Transfer of questions from Moodle to EXAM

It is possible to transfer questions from Moodle's question bank to EXAM. The questions are first saved from Moodle's question bank to your computer as XML files, after which the questions can be imported into EXAM.

  • Transfer is possible with the following question types:
    • Moodle's Essay question type to EXAM's Essay question
    • From Moodle's question type Multiple choice, with "One answer only" selected in the "One or multiple answers?" settings, to EXAM's Multiple choice question (one correct answer)
    • From Moodle's question type Multiple Choice, with "Multiple answers allowed" selected in the "One or multiple answers?" settings, to EXAM's Multiple choice question (several correct answers)
  • In the transfer, only part of the question settings and properties are transferred due to the differences between EXAM and Moodle.
    • In the table at the bottom of the page, you can find notes on which information and settings are transferred from the questions and which are not.

How to transfer questions from Moodle to EXAM

Steps in Moodle

In Moodle, you can choose to transfer either a single question or all questions of a certain category from the question bank. From Moodle, the question/questions are first saved in XML format on your computer. After this, the transfer can be done in EXAM.

Transferring a single question

  1. Log in to the course you are teaching in Moodle.
  2. Go to the Question bank in the course's navigation or in one of the quiz activities.
  3. Make sure you are on the Questions tab/page.
  4. For the question you wish to transfer, open the Edit menu and select "Export as Moodle XML". The browser will save an XML file of the question on your computer. The question file can now be transferred to EXAM. See instructions below: "Steps in EXAM".

Transferring questions of the selected category

  1. Log in to the course you are teaching in Moodle.
  2. Go to the Question bank in the course's navigation or in one of the quiz activities.
  3. Select the Export tab/page in the question bank.
  4. Select the Export format "Moodle XML".
  5. Select the category whose questions you want to export to EXAM.
    • On the Export tab, you cannot choose which questions of the selected category will be transferred to EXAM, but all questions of the selected category will be transferred. If you want to select the questions to be transferred, first go to the Categories tab/page to create a new category and then to the Questions tab/page to move the questions you want to the category. Then return to the Export tab/page and select the category whose questions you want to export.
  6. Uncheck the option "Write the category to the file" / leave the option unchecked.
  7. Click the "Export the questions to a file" button, and the browser will save the questions of the selected category in an XML file on your computer. The question file can now be transferred to EXAM, see instructions below: "What to do in EXAM".

Note! Due to the differences in Moodle's theme layouts, there are differences in finding tabs and, for example, the Import / Export functionality. You can get help with navigating Moodle, such as finding the question bank and working there, for example from the Moodle instructions of your own organization.

Image from Moodle's Export questions to file page

Steps in EXAM

When a question has been saved from Moodle in XML format:

  1. Log in to EXAM and open the Question Bank.
  2. Click the Import questions from Moodle button in the upper right corner.
  3. Click "Select" and retrieve the file containing the question or questions in Moodle's XML format from your computer to import into EXAM.
  4. When you click the Save button, the question(s) in the file you selected will be transferred to your question bank. The message "Questions imported successfully" will appear in the upper right corner at the end of a successful import.


Image of the top of the question library with the Import questions from Moodle button

Notes and known issues

  • Moodle or EXAM do not know if you have already transferred a question from Moodle to EXAM, i.e. you can import the same questions from the file you have already imported a second time and EXAM does not give any warning or block the import. The questions from the newly imported file will appear in the question bank as new questions, which means that the same question can appear in EXAM in several versions.
  • If you have selected "Write category to file" when saving questions from a category in Moodle, then the questions cannot be exported to EXAM, even if EXAM reports that the questions were successfully imported from the file. If the questions do not appear in EXAM's question bank, it is worth checking in Moodle that before saving the questions to the file, uncheck "Write the category to the file". (Problem in EXAM versions 6.2.x and 6.3.x).
  • If an identifier (keyword in EXAM) has been added to the question in Moodle, which is longer than 32 characters, the question will not be transferred to EXAM, even if EXAM reports that the import of the questions from the file was successful. . If the question does not appear in EXAM's question bank, it is worth checking in Moodle that no tag/keyword has been added to the question with more than 32 characters. If there are more characters, the identifier must be shortened and then try again in Moodle to export the question to a file and transfer it to EXAM. (Problem in EXAM versions 6.2.x and 6.3.x)

Table: Question types supported in the transfer and which data/settings are transferred from them

Moodle question typeEXAM question typeWhat question information/settings will be transferred from Moodle to EXAM and what changes or other things to consider will occur during the transferWhich question data/settings are not transferred from Moodle to EXAM
EssayEssay question
  • Question text
    • Attachment in the question text
      • In Moodle, you can add media files, such as pictures or videos, to the question text. In EXAM, only one file can be attached to a question.
      • If there are attachments/media files in the question text of a Moodle question, they will be included in EXAM as an attachment to the question. The file is entered in EXAM under question attachment. Note! If several image files or, for example, one audio file are added to the question text, these files come to EXAM as an attachment to the question as a compressed file (file extension .tar.gz.), and they may not be opened in the exam. The compressed file can be extracted and opened on a Windows machine, for example with WinZip or 7-zip. On Mac computers you should be able to extract the .tar.gz file by clicking on the file.
      • After transfer to EXAM, the question text will be marked [Attachment: attachment file_name.extension. The examiner must check and, if necessary, modify the questions containing the attachments to fit the EXAM's exams.
  • Default mark→ Question maximum grade
  • Tags
  • Name of the question
  • General feedback
  • ID number
  • Response format setting
  • Require text setting
  • Input box size setting
  • Allow attachments setting (1 attachment is always allowed in EXAM)
  • Number of attachments required setting
  • Accepted file types setting
  • Response template
  • Grader information

Multiple choice with

  • One or several options? "Only one option" selected in the settings

Multiple choice question (one correct answer)

  • Question text
    • Attachment in the question text 
      • In Moodle, you can add media files, such as pictures or videos, to the question text. In EXAM, only one file can be attached to a question.
      • If there are attachments/media files in the question text of a Moodle question, they will be included in EXAM as an attachment to the question. The file is entered in EXAM under question attachment. Note! If several image files or, for example, one audio file are added to the question text, these files come to EXAM as an attachment to the question as a compressed file (file extension .tar.gz.), and they may not be opened in the exam. The compressed file can be extracted and opened on a Windows machine, for example with WinZip or 7-zip. On Mac computers you should be able to extract the .tar.gz file by clicking on the file.
      • After transfer to EXAM, the question text will be marked [Attachment: attachment file_name.extension. The examiner must check and, if necessary, modify the questions containing the attachments to fit the EXAM's exams.
  • Default mark→ Question maximum grade
  • Answers → Answer options
  • Information per answer option (Option X):
    • If there are attachments/media files in the Moodle question's answer option, the files will be included in EXAM as an attachment to the question. The files or their replacement texts do not appear in EXAM in the text of the option, so the examiner must check and edit such questions after the transfer to fit EXAM's exams.
      • Note! If there are several attachments or there are attachments in both the question text and the answer options, the files come to EXAM as a compressed file attached to the question, and these may not be opened in the exam.
    • In Moodle, any text formatting in the answer option texts, such as bolding, underlining or list elements, will be lost in the transfer, but the texts will remain. If the wording has been important in terms of the questions, the examiner must modify the text of the answer options after the transfer to suit the EXAM's exam.
  • Answer option grading → changes when the question is transferred to EXAM so that only one option is correct in EXAM, the scoring of the other options is 0 points.
  • Tags
  • Name of the question
  • General feedback
  • ID number
  • Shuffle the choices (In EXAM, the options of multiple-choice questions are mixed every time the question is asked in exams. In Moodle, this is a separate option.)
  • Number the choices
  • Answer choice feedback
  • Combined feedback settings ("For any correct response", "For any partially correct response", "Show the number of correct responses once the question has finished", "For any incorrect response")
  • Multiple answers options (Penalty for each incorrect  -setting, hints, hint settings)

Multiple choice with

  • One or several options? -setting selected "Allow multiple options"
Multiple choice question (several correct)
  • Question text
    • Attachment in the question text 
      • In Moodle, you can add media files, such as pictures or videos, to the question text. In EXAM, only one file can be attached to a question.
      • If there are attachments/media files in the question text of a Moodle question, they will be included in EXAM as an attachment to the question. The file is entered in EXAM under question attachment. Note! If several image files or, for example, one audio file are added to the question text, these files come to EXAM as an attachment to the question as a compressed file (file extension .tar.gz.), and they may not be opened in the exam. The compressed file can be extracted and opened on a Windows machine, for example with WinZip or 7-zip. On Mac computers you should be able to extract the .tar.gz file by clicking on the file.
      • After transfer to EXAM, the question text will be marked [Attachment: attachment file_name.extension. The examiner must check and, if necessary, modify the questions containing the attachments to fit the EXAM's exams.
  • Default mark→ Question maximum grade
  • Answers → Answer options
  • Information per answer option (Option X):
    • If there are attachments/media files in the Moodle question's answer option, the files will be included in EXAM as an attachment to the question. The files or their replacement texts do not appear in EXAM in the text of the option, so the examiner must check and edit such questions after the transfer to fit EXAM's exams.
      • Note! If there are several attachments or there are attachments in both the question text and the answer options, the files come to EXAM as a compressed file attached to the question, and these may not be opened in the exam.
    • In Moodle, any text formatting in the answer option texts, such as bolding, underlining or list elements, will be lost in the transfer, but the texts will remain. If the wording has been important in terms of the questions, the examiner must modify the text of the answer options after the transfer to suit the EXAM's exam.
  • Answer option grading → Moodle's percentage (e.g. 33.333%) of the default points will be converted into answer option points in the transfer.
  • Tags
  • Name of the question
  • General feedback
  • ID number
  • Shuffle the choices (In EXAM, the options of multiple-choice questions are mixed every time the question is asked in exams. In Moodle, this is a separate option.)
  • Number the choices
  • Answer choice feedback
  • Combined feedback settings ("For any correct response", "For any partially correct response", "Show the number of correct responses once the question has finished", "For any incorrect response")
  • Multiple answers options (Penalty for each incorrect  -setting, hints, hint settings)


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