Using the Question Bank
Build reusable, versioned pools of questions that Online Lesson knowledge checks and assessments draw from.
Last updated 19 Oct 2026
Using the Question Bank
A Question Bank is a reusable, versioned pool of questions that your Online Lesson knowledge checks and assessments can draw from. Instead of re-writing the same questions for every course, you author them once in a bank, publish a version, and point as many lessons as you like at it.
Note
Question Banks are part of Online Lessons: you'll see Question Banks under Learning & Assessment in the sidebar once Online Lessons is enabled for your organisation. Managing banks requires Assessments and marking: Manage.
Access required
Choose the task you are doing. Each row is a separate action.
| Task | Required access |
|---|---|
| Browse question banks | Assessments and marking: View |
| Create, change or publish banks | Assessments and marking: Manage |
What lives on a bank (and what doesn't)
A bank is purely a pool of questions. Settings like the pass mark, number of attempts, and marking mode are not on the bank, they belong to the Online Lesson block that uses the bank. This keeps one set of questions reusable across lessons that mark them differently.
Creating a bank
Open Question Banks
Click Question Banks in the sidebar. The list shows each bank's title, category, question count, and status.
Create a new bank
Click New bank and fill in:
TitleRequiredA descriptive name, e.g. "Safe Operating Procedures".
DescriptionWhat the bank covers (optional).
CategoryAn optional grouping label, e.g. "WHS".
Click Create bank. You're taken straight into the new bank, which starts as a Draft.
Tip
You can also create a bank without leaving the lesson builder: when an assessment's question source has no suitable bank yet, choose Create bank in the source picker, name it, and keep working. The new bank appears in Question Banks like any other.
Edit bank details
Open a bank and choose Edit details to change its title, description or category, then click Save changes. These details describe the shared bank. Published question versions and the questions already assigned to learners remain unchanged.
Authoring questions
Inside a bank, click Add question to author items. Questions support Short Text, Long Text, Single/Multiple Choice, Checkbox, Scale, Matching, True/False, Ordering, Fill in the Blanks, Info Block, Table, and two interactive image types: Image Choice and Hotspot. The type picker shows a worked example of each question type, exactly as a learner would see it, so you can compare types before committing to one. See Question types explained below for a full description of each.
Warning
Existing legacy File Upload and Signature bank questions remain editable so previously published material stays maintainable. You can't add new ones to a Question Bank. For new file, video, declaration, or signature evidence, create an Assessment Instrument and add the matching Assessment Task activity.
Use Preview questions to check the current draft in a read-only dialog before publishing it.
For each question you can set the label, marks, answer/choices, and optional learner feedback and hint. Removing a question is a soft delete, anything already captured in a published version is preserved.
To change the order learners see, click Reorder, drag questions by the handle (or nudge them with the arrow buttons), then click Save order. Reordering counts as an unpublished change, so publish a new version once you're happy with it.
Import questions from Moodle
You can bring questions across from Moodle in GIFT format, the plain-text format Moodle exports question banks in.
Open the import
Add the GIFT text
Check the summary
Import
RTObase reads multiple choice, weighted multiple answer, true/false, short answer, matching, essay, numerical and missing word questions:
- A multiple choice question with one correct answer becomes Single Choice. One with several correct answers becomes Multiple Choice.
- Partial credit is dropped. With a single
=answer, only that answer is correct. With weighted answers, every answer with a positive weight must be chosen. - A numerical question becomes Short Text with the exact answer. Its tolerance is dropped.
- A short answer question keeps only its first accepted answer.
- An essay becomes Long Text.
- Moodle HTML is removed, so question text shows as plain text. Category lines are skipped and the questions under them are imported.
Each change is listed under Changed to fit. A question with no answer block, no text or no correct answer is listed under Not imported. A missing word question becomes a choice question, with a blank in the text where the answer goes. If an import stops part way, the questions already saved stay in the draft. Select import again in the same dialog and RTObase saves only the questions it has not saved yet. Cancel clears the dialog.
Publishing a version
Lessons never draw from your live draft, they draw from a published version, which is an immutable snapshot of the bank's questions at the moment you publish.
Publish
Click Publish (or Publish new version on a bank you've published before). RTObase freezes every answerable question and its answers into a new version and marks the bank Active.
Republish after edits
Editing questions afterwards doesn't touch existing lessons. When you're ready to roll the changes out, publish again to create the next version.
Note
A bank needs at least one answerable question (Info Blocks alone aren't enough) before it can be published.
Warning
Published versions are immutable. Once a version is published it can't be edited or deleted, this guarantees that a student's exam can never change underneath them. Later edits only ever appear in a new version.
Version history
The bank detail page lists every published version (v1, v2, …) with its publish date. Each activity can use the latest published version or an explicitly selected version. Existing published lessons keep the version they already use.
Reusing a bank across lessons and assessments
You attach a bank to an Online Lesson block (a knowledge check or an assessment) rather than copying its questions in. On the block, choose the bank and how many of its questions to use:
| Mode | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| All reusable questions | Use every answerable question in the bank |
| Random reusable questions | Draw a set number at random each attempt: great for varied re-sits from a large pool |
| Specific questions | Hand-pick individual questions |
When you publish the lesson, RTObase pins the activity's selected published bank version into that lesson version. From then on, the lesson always serves those exact questions, editing or republishing the bank later never alters an already-published lesson. Only banks that have a published version can be linked when publishing a lesson.
Keep a shared bank or make a separate copy
The question source shows where a bank is used. Choose a published version for the activity when it needs a particular edition. Changing the selection affects the draft until you publish it.
If one activity needs different questions, use Use a copy here. This creates a separate bank for that activity and leaves other activities using the shared bank. Review the copied questions and publish the updated content before learners use it.
Bank statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Created but not yet published: no lesson can use it yet |
| Active | Has at least one published version and can be linked to lessons |
| Archived | Retired from new use. Banks are never permanently deleted, because published lessons may still reference them |
Question types explained
Short Text
Students type a brief text response.
Best for: definitions, simple explanations, specific factual responses.
Marking: can be auto-marked with keyword matching, or manually reviewed for accuracy.
Long Text
Extended written responses.
Best for: demonstrating understanding, applying concepts, reflective responses.
Marking: always requires manual review, provide a rubric in the marking guide.
Single Choice
Students select one correct answer from options.
Best for: knowledge checks, recall questions, auto-marking.
Configuration: 2-6 answer options; mark which option is correct.
Multiple Choice
Students select one or more correct answers from options.
Best for: knowledge checks where multiple answers apply, comprehension questions, auto-marking with partial credit.
Configuration: 2-6 answer options; mark which option(s) are correct.
Checkbox
Single yes/no confirmation checkbox.
Best for: acknowledgement of conditions, declaration of understanding, simple binary confirmation.
Scale
Likert-type scale questions.
Best for: confidence assessments, self-evaluation, satisfaction ratings.
Configuration: set the scale range (e.g., 1-5, 1-10) and labels (e.g., "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree").
True/False
Binary choice questions.
Best for: quick knowledge verification, fact checking, simple comprehension.
Matching
Match items from two columns.
Best for: linking definitions to terms, pairing concepts, vocabulary assessment.
Marking: auto-scored, the system checks all pairs automatically.
Ordering
Arrange items in the correct sequence.
Best for: process ordering, priority ranking, sequential procedures.
Marking: auto-scored, the system checks the sequence automatically.
Fill in the Blanks (Cloze)
Inline fill-in-the-blank questions, students type directly into gaps within a sentence or paragraph.
Best for: completing definitions, procedures, or key terms in context; recall questions where the surrounding text matters.
Configuration:
A fill-in-the-blank question uses two separate boxes, and they do different jobs. This trips people up, so it's worth being precise:
| Box | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Question | The instruction the student reads, e.g. "Complete the following sentences." This is required, like every other question type. It is not where the blanks go. |
| Paragraph with blanks | The actual sentences. Wrap each correct answer in [[double brackets]]: that's what creates the blanks. |
For example, Question: "Complete the following sentences about working at heights." and Paragraph with blanks:
Before each use, a fall-arrest harness must be [[inspected]] by a competent
person. Any harness found to be damaged must be [[tagged out]].
The student sees the instruction, then the paragraph with an input box in place of each [[...]]. Add as many blanks as you need. The editor shows a live preview and a count of the blanks it has detected, so you can confirm it read your brackets correctly.
Warning
Don't paste the paragraph into the Question box, and don't repeat the sentences in both boxes. If the Question box is empty, or the Paragraph box has no [[...]] in it, the question won't save, the editor shows the reason under the offending field.
Tip
Turn on Show a word bank to have students pick each blank from a dropdown instead of typing it. The correct answers are added to the bank automatically; add your own comma-separated distractors to make it harder. Leave it off for free-text entry.
Marking: auto-marked with per-blank partial credit: every blank is scored independently, so a student earns marks for the blanks they get right. Matching ignores capitalisation unless you enable Case-sensitive marking. The correct answers are stripped out before the question is served, so students never see them in the source text.
Info Block
Non-answerable content block used as a section divider or instruction panel.
Best for: section headings, instructions between question groups, context paragraphs.
Where students see them: assessment tasks show info blocks as headings, and a random draw keeps a heading together with the questions it introduces. Online lessons strip them out entirely, so a lesson student never sees one. For a lesson, put section headings and instructions into the lesson content instead.
Note: Info blocks are not scored and do not count toward the total question count. Asking for five random questions gives you five scorable questions, with any headings on top of that.
Legacy File Upload
Existing legacy questions let students upload documents, images, or other files. This type isn't available when adding a new Question Bank item.
Best for: portfolio evidence, practical work samples, project submissions.
Configuration: specify allowed file types and maximum file size.
Table
Structured data entry with defined columns and rows.
Best for: risk assessment matrices, activity logs and timesheets, data collection tasks, observation records.
Configuration:
- Define columns with types: text, number, date, select, time
- Set row labels and min/max row counts
- Allow students to add additional rows
- Add column suffixes (e.g., "kg", "hrs")
Legacy Signature
Existing legacy questions support digital signature capture. This type isn't available when adding a new Question Bank item.
Best for: student declarations, acknowledgement of assessment conditions, witness sign-off.
Marking: requires manual review; validates the student has signed.
Image Choice
Students pick from image-based answer options instead of text, each option is a picture.
Best for: identifying equipment, hazards, signage, or PPE from photos; visual recognition where a picture is clearer than words.
Configuration: upload an image for each option and mark the correct one (or ones).
Hotspot
Students answer by clicking a region on an image: the question is correct if they click inside the defined target area.
Best for: "point to the..." tasks on a diagram, floor plan, or photo; locating a control, hazard, or anatomical feature.
Configuration: upload the background image and define the correct hotspot region(s).
Related
- Online Lessons: build the lessons that use your question banks
- Recording Assessment Results: record competency outcomes against enrolments