Bb Learn Tests -- Very Important Note on Multiple Answer Q's with Partial Credit
Please note the following if you use Multiple Answer questions on Bb Learn Tests. This relates to Multiple Answer questions *only.* This has no bearing on Multiple Choice questions. Multiple Choice questions are where a student selects only 1 answer. Multiple Answer questions are where students check off all answers that apply.
In a Multiple Answer question in Bb Learn, if the partial credit option is enabled, and if a student checks off *all* the answers, the student will get full score for that question, even if they selected wrong answers. The student is not penalized for choosing wrong answers for that particular question. Similarly, if partial credit is enabled, and the student checks off all the right answers, *and* also 1 or 2 wrong answers, the student again still gets the full score for that particular question. *If this doesn’t make sense, there’s a 4-minute video link below that shows what I am talking about.*
The vast majority of students do not know about this yet, it seems. And some instructors may not enable partial credit at all, or may do the work-around below already. So it's pretty hard for students to game the system to much advantage, even if they know the issue. This issue does not penalize students at all who get the question completely right, and don’t mark any wrong answers.
This issue has been reported to DU IT & Blackboard Learn (4/13/2021).
The following are a couple quick workaround solutions
- Edit the Multiple Answer question using the “Edit the Test” option in Bb Learn (click circled down arrow next to the text submission link, and not in “Full Grade Center”). Then choose an option to proceed below.
- Option 1 (fastest): Do not check to enable the Partial Credit box. The student has to mark all the right answers and only the right answers to get that question right.
- Option 2: If you check the Partial Credit box, make sure all the correct answers add up to 100%. And also make sure all the incorrect answers add up to negative 100% -100%.
- Recommend checking the box to prevent a negative overall scores on the question.
- Example: If you have 4 right & 4 wrong answers, enter 25% for the partial credit percentage for each correct answer. Use -25% for the partial credit percentages for each wrong answer.
We made this helpful video on this subject, to show what the issue is, and how to fix it.