Bb Learn Tests -- Statistics Gathering

Tagged with: blackboard bblearn

Bb Learn tests/exams/quizzes come with various tools for gathering statistics and results from tests. This document reviews those.

Test Statistics Examples

This page refers to some examples that you will find in the zip file below.

Test Statistics Page

The "Test Statistics" page in Bb Learn allows you to see how many students provided a particular answer on an exam, depending on the type of question.


To generate a "Test Statistics" webpage for a particular Bb Learn test in a Bb Learn course shell:

  1. Enter "Full Grade Center."
  2. Click the circled down arrow in the column header for the test.
  3. Click "Attempts Statistics."
    1. Note: certain types of questions may not appear on the "Test Statistics" page.
      1. For example, "Fill in the Blank" questions do not appear.
    2. If you have a question about whether a specific type of question's results appears on the "Test Statistics" page, contact us.


The "Test Statistics_ Test 4_ Info Test 1" PDF in the zip file above shows a "Test Statistics" or "Attempts Statistics" webpage for an example Bb Learn test in a test Bb Learn shell.

  • There were 3 questions on the test: a True/False, a Multiple Choice, and an Essay question.
  • 2 test users submitted to it.
  • The questions on the quiz were randomized for test takers.
  • While the answers on the True/False and Essay questions could not be randomized, we were able to randomize the Multiple Choice answers for the test takers.
  • The 3 types of questions used for this particular example Bb Learn test all had their results appear in the "Test Statistics" page.

Answers Submitted by an Individual Test Taker

You can see what answers a particular individual submitted on a Bb Learn test by going into "Full Grade Center," hovering with your mouse over the cell in the row for a particular student and in the column for the Bb Learn test, clicking the circled down arrow, and clicking "Attempt..."

The "Grade Test_ Test 4_ Info Test 1" PDF shows a screenshot for one of the test users on the example Bb Learn test shell mentioned above.

Please note that open-ended questions, such as essay questions, are manually graded by an Instructor, Grader, or TA.

Item Analysis

The "Item Analysis" feature can provide Average Score, Average Time, Discrimination, and Difficulty based on test submissions. More about this feature and what terms mean specifically can be found at the link below. One of the ways to get to the "Item Analysis" feature in Bb Learn for a test is to enter "Full Grade Center," click the circled down arrow in the column header for a test, and click "Item Analysis."

Downloading Results

You can download results, such as correct and incorrect questions and number of attempts by using the "Download Results" option.

Here is how to use the "Download Results" option for a Bb Learn test in a Bb Learn course shell.

  1. Enter "Full Grade Center."

  2. Click the circled down arrow in the column header for the test.

  3. Click "Download Results."

  4. Download results as a CSV file or as a tab-delimited text file.
    1. Tab delimited files when opened in Excel may bring up a prompt that says the file is in the wrong format and asks if you want to open the file anyway, to which you should say yes.
  5. You can download results organized "By User" and "By Question and User."
    1. For tests with more than 40 questions, download results by "Question and by User."
  6. Choose to only get valid attempts (the attempt or submission that counted as the grade in Bb Learn) or all attempts/submissions.


We do have examples of results downloaded from the Bb Learn test exam used for the zip file above.

For these examples:

  • We selected only "valid attempts." 
  • The titles of each file list the settings that were used.
  • All questions and submitted answers by all users who submitted the test are given in these files.
  • The questions where the "Auto Score" is 0 are where there are incorrectly answered questions, and the questions where the "Auto Score" is 10 are where there are correctly answered questions.
  • The questions in the exam that you create may have a different correct score for the "Auto Score."
  • Essay questions and other questions that you have to manually grade would have a "Manual Score" only after you manually grade them, but do not have an "Auto Score."
  • "Possible Points" are the total points possible.
  • "Question" lists the specific question (sometimes with a little HTML code in it).
  • "Answer" lists the answer submitted by a particular student for that question. 

Submission Dates and Times and Test Time Duration Gathering

See the following webpage for how to gather test submission dates and times, and test time durations.