Administering Quizzes In Moodle

As I give quizzes to my students via Moodle, I have been taking notes and here are a few:

• Review all items before opening the quiz. You do not want the correct answer to be missing among the choices in a Multiple Choice type question!
  
• The default quiz setting has Adaptive mode active. This allows the students to make several attempts at choosing the correct answer with a penalty given for every wrong attempt. I am not sure I like this feature. It could be nice for some scenarios. But for now, whenever possible, I just give the students partial points for choosing a wrong answer. For example, in a Multiple Choice type question, I assign a 25% score for each wrong choice so it doesn't become an all or nothing affair. I cannot do this though with, for example, the Short Answer type. I am thinking instead to give points to "nearly correct" answers, e.g. "proceed" for "proceeds".
  
• Yes, shuffling questions and answers will minimize cheating. But for good measure, divide the quiz into pages (5 per page is good) and walk around the computer laboratory if you are having the quiz there.
• Emphasize, repeatedly if need be, that they should not click the "Submit all and finish" button until they are really done answering the test and have reviewed all their answers. They should, on the other hand, press the "Save without submitting" button from time to time so that they will not lose their answers in case something unexpected happens; for example, the computer shutting down because they managed to kick the UPS.
• If in the eClassroom, talk first about the fact that you will be using Moodle and that Moodle runs on any browser, implying that it can run on any Internet browser. Next, talk about the Ubuntu Linux operating system, the panels on the GNOME desktop, and the shortcut to the Mozilla Firefox browser. Ask them to open the Mozilla Firefox browser and to type the DLS-CSB Moodle URL in the Navigation toolbar. Talk about logging in, changing password, various quiz setups, submitting the quiz for checking, logging out and shutting the computer unit down.
• For those who left their calculators, you can ask them to use the GNOME Calculator (Scientific mode).
• Provide the students with a list of formulas they will need to use.
  
• Once any one student attempts a quiz, you cannot add or remove questions anymore. But you can actually edit existing ones!
• Do not include the correct answers in what the students will see upon submission, as they may pass these on to their seatmates. Showing their responses and the corresponding grades are OK. They can navigate between pages as they do this. Clicking the Continue button will show them summary information on quizzes taken. Clicking the Continue button again brings them to the Main page. Once there, and if they have used up their attempts, clicking on the link to the quiz will just bring them to this summary.