Navigating the item bank

The item bank in risr/ assess acts as the repository for all questions (items). There is a single item bank per site, although this can be organised and even segregated using the site's blueprint. The content of each item, including resources, tagging, and OSCE mark sheet, is created by accessing the item tab from the top menu bar. 

In risr/ assess, there are two main types of items that can be created:

1. Written item types: Written examinations may consist of recall-type items or constructed response questions. risr/ assess currently offers 11 different types of written items. 
2. OSCE item type: OSCE (Observed Structured Clinical Examination) is a type of assessment used primarily in medical and healthcare education. An OSCE item is also known as a station within an OSCE exam where students are rotated through each station to perform specific tasks and each station assesses a different skill or competency. 

Access to items within the item bank can be restricted based on permissions assigned through user profiles (based on blueprint dimensions).

The item bank interface

The image below shows a high-level overview of the item bank interface, details can be found in separate articles (the image is from an instance with language variants enabled in site configuration options). 

1. Item import: Import items in bulk by uploading an Excel file (CSV or XLSX).
2. QTI Import: Import a QTI (Question and Test Interoperability) file that contains assessment data in XML and its associated multimedia content such as an image. 
3. Blueprint report: The blueprint coverage report analyzes the blueprint tags used across the item bank.
4. Search, filter and sort options: Using the filtering and sorting options available, you can narrow down the list of items you want to view and edit. 
5. Select all or clear selection: Clicking on the hyperlink number will select all items in the item bank for batch operations. Clicking on Clear the selection would unselect any selected item(s).
6. Batch...: Perform a batch item processing operation from the available options (tag items, delete items, start a new version of the selected item, transition selected items, export items, upgrade blueprint maps, create item set from selected items, and export exam stats) for the selected items. 
7. Create new item: Create various types of items using the item authoring tool in risr/assess.
8. Type: The type column indicates the item type of the written or OSCE item.
9. Title: The title column indicates the title, status, version and language (if applicable) of each item. 
10. Details: Quickly see the master blueprint tagged to the item, the performance of the item and the resources attached by hovering over the letters (B, P, R). If the item does not have a blueprint, performance or resource attached, the icon will have a white background. A blue background would indicate that the item has it. 
11. Languages: Quickly see the other language variants applicable to the selected item. The language column only applies to multi-lingual instances. To request additional variants for your instance, read more about the site configuration options.
12. View: Click view will direct you to the item information page of the item where you can edit items in draft or start a new version of the approved items. 
13. Items per page: Change the number of items that appear in intervals of 10 up to 40 items.

Search, filter and sort options

Within the interface of the item bank, there are advanced filtering and searching abilities. You can combine several filtering criteria to narrow down the list of items. The table below shows the filtering criteria available.

Filtering criteria	Description
Review state	Search for items by state (Draft, Pending, Approved, Archived). By default, all items in draft, pending and approved are selected.
Any item type	Search for items by item type (ARQ, CPQ, EMQ, HSQ, MWQ, MAA, MTF, Px, SAQ, SBA, VSAQ, OSCE). By default, any item type is selected.
Language	Search for items by language. By default, English is selected. NOTE: The language filter only applies to multi-lingual instances. You will only see items in their Language separately. For example, you will not see English and French items together. If there are items in French only, you will only see them if you choose French.
All items	Search for items by specific characteristics (item set assignment, resources, tags, and languages) of the item. By default, all items are selected.
Date updated	Sort items based on the sorting options available (updated on a particular date, items in a particular review state, by item title or item number). By default, the item bank is sorted in descending order by date updated.
Add statistics filters	Search for items using statistic filters (discrimination, facility, and difficulty).
Add more filters	Select from a list of additional filters to consolidate the searched items.

Commonly used additional filters

Additional filtering criteria	Description
Blueprint Dimensions	These criteria can be customised based on the blueprint dimensions created.
Author	Search for items created by a specific author.
Created on	Search for items created from/until the selected dates.
Updated on	Search for items updated from/until the selected dates.
Item set	Search for items used in specified item set(s) (available from v8.14.1)

Sorting

There are several options to sort search results. Depending on the sorting option, search results can be sorted in alphabetical or numerical ascending or descending order. The table below shows the different sorting options.

Sorting option	Description
Date updated	Numerically sort by the updated date of the item.
Date created	Numerically sort by the item creation date.
Review state	Alphabetically sort by the item state.
Item number	Numerically sort by the item number.
Item title	Alphabetically sort by the item title.
Fulltext rank	Ranks the text found in each item and sorts the list of items that contain the text in the search field.

The upward arrows () refer to the ascending order, while the downward arrows () refer to the descending order.