School administrators
How do I import a question bank?
Written by the TestFLE team.
In short
In “Tests”, start from the sample archive, replace its questions with yours, then drop your file and click “Check the file”. When no issue blocks, “Import this checked file” creates the bank, which becomes the school’s default bank straight away.
Who this is for, and what you need first
- Who this is for
- School administrators who want students to take the test with their own questions.
- What you need first
- Written questions, with their level, their skill and their answers.
- For questions with images or sounds, the matching files.
- A spreadsheet program that saves in CSV format.
The steps
- In the sidebar, open “Tests”.
- In the “Import a bank in spreadsheet format” block, click “Download the sample archive (spreadsheet and media, one question per type)”. You get the file
gabarit-banque-de-test.zip. - Unzip the archive. It contains the spreadsheet
gabarit-banque-de-test.csvand amediasfolder with the images and the sound that its rows refer to. - Open the spreadsheet. Replace the example rows with your questions, one question per row. Do not touch the first row, which holds the column names.
- Save the file in CSV format.
- Put the images and sounds your questions refer to in the
mediasfolder, and remove those of the example. Then compress this folder and the spreadsheet together into a.ziparchive. A bank without media can also be dropped as a spreadsheet alone. - In the import block, drop your
.csvor.zipfile in the “Click or drag a document here” zone, or click this zone to choose it. - Click “Check the file”.
- Read the result. If it reports blocking issues, correct them in your spreadsheet, then start again from step 7.
- When the result says “No blocking issue”, reread “Identifier”, “Version” and “Title”.
- Click “Import this checked file”.
- Wait for the import report: the bank appears in the “Available question banks” table.
Only an administrator imports a bank. Once the bank is imported, a teacher can choose it for their class, like any active bank: choosing the bank of a class or a student describes this setting.
Starting from the sample archive
The sample archive is the starting point of a bank. It follows the convention of every import archive: the spreadsheet at the root, the media in the medias folder. You can drop it as it is in the import block, and “Check the file” finds no blocking issue in it: this shows you what the check expects before you write a single question. Do not go any further with the example: once imported, this bank would become the school’s default bank.
Its spreadsheet contains a realistic question of each accepted type, and its rows show every way of writing an answer. For example, a star in front of an option marks the correct answer, and a vertical bar separates the options. The remarque_pedagogique column of several examples explains the convention used. Keep these rows in front of you while you write your own, then delete them before you drop the file.
The saved file can separate its columns with semicolons or with commas: both are recognised. A spreadsheet alone is enough for a bank without media. In an archive, the spreadsheet is at the root, the only one of its kind, and the media are stored in the medias folder, with no accent. The spreadsheet refers to each media file by its plain file name, for example chat.jpg.
For a first bank, the TestFLE team can help you prepare the file: get in touch with them.
Going further
Understanding the settings and special cases
What the check does
“Check the file” reads the whole file and writes nothing: no bank is created at this stage. The result counts the questions, the media files and the images that will be resized. It breaks the questions down “By type” and “By level”, and reports the blocking issues and the warnings. Each issue is described on one row of the table, with three columns: “Row”, “Column” and “Message”. The message says what to correct.
A blocking issue prevents the import: as long as one remains, the “Confirm the import of the checked file” block, with its fields and the “Import this checked file” button, is not shown. A warning prevents nothing, but it is worth reading. After each correction, drop the file again and run the check again.
The identifier, the version and the title
Under “Confirm the import of the checked file”, three fields describe the bank. “Identifier” and “Title” are prefilled from the file name, and “Version” is set to “1.0”. The title is the one teachers will see in the list of banks: give it a meaningful name. The identifier and the title cannot stay empty.
A bank that already has the same identifier and the same version is refused (“Bank “identifier” already exists in version number: change the version.”). To import a new version of the same bank, keep the identifier and change the version, for example to “1.1”.
The checked file and the confirmation
The confirmation applies to the exact file that was checked, recognised by its fingerprint. If the file has changed in the meantime, it is refused. The checked file stays available for thirty minutes. After that, or if it has already been imported, you have to check it again (“The checked archive is no longer available (thirty minutes, or already imported): check the file again.”).
During the upload, a bar shows the progress (“Uploading the archive”, with the percentage), then “Import started…” and “Import in progress…”. The final report gives the title of the bank, its identifier and its version, and the number of questions imported and of media files uploaded.
The limits of a file
An archive weighs 400 MB at most, and 500 MB once unzipped. It contains 4,000 files at most. The spreadsheet itself weighs 20 MB at most. Each image weighs 15 MB at most, and an image larger than 1,600 pixels is reduced to that size, without being distorted. Each sound weighs 20 MB at most.
Where are the questions kept?
Once imported, the questions are saved in TestFLE: the spreadsheet is only a way of sending them, and you can throw it away. Only the media are kept as files. To correct a bank, import a new version, then deactivate or archive the old one.
Related articles
- How do I activate, deactivate or archive a question bank?The “Available question banks” table on the “Tests” screen gives each bank a state: active, inactive or archived. Four buttons change it, but the default bank can be neither deactivated nor archived.
- How do I choose the question bank of a class or a student?A student takes the bank the server picks in this order: the one assigned to the student, their class’s, the school’s. Set it for a class in “Classes” or “Tests”, and for a student in their sheet.
- Which question bank will my students take, and how do I change it?A student takes the bank the administrator has assigned to them for their next test, if there is one; otherwise their class’s bank or, failing that, the school’s default bank. To change a class’s bank, open its menu in “My classes” and click “Change the bank…”.