2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Online courses for engineering have a challenge in that the conceptual learning is matched by often analytical or mathematical problem solving. Given the current availability of online solution databases to students, and the difficulty of proving any student is not using such databases in solving assignments or exam questions, an instructor must often construct questions that are unique to individual students, even when they are in the same online enrolled class. Presented is a method of rapidly generating alternatives of the same question for online question deployment, using readily available office software. This approach, once applied to a complex question creation the first time, can generate many multiples, even hundreds, of similar questions with varied parameters, each requiring unique answers. Targeted for a Learning Management System (LMS) using the “BrightSpace®” or D2L environment, this technique uses Microsoft Word Mail Merge and Respondus. The use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is also inserted for mathematically-oriented questions or sub-questions in a D2L quiz. Modifications of the basic technique allows simple HTML blocks to be duplicated within these questions for display in the D2L question and answer blocks as needed. The use of the spreadsheet allows for complex questions to be mathematically solved off-line, recorded for ‘regular expression’ checking, varied for multiple questions in a pool, and then processed into D2L. Through the use of ‘fill-in-the-blank’ type D2L quiz questions, the instructor is allowed to offer multiple types of answers within a single problem statement, the types being textual responses, combined with separate mathematical responses. This last characteristic is impossible for a D2L mathematically-based type of question, but can be emulated as being possible with this question-construction technique. The use of this technique is appropriate for large online enrollments, though it is acknowledged that the initial set up can be potentially time-consuming.