DCAD Digital Help Guides

Numbas Exam packages can be added to Blackboard Courses allowing seamless integration for staff and students and the ability to sync attempt scores to back to the Gradebook. This guide explains the process.

The Numbas Math Centre

To create a Numbas ‘Exam’ (their terminology for a test/quiz) you need to head over to the Numbas Math Centre. The Math Centre allows you to build Numbas Questions and Exams, then organise them into folders called Projects. Better still, the Math Centre contains thousands of existing Numbas questions built by other users and shared through a Creative Commons license. You can make Numbas Exams using your own questions, other people’s questions, or a combination of both. If you do make use of other people’s questions, you may want to consider allowing others to use yours, as a way of giving back to the community.

To learn how to use build your first question or exam, visit the Numbas documentation website.

Adding a Numbas Exam to your Blackboard Course

1. First, download your Numbas Exam as a SCORM package from within the Numbas Math Centre.
2. In you Blackboard Course, locate where you want to add the Numbas Exam and click the plus icon ⊕ followed by Content Market.
3. Within the Content Market choose Numbas.
4. Choose Create new resource.
5. Click Choose file, select your downloaded Numbas Exam, then choose Submit.
6. Now close the browser tab, then refresh the page on your Blackboard Course. You should now see the Numbas Exam in your Blackboard Course.
7. If you do not wish for students to see the Numbas Exam yet, you can change the release conditions to Hidden to Students. Just remember to switch it back to visible when you’re ready to release the Exam.

Connect your Numbas Exam to the Gradebook

1. Open the Numbas Exam you added to your Blackboard Course.
2. You should see a dialogue box stating “This resource does not have a line item in the learning platform’s grade service.” This means there is no associated column in the Blackboard Gradebook.
3. Choose Create a line item to connect the Numbas Exam to the Gradebook. You should see a confirmation message

Check your Exam Settings

1. Staying in the Exam package you opened from within your Course, click on Settings.
2. From within this page, you can configure:
   • Feedback visibility
   • Numbas of attempts
   • Grading method
   • Whether you want to use a lockdown browser.

Test your Exam

Numbas has a nice feature allowing you to test run your Exam without having to go Student Preview.

1. Click on the Numbas Exam from within your Blackboard Course.
2. Choose Test Run.
3. Click Start and attempt each question, ensuring everything is working as expected.
4. If you’re happy that it’s working fine, you can now release the Exam to students. Check the item is set to Visible to Students from within your Blackboard Course.
   • If you need to make any changes, you will need to amend the Exam in the Math Centre and upload a new version.

For more information on using Numbas, please visit the Numbas Documentation website.