A Random Block is a batch of questions selected at random from your Question Bank (Q-Bank) on the basis of criteria parameters chosen by you, and inserted into your activity as a batch.

Inserting a Random Block of questions into an activity

To insert a Random Block of questions into your activity, select "Add Random Block" from the activity editor screen.  This will raise a form in Q-Bank, in which you can:

- specify the number of questions to be selected for the block (required);

- specify the search criteria, or filters, to be applied in Q-Bank in order to create a pool of candidates from which the questions are to be randomly selected.  By applying various filters in combination, you can define the search criteria and narrow down the list of candidates.

On the right side of the form "Create Random Questions Block", Candidate Questions are displayed which meet the current search criteria you specify.  The number of available Candidates is displayed at the top of this list.  This is the number of filtered questions from which the random selection will be made.

On the left side of the form, you can set the search criteria which will filter Q-Bank to create the list of Candidate Questions.  A combination of criteria (ie multiple filters) will result in a diminishing pool of Candidate Questions from which the Random Block is selected.

Search Criteria in Q-Bank:

Scope:  By default the "Scope" of your filter will be limited to your own Q-Bank ("Mine"); however widening the scope to "Institution" or "Global" will potentially make a wider pool of questions available. Additional filters can be applied to the selection criteria, for example:

Category: Filtering the questions can be as simple as identifying a folder in the "Categories" section.  For example, if you had earlier created a custom category in your Q-Bank, and added suitable questions to this, then on creating a Random Block for your activity you could select this custom category and specify the number of questions to be selected at random from the category.

Search Term: If you specify some text string as a Search Term, the candidate questions will include only those have matching text in the body of the question;

Tags:  Selecting tags allows you to a filter all questions in Q-Bank according to the tags.  Tags are often applied to questions to organise them by topic, allign them with learning objectives, or describe the difficulty of the question.  If multiple tags are selected then all questions match any one one or more of the tags will be included;

Question Type: Question type can be selected, for example you can specify that your Random Block is to contain only numeric response questions.

Number of Questions: At the bottom of the left side of the form, you must specify the number of questions in the Random Block.  This determines how many questions will be selected at random from the pool of Candidate Questions.

Once you are happy with the criteria and the number of questions, press "Add Random Question Block" (at the foot of the left side of the form).  This will insert a batch into your activity containing the Random Block element.

See also:  Using Q-Bank to Find and Manage Questions; Using tags in Q-Bank

Categories: Xorro-Q, Facilitators.
Tags: Random Block;Q-Bank Criteria;Q-Bank Filters;.