Question Formatter

A program written in Go to format minimally altered input text directly from Word to a Brightspace import-ready CSV File.

It currently supports:

• Multiple Choice (MC)
• Short Answer (SA)
• True or False (TF)
• Written Response (WR)

It trades extra formatting in Word for a few features available in other programs such as Respondus and Brightspace’s own quiz converter: https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/4161-quiz-question-converter

Table of Contents

• Preformatting Requirements
• How to Use
• Example of Accepted Inputs
  • v1.54+ Sample Data
  • Prefixes for Answers
  • Prefixes for Options
  • Table Formatting
  • Feedback
  • Images
• Example Output

Preformatting Requirements

Add “+++” or “—” between each question, or have each question numbered sequentially (v1.54+) ‘1. , 2. , 3.’ etc

How to Use

Local browser version [WebAssembly] (v1.62+)

1. Open the web page - https://questionformatter.netlify.app/question-formatter/
2. Copy in Questions
3. Press Format & Save
4. The page will automatically prompt you to save the generated .csv, the output text will also be displayed in a text box below.

Note You can disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded and this will still work as no data is sent to an external server.

Local version [Windows] (v1.55-1.58):

1. Download the .exe
2. Install and run
3. Follow the text prompts
4. The program will automatically close on success and generate the .csv in the file location of the program

Please Note - On Windows 10 and older versions of command line, multi-line paste does not appear to work directly from the Github copy button. It does work with a drag and select copy paste.

Example of Accepted Inputs

Use the following sample inputs as a test in the text-only version (v1.51) here (https://go.dev/play/p/FTMU7afwqd-) or with the latest version of the program.

Sample Data

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Multiple choice question text example that can end in any character?

a. Option a text
b. Option b text
*c. Option c text
d. Option d text
@Feedback goes here
+++

Multiple choice question text example showing that there can be 3+ different options
a) Option a
b) Option b
c) Option c
d) Option d
e) Option e
f) Option f

Answer c
+++
What colour is the sky?
Azure or blue; orange
+++
Write the value of the 5 in the number 8526.	500
+++
Write the value of the 7 in the number 97 450.	7000 or 7 000 or 7,000
+++
Write this as a number. 7 tens of thousands, 4 hundreds and 2 ones	70402 or 70 402 or 70,402
+++
9 + 6 =
15
+++
24 + 5 =	29
@Feedback goes here
---
628 - 284 =  34    @Feedback goes here
---
The Earth is the only planet in our solar system with liquid water on its surface. 	False
---
What is the colour of grass?
answer green or brown
---
Short answer no question mark
a short answer
---
Which planet is known as the Red Planet?

1) Venus
2) Mars
3) Jupiter
4) Saturn

2

1. Mars is known as the Red Planet
TRUE

2. Venus is known as the Red Planet
F
@Here is some feedback about this question

3. Jupiter is known as the Red Planet
False

4. Who wrote the novel "Pride and Prejudice"?

A) Charles Dickens
@@Feedback for option A (from v1.5.7)
B) Jane Austen
C) Mark Twain
@@Feedback for option C (from v1.5.7)
D) George Orwell

Correct answer B.
@Overall question feedback is formatted like this
---
What is the square root of 81?

a - 8
b - 9
c - 10
d - 11
e - 999

b
---
True or false, this has been a difficult but rewarding process

true
---
True or false, v1.5.6 now includes images in the questionText?
[[example.jpg]]
true
+++
END

Prefixes for Answers

The following will be removed from an answer if written in the Word document:

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"answer "
"answer: "
"answer- "
"answers "
"answers: "
"answers- "
"correct answer "
"correct answer: "
"correct answer- "
"correct answers: "
"correct answers- "
"*"

(not case sensitive, e.g. Answer and ANSWER etc are also included)

Prefixes for Options

By default removeListPrefixes = true

This removes numbered list prefixes such as a,b,c,d or 1), 2), 3), 4), or A-, B-, C-, D- or w., x., y., z. etc when printing the options to allow for Brightspaces own ordering to be used.

The following characters can be identified as part of the list option prefixes:

1
2
3
4
5

" "
")"
"."
"-"
" -"

Feedback

Type the “@” symbol at the start of your sentence at the end of a question (v1.55+)

Question example text
@Here's some feedback

Feedback for individual options

Who wrote the novel "Pride and Prejudice"?

A) Charles Dickens
@@Feedback for option A (from v1.5.7)
B) Jane Austen
C) Mark Twain
@@Feedback for option C (from v1.5.7)
D) George Orwell

Correct answer B.
@Overall question feedback is still formatted like this

Blank Lines and Tabbed Variations

The program will ignore empty lines breaks and remove double spacing.

Tabs are considered as a potential new line and therefore considered as an option or answer for the question.

Short Answer Question Type Answers

These can be separated by the word “or” or a semicolon “;”

e.g.

What colour is the sky?
Azure or blue; light blue or sky blue

They can also be registered after a tab, this is useful when copying directly from a table of questions e.g.

What colour is the sky?  Azure or blue; light blue or sky blue

See Table Formatting for more.

Images

As of v1.56+ images can be included in the question text section by surrounding the filename with two square brackets:

Question text
[[example.jpg]]
Question answer

This will look for a folder inside Brightspace for a folder inside the course called “images”

e.g.

content/enforced/[YOURCOURSEID]/images

If you would like them to reference images inside an additional folder, add that to the input text.

Question text
[[module-1/example.jpg]]
Question answer

This will look for the file in that folder:

content/enforced/[YOURCOURSEID]/images/module-1/example.jpg

If your folder has a space in it e.g. “Module 1” currently the space will need to be replaced by the html code for space: “%20”, so your image would be referenced like this: [[Module%201/example.jpg]] (I’ll fix this in an update).

Example Output

Accepted Input Types Table

The below table shows an example of accepted input types for questions and answers, it’s a bit of a mess, the previous examples might be clearer:

Developed by Alex Barnes-Keoghan