Importing Course Quizzes (GIFT)

The Data Import wizard's Course Quiz target imports quiz questions from a GIFT-format text file directly into LMS courses. The importer parses the file and creates Courses, Quizzes, Questions, and Answer Choices automatically, organized by the $CATEGORY: directive.

GIFT is a widely-used plain-text format for quiz questions, originally introduced by Moodle. The Course Quiz target lets LMS administrators bring questions from external sources without manually re-keying.

Supported GIFT Question Types

Unsupported types (Numerical, Matching) are skipped with a warning shown on the Review and Results pages.

Organizing Questions with $CATEGORY

The $CATEGORY: directive controls where questions are placed in the LMS. The format is:

$CATEGORY: CourseName/QuizName

::Question Title:: Question text { =RightAnswer ~WrongAnswer }

Every question that follows the directive is placed in the named Course and Quiz until the next $CATEGORY:. Multiple categories in one file create multiple courses or quizzes in a single import.

If the named Course or Quiz doesn't exist, the importer creates it. If it does exist, the questions are appended.

Step-by-Step

1. Open Setup > Manage > Import Data.
2. Select the Course Quiz target.
3. Click Download Sample GIFT File for a sample with examples of every supported question type.
4. Prepare your GIFT file. Use $CATEGORY: directives to organize questions into the Course/Quiz structure you want.
5. Upload the file.
6. The preview step shows a summary — detected courses, quizzes, question counts per quiz, and per-type breakdown. Any parse warnings (unsupported types, malformed questions) are shown here.
7. Step through Review.
8. Click Start Import.

GIFT Syntax Essentials

Each question block must be separated from the next by a blank line. Lines starting with // are treated as comments and ignored.

Reviewing Results

The Results page summarizes the import:

• Number of Courses created or updated.
• Number of Quizzes created or updated.
• Number of Questions created.
• Number of skipped or failed questions, with reasons.

Common reasons questions fail or are skipped:

• Unsupported question type (Numerical, Matching).
• Malformed GIFT syntax (missing braces, unescaped special characters).
• Missing question text inside a question block.
• True/False with an invalid value (must be TRUE, T, FALSE, or F).

Tips

• Validate your GIFT file with a small test import first. Sample a single category and confirm the resulting Course/Quiz/Question structure matches what you expected before importing the full file.
• Use comments to document the source of imported questions: // Imported from Moodle export 2026-05-15.
• Escape special characters in answer text when answers contain literal =, ~, {, }, or #.
• The importer is additive. Re-running an import adds new questions; it does not delete or replace existing questions. To replace questions, delete them in LMS first.

Troubleshooting Tips

• If a question block is silently skipped, check for unescaped special characters or a missing blank line between blocks.
• If True/False questions fail, confirm you used TRUE, T, FALSE, or F (not True or true — case can matter).
• If Course/Quiz names appear duplicated, the file contains questions outside any $CATEGORY: directive (they fall into a default category). Add explicit directives.
• For full symptom-by-symptom resolutions, see Data Import History and Troubleshooting.

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