2.3.3.1 Viewing Questions

When the instructor selects the Open Local Question Bank or Open Shared Question Bank option from the Questions menu of the Teacher Interface, a window labeled Question Bank-Local or Question Bank-Shared pops up as shown in Figure 2.3.3.1.i1 and Figure 2.3.3.1.i2, respectively. The appropriate names of the Question Bank appear next to the word Local and Shared.  Because viewing questions is exactly the same in both the Local Question Bank and Shared Question Banks we will  discuss them both here.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i2: Question Bank Shared Initial Screen

The initial window contains two sections as shown in Figure 2.3.3.1.i3.  The main section, located on the left side of the screen, is divided into four columns. The columns are labeled Type, Question, Difficulty, and Time.  The Type column displays the question type: Multiple Choice, True/False, Program, Short Answer, Essay, Fill in the blank or Matching.  The Question column contains the text of each question.  The question difficulty, ranging from one to ten, is displayed in the Difficulty column.  The final column, Time, displays the recommended time a question should take to answer. Clicking on any column header will sort the questions in descending or ascending order using Stable Sort.  Stable Sort will rearrange all the questions by ascending or descending order in the desired column and if repeating entries occur, they will be displayed in their previous order.  Column sorting provides the  instructor with a way to find identical questions in the Question Bank.   The number of questions displayed on the page will depend on how many questions fit on a page, and a scroll bar will allow the  instructor to navigate through the pages. The section on the right side of the screen is labeled Question Details.  When the  instructor highlights a question by clicking on the row the question is displayed in, more of the question's attributes, such as Class, Topics, Author, Average Score, date Created, date Modified, date Last Used and Notes, are filled as in figures 2.3.3.1.i4 - 2.3.3.1.i9: Question Details Panel.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i3: Viewing Questions and Details

The box labeled Answer will display a one word answer to the highlighted question if it is True/False as in Figure 2.3.3.1.i4.  The fields for the class, topics, author, ave. score, date created, modified and last used will also get filled in with the highlighted question's attributes.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i4: Question Details Panel with Ture/False Questions attributes

If the highlighted question type is Fill in the Blank the Answer box will display the correct word or phrase that the student answer should contain as in Figure 2.3.3.1.i5.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i5: Question Details Panel with Fill in the Blank Questions attributes

If the highlighted question is Multiple Choice, the box will display the answer choices with the correct answer highlighted as in Figure 2.3.3.1.i6.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i6: Question Details Panel with Multiple Choice Questions attributes

If the highlighted question type is Short Answer or Essay, the answer box will display key words or phrases that the student's answer should contain as in Figure 2.3.3.1.i7.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i7: Question Details Panel with Short Answer Questions attributes

For matching questions, the box will display the matching choices side by side as demonstrated in Figure 2.3.3.1.i8.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i8: Question Details Panel with Matching Questions attributes

For programming questions the correct program output will be displayed in the box as in Figure 2.3.3.1.i9.

Figure 2.3.3.1.i9: Question Details Panel with Program Questions attributes

Underneath the Answer box is a field entitled Class.  Here, the author of the question will input the class level of the question.  Below Class, a Topics field is located. This field summarizes, in one or more words, the topics of the question.  Below Topics is a field for the name of the question Author.  The Average Score box, which appears below the Author box, will show the percentage of students that answered the question correctly on previous tests.  Below the Average Score field are fields for the date the question was Created, the date it was Modified and the date it was Last Used on a test.    The last box, entitled Notes, displays any other comments the author of the question wants to input about the question such as the book name or book chapter.  These fields are discussed in more detail in section  2.3.3.3, Add Question.

2.3.3.1.1. Local Question Bank

When the instructor connects to the Local Question Bank a window labeled Question Bank-Local pops up as shown in Figure 2.3.3.1.i1: Question Bank Local Initial Screen.  How questions are viewed and displayed in the Local Question Bank is described in section 2.3.3.1, Viewing Questions.  The bottom of the initial Question Bank-Local window contains five buttons, Filters, Create New, Edit, Upload and Delete.  The Create New and Edit buttons are discussed in sections 2.3.3.3, Add Question and 2.3.3.4, Edit Question. The Filters button is described in section 2.3.3.1.3, Filters. The Upload button is described in section 2.3.3.2, Sharing Questions, and the Delete button is discussed in section 2.3.3.5, Deleting Questions.

2.3.3.1.2 Shared Question Bank

When the  instructor connects to the Shared Question Bank a window labeled Question Bank-Shared pops up as shown in Figure 2.3.3.1.i2: Question Bank Shared Initial Screen.   How the questions are viewed and displayed is described in section 2.3.3.1, Viewing Questions.  The bottom of the initial Question Bank-Shared window contains four buttons, Filters, Edit, Download and Delete.  The Edit and Delete buttons are grayed out because the sole purpose of the Shared Question Bank is for  instructors to share questions and not to edit or delete them.  The Filters buttons is discussed in section 2.3.3.1.3, Filters. The Download button is discussed in section 2.3.3.2, Sharing Questions.

2.3.3.1.3 Filters

If the  instructor prefers to display only certain questions rather than all the questions by default, he can click on the Filters button for more options.  These options will hide questions with certain undesired attributes.  For example, if an  instructor is making a test for CSC 101, it would be logical to not want to see questions from the class levels above CSC 101 because the user would have no use for them.  The filter feature would allow the  instructor to display questions with the class attribute CSC 101 in the following manner.

When the instructor clicks the Filters button a screen pops up as in Figure 2.3.3.1.3.i1.  This screen contains four tabs labeled Question Type, Classes, Author and Keyword Search.  Three buttons, Cancel, Clear and OK, are displayed on the bottom of the screen. If the  instructor wants to display only certain types of questions, he would select from the Question Type tab. The  instructor can select the types of questions he wishes to hide by un-checking one or more checkboxes and clicking OK.  Following this procedure, the questions will be filtered and the questions displayed will be of the type or types the  instructor has selected.  The Cancel button will get rid of the Filter Questions window without changing anything in the Question Bank display.  The Clear button will reset the filter in all four of the tabbed menus.

Figure 2.3.3.1.3.i1: Type Filter

Clicking on the Class menu tab will display a screen containing two boxes labeled Hide and Show separated by two arrow buttons as in Figure 2.3.3.1.3.i2.  By default all the class names contained in the Question Bank will appear in the Show box.  The  instructor can select the classes he wishes to hide by clicking on the class name, to highlight it, and then clicking the right pointing arrow button.  This will transfer the selected class into the Hide box.  The classes in the hide box will not be shown.  If the  instructor wishes to show the classes that are hidden, he would have to click on the class name in the Hide box to select it and click the left pointing button.  This will make the class name appear in the Show box again.  Clicking OK will filter the Question Bank, displaying the questions from the desired classes.

Figure 2.3.3.1.3.i2: Class Filter

Filtering by Author as shown in Figure 2.3.3.1.3.i3 works exactly the same as filtering by Class.  The  instructor can also use the three menus, Class, Author and Type, in combination to filter the questions.

Figure 2.3.3.1.3.i3: Author Filter

The instructor can also filter questions using the Keyword Search tab as shown in figure 2.3.3.1.3.i4.  Here, he can type in words relevant to the desired question.  The keyword search looks for the keywords in the following fields: Question text, Answer, Topics and Notes.  After clicking OK, the questions that contain those exact keywords in the question text, topics or notes fields will be displayed.

Figure 2.3.3.1.3.i4: Keyword Filter

By using the above filters, the instructor can customize the arrangement of the questions in the Question Bank.

2.3.3.2 Sharing Questions

An instructor can allow other  instructors to see his questions by Uploading his questions from the Local Question Bank to the Shared Question Bank. Likewise, an  instructor can Download other instructors' questions from the Shared Question Bank to his Local Question Bank.

Upload is a feature specific to the Local Question Bank.  This button is located at the bottom of the screen, in the initial Question Bank-Local display.  The function of this button is to copy questions from the Local Question Bank to the Shared Question Bank.  If the  instructor decides to share some of his questions with other  instructors, he would click on the row of the question he wishes to share.  This will highlight the question and its corresponding row.  After this, the  instructor will click the Upload button.  A message “The question has been uploaded to the Shared Question Bank” will appear soon after, as shown in Figure 2.3.3.2.i1.  The  instructor will click the only button in the message dialog box, OK.  This action will get rid of the message box and the instructor will, once again, see the initial Question Bank-Local display.  The question that was selected will no longer be highlighted, showing the  instructor that it has been added to the Shared Question Bank.  A copy of the question will now exist in the Shared Question Bank.

Figure 2.3.3.2.i1: Uploading Questions

A button entitled Download is a unique feature of the Shared Question Bank.  The button is located on the bottom of the initial  Question Bank-Shared screen.  Using the Download button, the  instructor can download desired questions to his Local Question Bank.  The  instructor selects the desired questions by clicking on the row of the question he wishes to download.  This will highlight the question and its corresponding row.  After this, the  instructor will click the Download button.  A message, "The question has been downloaded to the Local QuestionBank" will appear on the screen and shown in figure 2.3.3.2.i2.  Clicking the OK button will return the  instructor to the initial Question Bank – Shared screen.  The question that was selected to be downloaded is no longer highlighted letting the  instructor know that it downloaded successfully to the Local Question Bank. 

Figure 2.3.3.2.i2: Downloading Questions