Your co-author for building better questions, fast.
If you’ve ever wished question-writing came with a little more structure, or just a friendly nudge in the right direction, ’Create Question from Scratch’ is for you.
This feature gives you a guided, step-by-step experience with AI, helping you build high-quality questions tailored to your exact needs. You don’t have to be an expert in AI prompting, we’ve done all of that for you. Just answer a few straightforward questions, and the AI will do the heavy lifting.
What it does
Instead of a blank canvas, you’ll get a short series of prompts that help the AI understand exactly what you want to create. These include things like:
- What topic or subject are you working on?
- What difficulty level do you want?
- Should the question be framed in a specific scenario?
- Are there any special instructions or constraints?
If you’re creating an essay question, you’ll also get prompts to define:
- The answer format
- How marks should be allocated
- Key points or model answers
You can think of it as a conversation with a well-organised co-author, one who won’t let you forget the details.
What you’ll get back
Once you’ve filled in the prompts, the AI will generate a complete question setup, including:
- A clear title
- A well-written question
- Answer options (based on the type, multiple choice, either/or, etc.)
- Topic and difficulty
- Optional feedback for each alternative (and the question itself)
- A marking scheme for essay questions
And if you don’t like what it gives you on the first try, it’s no problem. You can regenerate the response, scroll through multiple options, and fine-tune until it feels right. When you’re ready, just click “Confirm” to populate the question editor with your chosen content.
Best ways to use this feature
This feature is most effective when you already have a general sense of what you want to assess but need support with phrasing, structure, and ensuring alignment with best practices. It’s designed to help you move from idea to a fully-formed item quickly, without skipping the details.
For example, imagine you want to create a multiple-choice question for a course on business ethics. You might enter the following:
- Topic: Business Ethics
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Context: A workplace scenario involving a conflict of interest
- Instructions: Ask the candidate to select the most ethical response
With this input, the AI will return a complete item: a scenario-based question, four answer options, feedback, a title, and even a difficulty estimate based on the Angoff scale. You can then review, regenerate, or edit the response, depending on what fits best with your assessment goals.
This approach saves time, ensures consistency, and helps you avoid common issues like unclear wording, missing feedback, or poorly balanced distractors.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of ‘Create from Scratch’
💡Think beyond the question, think purpose. Don’t just describe the topic; explain what you’re trying to measure. “Photosynthesis” as a topic is fine, but “I want to assess whether students can apply their understanding of photosynthesis by analysing how different levels of light exposure affect plant growth in a controlled experiment” gives the AI much more to work with, so use the ‘Should the question be framed in a specific scenario?’ prompt to its full potential.
💡Pair it with your curriculum. Drop in language from your learning outcomes or qualification frameworks. The AI doesn’t know your curriculum unless you feed it snippets, copy/paste objectives or key phrases into the prompts to align with accreditation standards.
💡Set helpful boundaries, not rigid rules. The best prompts balance freedom and direction. Instead of saying, “Make this exactly 50 words,” say, “Keep the question concise, under 60 words if possible.” Let the AI know what matters most without overconstraining creativity.
Additional Notes
- Prompts are dynamically tailored based on the question type you choose
- Essay questions include three additional prompts to guide answer structure, marking, and model responses
Bottom line
At Cirrus, we know that writing great questions takes time, care, and expertise. Create from Scratch is here to support that process, not replace it. By guiding you through the right questions at the right time, it helps you focus on what matters most: crafting clear, fair, and purposeful assessments.
Want to learn more? Check out our Knowledge Base!
Happy authoring!
