About QTI packages

Instructors and course builders may rely on third-party content to build their curriculum and complement materials such as textbooks. To help ensure compatibility, publishers and other content creators develop this material using industry standards.

Industry standards ensure that learning management systems are ready and able to process this content. The IMS Global Learning Consortium established the Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) standard to support compatibility between questions and a course, regardless of the learning management system.

If your institution uses a newer release of Blackboard Learn, you can import and export QTI packages to use in your assessments.

Questions imported from a QTI package are supported in the Original Course View only.

What’s supported in a QTI package?

  • Blackboard Learn supports certain questions types in a QTI package: True/False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, Fill in the Blank, and Essay.
  • If a question contains embedded media, HTML 5 and HTML object tags are imported. HTML5 is exported.
  • Question metadata such as tags, categories, and alignments aren’t supported and aren't imported or exported.
  • Questions using the optional QTI response processing are skipped and not imported.
  • When question configuration options don’t match, Blackboard Learn prioritizes fidelity of the question and answer text over settings. For example, some exam systems allow differing partial credit allocations to be set per possible answer response, whereas Blackboard Learn maintains a list of correct answers. In this case, all answer options are imported as correct so they can be reviewed for continued applicability in Blackboard Learn.

Because different assessment tools have different features and varying media, HTML, and equation handling capabilities, you should always review and test questions after transfer between solutions.

Import a QTI package

You’ll need to import QTI packages into your course as question pools. After you import the questions, you can use them in assessments.

  1. In your course, go to Course Tools > Tests, Surveys, Pools > Pools.
  2. Select Import QTI 2.1 Package.
  3. Browse your computer or the Content Collection to locate the QTI package.
  4. Select Submit.
  5. After Blackboard Learn processes the package, you’ll see a status page to show the results. Select OK to return to the Pools page.

You can edit the questions in the pool. When you're ready, use the questions in a test.

Use questions in a test

Now that you’ve imported a QTI package, you can use the questions in a test. To build a test with questions in a pool:

  1. In your course, go to Course Tools > Tests, Surveys, Pools > Tests.
  2. Select Tests > Build Test.
  3. Type a name and optional description or instructions. Select Submit.
  4. In the Reuse Questions menu, select Find Questions.
  5. You’re brought to a library of test questions in your course, including those in pools. Select the pool created from the QTI package import.
  6. Select the questions you want to use and select Submit.
  7. The questions are added to your test.

Export a QTI package

Just like they’re imported into Blackboard Learn, QTI packages are exported as question pools. You need to move questions from an assessment to a question pool to export the QTI package.

  1. You can build a pool with questions from any assessments in your course.
  2. After you build the pool, return to the Pools page.
  3. In the pool’s menu, select Export QTI 2.1 Package.
  4. The package downloads to your computer as a ZIP file.