Importing questions from Moodle to WISEflow

Summary

Moodle questions must be exported as XML files from your Moodle course question bank.

In WISEflow, questions can be imported on the Author tab, in the content bank.

The following Moodle question types can be imported into WISEflow (AssessmentUCL):

• Simple MCQ

• True/false MCQ

• Multiple answer MCQ

• Short text answer

• Long essay answer

Step 1: prepare questions for export from Moodle

You can export questions one by one or by category. To export multiple questions at once, either use your existing categories or create a new category, and copy or move the questions you want to export to this category.

1. Create a new category in your Question Bank. From your Moodle course, click More > Question Bank.

2. Select Categories from drop-down list.

3. Click add category and give it a useful name e.g. 'WISEflow'

4. Select Questions from drop-down list.

5. Find your questions. They might be a particular category, either for the course, topic or exam. Use the drop-down menu to search category and remember to click Apply filters to see questions from this category.

6. For the questions you want to export, click edit. You can either duplicate the question and apply the new 'WISEflow' category, or change the question category to the new 'WISEflow' category.

Step 2: export questions from Moodle

1. From your Moodle course, click More > Question Bank.

2. Select Export from drop-down list.

3. Select Moodle XML format.

4. Select the appropriate category (e.g. a purpose built WISEflow category or a previously used category).

5. Click Export questions to file.

6. Save your file.

Step 3: Import to WISEflow

1. Open WISEflow.

2. Click Author tab.

3. Click Content bank.

4. Click import content.

5. Select Moodle from the drop down menu.

6. Click select file and find the Moodle XML file you exported.

7. Check for any error messages.

8. Click Import.

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Figure 2: WISEflow Content bank

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Figure 3: WISEflow content bank, import content.

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Figure 4: Select Moodle and then select your file.

Step 4: Check questions

Preview and tag your questions to ensure they have been copied successfully.

Some formatting might be lost in the importing of questions, so please check each question carefully. For example subscripts and superscript text may need to be reformatted.

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Click import to approve them. They can now be added to FLOWmulti exam papers from the content bank.

Appendix

Dealing with import error messages.

You may encounter error messages such as follows

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This is a result of WISEflow requiring XHTML formatting, including closed element tags e.g. <br/> is allowed but <br> is not. UCL has raised this with supplier to improve. For now the work around is as follows:

1. Use the Chrome browser as the error message on the import page should indicate the line of the XML file where the unclosed element is located.

2. Open the XML file in a text editing software of your choice (e.g. Notepad or VS Code)

3. Run a find and replace on the unclosed tag e.g. find '<br>' and replace it with nothing (i.e. to remove the <br> tag) or alternatively with <br/>. 
   
   

4. Save the XML file

5. Import the XML file.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 until error messages are removed. 

Formatting Moodle questions

Questions imported from Moodle will display with the standard MCQ formatting. You can reformat Moodle Questions to appear in the block style as follows:

1. Edit the question

2. Layout: Change from Standard to Block

3. Label type: Upper case letters

Need to speak to someone?

If you can't find the answer to your question in the guidance above, please contact digi-ed@ucl.ac.uk