What is Exam on OpenLearning, and where can you create them?
What is an Exam on OpenLearning?
An exam on OpenLearning is a dedicated grade item within the Gradebook used for controlled assessments. It is a separate environment from regular course pages, designed specifically for assessments like midterms and final exams. Key features include:
- A separate exam environment
- A timer to set a time limit for completion.
- Integration with Question Banks for easy and secure question management.
How is this different to our quiz?
This feature is different from activities and quizzes you set in the course page because it offers a more structured and secure environment, allowing Assessment Designers to manage attempts, randomize questions, and control access date and time.
Assessment tab in course sidebar
To create an exam, please make sure that you are able to see the Assessment tab in your course’s sidebar. The Assessment tab will appear to a Course Admin, Assessor and Assessment Designer.
Creating an exam from the Gradebook
Gradebook is the page where you add any grade items that you would like to be graded. For more information about the Gradebook, click here.
To create an exam:
Step 1
Go to Assessment>Gradebook
Step 2
Click Add grade item button located at the top of the table. Click Exam from drop down menu.
Step 3
Fill in your exam name and exam description and click Add to grade book button.
Step 4
This will bring you to the main Gradebook dashboard. You can:
1. Weight: Assign the weight for your grade items.
2. Visibility: Select the appropriate visibility setting for your learners' view and click Save. The default visibility of the item is Full report on release. The other available option is Score only.
3. Action: Click the three dots, and you can:
- Set up: Click this to edit your grade item report.
- View exam: To preview your exam environment.
- Delete: To remove the grade item report.
Edit your exam overview
To continue setting up the exam, click the Set up button, where you can:
Change your exam name
Change your exam description
Select whether you’d like to randomise the order of questions in the exam
Set a time limit or unlimited time for your exam
Set a fixed number of attempts or enable unlimited attempts until a learner achieves a passing grade.
Randomise the order of the questions of my exam to each learner
The Question display order feature changes the order of questions for each learner’s exam attempt. This helps minimise memorisation and sharing of answers between learners. You can:
- Randomise the order of all questions in the exam.
- Keep the question order the same for every learner.
- Combine with Attempts and a Question Bank to make each attempt different.
In the Overview tab, under Question display order, choose:
- Same for each learner – All learners will see the questions in the same order, OR
- Randomise question order for each learner – The order of questions will be different for each learner.
Adding a time limit to my exam
The Time limit feature controls how long a learner has to complete an exam attempt once they start. The countdown begins as soon as the learner clicks Start exam button. You can:
- Set the time in minutes (e.g., 60 minutes).
- Combine with access time to control both when the exam can be started and how long it can be taken.
- Automatically submit the attempt when the time runs out or when the access time window ends — whichever comes first.
In the Overview tab, under Time limit, choose
- Allow unlimited time – Learners can access and work on the exam as long as they need within the access time window, or
- Set a time limit – Learners have a fixed countdown (e.g., 60 minutes) to complete the exam from the moment they click Start exam button.
Set the attempt limits for my exam
The Attempts feature allows learners to attempt an exam more than once, based on your settings. You can:
- Allow a fixed number of attempts or unlimited attempts until they pass.
- Combine with randomised questions to vary each attempt.
- Control what score counts (highest or last) and how feedback is shown.
In the Overview tab, under Attempts, choose:
- Limited attempts and set the number, OR
- Repeat until pass. Set a passing score — either by percentage or exact score
Adding access time to my exam
The Exam access feature controls the window during which learners can start and complete the exam. This is different from the Time limit, which controls how long they have after starting. You can:
- Set the exam status (Live or inactive)
- Define a start date/time and end date/time for when the exam can be accessed.
- View and manage the list of learners who have permission to access the exam
- Combine with Time limit for stricter control.
To set the access time, go to Administer Learners> Exam access.
This will open a new page where you can configure the exam’s access. On this page, you can:
Toggle exam status
- Control whether the exam is currently live and accessible to eligible learners.
Click Edit button and you can:
Manage access permissions
- Every learner in this class – Allow all learners in the class to access the exam, or
- Specific learners only – View, add, or remove learners or groups who can access the exam
Set access time
- Anytime – The exam is available at all times (within the course availability period).
- During a specific time frame – Define the exact dates and times the exam should open and close. Learners will see the times in their own time zone.
Pro tip: By default, every learner can access an exam at any time. Only learners on the access list can start the exam during the access window. Learners without access permissions will see this message:
Use case: Difference between Exam access and Time limit
Exam access: the window during which learners can start and end the exam.
Example: 1 September, 10:00 AM MYT (GMT+8) – 7 September, 11:59 PM MYT
Learners will see these times automatically converted to their local timezone.
For example:
Cohort in Malaysia → 10:00 AM MYT start
Kelvin in Sydney → 1:00 PM AEST start (same moment, different timezone)
Time limit: the maximum time allowed to complete the exam once it has started.
Example: 60 minutes
If Kelvin in Sydney starts the exam on 2 September at 2:00 PM AEST, he will have until 3:00 PM AEST to finish.
If he starts on 7 September at 11:50 PM MYT (1:50 AM AEST on 8 September), he still has 60 minutes, but the system will auto-submit at the end of the access time — so he can only use the remaining 9 minutes before the Access time window closes.
Add your exam questions
To add the questions in, click the “Questions” tab in the drawer. You will be given two choices:
To select manually which questions you would like to add from the question bank
To create a random question set from the question bank
Selecting questions from the bank and adding them to the exam
1. To select manually which questions you would like to add to the exam, simply click Add questions.
2. A modal will open where you can select the question bank and the questions that you'd like to add. You can use the checkbox to add more than one question at one go.
3. To preview the question content, simply click the question name.
4. Once you are happy with your choices, click Continue.
5. It will close the modal and you will see the questions that you have added in the "Questions" tab.
6. Set points for each question type and click Save once you are done. You can also click Preview exam to see what the exam will look like in a real setting.
Create a random question and add them to the exam
If you choose to create a random question set for your exam, simply click the “Random question set” option. This tool is especially handy if you have a question bank with a lot of questions, and you’d like to create exams that pulls questions easily from that bank. Instead of all students receiving the exact same set of questions, the system draws different questions randomly for each individual or group of students, ensuring that each test or quiz is unique. In the modal, you will need to fill in:
The number of questions
Points per questions
From which question bank
Which question type
In the example below, I chose to create a random question set of four questions taken from my own question bank. Each question will have 2 points.
What happens if I have insufficient questions in my bank when I’m trying to set up my random question set?
You can still create a random question set even if your question bank has insufficient questions. This allows educators to set up their exams first and build their question banks later. However, an exam with a random question set that lacks sufficient questions cannot run in the exam runner.
To ensure educators complete their exam configuration, four labels will appear, indicating that the exam has insufficient questions and requires attention.
Label 1: “This is less than the number of questions you specified”
Label 2: “There are not enough questions to populate this question set”
Label 3 LEARNERS ONLY - In the block page, it will say, "exam is still under construction". The Start exam button will be disabled.
Label 3.1 EDUCATORS/COURSE ADMIN ONLY - In the block page, it will say that there are some issues with the exam setup and they need to resolve it.
Assign points to the questions that I have added
After adding the questions into the exam, you can assign points to the questions.
The points stored on the question level can affect learner's score in the exam, especially in a multi-part question.
In the example below, the question consists of 2 response widgets, each with a score of 1. The total score of this question is 2 in the question bank.
When the question is added to an exam, the question will be given a default score of 2 in the exam.
If a learner only gets the MCQ component of the question right, and gets Short Answer wrong, the learner will point 1 score in the exam.
If the question is worth 10 scores in the exam, the learner will point 1/2 x 10 = 5 scores in the exam.
Setting submissions and grades
The Submissions and grades tab allows you to control how results are released, how scores are calculated, and what constitutes a passing score.
Options include:
1. When learner submits the exam
- Hide results until they are manually released – Review submissions before releasing scores.
- Release and show results immediately – Results are shown as soon as the learner submits the exam.
2. Score calculation
- Take latest score out of all attempts – Only the most recent attempt is counted
- Take highest score out of all attempts – The highest score across all attempts is counted
3. Passing score
- Use percentage – Enter a passing percentage (e.g., 80%).
- Use exact score – Enter a specific score learners must achieve to pass.
Pro tip: In Submissions and Grades, you can decide whether to count the highest score or the last attempt for grading. If learners are allowed to repeat the exam until they pass, you can also set a passing score using either:
Percentage (default: 100%)
Exact score (default: maximum score
Previewing an exam that I just created
To preview the exam, simply click the Preview exam button from the drawer. In order to preview, you will need to save your exam first.
Copy an exam from another class
If you have created an exam for one class (e.g., Class of 2023) and want to use the same exam in a different class, you can simplify the process by using the Copy exams from another class option.
