Overriding Question and Item Points for an Activity – Learnosity Author Guide

Starting with v2026.1.LTS, Learnosity supports overriding the authored point values for Questions and Items at the Activity level. This allows Activity authors to adjust point allocation for a specific Activity without changing the underlying authored content or affecting any other Activities or Sessions where the same Questions or Items are used.

By default, Learnosity applies the point values that were saved when Questions and Items were authored in the Item bank. When point overrides are enabled for an Activity, those authored values can be replaced with Activity-specific values. This is useful when the same content must be scored differently depending on instructional context, assessment purpose, or delivery requirements.

Point overrides apply only to the Activity in which they are configured. Changes to point values in the Item bank do not affect Activities where points have been overridden. Once an Activity is saved with overridden point values, those overrides are retained in the Activity configuration even if overrides are later turned off, and they are automatically restored if overrides are enabled again.

Enabling point overrides

Step 1: Create or edit an Activity

To override points, Questions or Items must first be attached to an Activity. You can add or remove Items at any time, regardless of whether point overrides are enabled.

Note: Changes to authored point values in the Item bank do not automatically update overridden point values in an Activity.

Step 2: Turn on Custom points

In the Activity editor, on the Items tab, locate Custom points to the right of the Find items and Create item buttons, and toggle it on.

Figure 1. The Custom points toggle disabled, showing the Activity’s total points based on authored values.

Figure 2. The Custom points toggle enabled, showing the Activity’s total points based on overridden points values.

Step 3: Update Item and Question points

With Custom points enabled, editable Points fields appear for Items and for individual Questions within Items. Point overrides can be applied at either the Item level or the Question level, depending on the structure of the Item.

You can update Item-level points only when an Item contains a single Question. In this case, the points assigned to the Item are applied directly to that Question.

When an Item contains multiple Questions, Item-level point editing is not available. Use the icon to update the points assigned to each Question individually, based on the requirements of the Activity.

Note: Different Question types behave differently when point overrides are enabled. Refer to the tooltips in the Activity list for details about these distinctions.

Figure 3. The Custom points toggle enabled, showing editable point values for an Item containing a single Question.

Figure 4. The Custom points toggle enabled, showing editable point values for individual Questions within an Item.

As you change point values, the Activity total updates automatically and is displayed at the top of the editor.

Figure 5. The Custom points toggle enabled, showing the Activity’s total points recalculated using overridden values.

Disabling point overrides

At any time, you can disable point overrides by toggling Custom points off.

When point overrides are disabled, the Activity reverts to using the authored point values. Any previously overridden point values are retained and automatically restored if Custom points are enabled again.

This allows Activity authors to experiment with alternative point models without losing prior configurations.

Unsupported Activity types and Question configurations

Activity types not supported

The following Activity types do not support point overrides:

Branching/Adaptive Activities
Random/Fixed Group Activities

Question types and configurations not supported

The following Question types are partially supported or not supported:

Rating Question type has no points that can be overridden.
Custom Question type points cannot be overridden.
Practice/Unscored Questions do not support overrides.
Alternate response point values are not used to calculate the Activity points Total, and cannot be overridden.