Generate test questions for a Course

Using Showpad's AI capabilities, you can quickly generate relevant test questions from entire library assets or specific text selections. This allows you to build meaningful assessments in seconds, turning your role from a manual author into a strategic editor who simply reviews, refines, and approves the AI's suggestions. You can generate questions from an entire file from your Files library, such as a document or video, or from specific text you select within an asset. Test questions can be created in any language enabled in your localization settings.

See how it looks

Key features

• Generate a set of test questions from the files within a lesson
• Create a single test question from selected text
• Generate questions from documents, videos, or audio files you upload or select from your Files library.
• Review, edit, or discard AI-generated questions
• Generate test questions in the source file language.

You need this to succeed

The quick way

1. From the Course Builder, open a lesson that contains files you uploaded or selected from your Files library.
2. Generate test questions from the files in a lesson:
   1. Click Generate questions.
   2. Review and edit the questions and answer choices.
   3. Understand what assets can be used to generate test questions.
   4. Ensure successful question generation.
3. Or generate a test question from selected text in a document: 
   1. Open a document file from within a lesson.
   2. Highlight the text you want to create a test question from and click Generate questions from selection.

Do this step by step

Generate test questions from full assets

Generate test questions from the supported files in each lesson. Our AI assistant identifies key concepts to create meaningful single-selection or multiple-selection questions, while you remain in control as the final editor to review and ensure accuracy.

1. In the Course Builder, open a lesson that contains at least one supported file that has either been added from the Files library or uploaded from your computer. If you need to add files, click Select content and choose them from the library, or Upload from computer and select content to upload.
2. Click Generate questions. A pop-up will appear while the questions are being generated. This process may take a few moments.
3. The questions will be added to the test in your Course. If a test block hasn’t been added to the Course, one will be added. Each question includes a notice indicating that it was generated by AI and the file it came from.
4. In the Test block, you can:
   • Edit the text of the question, answer choices, and explanation.
   • Select the correct answer(s) for single or multiple-choice questions.
   • Edit the question type.
   • Delete a question by clicking the three dot menu and selecting the trash icon.
   • Rearrange the questions by dragging and dropping them in the desired order.

Learn more about test options and settings in the Course Builder.

Supported and unsupported file types

When generating questions from entire files, the AI can work with most common document, video, and audio formats, though some file types have limitations.

Supported file types: You can generate questions from the following file types if they are assets in your Library:

• Documents:
  • PDF (PDF)
  • Word (DOCX, DOC)
  • PowerPoint (PPTX, PPT)
  • Excel (XLSX, XLS)
  • Google Docs, Sheets, Slides
• Video and audio files with transcripts:
  • MP4, MOV, AVI, .MP3, .WAV

Note: Video or audio files must contain speech to generate a transcript. Without a transcript, questions cannot be generated.

Unsupported file types: Questions cannot be generated from the following:

• Image files (.jpg, .png, .gif, etc.)
• Archive files (.zip, .rar)
• SCORM packages
• URL assets
• Authored content created directly in a Course

Ensure successful question generation

Even with supported file types, question generation may not always succeed for these common reasons:

1. No usable transcript: For videos or audio, there must be spoken words. If the recording has no voice, only background music, or very poor audio quality, a transcript can't be created.
2. Too little content: The file must contain enough text for the AI to create relevant questions. If the file contains only a few words or short labels, the system cannot generate valid questions.
3. Text is not accessible: Some documents, such as scanned PDF, may appear to contain text, but the text is actually part of an image. The AI cannot extract text from images, such as screenshots or picture-based content within documents.

Generate a test question from selected text

You can generate test questions by selecting text in a document while building a Course.

1. In the Course Builder, open a document file from within a lesson.

2. Highlight the text in the document you want to create a test question from.

   Tip: For the best results, choose text that is specific and precise, such as text that includes statistics.

3. Click Generate questions from selection.

   One single-selection question will be generated with one correct answer and one or more incorrect answers. Review the generated question. You can discard the question or click Add question to Course. Close the lesson content when done.

   The question will be added to the test in your Course, where you can make further edits if needed. If a test hasn’t been added to the Course, one will be added.