Respondus allows you to import various questions from a file. The questions must be organized in a format that is acceptable to Respondus and the file must be stored in one of the following formats: plain text (.txt), rich-text (.rtf), MS Word (.doc and .docx) or tab/comma delimited (.csv) format. Refer to the Formatting Questions for Import page which describes how to format your questions prior to importing into Respondus.
Please Note
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Starting the Import Step-by-Step Guide
- From the Start tab, select Import Questions. The following dialog will appear:
- Select the type of file that will be imported.
- From the drop down select the appropriate file type.
- Click Browse to locate the file with the formatted questions.
- (Optional) For .rtf and .txt files that refer to graphics used in questions, select the folder containing the graphic files.
- Specify whether the questions should be appended to the currently open file or whether to create an entirely new file.
- If you select the second option you will need to enter the name of the file to be created and indicate whether the file should be an “Exam” or “Survey.”
- (Optional – Stem Question Titles) Each question being imported will have a “title”. Respondus will automatically use the first 20 characters of the question wording as the question title.
- Alternatively, titles can be based on a specific “stem” (or string of text) which will then be followed by consecutive numbering starting with 001. For example, if you select the “Use stem...” checkbox and enter the text “Chapter1-”, the title for the first question being imported will be Chapter1-001, the title for the second question will be Chapter1-002, and so on.
Click Preview. Respondus will review the file being imported and check for any potential problems. If warning messages are shown at the bottom of the screen, you need to determine whether to make changes to the imported question file or whether to continue with the import.
Some warning messages can be ignored. For instance, Respondus might give the warning “2 duplicate titles were changed by adding `2’ (or 3, 4...)”. This is simply indicating that two of the question titles for the file being imported are identical (remember, question titles are generated from the first 20 characters of the question wording). Since two question titles in Respondus cannot be identical, the warning message is simply indicating that the duplicate title is having a number such as “2” added to the end of it to make it distinct. This change does not affect the question itself (titles aren’t displayed during an exam), so most users can safely ignore this warning.- Click Finish to complete the import. The Respondus file has now been created or appended and will automatically switch to the Edit tab.