How do I create a multiple choice question?
A multiple choice question provides pre-written choices from which the student will select. You can create three types of multiple choice questions:
The steps in this article assume that you have already gone to the Tests & Quizzes tool and selected an assessment, but if you need more help completing these steps, open the links below.
Select the Tests & Quizzes tool from the Tool Menu of your site.
Questions may be added to a new or existing assessment, or added directly to a question pool as described in How do I add a question to a question pool?
Or edit an existing assessment.
Select Edit from the Action drop-down menu for the assessment.
Note:
- Assessment editing must take place in the Working Copies tab or in the Published Copies tab before anyone accesses the assessment to take it.
- Changes made to assessments in Working Copies do not affect assessments in Published Copies, and vice versa.
Select Multiple Choice from the Add Question menu.
Use the Add Question drop-down menu to select a question type, and choose Multiple Choice.
Set the point value for the question.
Enter an Answer Point Value into the text box.
Tip: An assessment's total point value is the sum of all its questions' point values (e.g., an assessment with 10 questions worth 10 points each will be worth 100 total points).
Display point value while students are taking the exam.
To Display Point Value while student is taking the exam, leave the default value of Yes. To hide the point value, select No.
Note: To hide the point values for ALL questions in your assessment, it is recommended to select this option in the assessment Settings rather than for individual questions.
Add a minimum point value. (Optional)
Enter a Minimum Point Value to automatically award students the minimum value for answering the question, regardless of their answer. Students who leave the answer blank will not receive the minimum point value.
The Minimum Point Value option is available for the following types of multiple choice questions:
- Single Correct, when Partial Credit is NOT enabled
- Multiple Correct, Single Selection
Choose the answer configuration.
Single Correct
By default, Single Correct is selected. All the question's points are granted to the one correct answer. Students select their answer with a radio button.
Single Correct answer options
Single Correct questions have two additional scoring options:
- Enable Negative Marking - If you enable negative marking and enter any value other than 0 in the Points deducted for incorrect answer box, students who select any incorrect answer for the question will have those points deducted from their total assessment score.
- Enable Partial Credit - Partial credit allows a percentage of the question's points to be awarded for selecting an incorrect but still partially acceptable answer. See the step below, Add Partial Credit percentage(s), for more information on using partial credit.
Multiple Correct, Single Selection
To indicate more than one answer selection as correct, but require students to select only one answer (with a radio button), choose Multiple Correct, Single Selection.
Multiple Correct, Single Selection answer options
Multiple Correct, Single Selection questions allow for negative marking. If you enter any value other than 0 in the Points deducted for incorrect answer box, students who select any incorrect answer for the question will have those points deducted from their total assessment score.
Multiple Correct, Multiple Selection
A Multiple Correct, Multiple Selection question includes several correct choices that must be selected for full credit.
Multiple Correct, Multiple Selection answer options
There are two options for awarding points to a Multiple Correct, Multiple Selection question:
- Correct minus Incorrect (selected by default) means that selecting any correct answer will add points up to the total points possible. Selecting an incorrect answer will deduct points.
- All or Nothing grants points for a fully correct answer only; any other combination of selected and empty check boxes earns no points.
Note: The lowest possible total point value for a Multiple Correct, Multiple Selection question cannot be less than zero, even though a question could have a negative point value based on the Correct minus Incorrect grading logic. Below is an example of a Correct minus Incorrect question's scoring:
Which of the following are even numbers? (The question is worth 9 points.)
Answer options: 2, 4, 6, 15.
- If the student selects 2, 4, and 6, they get 9 points. (Selecting all three correct answers gives full credit.)
- If the student selects only 2 and 4, they get 6 points. (Selecting two correct answers, but failing to select the third correct answer, gives partial credit of 6 points.)
- If they select 2, 4, and 15, they get 3 points (Selecting two correct answers gives 6 points, but selecting the wrong answer deducts 3 points, for a resulting score of 6 - 3 = 3 points.)
- If they only select 15, they get 0 points. (Only selecting the wrong answer gives no credit.)
Add attachment(s). (Optional)
To provide additional resources related to the question or to include question text in an attached document, select Add Attachments to browse for and upload a file.
Create the answers.
Enter the answer options.
Four answer choices are available by default. Enter each possible answer choice in one of the Rich-Text Editors provided.
Add or remove answer options.
- To include fewer than four choices, leave the corresponding editor(s) blank or select the Remove link under an answer letter.
- To add more choices, use the Insert Additional Answers menu to indicate the number of additional choices needed.
Select the correct answer(s).
Indicate the Correct Answer by selecting the corresponding radio button or check box(es).
Add Partial Credit percentage(s) for Single Correct question. (Optional)
If your question has a Single Correct answer and you selected Enable Partial Credit, enter the percentage of points to grant to the selection of any incorrect answer(s) in the % Value box(es) for the corresponding answer(s).
Note: Selecting the Reset Score Values link resets all incorrect answers' values to 0.
Choose whether or not to randomize answers.
The default setting is No for randomizing answers. For answer choices to appear in a random order each time a student takes the assessment, select Yes.
Tip: Remember that if your answer choices contain items like "All of the above," or "A and B are correct," randomizing the order could cause confusion with the answer key.
Require rationale. (Optional)
The default setting is No for requiring rationale. Select Yes to include a Rationale text box where students can enter a reason for choosing their answer.
Assign to a part. (Optional)
If the assessment has more than one part, you may use the Assign to Part drop-down menu to choose the Part where the question will be added.
Assign to a question pool. (Optional)
To add the question to a question pool, Select a pool name from the Assign to Question Pool drop-down menu.
Adding a question to a pool places a copy of the question in the pool and leaves a copy of the question in the current assessment. For more information on question pools, see What is a question pool?
Provide answer feedback. (Optional)
You may add Correct or Incorrect Answer Feedback which you can make available to students.
Note: If you include feedback here, you will also need to make it available to students in the Feedback Settings for students to access it.
Select Save.
