Quiz: Adding Questions to the Question Bank

Quiz: Adding Questions to the Question Bank Moodle ISU

Introduction

This document gives step-by-step instructions on how to add the various types of quiz questions to the question bank.

This guide will help you to understand:

Adding Questions to the Question Bank

Calculated Question
Simple Calculated Question
Embedded answers question (Cloze)
Essay Question
Matching Question
Multiple Choice Question
Numerical Question
Short answer question
True/False

See these guides for more information about quizzes:

Quiz: Adding Questions to Your Quiz

Adding Questions to the Question Bank

In the Admninistration block, Click on Question Bank to expand the options.

Click on Questions.

To add a question, Click the Create a new question... button.

Click the radio button next to the type of question you would like to create.

Click the Next button.

Calculated Question

Calculated questions offer a way to create individual numerical questions by the use of wildcards that are substituted with individual values when the quiz is taken.

To add a Calculated Question, Click on the radio button for Calculated and then Click the Next button.
In the Category dropdown menu Select the category where you want the question to be saved.

If you change the category you will need to Click on the Update the Category button.

In the Question name text field, Type the name of the question. This is what you will see in the question bank. Students will not see the question name.

In the Question text box, Type the question. You can supply random wild cards enclosed within curly braces. eg “What is area of rectangle with length = {base} and width = {height} ?” will randomly substitute {base} and {height} with numbers.
Default mark is the number of points the question is worth in the quiz. Supply a numeric value in the text field.

General feedback is the text the students will see immediately after answering the question.

In the Answer section Type the correct formula to obtain the answer eg. {base} * {height}.
Select the grade between 5%-100% from the Grade percentage dropdown menu. It should be noted that at least one answer should have 100% grade. You can set other close answers to get a lower percentage, i.e. 50%

Enter the Tolerance for the correct answer and then the Tolerance Type. There are three types of tolerances. If tolerance = t, correct answer was x, and the difference between the students answer and the correct answer was y then,

Nominal - answer is correct if y <= t
Relative - answer is correct if y/x <= t
Geometric - answer is correct if squared(y/x) <= squared(t)

You can Select the number of decimal places or significant figures in the answer from the Correct answer shows dropdown menu.
You can select how the answer should display. Use the pull down menu to choose between decimals and significant figures.
Feedback text is the response the student gets after answering the question.

Unit handling section allows teachers to grade units supplied with the numeric response.

Units are not used at all: Only the numerical value is graded and the other unit options will not apply.
Units are optional: If a unit is entered, it is used to convert the response to Unit 1 before grading. This option will allow units along with the numeric response. With this option Moodle ISU 2 will not reduce any points for incorrect or blank responses for units.
The unit must be given, and will be graded: this option makes the unit mandatory for numeric response and includes a penalty factor for incorrect units. The penalty factor will be a fraction of the grade obtained from the numeric response.

The Unit Penalty allows teachers to enter the penalty factor for incorrect units in the student responses. The value is between 0-1.

The Units are input using dropdown menu allows teachers to specify how students enter their units for numeric responses. There are three options available.

Text input element allows students to type the unit in the same text box with their numeric answer.
Multiple choice selection allows student to select units along with numeric answer.
A Dropdown menu will allow students to select units from the dropdown list.

Settings for multiple tries is useful when you setup the quiz in “Interactive with multiple tries” or “Adaptive mode”. It will reduce the points by factor of the selected percentage for each wrong entry.

Hint text is the text displayed when students with multiple attempts allowed get the answer wrong. You can provide multiple hints.

To save the question Click on the Save Changes button.

Simple Calculated Question

Simple calculated question is similar to Calculated question but has easier control for defining the dataset for Moodle ISU to generate numbers randomly.

For more information about creating questions and providing formulas, read our tutorial on Calculated question documented above.

To define wild card parameters value range

Click on the Find the wild cards {x..} present in the correct answer formulas. If the formula for the answer is correctly defined, Moodle ISU 2 should find you all the wild cards used in the formula. It should be visible under the Wild cards parameters used to generate the values.

Locate the wild card you want to edit. In the Range of Values Type the lower and upper limits for the parameters.
Select the number of decimals places that the randomly generated values will have.
Select the number of sets of answers you want to generate and then Click Generate. To display the sets Select how many of them you want to display and Click the Display button.
To save the question Click the Save Changes button.

Embedded Answers Question (Cloze)

The embedded answers question allows teachers to create questions within the body of the text itself. It allows multiple choice, short answers and numerical answers question. As of now, during the creation of this document, there is not any graphical interface to create embedded questions.

Select a Category from the dropdown menu. This determines where the question will be saved.
Enter the question name in the Question name text field.
In the question text Type your text along with the embedded question.

The General Feedback is for feedback after completing the question.
If you have the quiz setup for multiple attempts Select the Penalty factor in percentage for each wrong attempt.
Type the hint which will be displayed after wrong attempt during multiple tries. You can add more hints by Clicking Add another hint button.
To save the question Click Save changes button.

Essay Question

Essay question allows students to type their response in a text box. It is most suitable for questions that can be answered within 30 minutes. Beyond 30 minutes, users’ login sessions typically time out for security purposes. Therefore, the better choice for longer responses might be to have the students submit a file in the Assignment tool.

To create an Essay Question:

Select a Category from the dropdown menu. This determines where the question will be saved.
Type the question name in the Question name text field.
Type the question in the Question text box.
Enter the number of points for the question in Default mark.
Select the type of HTML embedded text editor for the students to type their answer in the Response format dropdown menu.

Select size of the text editor from the Input box size dropdown menu. The size is given in number of lines instead of pixels for convenience.

If you want students to add attachments, Select the number of allowed attachments from the Allow Attachments dropdown menu.

Since Moodle ISU does not grade the question, Essay Question Information for graders allows you to type instructions for your grader.

Matching Question

Matching question can also be created with Embedded Question type, but Matching Question type is easy to configure if you do not like using wild cards to create questions.

Hot tip: Put the answer into the question name so you can quickly see the answers when students are asking for answers. This is especially useful if you're dealing with large sets of questions.

To create a Matching Question

Select the category you want to save the question into from the Category dropdown menu.
Type the name for the question in Question name text field.
Type the instructions for students in the Question text.
Default mark is the total number of points that students get for correct answers.
Type your feedback in the General feedback text box.
In the Question text box enter the question.
Type the answers in the Answer text boxes. All the answers will show up in a list against each question as possible answers.

If you have your quiz set up in Multiple Attempts Allowed Mode, Select penalty factor in Percentage from Penalty for each incorrect try.
To save the question Click on Save changes button.

Multiple Choice Question

This is one of the most frequently used questions in the quiz. It offers a list of possible answers for students to choose from.

To create a Multiple Choice question:

Select the category you want to save the question into from the Category dropdown menu.
Type the name for the question in Question name text field.
Type the question in Question text.
Default mark is the number of points a student gets for a correct answer. Enter the points possible for the question.
Provide feedback in the feedback text. Students will see the feedback when they review the quiz.
Select One answer only or Multiple answers allowed from the One or multiple answers? dropdown menu depending on the number of correct answers in the choices.

Shuffle choices will randomly rearrange the choices every time the question is accessed.
Select how the choices are going to be numbered from the Number the choices? dropdown list.
Type choices in Answer text boxes and assign each answer the percentage of the total grade. At least one should be assigned 100%.
Select the penalty factor from the Penalty for each incorrect try dropdown list if the quiz is in multiple attempts mode.
Click on Save changes to save the question.

Numerical Question

Numerical question allows students to enter numerical answers to questions with or without units. It is different from the calculated question in that you enter specific values rather than applying random values to the given formula. Numerical questions still allow for tolerance for numerical responses.

To create a Numerical Question

Select the category you want to save the question into from the Category dropdown menu.
Type the name for the question in Question name text field.
Type the question in Question text.
Default mark is the number of points students receive for correct answers. Enter the points for the question.
Type feedback in the Feedback text. Students will see the feedback when they review the quiz.
Type the correct answer in the Answer block.
Select the grade the answer receives in the Grade dropdown menu.
Enter a numerical value in the Accepted error text field.

You can enter more than one response and assign a percentage of total grade each answer receives.
Unit handling section allows teachers to grade units supplied with the numeric response.

Units are not used at all. Only the numerical value is graded which will grey out the other options and will not show any units in the answers.
Units are optional. If a unit is entered, it is used to convert the response to Unit 1 before grading option will allow units along with the numeric response. With this option Moodle ISU 2 will not reduce any points for incorrect or blank responses for units.
The unit must be given, and will be graded makes the unit mandatory for numeric response and allows penalty factors to be included for incorrect units. The penalty factor will be a fraction of the grade obtained from the numeric response.

The Unit Penalty allows teachers to enter the penalty factor for incorrect units in the student responses. The value is between 0-1.
Units are input using dropdown menu allows teachers to designate how students enter their units for numeric responses. There are three options available.

The text input element allows students to type the unit in the same text box with their numeric answer.
A multiple choice selection allows student to select unit along with numeric answer.
A dropdown menu will allow students to select units from the dropdown list.

Units go allows you to configure if units precede or follow the numerical response.
Settings for multiple tries is useful when you set up the quiz in “Interactive with multiple tries” or “Adaptive mode”. It will reduce the points by factor of the selected percentage for each wrong entry.
To save the question Click the Save changes button.

Short answer question

Short answer question allows students to answer questions in words or phrases. ITRC recommends that answers be as precise and short as possible. The answers from the students are matched against the possible answer models. For the answer to be correct there should be at least one match. The answer could be case sensitive or insensitive.

To create short answer question

Select the category you want to save the question into from the Category dropdown menu.
Type the name for the question in Question name text field.
Type the question in the Question text.
The Default mark is the number of points the student receives for a correct answer. Enter the value of the question.
Type your feedback in the General feedback text field. Students see it during the review.
Select from the Case sensitivity choice that applies to the answer.

The answer block allows you to enter the correct answers and assign them the grade they will receive. You can provide a wild card to match any characters. eg. comput* will match computing, computes, computer and computation.
To save the question Click the Save changes button.

True/False

True/False question type allows students to select True if the statement proposed in question is valid and False if it is not.

To create True/False question

Select the category you want to save the question into from the Category dropdown menu.
Provide a name in the Question name text box.
Enter the question in the Question text box.
The Default mark is the number of points the student receives for a correct answer. Enter the value of the question
Type your feedback in the General feedback box. Students see it during the review.
In the correct answer Select if the answer is True or False.

Feedback for the response ‘True’ and Feedback for the response ‘False’ allows you to enter the feedback students will see during the review.
The penalty factor is for quiz in adaptive or multiple attempts mode. It is set to 1 and cannot be changed for this type of question.
To save the question Click Save changes.

For more information please visit http://docs.moodle.org/2.5/en/Building_Quiz.

For more information please visit http://docs.moodle.org/2.5/en/Question_bank.

This work was done by Instructional Technology Resource Center at Idaho State University and is licensed under the Creative Commons Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 United States or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.

Click the Next button.

Calculated Question

Calculated questions offer a way to create individual numerical questions by the use of wildcards that are substituted with individual values when the quiz is taken.