Fill-in-the-blank

This article shows you how to build a fill-in-the-blank question.

Overview

Fill-in-the-blank questions require students to enter words or numbers into one or more blank fields embedded within the question text. Unlike multiple-choice or matching formats, this question type calls for exact (or closely matched) student input.

Why Use It

This question type tests not only recall but also precision. It strengthens the neural connections to new knowledge by leveraging active retrieval.

• Harder for AI-cheating systems to answer correctly.

• Encourages precision in terminology and spelling.

• Useful for testing comprehension, key formulas, or critical facts.

• Can easily adapt to various layouts, including sentences, paragraphs, and tables.

Use Cases

• Data Interpretation: Present a table and require students to fill in missing data points.

• Cementing Connections: Help students make connections between different concepts within the learning material.

Create and Configure

EXAMIND is currently developing a new editor which will greatly enhance the capabilities with this question type. Until then, we highly suggest leveraging our support team to assist in the development of high-quality autograded questions that use fill-in-the-blank features.

1

Add Fill-in-the-blank Block

2

Write your Question Stem

3

Select Text and Insert Blank

4

Configure Settings

Remember to click Update to save your settings.

Acceptable Answers (1 per line): Add correct answers here with each correct answer on a new line.

Use {{mustache brackets}} to add variables from the Dynamic Engine as acceptable answers or distractors.

Type:

• Text: Used for text-based answers.

• Number: Used for number-based answers.

• Dropdown: Used for creating a dropdown selection.

Text Options:

• Case Sensitive: Check this to force answers to be case sensitive.

• Error Tolerance (# of characters): Used to mitigate spelling mistakes.

Number Options:

• Min. Decimals Required: Specify the number of decimals in the answer.

• Error Tolerance (%): Used to mitigate rounding errors in calculations.

Dropdown Options:

• Distractors (1 per line): Add distractors into your dropdown question.

5

Review and Test Autograder

The review tab provides a real-time autograder to help you see how points are awarded.

We encourage you to review how points and error tolerance are treated with the autograder.

Instructor Tips

Ensuring Academic Integrity

• Dynamic Questions: Use a combination of independent and dependent variables.

• Limited Time Windows: Give students a set amount of time to complete the question.

• Variety of Answers: For content that is easily guessable, consider using synonyms or less obvious blanks.

Common Issues

• Students may have trouble spelling words. You can leverage error tolerance to catch spelling mistakes.

• If multiple correct answers are possible (e.g., “AR” vs. “Accounts Receivable”), include all acceptable variations.

Best Practices

• Provide context so students know what form of answer you expect (a name, a number, a short phrase).

• For numerical answers, specify units or format (e.g., “Enter your answer as a whole number.”).