Sub-account Item Bank Sharing and Outcomes Alignment

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MPioRoda
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
6
1955

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The new Item Banks Sub-Account feature allows users to view and share item banks relevant to their current sub-account. This functionality makes lookup more convenient, by limiting the item banks listed to the current subaccount.

What happens to item banks when they are shared to sub-accounts? 

Item banks shared at the sub-account level are available for use by users who have access to that sub-account and any sub-accounts under that sub-account in the hierarchy.  

An item bank can be shared to a sub-account like a big department, or it can be shared to a sub sub-account like a division in that department. A user’s permission to access an item bank depends on the sub-account hierarchy. If you are a higher-level admin in the sub-account tree, when an item bank is shared to any of the sub-accounts under that in the hierarchy, you would have access to it.

Subaccount Sharing ExampleSubaccount Sharing Example

In this example, Professor A has access to the Department of Medicine as a sub-account of the School, they also have access to the divisions (sub sub-accounts) included within the Department of Medicine.  If Professor B only has access to the nephrology division, they will not have access to other divisions in the department. 

Professor A has access to Item Bank A and item banks in all divisions under it in the hierarchy, Item Bank B and Item Bank C. Professor A has access because they have access to the entire department that contains all divisions.

Professor B can only access Item Bank B which was shared with their division and cannot access Item Bank A or Item Bank C.

What happens to item banks when a course copy occurs?

When shared via sub-accounts during course copy, Item banks are auto-shared with the target course; this work was completed at the end of last year. This functionality is the same when shared via course or user.

Permissions

A new permission was created “Item Banks - share with sub-accounts” that can be enabled for various roles.

This permission allows a user to manage sharing of item banks with sub-accounts.  When a user with a course role is granted this permission, the user can share item banks to sub-accounts that they are associated with.

Changes to Item Bank Filters

To better facilitate the searching of item banks shared with sub-accounts, we have updated some of the filters in the item bank search. There is a new filter called “This Account” which shows what is shared to the sub-account that you are currently using.  We have updated the names of two filters, based on feedback in the community, to provide more clarity on what they pull up.

Item Bank FiltersItem Bank Filters

 Item Bank Filter Descriptions

Item Bank Filter

Description

Shared with Me (formerly All Banks)

The filter shows all banks the user has created as well as all shared to the user, both directly and through shared via course.


An account search bar will now appear to narrow down results by sub-account.


Note: The default view for 'Shared with Me' does not include banks shared via sub-account. Users can specify an account in the new account search bar to see banks shared with a specific sub-account

Institution Banks

This filter shows item banks shared across an account or institution. An account search bar will now appear to narrow down results by sub-account.

This Account (New)

This filter appears when you are viewing item banks from within a sub-account.

It shows what is shared to the sub-account that you are currently using.

Shared with Courses (formerly Banks Shared to Course)

This filter displays item banks that have been shared with any course that a user has access to.

This Course

This filter appears when you are viewing item banks from within a course.

It shows what is shared with this course that you are currently using.

 

We have added a new Account Search Bar which allows you to search by a sub-account name. If you are an instructor with access to a number of sub-accounts, you would be able to search by the sub-accounts that you have access to. The account search bar will only appear when viewing the Institution Banks and Shared with Me filters.

Item Bank Filter and SearchItem Bank Filter and Search Account Search BarAccount Search Bar

Item Bank Sharing Modal

The item bank sharing modal has also been updated with new tabs for sharing with users, courses, and accounts.  Sharing is also made more efficient where changes are applied as you go so that you no longer have to review and click done to apply changes. You can only delete a share if you have edit access.

Item Bank Sharing ModalItem Bank Sharing Modal

 

Outcomes Alignment

Customers who have sub-account specific item banks are now able to align outcomes to sub-account shared item bank questions. This works for course item banks and course outcomes as well.

To do this, open the item in the sub-account or course and use the Source dropdown to pick either to root account or the current sub-account or course.

Outcomes Source SearchOutcomes Source Search

 

In the list of aligned outcomes, we now show the source of the outcome (either root account, sub-account, or course). We also show the status of the outcome in regards to the current sub-account or course.

Outcomes IndexOutcomes Index

If you see a status of “Not in this Sub-Account” or “Not in this Course”, you can use outcomes management to find and add that outcome to the current sub-account or course (ref).

The content in this blog is over six months old, and the comments are closed. For the most recent product updates and discussions, you're encouraged to explore newer posts from Instructure's Product Managers.

6 Comments
dbrace
Community Coach
Community Coach

Do files in a sub-account item bank experience the problem documented in Update on the Known Issue Related to Course Files in Item Banks?

anf107
Community Participant

In this example:

"Professor A has access to the Department of Medicine as a sub-account of the School,"

How does Professor A have access to the sub-acccount?  Are they an account admin?  Is it because they are a teacher in one of the courses in the sub-account?  Another method?


david_griffith
Community Participant

Does this have to be enabled by our CSM?

mbmacdonald
Community Participant

@MPioRoda , thanks for this informative post, I love a good flow chart! But I have the same question as @anf107 - *how* does a user have access to a sub-account Item Bank? It seems there are 2 possible requirements for access:

1. The user has an admin role in the sub-account

2. The user is a teacher (or similar role) in some course that is in that sub-account

So first of all, is it #1, #2 or both?

But either way, there is a subsequent question:

If a user does "have access" to a subaccount Item Bank, are they able to access that Item Bank only when working on quiz in a course in that subaccount?

So, in this example, would Professor B have access to the Nephrology sub-account Item Banks *only when he is building a quiz in a course in the Nephrology department*? OR would he also be able to access these banks when he is building a quiz in a course in a different department, such as Biology? If so, I think that is not right.

 

 

 

mbmacdonald
Community Participant

@MPioRoda Additional question: can you clarify what is meant by Can View and Can Edit?

Does View mean you can add it to quizzes in your course, or just *see* the questions?

Does Edit mean you can edit a bank (add and remove items from the bank), or does it mean you can edit the questions therein (thereby altering them for other users), or both?

Thanks 😉

MPioRoda
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Author

Hi @mbmacdonald and @anf107 

For your first question, 1 and 2 are correct, a user with an admin role in the sub account and a teacher in that subaccount would have access to a subaccount.  My understanding of #3 is that the user is working in a course in a subaccount because they have a role like teacher in the subaccount?

We offer a number of ways to view item banks that a user has access to for the reason that they may want to refer back to an item bank they have access to that is located elsewhere.  We are also adding the new "This Account" filter which will help to narrow down to only the item banks they have access to in the subaccount they are currently using.  So they would always have access to item banks shared to the Nephrology sub account and the Biology sub account, regardless of whether they are using item banks in the Nephrology course or Biology course. It can be narrowed down to only those item banks in one subaccount using the filter, but we don't otherwise isolate the banks per context.  Could you provide more context as to why you would want to restrict a user from seeing banks they have access to?

We know from the knowledge base article that “Sharing an item bank with view access only allows the user you share with to view the item bank. Sharing an item bank with edit access gives users full access to the item bank, including adding items to the bank, sharing or removing users from the bank, and deleting the bank.”

So to confirm your examples:

  • A user with View access can add questions from that item bank to their quiz not just see the questions
  • A user with Edit access can both edit a bank (add and remove items) and edit the questions therein.

Hi @david_griffith 

This functionality is currently available for testing in the Beta environment and will be in the production environments on June 15. It will not have to be enabled by our CSM.

Hi @dbrace 

Unfortunately yes, as the known issue deals with course files in item banks.