There are some exams and in-class tests where you require students to word process their answers and submit them to Blackboard in a single file. Turnitin is the obvious choice for this type of assessment, but is not suitable if you want students to provide their answers within a fixed time from when they started the exam. In this situation, you could use a timed Blackboard Test, and ask students to submit to a File Response question.
Related guide: Blackboard Tests – marking File Response questions
There are various ways you could set up this type of exam. The settings below have been used successfully and are provided as a guide.
- Create a Test consisting of a single File Response question.
- The exam paper should be uploaded as a PDF and embedded into the question text.
- If you require students to type their answers into an answer booklet a link to this should also be embedded into the question text.
Please note: the answer booklet should be a Word document, not a PDF, so that students can download and edit it. - Provide instructions based on the following text.
Sample instructions
There is a time limit of XXX minutes on this exam.
Click on the test title, and then on Begin to start the test.
The timer starts as soon as you click on Begin.
You need to start the test in order to download the exam paper.
You can then
- type your answers in Word
- or write your answers by hand and then scan them
For convenience, keep Blackboard open in the browser.
When you have finished, return to Blackboard and use the Browse Local Files button to upload your Word document or PDF.
Then press Submit to complete the exam.
You will be able to view the file you submitted, to make sure it has uploaded correctly.
Please note
- You can only submit a single file to a File Response question.
This file should contain your answers to all of the exam questions. - If you write your answers by hand, you should use an app such as MS Office Lens or Apple iOS Notes Scanner to scan your work, and combine the images into a single PDF file.
See Submitting Handwritten Exams to Blackboard
and Capturing and inserting images into a document for online submission - If there are any problems with the file you uploaded, you should send the correct file immediately to online-exam@reading.ac.uk with an explanation of what occurred.
Page last updated on March 17, 2023 by taralehane
