Question Bank

Question Bank Overview

The Question Bank in Moodle is a central repository where all questions are stored, organised, and managed. It is accessible from any course and allows teachers to create reusable questions that can be added to quizzes and other activities. The Question Bank is a fundamental component of Moodle’s assessment capabilities, enabling efficient question management across courses and categories.

Accessing the Question Bank

To access the Question Bank in Moodle 4.x and later:

1. Navigate to your course.
2. In the course navigation, click More and then select Question bank.
3. Alternatively, go to Course administration > Question bank.

The Question Bank interface displays all questions in the current category and provides tools for creating, editing, previewing, and managing questions.

Question Categories

Questions are organised into categories, which function like folders. Each course has a default category, and you can create additional categories to group related questions. Categories can be nested to create a hierarchical structure.

• Creating categories: Go to Question bank > Categories. Enter a name, select a parent category, and optionally add a description.
• Moving questions: Select questions using checkboxes and use the Move to option to transfer them to another category.
• Sharing questions: Categories can be created at the system, course category, or course context level. System-level and course-category-level categories are accessible to multiple courses.

Managing Questions

The Question Bank provides several tools for managing questions:

• Creating questions: Click Create a new question and select the question type from the available options.
• Editing questions: Click the edit icon next to a question. If the question is already used in a quiz attempt, Moodle will create a new version to preserve the original attempt data.
• Previewing questions: Click the preview (magnifying glass) icon to test how the question appears and behaves.
• Deleting questions: Questions can only be deleted if they are not used in any quiz. Used questions are hidden rather than deleted to maintain attempt integrity.
• Versioning: Moodle 4.x introduces question versioning. Each time a question is edited, a new version is created. Quizzes can be configured to always use the latest version or a specific version.

Tags and Filtering

Tags provide a flexible way to categorise and filter questions beyond the category structure:

• Add tags when creating or editing a question.
• Filter questions in the Question Bank by tag using the filter options.
• Random questions in quizzes can be filtered by tag, allowing you to create quizzes that draw from a specific subset of questions.

Import and Export Formats

Moodle supports several formats for importing and exporting questions:

GIFT Format

The GIFT (General Import Format Technology) format is a simple text-based format for writing questions. It is the most commonly used format for quick question creation.

// Multiple choice example
::Capital of France::What is the capital of France?{
=Paris
~London
~Berlin
~Madrid
}

// True/False example
::Earth is round::The Earth is approximately spherical.{TRUE}

// Short answer example
::Moodle founder::Who is the founder of Moodle?{=Martin Dougiamas}

Moodle XML Format

The Moodle XML format is the most complete and recommended format for importing/exporting questions. It preserves all question settings, feedback, hints, and media.

<quiz>
  <question type="multichoice">
    <name><text>Sample Question</text></name>
    <questiontext format="html">
      <text><![CDATA[<p>What is 2+2?</p>]]></text>
    </questiontext>
    <answer fraction="100"><text>4</text></answer>
    <answer fraction="0"><text>3</text></answer>
  </question>
</quiz>

Aiken Format

The Aiken format is a simple format specifically for multiple-choice questions:

What is the capital of France?
A. London
B. Paris
C. Berlin
D. Madrid
ANSWER: B

Other Supported Formats

• Blackboard: Import questions from Blackboard LMS export files.
• Embedded answers (Cloze): Import Cloze-format questions.
• Missing word: A simple format for missing word questions.
• WebCT: Import questions from WebCT format files.

Import Process

1. Navigate to Question bank > Import.
2. Select the file format.
3. Choose the target category for the imported questions.
4. Upload the file or paste the content.
5. Click Import and review the imported questions.

Export Process

1. Navigate to Question bank > Export.
2. Select the export format (GIFT or Moodle XML recommended).
3. Choose the category to export.
4. Click Export questions to file.

Question Bank Statistics

In Moodle 4.x, the Question Bank includes a statistics column that shows key data about each question, such as the facility index (difficulty), discrimination index, and usage count. This data helps teachers identify poorly performing questions that may need revision.

Best Practices

• Organise questions into clear, logical categories before creating large numbers of questions.
• Use tags consistently to enable flexible filtering.
• Regularly review question statistics to improve assessment quality.
• Use Moodle XML format for backup and migration to preserve all question data.
• Take advantage of question versioning to iterate on questions without affecting past attempts.