Randomize and Shuffle Questions

You can use features of BOLT to reduce the similarity in the composition and order of attempts. BOLT allows you to randomize answer options, create question pools, and shuffle the order of sections, pools, and questions in a quiz.


Randomize Answers

When creating quiz questions, you will have the option to randomize answers for each student. Selecting this option means that the answer choices will appear in random order.

Randomize answers for each student checkbox

If you want to use this option, you will need to make sure your answer choices don’t rely on the order in which they display. For example, if your questions have “A and B only” type answer choices, this option is not a good idea. “All/none of the above” can be changed to “all of these” or “none of these”.


Create Questions Pools

You can create Question Pools that contain a pool of possible questions and specify how many questions from the pool should be on each attempt of the quiz. When students take the quiz, BOLT randomly selects that number of questions from the question pool to add to the attempt, varying the questions students have to answer.


To create a Question Pool,

  1. In the quiz, on the Properties tab, click Add/Edit Questions.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Select Question Pool.
    Add button, Question Pool mouse click
  4. Give the Question Pool a name.
  5. Type the number of questions you want to be selected from the pool in the quiz.
  6. Type the number of points each question will be worth.
  7. Click Browse Question Library.
    Click Browse Question Library button.
  8. Select the questions you want added to the pool. Use the arrows beside section names to expand them to show all questions so you can select only the ones you want to use.
  9. Click Add.
    Click Add Button
  10. The questions you added will display.
  11. Click Save.
    Click Save Button
  12. You will see your Question Pool with identifying text below it in the Add/Edit Questions area.
    Question Pool indicator text
  13. When you are done, click Back to Settings for the quiz at the top of the page.
    Back to Settings for Quiz

To add multiple question pools, repeat steps 2 through 11 as many times as you need.


Shuffle

The Shuffle feature mixes up the order in which questions can appear on a quiz attempt. Shuffle can be applied to all questions and sections in a quiz (shuffle at the quiz level), or applied within particular sections only (shuffle at the section level).


To shuffle questions and sections at the quiz level,

  1. In Quizzes, create or edit a quiz.
  2. On the Properties tab, under Quiz Questions, the Shuffle option will appear after you have added questions using the Add/Edit Questions feature. Select the option  “Shuffle order of questions at the quiz level.”
  3. The shuffle icon will appear beside each question or section at the quiz level.
    Shuffle Order of Questions at the Quiz Level checkbox with
  4. Click Save.


To shuffle questions and sections within sections, 

  1. In Quizzes, create or edit a quiz.
  2. On the Properties tab, click Add/Edit Questions.
    Add/Edit Questions button
  3. Create or edit a section. (Note: Random sections automatically shuffle questions so this option is not available in random sections.)
  4. In the section screen, select “Shuffle order of questions in this section”. (If you have sections in this section, it will shuffle the order of the sections at this level.)
    Shuffle questions in this section checkbox
  5. Click Save.
  6. In the main Add/Edit Questions area, you will see a note that “Shuffling is on”.
    Shuffling is on indication


You can apply the Shuffle feature in many combinations to limit the similarity of questions students must answer on quizzes.