Creating an Exam in BetterExaminations

“How To” Video

This video details the process of creating an exam in BetterExaminations (for those who prefer watching a video than reading about it).

Select the External Player External Player option if you want to view the video on full screen. (will open in a new window)

Step-by-step Instructions

Here are the steps that would help you create a new exam in BetterExaminations.

Step 1: Access the University of Windsor BetterExaminations (opens new window)  from Blackboard as shown in the Sign-in chapter of this eBook. If you are successful, you will be greeted with your BetterExaminations (BE) dashboard.

Note: On the right-hand side of the Dashboard are the tiles that contain essential information that might be useful to the user. It also provides quick access to exams or courses that needs the users’ immediate attention. On the left-hand side is the navigation menu. Users can utilize it to navigate to other sections within BE.

Better Examination Dashboard
BetterExamination Dashboard for instructors (users).
BetterExaminations Navigation Bar with Dashboard, Courses, Students, and Users within in it
The Course tab is located within the navigation menu on the left-hand side of the BetterExamination user interface.

 

Step 2: Click the Courses tab on the left menu to view all courses associated with your account. (If you don’t see the left menu, select theHamburger Button, Three Horizontal line stacked on top of each other icon)

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Select the course you want to create the question bank for from your list of courses.

Better Examination Course Section
A list of courses associated with the current user
the Course Overview menu right beside the Navigation menu in BetterExaminations.
Select Exam from the Course Overview menu.

Step 4: After selecting a course from the Courses option, the user must select the Exam option within the Course Overview menu to begin creating or to edit exams from the course currently selected.

 

 

 

 

Step 5: Select the Create new Exam button on the right-hand side of the screen

The Exams section with the Create new Exam button on the right-hand side of the user interface
The Exams option displays the Exam bank with a list of all exams for the currently selected course. The user can create a new exam by clicking on the Create new Exam button on the right-hand side.

Step 6: Enter a title in the Name text field.

Step 7: Click the Create exam button on the right-hand side of the screen.

Create exam section with Name text field and a Create exam button
The Name text field gives the exam its title, and it is required to move to the next step(e.g., “Astronomy Midterm” ). Click on the Create exam button to begin.

Step 8: Within the Exam editor tab, the user can add exam questions by either importing an existing question bank by selecting the Add from Question Bank button or creating new questions from scratch by selecting the Create new Question button.

The Edit exam section where users can edit the content of an exam
The Edit exam section of the Exam with the Exam editor tab is currently selected.

Step 9: From the list of question banks, select the one(s) that you want to be included in the exam by marking the check box(es) to the left of the question banks. Use the search bar to find a specific question bank.

Step 10: Once you’ve selected all the question banks that you wish to be in the exam, select the Add # Question(s) button near the top of the list.

The list of question banks that are available to be imported into the current exam.
Add from Question Bank button reveals a list of all available question banks within the current course that can be imported into the exam currently selected. Select one or more question banks by clicking on the checkbox.

Step 10: Review the questions that are currently in the exam. You can view the preview of each question by clicking on the a button with a single open eye in the middle icon. If the user is not satisfied with the state of the current exam, they could add, remove or rearrange the order of the question bank within the exam.

Note: Click the Preview button to view the exam or click the Edit button to exit the Preview.

The The Edit exam section with the list of question banks that are temporarily part of exam.
The Preview button within the Edit exam screen allows the user to view the current state of the exam by running a mock exam.

Step 11: Once you are done reviewing the exam, click the Save Exam button to complete.

Saving the current state of the exam by using the Save Exam button
To save the current state of the exam, click the Save Exam button.

Step 12: BetterExaminations is designed around a quality assurance process that includes the ability to send exams to others for approval. If this isn’t available, instructors can approve their own exams. Click the  Send for approval button to proceed to the next step after approving the exam.

An exam is ready to be sent for approval
An exam in BE requires approval before it becomes available to be scheduled for a sitting. Click Send for approval button to proceed.

Step 13: Approve the exam yourself if you don’t need another user to review the exam. Once the exam status has changed to Approved, the exam is ready to be scheduled for an exam sitting.  To start scheduling the exam in BetterExaminations, Click the Schedule exam button.

An exam has a Approved status and ready to be scheduled for an exam sitting.
After approval, Users can select the Schedule exam button to initiate an exam sitting.
Conclusion: You have now created an exam. It is now ready to be scheduled and be written by students.

License

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BetterExaminations at the University of Windsor Copyright © 2021 by Lorna Stolarchuk and Jykee Pavo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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