In the Cloze Text question type, the learner can type their responses into empty response boxes that have been inserted by the author into a passage of text.

Figure 1: Cloze text question type example.

Create a Question

Watch the "How to create a Cloze Text question" tutorial video.

Enter the question stem into the Compose Question area. In the Template area below, enter your text and add response boxes by clicking on the Insert Response button in the Editor. You can also use the keyboard short cut, double underscore. This will indicate the position of the response box in the text. See the example in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Inserting the response button using the rich text toolbar.

Figure 3: Entering content into the Template area.

In order to set validation, follow these steps:

• Insert value in the Point(s) box to set up a mark for the question. The default value is set to 1.
• In the Correct tab, you will see your text passage with empty response boxes. Enter correct responses into the empty boxes as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Cloze text question validation.

Scoring

The following scoring types are available in Cloze Text questions:

• Exact Match - the learner must answer all parts of the question correctly to receive a mark.
• Partial Match Per Response - each correct response element will be awarded an individual score.
• Partial Match - each correct response element will be scored individually, and the overall question score will be divided between responses.

Authors can add Alternate Responses if there is more than one correct solution to a Question. See this Author Guide article for more information.

The Match all possible responses configuration will allow you to specify more than one valid response for one response option. Instead of creating multiple combinations of possible responses while setting the correct responses, Authors can simply add in the different versions of the response options in the alternative correct answers for that response position and choose the 'Match all possible responses' option. See the Author Guide article for more information.

More Options

Under More Options you will find additional question attributes that can be chosen.

Scoring

Unscored/Practice usage removes all scoring from the question. This is useful for creating practice questions.

Penalty point(s) defines how many marks will be deducted for an incorrect response.

Case Sensitive determines whether learner's responses should match case or not. By default, all questions are not case sensitive i.e. “Yes” and “yes” are treated as the same answer. If you wish the learners to enter their responses in the correct case, then you should enable this option.

Ignore leading and trailing spaces determines whether the automatic marking will ignore leading and trailing spaces. For example, when this option is selected, 'a' and ' a ' will be treated as the same.

Enable full or half-width character scoring
For languages such as Japanese, where full-width and half-width characters are used, validate responses with either type of character width. For example, in this question: What do we call '犬' in English? And you have set 'Ｄｏｇ' (full-width) as the correct answer, if the learner enters 'Ｄｏｇ' (full-width) or 'Dog' (half-width) these will both be marked as correct responses when this option is enabled.

Ignore accents when scoring
From v2025.2.LTS and onward, you have the option to ignore accents when scoring. For words that have accents, enabling this option will ignore any missing or misplaced accents when validating against the correct response. For example, if the correct response is “café” and a learner enters “cafe” or “cáfe”, they will be marked correct when the option is enabled.
An additional setting, Accent penalty point(s), to award partial points is also available when the “Ignore accents when scoring” checkbox is checked. When the checkbox is checked and there are no accent penalty points, full credit will be awarded regardless of incorrect or missing accents. When the checkbox is checked and there are accent penalty points, partial credit (determined by the Accent penalty point(s) value) will be awarded for incorrect or missing accents.

Check answer button enables the Check Answer button underneath the question, which will provide the learner with instant feedback on their response(s).

Check answer attempts (if Check Answer is enabled) determines how many times a learner can click on the Check Answer button. 0 means unlimited.

Enable auto scoring defines whether the question will be marked automatically, or must be marked manually.

Maximum Length (characters) defines the maximum number of characters that can be entered in response boxes. Maximum value is 250 characters.

Minimum points if attempted¹ sets a positive value indicating the points to be awarded if a learner attempted the Question, regardless of a correct or incorrect response.

Layout

Stem numeration (review only) sets the type of numeration characters displayed to the left of the validation label. This is only for the review state. So instead of seeing 1,2,3 numbering for response boxes, you would see A,B,C or a,b,c depending on the option chosen.

Font size controls the size of the font for this question. Options are: "small"(11px), "normal"(14px), "large"(17px), "extra large"(20px) and "huge"(24px).

Special characters inserts a character map with non-typical letters and special symbols, which will appear in the response area. There are three character maps available. Note: see the screenshots at the bottom of this article to see the contents of the character maps. 

• Standard alpha character map.
• Numerical character map (appears by default when 'Has Mathematical Formulas?' is enabled).
• Custom character map (adds the 'Characters to Display' entry field, where you can insert the special characters desired).

Multiple line allows learners to enter multiple lines of text/characters in the response area.

Spellcheck and text correction turns on spellcheck in the text entry area. When this box is unchecked, browser spellcheck will be disabled, along with auto-correct, auto-complete and auto-capitalize on iOS devices. Note: This is a browser feature and may not always be available or supported.

Response container (global) controls the size of response boxes in the text. Width and height of all response boxes can be changed at once in the Response Container (global) section. However if you only wish to change the size of specific boxes go to Response Container (individual).

Width (px) sets the width of the response container. Default units are "px" and will be appended if no units provided. For units other than "px", provide them in the field. E.g. "100em".

Height (px) sets the height of the response container. Default units are "px" and will be appended if no units provided. For units other than "px", provide them in the field. E.g. "100em".

Input Type is set to text by default. When set to number, the user can only input numerical values and for tablet users, it defines which keyboard will be displayed to them by default, either text or number.

Placeholder inserts a Placeholder for empty response boxes; this can be configured in either the global or individual response container section, depending on whether you want the same placeholder on all response boxes, or different placeholders on different boxes.

Screenshots of the character maps (used with 'special characters' option)

Standard alpha character map

Numerical character map

Custom character map

'Extra' options

The extras section in the authoring interface allows you to add more information about the Question, information that we refer to as metadata.

There are a number of fields available: acknowledgements, contains math, distractor rationale, distractors, instructor stimulus, rubric reference, sample answer, and stimulus (review only).

To learn more about the options shown in the Extras section, see Understanding the Extras Section of the Question Editor.

1. Note: “Minimum points if attempted” replaces the earlier label “Minimum score if attempted”. Version added: v2026.1.LTS