Creating and editing exam blocks

This article describes how you can set up blocks for an exam, in your biz:Examiner authoring environment.

There are different options for how you can create a new exam. In either option, the ‘Exam structure’ is one of the steps to define the structure of the exam. In the exam structure, you start with creating and using the blocks to configure the settings for the questions, or for the question groups. Please see Create a new exam to get started with creating an exam.

About the blocks

The blocks act as containers of multiple questions or groups of questions and you can configure each block with different settings for the exam. For example, you can create different blocks to define different rules and behaviours of the group of questions in each block and each block has its own welcome message, timer etc.

The blocks and question groups enable you to set up and configure the basic and advanced settings for different types of questions, for your exams’ goals, and for the participants’ experience. Please see Setup exam structure for more details.

Select the ‘Exam Structure’ tab. When you create a new exam by using the button ‘new exam’ on top of the exam topics, one block is created automatically for you to get started. The name for this block you can define in the block settings. This default block shows a default question group and the question source that you selected while creating the exam.

The changes in the block settings apply only to the current block that you open for its settings. To set up the same settings for other blocks, you need to define and configure the settings for those blocks, by following the same steps.

Set up block settings

Click on ‘Block settings’ for the target block name. The ‘Edit block’ dialog box opens.

In ‘Block name’, write the name of this block.

General settings

In ‘Welcome message to block’, select the welcome message that the participants see for this block. You can create new and personalized welcome messages, for any block. Click on the small icon next to this drop-down. The ‘Welcome screen’ dialog box opens where you can edit or add more welcome messages that you can use in any block.

Type of timer

You have different options to set up the timer for this block.

• Select ‘Timer for whole block’ to set up the timer for the entire block.
• Select ‘No timer’ if you do not want to set up any time limit for this block.
• Select ‘Time per question’ to set the timer for each question in this block.

For the selected option, write the time (in minutes).

Randomly select question groups

Enable this option if you want that the block should randomly select question groups. Enable this option, and you see an option to write the number of question groups which should be randomly selected.

Calculator available

Enable this option to make the calculator available for the participants when they answer the questions in this block.

Shuffle question groups

Enable this option to shuffle the question groups. It means that the sequence of question groups is randomly shuffled and shared with the participants every time the exam is shared with them.

Display reachable points

You have different options to show the maximum points that the participants can score.
These maximum points will be shown inside each question to the participants.

• Select ‘None’ to not to show the maximum points to the participants
• Select ‘Only question points’ to show the maximum points only for each question.
• Select ‘Question and overall exam points’ to show the maximum points for each question, and for the entire exam as well.

Navigation settings

Finalize button label

In ‘Finalize button label’, the default button text of the exam finishing step is available. You can change this button text, if required. It would be required if you use more than one block. In example for the first block you will define ‘finish block’ here.

Always show Finish button 

Enable this option to show the ‘Finish’ button on every question. In that case, the participants can click on the ‘Finish exam’ button anytime to finish it and to see the exam result, depending on the result settings. Please see Exams: Set up result settings for more details.

Use question names for navigation

By default, the participants see the question numbers when they start answering the questions in the exam. Enable this option to show the question name in the navigation rather than the question numbers.

Allow block to be paused

Enable this option so that the participants can see a ‘Pause’ button to pause the block. They can pause the exam for this block, and they can see an option to ‘Resume’ it anytime. Note that when the block is paused, the block timer is also paused.

Allow displaying of enclosures in split window

If a question includes an attachment such as a PDF document, you have an option to show this attachment to the participants, in a split window. They can see the attachments in a new tab, to see the document, as required.

Question navigation panel available?

This option is enabled by default, to show the list of all questions in a navigation. It helps the participants jump to random questions anytime though it depends on the other settings in the block as well. If you turn-off this option, the navigation panel of the questions disappears and the participants can see the options to move to the next or previous questions only.

Questions navigation allowed?

Enable this option to allow the participants to jump to random questions, anytime. If you turn-off this option, the participants need to answer all the questions in sequence and they cannot skip and jump to any random question.

Answers input mandatory for navigating Questions?

Enable this option to make the participants answer the question compulsorily, if they open it. Whether they see a question in sequence, or at random, it depends on the other settings that you see on the same dialog box. In all cases, the participants cannot skip to any other question without answering it, if this option is enabled.

Direct feedback on the next question button? 

Enable this option to share the question’s result and the feedback about the participants’ answer, when they click on the ‘Next question’ button. They can see whether the answer is correct or wrong though they cannot see the points they scored for that question.

Settings when the exam module has more than one block

In ‘Settings when more than one block’ you can configure the block settings behavior depending on whether it is the only block in this exam module, or the last block, or a block anywhere in the list of blocks in the exam module.

In ‘Block intermediary result type’ select an option as below.

• Select ‘None’ if you do not want to show the result for this block, immediately when the participants finish the block. The overall exam result depends on the ‘Result settings’. Please see Exam result settings for more details.
• Select ‘Detailed result by exam structure’ to share the detailed block result in the same structure as you have planned the questions in question groups, and by blocks.
• Select ‘Detailed result by topic structure’ to share the detailed block result in the same structure as the questions when seen in the topics from where these are taken as question sources.

Set up special settings of the block

In ‘Special block settings’ you can define settings for the block level behavior in the exam.

Shuffle questions for repeat attendance

There are times when you might allow the participants to take the same exam, again. In this case, you have an option to share different sets of questions, randomly, for the same participant. Enable the ‘Draw different questions for repeated attendances (if possible)’ option and depending on the random questions that are available for shuffling, the participants see different questions in their next attendance for the exam, in this block only. This setting only takes effect when the same already saved participant profile is used for the new exam attendance and when enough questions are available inside the selected topics for random question selection.

Set up the order of blocks in the list

When you see the list of blocks, there is an option to set up their order of appearance in the exam, for the participants. There are directional arrows available next to the block name and you can use these as below.

• The first block at the top shows the down arrow only. Click on it to move the block one step down in the list.
• All other blocks except the last block in the list show two arrows – one each to move the block up or down respectively. Use these as required.
• The last block in the list shows the up arrow only. Click on it to move the block one step up in the list.

Save the block settings

Click on ‘Save’ to save the block settings.

Add new block

You can add a new block in any exam module, anytime.

1. In the list of topics and exams, locate the target exam module where you want to add a new block.
2. Open this exam module.
3. Select the ‘Exam structure’ tab.
4. Click on the ‘Add block’ button available at the end of the blocks, if this exam module already has one or more blocks.
5. The ‘New block’ dialog box opens.
6. In ‘Title’, write the name of the new block.
7. Click on ‘Create’ to create and save it.

In the block, there are no question groups or question sources. You can define custom settings and configuration of this new block as explained in this article. To add a question group, please see Exams: Create and configure question groups, for detailed instructions.