Creating an Essay Question

This guide will demonstrate how to create an essay question in Blackboard. An essay question allows students to write an extended response to a question.

Selecting a Question Type

With the Test Canvas open, Click on Create Question and select Essay from the menu.

Adding a Question

Image of the Test Canvas with Create Question outlined with a red circle with instructions to click on Create Question, and Essay outlined with a red circle with instructions to select Multiple Choice.

The next screen is the Test Canvas, which shows all the questions in the test, and allows instructors to add questions to the test.  To add a question, click on Create Question at the top of the screen and select the type of question to create.  The step below outlines the creation of an essay question, so select Essay from the list.

Creating an Essay Question, Part 1

Image of the section of Create/Edit Essay Question with the following annotations for Section 1: Question and Section 2: Answers: 1.Title: Enter a title here.2.Question Text: Enter the desired question text in the text box provided.  3.Answer: Enter a sample answer that would be displayed to students after they take the test.

You will now see a screen labeled Create/Edit Essay Question.  Section 1: Question and Section 2: Answer will allow you to enter the essay question you wish to ask students.

  1. Title: Enter a title here.
  2. Question Text: Enter the desired question text in the text box provided.  
  3. Answer: Enter a sample answer that would be displayed to students after they take the test.  

Creating an Essay Question, Part 2

Image of the Rubrics section with an arrow pointing to the Add Rubric button with instructions to click here to add a rubric.

The section labeled Rubrics allows you to attach a rubric for grading the students's responses.  To add a rubric, click the Add Rubric button and choose to add an existing rubric, to create a new rubric, or to create a new rubric from an existing rubric.

Creating an Essay Question, Part 3

Image of  Categories and Keywords with the following annotations: 1.Categories: Click Add to enter category tags for the question.2.Topics: Click Add to enter tags based on topics that are covered in the course for the question.3.Levels of Difficulty: Click Add to enter tags based of the level of difficulty of the question.4.Keywords: Click Add to enter keywords for the question.5.Instructor Notes allows instructors to enter notes regarding the question.  These notes are not visible to students. 6. 1.When finished, click the Submit and Create Another button to create another question of the same question type, or click the Submit button to return to the Test Canvas.

Categories and Keywords allows instructors to provide additional metadata tags to the question to allow questions to be easily searchable.

  1. Categories: Click Add to enter category tags for the question.
  2. Topics: Click Add to enter tags based on topics that are covered in the course for the question.
  3. Levels of Difficulty: Click Add to enter tags based of the level of difficulty of the question.
  4. Keywords: Click Add to enter keywords for the question.
  5. Instructor Notes allows instructors to enter notes regarding the question.  These notes are not visible to students.
  6. When finished, click the Submit and Create Another button to create another question of the same question type, or click the Submit button to return to the Test Canvas.

Test Canvas Overview

Test Canvas Overview

After clicking the Submit button, you will be returned to the Test Canvas.  The Test Canvas will allow you to create a new question, rearrange, edit, and delete questions, as well as allowing individuals to change the point value of each question.