8.31. Randomized Content Blocks

If your course has content libraries enabled and you have access to a library whose content you want to use, you can reference that library to create randomized assignments for students.

To create a randomized assignment, you add one or more randomized content blocks to a course unit. For each randomized content block, specify one or more libraries from which to draw the content, and indicate the number and optionally the type of problem to randomly give each student. If you specify more than one library from which to randomly draw components for the randomized assignment, the content from all specified libraries is combined before the random selection is made.

The libraries that you create or have access to are listed on the Libraries tab on the Studio Home page. For details about content libraries, see Working with Content Libraries.

For details about using content library components in a course, see these topics:

8.31.1. Use Components from Libraries in a Course

To create randomized assignments that make use of components from content libraries, you must have at least User level access to the libraries that you want to use. If you do not have access to a library, members of your course team who have Admin access to that library can grant you access.

The libraries that you create or have access to are listed on the Libraries tab on the Studio Home page. For details about content libraries, see Working with Content Libraries.

Using components from content libraries in your course involves two steps.

  1. Enable Content Libraries
  2. Add a Randomized Content Block to Your Course

Note

After adding a randomized content block to your course, be aware that if components in the source library or libraries change, you must manually update the components in the course outline if you want to keep the components synchronized with the version in the library.

For details about working with randomized content blocks in your course, see these topics.

8.31.1.1. Enable Content Libraries

You must enable content libraries before you can use randomized components from content libraries in your courses.

  1. In Studio, open the course in which you want to provide library content.

  2. Select Settings, then Advanced Settings.

  3. In the Advanced Module List field, place your cursor between the supplied pair of square brackets.

  4. Type "library_content".

  5. Click Save Changes.

    Studio reformats the policy key you just entered to indent it on a new line.

Advanced Module policy key "library_content"

8.31.1.2. Add a Randomized Content Block to Your Course

After you enable content libraries you can add library content to your courses using the Randomized Content Block advanced component.

Note

Before starting these steps, obtain the Library ID for each library that you intend to reference in the randomized content block. The Library ID is found in the sidebar of each library’s page. For details, see Create a New Library.

  1. In Studio, open the course in which you want to add randomized problems from one or more content libraries.
  2. Click Content then click Outline.
  3. In the unit where you want to add a set of randomized problems, click Add New Component
  4. Click Advanced, then click Randomized Content Block. The randomized content block is added to your unit.
  5. Click the Edit icon.
  6. In the randomized content block settings, specify the details of the content you want to add in this block.
  • For Count, enter the number of problems to display to each student.

  • For Display Name, enter the name that you want students to see for this block.

  • For Libraries, enter the unique Library ID found in the sidebar of the Library page in Studio. To select problems from more than one content library, click Add to enter each additional Library ID.

  • For Problem Type, from the drop down list select a specific type of problem to be drawn from the library or libraries. Select Any Type if you do not want to select a particular type of problem.

    The Edit icon to the right of the Library Name
  • For Scored, from the drop down list select True or False to indicate whether the assignment should be graded.

Note

Grading is subject to the setting of this unit’s subsection or section. If the subsection or section is not graded, selecting True here has no impact. Selecting False means that this assignment is not graded even if the subsection or section is graded.

  1. Click Save when you have finished specifying the details of your randomized content block.

To view the list of components in the source library that match your filter settings, see View the Matching Components in a Randomized Content Block.

To view the entire contents of the library in Studio, see View the Contents of a Library.

8.31.2. View the Matching Components in a Randomized Content Block

In a unit that uses a randomized content block, you can view the list of all components that match the filters specified in that block.

For example, if you have specified in the randomized content block that you want to provide each student with 3 multiple choice problems, you see all the multiple choice problems that exist in the referenced library or libraries. In other words, you see every problem in the library that could potentially be provided to a student.

  1. In Studio, navigate to the unit containing the randomized content block that references your library.

  2. In the randomized content block, click the View icon.

    The View button for a randomized content block

    You see all components that match the specifications in the randomized content block. The text at the top of the list of components indicates how many of these components are randomly selected and provided to each student.

To view the contents of a library in Studio, see View the Contents of a Library.

To view the randomized content as a student would see it, see View the Randomized Content as a Student.

8.31.3. View the Randomized Content as a Student

To view the number and type of components from a randomized content block as a student would see them, follow the steps described in the Preview a Unit topic.

To view the list of matching components in the library, see View the Matching Components in a Randomized Content Block.

To view the entire contents of the library in Studio, see View the Contents of a Library.

8.31.4. Editing Components in Randomized Content Blocks

In Studio, in the course unit that uses a randomized content block, you can edit each component within the randomized content block in the same way as you do for any other component in your course.

Note

Be aware that if you make changes on a component’s Editor tab, if you update the randomized content block with the latest version of components from a library, these changes are overwritten. Only changes to a component’s Settings tab are retained when you update the component. For details about getting the latest versions of library content in a randomized content block, see Getting the Latest Version of Library Content.

The settings of a component that is supplied in a randomized content block are initially inherited from the component in the content library that it is drawn from. In the randomized content block, you can modify component settings so that they are different from the “source” component in the library.

You can also reset a component’s settings to the library default. If a component’s settings have been changed from the default settings in the library, a Clear icon is shown next to the setting field.

Clear button in the course component field reverts value to library value.

Click the Clear icon to restore the library default setting for that field.

8.31.5. Getting the Latest Version of Library Content

If you modify the contents of a library that is referenced by randomized content blocks in one or more courses, those courses do not automatically use the updated content. You can bring the randomized content blocks up to date with the version in the library.

Warning

Be careful when you modify problems after they have been released! Changes that you make to published problems can affect the student experience in the course, as well as analysis of course data.

Note

Be aware that although you can retain changes to the settings of components in a randomized content block, changes to the Editor tab in components are overwritten if you update the component to the latest library version. If you do not want to bring components in the randomized content block up to date with the latest version in the library, you do not need to take any action.

  • If the components in the randomized content block have not been edited in the course outline, when you next open the randomized content block in the course outline, you see a message indicating that the component is out of date in comparison with the library.

    Error message shown when the source library has changed, with the Update Now link circled.

    To update your randomized content block components to the latest versions in the content library, click Update now.

    The randomized content block is brought up to date with the latest contents of the library or libraries that it references.

  • If you edited only the settings of components in the randomized content block in your course so that they are different from the original version in the library, you do not lose your changes if you click Update now. In this case, the changes that were made in the randomized content block in the course outline are kept, but a Clear button becomes available next to the changed field in the component. However, any changes you made to the Editor tab of components in a randomized content block will be lost if you click Update now to get the latest library version.

    Clear icon in the course component field reverts value to library value.

    To clear any edits made in the course outline and bring your edited components up to date with the version in the library, click Clear.

    The value in that component field is reset to the current value in the library.