---
title: "Managing the Moodle question bank"
description: "The Moodle Question bank is a feature in Moodle 2.3 that allows the administrator to add new questions, edit existing questions, and import / export questions. The previous article explained How to..."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/moodle/question-bank/
date: 2012-10-25
modified: 2021-08-16
author: "InMotion Hosting Contributor"
categories: ["Moodle"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Managing the Moodle question bank

The **Moodle Question bank** is a feature in Moodle 2.3 that allows the administrator to add new questions, edit existing questions, and import / export questions. The previous article explained [How to edit the Front page settings in Moodle](/support/edu/moodle/edit-front-page-settings/). This tutorial will briefly explain the Question Bank and what it is used for.

### Moodle question bank overview

1. [Log into the Moodle Dashboard](/support/edu/moodle/moodle-login-administrator/)
2. [![question-bank-1-select](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-1-select.gif)](/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-1-select.gif) In the **Settings** section on the left, navigate to the **Front page settings** > **Question bank** > **Questions**. **Important!** Keep in mind that [Editing must be turned on](/support/edu/moodle/creating-courses-in-moodle/) in the Settings section in order to edit any of these options.
3. [![question-bank-2a-create-new-moodle](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-2a-create-new.gif)](/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-2a-create-new.gif) In the **Question Bank** section of the Front page settings, click **Questions**. Click the **Create a new question** button and the **Choose a question type to ad**d dialogue box will appear. The purpose of adding questions to the Question bank is to allow the teacher or administrator to build Quiz questions and store them in a database. This is a handy feature within Moodle because when building Quizzes, the question bank can be used to add pre made questions to the quiz. For information on the question bank and Quizzes, see also [How to add the Quiz Module in Moodle](/support/edu/moodle/quiz-module/).
4. [![question-bank-3-edit-moodle](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-3-edit.gif)](/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-3-edit.gif) In the **Question Bank** section of the Front page settings, click **Categories**. A list of the current Categories will display with the option to **add a Category**. The categories for the Question bank is designed to arrange the questions into specific groups so they can be easily accessed in the future. For example, if there are Chapter 1 questions form a book, those questions can be categorized as a *Chapter 1* category. When adding the questions to a quiz, the instructor can make randomized test questions.
5. [![question-bank-4-import.gif](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-4-import.gif)](/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-4-import.gif) In the **Question Bank** section of the Front page settings, click **Import**. The import questions section of the question bank is for importing existing questions from a previous format. The acceptable file formats for importing are **Aiken**, **Blackboard**, **Blackboard V6+**, **Cloze**, **Examview**, **Gift**, **Learnwise**, **Missing Word**, **Moodle XML**, and **WebCT** formats. This makes it easier for teachers, coming from another software, to import questions into Moodle, without having to manually create all the questions again.
6. [![question-bank-5-export-moodle](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-5-export.gif)](/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/edu_moodle_101_question-bank_question-bank-5-export.gif) In the **Question Bank** section of the Front page settings, click **Export**. In this section, the existing Moodle questions can be Exported into the **Gift**, **Moodle XML**, or **XHTML** file format. Clicking **Export questions to file** will prompt to save the file to the local computer.

This concludes the article for Managing the Moodle question bank. Please check the next article on [Creating a backup of Moodle](/support/edu/moodle/backup-moodle/). For more information on this Education Channel please visit [Getting Started with Moodle](/support/edu/software/understanding-software-verisons/)