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How do I create an assessment in Tests & Quizzes?

The Tests & Quizzes tool allows you to create online assessments (i.e., tests, quizzes, exams, and surveys) for your students or other groups. It was designed primarily to administer tests or assignments, but you may also create assessments to gather survey information or informal course feedback. Grading for most question types is done automatically, and grades can be posted automatically to the Gradebook.

The following steps are required to create an assessment and make it available to students:

  1. Begin creating the assessment, or import an assessment from a file.
  2. Add at least one question to your assessment.
  3. Configure assessment settings.
  4. Publish the assessment.

This article discusses the first step above: creating an assessment.

Video Guide

Step-by-Step Instructions

Go to Tests & Quizzes.

Select the Tests & Quizzes tool from the Tool Menu of your course.

Create an Assessment.

You can add an assessment in one of three ways:

  1. Use the assessment builder to create the assessment (below) - This is the most commonly used method.   The first step is to title your assessment.  After entering a title, you are taken to the question editing screen to begin adding questions.
  2. Create an assessment using markup text or cut and paste - This option allows you to type questions or cut and paste them from a text file or Microsoft Word document into a text box.  Questions must be formatted in the same way as the examples provided on the Create Assessment/Question Pool page where you enter the questions.  After the questions are added, you can use the assessment builder to edit them and select additional question settings.
  3. Import an assessment from a file - If you have a format-compliant assessment file that was exported from a UVACollab site, provided by a textbook publisher, or authored in another learning management system such as Blackboard or Moodle, you may be able to use the import feature to import it into your site for editing and use.

Create an assessment with the assessment builder.

Create from Scratch with assessment builder selected
  1. In the Create from Scratch box, enter an Assessment Title for your new assessment.
  2. By default, the Create using assessment builder option is selected.  When using the assessment builder, you create questions one by one.  Alternatively, if you have already written assessment questions in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word, you may be able to create your assessment more easily by cutting and pasting the questions as described in the article How do I create an assessment using markup text or cut and paste?
  3. Select Create.

Note: You cannot have more than one assessment with the same title.

Start adding questions.

You will be taken to the Questions screen.  For the next step in creating your assessment, see How do I add a new question (with the assessment builder)?