Export and Import Question Banks Between Courses

How to Export/Import Question Banks from One Course to Another

Last Updated: October 27th, 2022

Usage of Moodle Question Banks:

Questions imported in a question banks can then be used repeatedly in any combination to create quizzes, midterms, and final exams, as well as worksheets, practice quizzes. Moodle can even randomly select questions from a question bank to be included in a quiz.

Questions in question banks can also be duplicated, moved, deleted, or sorted into categories created by the user.

Exporting Moodle Question Banks

  1. Open up the Administration menu (the gear icon) in the top right hand corner. Select More... at the bottom of the list.
  2. Click on Export from the Question bank section.
    On the Course Administration Page go to the section for question bank and find Export.
  3. In the File format section, click on Moodle XML Format
    NOTE: If you want to only export one quiz or category, select the category you want next to Export category in the General block.
  4. Click on Export questions to file.
    Change the file format to Moodle XML format and click Export questions to file at the bottom of the page.
  5. The question bank will then downloaded to your computer and you can use to how you would like. 

Importing Moodle Question Banks from Textbooks

Usually, but not always, there will be a download site with a file, file or a file on the instructor CD, that is in a format directly importable to Moodle. If that is the case, we can import questions without you having to do any formatting.

Importing Questions from Word Docs

If we have to import questions from a Word document, there are two formats we can work from. The first is AIKEN format. This format does NOT allow any question types other than multiple choice and true and false questions to be imported. The other .doc format that can be imported is Moodle GIFT. This format will import multiple-choice, true and false, fill-in, and matching questions, but you have to include coded instructions in the questions.

NOTE: You can't import from the archives, so you need to do one of the following:

  1. Export the question banks, import them to the current course, and re-create the quiz, OR
  2. Backup the course, select only the quiz in question and restore that backup file to the current course.

Importing a Question Bank from Another Course

  1. Make sure you follow the steps for exporting the question bank from another course.
  2. Open up the Administration menu (the gear icon) in the top right-hand corner. Select More... at the bottom of the list.
  3. Scroll down to the Question bank section and click on Import.
    On the Course Administration Page go to the section for question bank and find Import.
  4. In the File format block, select Moodle XML format.
  5. Drag and drop your XML file into the box.
  6. Select Import at the bottom of the screen.


ATC Support & Hours of Operation

Weekday Support, Monday - Friday

The ATC is open to in-person assistance. Support is available through the above remote options and on campus at CEN 208

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