The Quiz activity module allows the teacher to design and build quizzes consisting of a large variety of Question types, including multiple choice, true-false, short answer and drag and drop images and text. These questions are kept in the Question bank and can be re-used in different quizzes.
Below are the steps to create your questions and add them to your quiz.
Creating Question Bank
Question Bank available on Moodle serves as a database of question categories that instructors can create to use later on in their Quiz Activities.
To access Question Bank,
- Access your course > Administration > Course administration > Question bank
- Under Question Bank, you will be able to see Questions, Categories, Import, Export
Select/ Add a Category
Questions are organized into categories. Initially each course has only one category called "Default".
At that stage, you can click on “Create a new question” and start filling the “Default” category with questions. However, it is good practice to create more categories to organize your questions. You can create a hierarchy of categories because you can create subcategories inside parent categories.
- To add or edit categories click on the "Categories" tab.
- Below the list of current categories you will see a form to add a new category.
- Choose the 'parent' category in which your new category will be placed:
a. Placing your category in another category makes it a sub-category of the parent.
b. Choosing 'Top' means that your category is a top level category and thus the category you will be creating falls under the Top of the course
- Type the name of your new question category in the text box.
- Add an optional meaningful description in the category info area.
- Click the 'Add Category' button. Your new question category will appear in the list of current categories with the number (0) indicating zero questions available so far in the current category.
Add Question to a Category
Select category you want to populate questions with by clicking on Categories tab found under Question Bank in Course Administration block or from the drop-down menu available beside Select a Category when you click on Question Bank.
Using the tick box below that menu you determine whether to also show the questions from subcategories.
To add a new question:
Method 1 (Adding questions one by one to category):
- Select the question type you want to create from the Create new question drop-down menu.
- Fill in the form for the question type you are creating. Each question type has its own form and has its own options.
- Click Save Changes at the bottom of the form.
Method 2 (Importing all questions at once to category from a file):
Depending on question type, the instructor can prepare beforehand a document that follows template corresponding to question type.
Examples:
Multiple Choice questions à Aiken Format (Check Aiken Format Template Document)
True/False Questions à Gift Format (1+1=2 {T})
Essay Questions à Gift Format (How are you? {})
For Gift Format, one blank line must be left between each question.
Needed Steps:
- Prepare using a text editor document containing questions following either Aiken or Gift format dependent on your question type, make sure to save your file and choose encoding to be UTF-8.
- Access the category that you want to import questions to from the file, by clicking on it in the question bank, then click Import tab that is found below Categories.
- Choose the File Format that you have prepared
- Make sure within the General section that you are importing to the correct category. Keep Get category from file, Get context from file ticked and other settings as default.
- Import questions from file, choose the file that you have created in step 1 and click import, when all questions are imported click continue and you will be directed to Category populated with your questions.
Method 3 (Importing questions from another category)
Method 1: Take couple of questions from one category (For example Category A) and copy them to another category: (For example Category B) either to have exact questions in two categories or slightly edit in the question when copied to the new category:
- Create Category B
- Access Category A, click on duplicate icon found beside the question you want to copy, change the question name , and edit the question as you want , then click Save changes.
- Once done, select the newly edited questions that you want to move to Category B, and within: With selected, choose Category B and click Move to. You will then be directed to Category B.
Method 2: Get a whole category of questions from Course A and import it to Course B
- Create a new category in Course B
- Choose category that you want to copy in Course A and click on Export found below Import within Question Bank
- Choose “Moodle XML Format” and keep rest of settings as they are, then click “Export questions to file”
- Go to the category that you created in Course B and click import found under Questions within Question Bank, Choose format to be “Moodle XML Format”, make sure you are importing to the correct category within the General section and untick: “Get category from file, Get context from file” then choose the file within the “Import question from file” and click import, then continue, and you will then be directed to the category.
Creating Quiz Activity
Now that the question bank is ready, the instructor can prepare the quiz activity:
Managing Quiz Settings
Check Moodle Quiz Checklist
Editing the Quiz
- Click on the quiz that you have created, and then click on Edit quiz available on page or within The Quiz Navigation Block to add questions to the quiz.
Adding questions
You can add questions from a number of locations. Click the 'Add' link; when it opens up, choose either to add a new question, to select a question from the question bank or to add a random question. It is recommended that you choose to add a question from the question bank or a random question (in case you want different set of questions for each student).
- Add from question bank, select the category you want to get questions from, you may choose to show questions from subcategories if you want to, then click on Add selected questions to quiz.
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Add a random question: Click on Add, then choose the category you want to get questions from, specify the number of questions that you want then click on Add random question. Note that when a question has been created, an icon and words display its type (eg multiple choice). It can be modified by clicking the edit icon (gear icon) and previewed or deleted by clicking the magnifying glass or X icons.
Shuffling Questions
Once questions are set, their order in which they appear to the student may be randomized or 'shuffled' by ticking the 'Shuffle' box at the top of the screen.
Questions can be divided into several sections, when instructor chooses to add a new Section heading and thus give each set of questions a title. When questions are in different sections, each section has its own 'Shuffle' box to tick. This means instructors can mix up questions on one section, but in another section, where their order is important, they can keep them in the order they need them to display.
Assigning points to questions
Administration > Quiz administration > Edit quiz > Editing quiz
Instructors can set how many points each question is worth by changing the number in the box to the right of each question and can also change the maximum grade by changing the number in the box top right at the top of the quiz. The default is one point per question and 100.00 maximum grade.
Previewing Quiz
Instructors can preview the quiz by clicking on Preview tab with the Quiz Administration block to take the quiz as a student.
References:
https://docs.moodle.org/34/en/Quiz_quick_guide
https://docs.moodle.org/34/en/Question_types
https://docs.moodle.org/34/en/Quiz_activity