Moodle Quiz overview

Within the UOW online learning environment, the Moodle Quiz activity provides a powerful and flexible method of formative and/or summative assessment. The Moodle Quiz activity allows for the creation of a range of question types, including multiple choice questions, long-answer questions, calculated answer questions, and programming questions in which the student answer is provided in a programming language and is graded by running it.

Quizzes can be set up with a number of features that depend on your pedagogical requirements. These features include:

• allowing single or multiple attempts;
• implementing timing or access restrictions;
• drawing questions from a range of question bank categories;
• providing randomisation opportunities; and
• automated grading and feedback options.

When designing online quizzes it is important to consider what evidence of learning will be attained through completion of the quiz. Quizzes can be an effective way of assessing students, however, as with any assessment task, they must be aligned to the subject learning outcomes and be carefully planned and developed.

Why?

Setting a quiz is a popular method for implementing formative and/or summative assessment tasks in a subject. Studies indicate that online quizzes are positively received by students (Cohen & Sasson, 2016) and have a number of benefits, including the promotion of active learning and enhancing understanding (Cook & Babon, 2017).

Recent research by Riegel & Evans (2021) on the connection between online assessment and student emotions reveals that students perceived themselves as having higher levels of positive emotions, and lower levels of negative emotions in an online quiz compared with a traditional test (p. 82-83). Additionally, they suggest that the use of frequent online quizzes may support the development of student self-efficacy (Riegel & Evans, 2021, p. 84).

Formative online quizzes have been shown to help students perform better on formal assessment tasks; for example Wilson et al. (2011) noticed that students who participated in the formative quiz that was offered before an assessment task received a final grade that was 10% greater than those in the same cohort who did not attempt the quiz. While the researchers in this study cannot discount that those who attempted the formative component may have already been higher achievers, they believe that the observed improvement in performance was the result of students: i) gaining skills in the mechanics of completing online multiple choice quizzes, and ii) learning from the questions and feedback available.

The feedback students can receive from online quizzes includes feedback that helps them understand ideas and concepts when they answer incorrectly, and also feedback that confirms understanding of ideas and concepts when students answer correctly. Online quizzes can be set up to provide feedback automatically, and the ability to provide immediate feedback via online quizzes is highly beneficial for students, particularly those who are struggling in understanding subject content (Gamage et al., 2019). Additionally, students are more likely to engage with and benefit from feedback that has been provided during assessment tasks than feedback provided after (Schneider et al., 2018; Wojcikowski & Kirk, 2013). Automated feedback via online quizzes is an efficient way for teaching staff to provide feedback to large student cohorts, and the results provide a snapshot of students’ understanding of the subject content and allow teaching staff to make any required interventions in a timely manner. Quizzes used as formative assessment can be set up to allow multiple attempts, which has been found to assist students in increasing confidence and improving learning (Cohen & Sasson, 2016).

Additional benefits of utilising online quizzes include assessment efficiencies for teaching staff that arise from the ability to bulk-import questions from external sources; and supporting academic integrity through being able to randomise question presentation and selection from question banks.

How?

Step-by-step instructions for the initial creation and settings for a Moodle Quiz can be found in the Create a quiz IMTS Knowledge Base article.

For specific information about settings relevant for using a quiz as a timed assessment task, please refer to the article Timed online assessment tasks using the Moodle Quiz.

References