New!  Export a Google Quiz

Problem-Attic now integrates more tightly with Google Apps for Education. Using either the API (which we call one-click) or a G Suite Add-on, you can directly export questions to Google Quiz Forms. They’re easy to deliver to your students, instantly scorable, and beautifully formatted!

The export option works with any documents you create in Problem-Attic, including documents you’ve already made. You don’t have to do anything differently when selecting questions. All that’s necessary is to click Export, then click the Google Quiz button.

Please note: export requires a school subscription. If your school doesn’t have a subscription, you can try the option in what’s called the Play Area.

Export using the Google API (one-click)

This is the recommended option for creating a Google Quiz. The API is not only faster, it’s generally much simpler, because it requires only that you give Problem-Attic permission to access your Google Classroom Account; there’s no need to install an add-on or copy a code.

With the API, all work is done in the background. Your quiz will be ready to use in Google within a few seconds, and Problem-Attic will give you a link for opening it. For that reason, we refer to the option as “one-click export”.

Here are the steps:

1. In Problem-Attic, open a document or create a new one. For a Google Quiz, there’s a limit of 30 questions.
2. Click the Export tab, then click the Google Quiz button.
3. The first time through, you will need to review some rules about export. Also, if you’ve not done so already, you’ll need to authorize Problem-Attic to access your Google Classroom account.
4. You’ll see a dialog with a few options (explained below). Usually you can accept the defaults and click the Create Quiz button.
5. Problem-Attic will confirm when the quiz is created. Usually this takes just a few seconds. You’ll see a link for switching to Google Forms and opening the quiz. That’s it! The quiz is ready to deliver to your students.

While the API or one-click option is faster, there are two reasons you may want to use the add-on instead. It’s described in the next section. First, because of a Google bug, Problem-Attic cannot send alt-text through the API, so read-aloud won’t work right now. (We’ll make it work as soon as Google fixes the bug.) Second, the add-on does not require you to give Problem-Attic any special permissions, because questions are “pulled”, not “pushed”, into Google Forms. Problem-Attic will never attempt to get information about your students, but this is a security decision we leave up to you.

Note: the first time through, you will be asked which type of export you want to do, and Problem-Attic will treat that as the default. You change it later through the options dialog. Also, you can revoke permissions at any time, either through Google or through your account settings in Problem-Attic (Authorizations tab).

Export using a G Suite Add-on

What follows is a brief overview of how to create a Google Quiz using the older method, which requires an add-on. Further down you’ll find step-by-step instructions, screenshots, and some technical notes. If you prefer a visual overview, see this 5-minute video.

1. Install the add-on for Google Forms called “Problem-Attic Import”. Get it here. More details are below.
2. In Problem-Attic, open a document or create a new one. For a Google Quiz, there’s a limit of 30 questions.
3. Click the Export tab, then click the Google Quiz button.
4. The first time through, you will need to review some rules about export. Then you’ll be shown a quiz code. Copy the code to your clipboard.
5. Go to Google Forms and start a blank quiz.
6. Click the Add-ons icon and choose “Problem-Attic Import”, then choose “Add Questions to Blank Quiz”.
7. Paste in the code when prompted. Wait for questions to be imported. (The Google script takes about one or two seconds per question.)
8. Your quiz is ready to deliver! To learn about Google Quiz options, including automatic scoring, click here.

Installing the add-on for Google Forms

The original method of creating a Google Quiz requires you to install an add-on called “Problem-Attic Import”. It’s available in the G Suite Marketplace. You can search for it or go directly to the install page.

Assuming you have a Google account, installation is very simple. (If you use Google Docs or gmail, then you do have an account.) Generally, you will click the Install button at the top of the page and follow the instructions. However, if your school or district manages your account, then you may need the person in charge to install the add-on for your whole domain.

Installation has to be done only one time. Because the add-on is web-based---it’s attached to your Google account---you can install it either at home or at school. Once you have it, you can export/import a quiz just by logging in to Problem-Attic and your Google account.

To check on installation, go to Google Forms, start a blank quiz, and look for the Add-on icon at the top of the page. (The icon looks like a puzzle piece.) If you click it and see “Problem-Attic Import”, then you’re all set.

Exporting from Problem-Attic

To create a Google Quiz, open a document that you’ve already made or start a new document. You can select questions in the normal way and preview them on the Arrange tab or by clicking Make PDF.

Here are a few notes about selecting, formatting and scoring the questions:

• For export to a Google Quiz, your document can have at most 30 questions.

• The font that you choose in Problem-Attic will be used for your Google Quiz. Other options on the Format and Export tabs, like multiple-choice labels, won’t be used. Problem-Attic will set those options to give you the best-looking quiz.

• For automatic scoring within Google, you may want to include only multiple-choice and multi-select questions. Free-response questions will require manual scoring. Of course, if you just want to use the Google Quiz for presenting questions, and scoring is less important, you can include all types of questions.

When you are ready to turn your Problem-Attic document into a Google Quiz, click the Export tab, then click the Google Quiz button.

The first-time you export to a Google Quiz, you will be asked to read a quick summary of the Terms of Service. Please make sure you understand what you’re allowed to do with the exported questions, then click Next.

A dialog will appear which asks about formatting and which shows a quiz code. Normally, you can accept the default option, “Include question and answer images”. The other option, to use the quiz as a bubble sheet, is discussed further down.

Copy the quiz code to your clipboard. Your export in Problem-Attic is complete! Now you can click the Close button in the dialog and do the import.

Importing your Google Quiz

Assuming you have installed the G Suite Add-on and copied a quiz code from Problem-Attic (see above), import is just a few more steps.

Switch to Google Forms and log in if necessary. Then click the “Blank Quiz” template to start a new quiz.

Note: you must always start with a blank quiz. The import procedure will not append questions to an existing quiz.

Click the Add-ons icon at the top of the page. (The icon looks like a puzzle piece.) Choose “Problem-Attic Import” from the menu, then choose “Add Questions to Blank Quiz”. When prompted, paste the quiz code which you copied in Problem-Attic and click Ok.

Questions are imported through a Google script. Because Google does a lot of image manipulation, this takes about two seconds per question. Wait for import to finish before clicking any buttons or trying to set quiz options. Otherwise, the script will get interrupted and you will have to start over with a new blank quiz.

After questions are imported, your quiz is ready to use. You can click the preview icon at the top of the page to see how the questions will appear to students.

Technical notes

Google scripting has some limitations which affect the import of questions from Problem-Attic. In particular, scripting does not support the import of images as answer choices. As a result, Problem-Attic must combine each question and its answer choices into a single image and put it above the normal question field. This means:

1. You won’t be able to scramble questions after doing the import from Problem-Attic. Scrambling will invalidate the scoring information. If you want to move questions around, you can do that on the Arrange tab in Problem-Attic, then re-export.

2. The answer choices that students click are separate from the question/answer image. At first students might be tempted to click on the image itself, but they will quickly learn to use the “live” radio buttons and checkboxes just below it.

Problem-Attic is able to export separate question and answer images. Indeed, the program does this for its own online tests, slideshows, quizzes for an LMS, etc. When Google scripting supports the import of answer images, you can be assured that Problem-Attic’s export will quickly take advantage of it.

Scoring only – no problem images

When you export a Google Quiz from Problem-Attic, there is one formatting option: include question and answer images, or use the quiz for scoring only.

Most likely you will want to include question and answer images. This makes your Google Quiz “self contained”. Students will see the questions on their computers or hand-held devices, and they will select (or type) answers online.

The reason you might not want to include the question and answer images is to make the Google Quiz work more like an “online bubble sheet”. This is worth considering if you’d rather present the questions as a slideshow or deliver them to students in printed form (or as a PDF). You can think of this as a “hybrid approach” which gives you more options for assessment.

The two graphics below illustrate the hybrid approach. The first shows a Google Quiz (scoring only) used in conjunction with a Problem-Attic slideshow. This could help you get real-time feedback from students, perhaps as part of a lesson or activity. The second graphic shows how you can give students a printed test for scratch work and still collect results electronically.

Limitations on use

Problem-Attic’s Terms of Service govern use of the export option. Briefly:

• Under the Terms of Service, you are allowed to create documents for your students only. If you wish to share with other teachers, use a public link, as described here.

• You may not use the export option to create a separate database of questions. Please select questions in Problem-Attic and use export only to deliver and score a quiz.

• If you export a quiz to Google, it is automatically saved in your Google drive. You can re-use the quiz, but if your drive is shared, you will need to set permissions so that no one else can use what you exported from Problem-Attic.

• When doing the export, you will be copying and pasting a quiz code. You are not allowed to give that code to anyone else.

Please adhere to the Terms so that the program works well for everyone and copyrights are respected.

Thank you for using Problem-Attic! We appreciate your feedback about the new export option to Google. You can write to us at support@problem-attic.com.