How do I create a matching question?

A matching question includes a numbered list of choices and a corresponding drop-down list of matches.

The steps in this article assume that you have already gone to the Tests & Quizzes tool and selected an assessment, but if you need more help completing these steps, open the links below.

Go to Tests & Quizzes.

Select the Tests & Quizzes tool from the Tool Menu of your site.

Select an assessment.

Questions may be added to a new or existing assessment, or added directly to a question pool as described in How do I add a question to a question pool?

Create a new assessment.

Create from Scratch with assessment builder selected

For steps to create a new assessment, see How do I create an assessment?

Or edit an existing assessment.

Select Edit from the Action drop-down menu for the assessment.

Note:

  • Assessment editing must take place in the Working Copies tab or in the Published Copies tab before anyone accesses the assessment to take it.
  • Changes made to assessments in Working Copies do not affect assessments in Published Copies, and vice versa.

Select Matching from the Add Question menu.

Use the Add Question drop-down menu to select a question type, and choose Matching.

Set the point value for the question.

Enter an Answer Point Value into the text box.

Tip: An assessment's total point value is the sum of all its questions' point values (e.g., an assessment with 10 questions worth 10 points each will be worth 100 total points).

Display point value while students are taking the exam.

To Display Point Value while student is taking the exam, leave the default value of Yes.  To hide the point value, select No.

Note: To hide the point values for ALL questions in your assessment, it is recommended to select this option in the assessment Settings rather than for individual questions.

Add a minimum point value. (Optional)

Enter a Minimum Point Value to automatically award students the minimum value for answering the question, regardless of their answer.  Students who leave the answer blank will not receive the minimum point value.

Note: Students who would normally score fewer points than the minimum will receive the minimum value.  Students who would score higher than the minimum, whether or not they receive full credit, will receive the points they earned.  Below is an example of scoring for a matching question with a Minimum Point Value added:

Match synonyms. (The question is worth 10 points, with a minimum value of 5 points.)

  1. Choice: They are, Match: They're
  2. Choice: It is, Match: It's
  3. Choice: Belonging to it, Match: Its
  • If the student answers any part of the question (they select a match for one or more of the three choices) and all answers they selected are incorrect, they get the minimum value, 5 points (normally, they would get 0 points).
  • If the student makes one correct match and two incorrect matches, they get the minimum value, 5 points (normally, selecting one correct answer would award 10/3 = 3.33 points).
  • If the student makes two correct matches and one incorrect match, they get 6.67 points [(10/3) * 2 = 6.67 points].
  • If the student correctly matches all parts of the question, they get full credit, 10 points.

Enter the question text.

Enter the text of your question into the Question Text box.

Add attachment(s). (Optional)

To provide additional resources related to the question or to include question text in an attached document, select Add Attachments to browse for and upload a file.

Add a Choice and Match and save the pairing.

  1. Enter a Choice in the Rich-Text Editor.
  2. By default *new* is selected as the Match. Enter a correct answer option for the Match.
  3. Select Save Pairing.

Note: The text entered in the Choice field will be assigned a number (1, 2, 3, etc.). The text in the Match field will be randomly assigned a letter (A, B, C, etc.) that students must select from a drop-down list to match it to the corresponding choice(s). Except for the option *None of the Above*, Match answers are randomized for each student taking the assessment.

It is strongly recommended that you do not enter a single number (e.g., 1) or letter (e.g., A) in either the Choice or Match field, as doing so will confuse students.  For example, if you need students to identify regions of an image, you might use Match options like Region 1, Region 2, Region 3.  That way, if the answers are randomly sorted as follows, a student who gets that order will not be confused:

A. Region 2
B. Region 3
C. Region 1

View new Choice and Match pairing.

Once a pairing has been saved, the Choice and Match will display under Add/Edit Pairing and Optional Feedback.

Add additional Choices and Matches as desired.

  1. Enter a new matching item in the Choice field.
  2. From the Match drop-down menu, select:
    • *new* to enter a new option for the match,
    • The number of an Existing match to pair the new Choice with a previously saved Match,
    • Or *None of the Above* to add this as an option underneath the other choices.
  3. Select Save Pairing.

Note:

  • Matches that were originally entered as *new* are displayed in a random order to students when they take the assessment.
  • If an Existing match or *None of the Above* is selected from the Match drop-down menu while creating or editing a pairing, you cannot type in a Match.

Edit a pairing.

Select the Edit link to the right of a Match in the list to edit the pairing.

Edit the Choice and Match, and save changes to the pairing.

While you are editing a pairing, the text Currently Editing will display to the right of the Match in the Add/Edit Pairing and Optional Feedback list.

  1. Make changes to the Choice and/or Match as desired.
  2. Select Save Pairing.

Remove a pairing.

To delete a pairing, select the Remove link to the right of the pairing in the Add/Edit Pairing and Optional Feedback list.

Assign to a part. (Optional)

If the assessment has more than one part, you may use the Assign to Part drop-down menu to choose the Part where the question will be added.

Assign to a question pool. (Optional)

To add the question to a question pool, Select a pool name from the Assign to Question Pool drop-down menu.

Adding a question to a pool places a copy of the question in the pool and leaves a copy of the question in the current assessment.  For more information on question pools, see What is a question pool?

Provide answer feedback. (Optional)

You may add Correct or Incorrect Answer Feedback which you can make available to students.

Note: If you include feedback here, you will also need to make it available to students in the Feedback Settings for students to access it.

Select Save.