Pool Canvas screen will now appear. Click the action link (doublearrows) next to the Create Question button and choose from one of
the 17 available question types that appear in the drop-down menu.
7. When the question creation page appears, complete the Question,
Answers and Feedback sections. (Refer to the individual question
tutorials for details about each question type).
8. Click Submit. A “Success” message will appear on the Pool Canvas
page, indicating the question was saved. To continue adding
questions, click the action link that appears next to the question and
choose “Create Question Above” or “Create Question Below”.
9. When done adding all the questions, click OK at the bottom of the page. The Pool is now created
and available within the Pool Manager area. To use the newly created pool in a test, refer to the
tutorial titled “Adding a Test to Test Manager”.
Reusing questions from existing Tests or Pools
1. From Control Panel, expand Course Tools and click Tests, Surveys and Pools, then click Pools.
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2. Click on the Build Pool button to create a new pool.
-Or- to use an existing pool, click the action link (double-arrows) next to Pool Name and choose
Edit from the drop down menu.
3. The Pool Canvas Screen will now appear. Select Reuse Question and Find from Pool or Test.
4. On the Search Pools and Tests page, select the appropriate test or pool from the list shown. Tests
will appear first, scroll further down to see the ---Pools-- section.
5. Under the Criteria section, check the specific type of questions to be used, or click All to select all
questions in the test or pool. Optionally, the Advanced Criteria section can be expanded to select
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by topic, keywords and/or related categories.
6. Click Search to continue.
7. A screen similar to the following appears, showing the question type and text. Check the checkbox
next to each question you wish to import to select individual questions or click the empty checkbox
at the top to select all the questions.
8. Click Add Selected to continue.
9. The “Success- Question saved” message should appear at the top of the Pool Canvas screen
along with the pool questions that were added. Once you have finished adding and editing all pool
questions, scroll to the bottom of the page and click OK.
10. The Pool is now created and available within the Pool Manager area. To use the newly created pool
in a test, refer to the tutorial titled Adding a Test to Tests/Surveys/Pools area.
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Importing Pools from other Courses
This process requires instructor access to both Blackboard courses in order perform the export/import
process.
1. Enter the course which contains the test or pool questions.
2. Under Control Panel, expand the Course Tools area and click Tests, Surveys and Pools.
3. Depending on the location of the item, select either Tests or Pools.
4. Click the action link (double-arrows) next to the appropriate test or pool and select Export.
5. When the File Download window appears, choose Save to save the .zip file to your Desktop.
6. Exit from that course and enter the course where you wish to use the saved questions.
7. Expand the Course Tools area and click Tests, Surveys and Pools and then Pools.
8. On the Pool Manager screen, click Import Pool.
9. Click on the Browse for Local File button, locate the previously exported .zip file on your desktop,
select it and click Open. The filename should then appear in the File name field.
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10. Click Submit.
11. After a short time, you should receive a confirmation message similar to the following:
12. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click OK. The imported file will now appear in the Pool
Manager listing. NOTE: To use the newly created pool in a test, refer to the tutorial “Adding Test to
Test/Survey/Pool Area”.
Uploading Questions using a .txt file (not recommended)
Questions can be authored offline in a specially formatted text file and uploaded to the Pool Canvas
area, using the Upload Questions option. However, the questions in the file must conform to a very
specific structure in order for the file
to be uploaded successfully. If you
have test questions already set-up
in a file such as Microsoft Word or
similar program, it is usually much
easier to use a program such as
Respondus to convert files into the
proper Blackboard format. For
additional information regarding
Respondus, please see: http://www respondus.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. It seems like a lot of extra work to create a question pool when I could skip that step and just create
the questions directly in the test. What’s the advantage in using Question Pools?
A. There are a number of advantages to using question pools. The biggest advantage is that questions
can be re-used, either within the same course or within other courses by exporting and importing the
pools. Another advantage is that it is possible to create a test that consists of a random selection of
questions from a pool, so the questions are different for each student. Finally, the questions can be
used to create multiple tests based on the pools, but they can have different point values.
Q. I’m still a bit confused about the work-flow process in creating pools and exams, what do I do first?
A. Blackboard is very flexible--you can create a pool first, and use the pool to create a test (which is the
recommended process) or you can create the test first and create a pool later from the test.
Perhaps the flowchart that appears on the next page will help in visualizing the process.
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Test/Pool Creation Flowchart 1
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