2024/25 update: Auto-generated questions in Blackboard Ultra are now enabled. You can generate questions for tests based on selected course content.
Important note: This is an artificial intelligence (AI) feature in Blackboard Ultra and may contain bias or inaccuracies. Use this feature to draft questions, which you should then edit to ensure they align with your test's learning objectives.
Overview
This article covers:
- Adding Auto-generated questions to a test
- Creating Auto-generated questions for question banks
- Editing Auto-generated questions
- FAQs on functionality and best practices
Adding Auto-generated Questions to a Test
- Navigate to your assessment folder in Blackboard.
- Open an existing test or create a new one.
- Click the Add Content (+) icon and select Auto-generate questions.
- Configure the Auto-generate question settings (as detailed below), then click the Add questions to Test button.
Configuring Auto-generate Question Settings
In the new window, adjust the following:
- Description: Enter keywords or a learning outcome to guide question generation (e.g., "cognitive development theories").
- Select Module Items: Choose materials from your site to base questions on (e.g., lecture slides, readings).
- Question Type:
Select a specific type (e.g., multiple choice) or Inspire me for randomised options.
- Complexity:
Use the slider (1–10) to match difficulty to your course level (7–10 recommended for HE). See the FAQ section below for further details.
- Number of Questions: Select 1–20 (higher numbers take longer to generate).
Click the Generate button.
Tick the questions you wish to keep and click the Add button.
Creating AI Auto-generated Questions for Question Banks
Important note: In question banks, you have two options: create a new question bank with auto-generated question (option 1) OR add questions to an existing bank (option 2).
- Go to Manage Banks (in the Details and Actions panel on your Blackboard site).
- Option 1: Create a new question bank
◾ Click the Add Content (+) icon and select Auto-generate questions.
Option 2: Add to an existing question bank
◾ Locate your existing question bank to use.
- Configure the Auto-generate question settings (as detailed above), then click Generate.
- Choose the questions and click Add to Question Bank.
Please note that any question bank created from scratch using the Auto-generate feature will be automatically named: Generated Bank [today's date]—you may rename it for clarity if needed.
Reminder: Always review and edit AI-generated questions before use.
Editing Auto-generated Questions
- Open Manage Banks and select the relevant question bank.
- Expand the question using the chevron icon to preview it.
- Click the three dots icon and select Edit.
- Make changes and click Save, or Cancel to discard.
For detailed test setup guidance, please see our article on Tests.
FAQs
Crafting Effective AI Prompts
The optional prompt description (2000 characters max) helps narrow the focus of the auto-generated questions.
For example, if you have an anatomy test, a prompt description like ‘upper limb’ or ‘muscle attachments and insertions’ help to create specific questions from your Blackboard site content. When the prompt description is paired with selected module items (e.g. week 1 upper limb anatomy presentation) it further improves the accuracy of the questions generated by the AI in Blackboard, allowing for more reliable results.
Available Question Types
- Inspire me!: Random mix of all types.
- Essay: Manually marked; model answers appear to students after the essay has been marked and posted.
- Fill in the blank: Students complete missing words.
- Jumbled sentence: Select words/phrases from a menu to complete a sentence.
- Matching: Pair prompts with answers (extra answers act as distractors to increase the question's difficulty).
- Multiple choice: One or more correct options.
- True/False: Simple binary response to a statement question.
Additional details on question types can be found in our support article on Question Types.
Question Complexity Recommendations
The AI's complexity slider uses 10 predefined levels, as defined by Anthology (Blackboard's creators). Our recommendation is to keep the complexity high between 7 and 10. By default at Sheffield Hallam University, the complexity is set at 7 (undergraduate lower division).
Below is the full scale:
- Early primary school
- Late primary school
- Early middle school
- Late middle school
- Early high school
- Late high school
- Undergraduate lower division (Default at Sheffield Hallam)
- Undergraduate upper division
- Graduate level
- Advanced PhD level
