I just created my first quiz on moodle. I have wanted to create one since I started using moodle last year, because it allows for frequent formative assessment without burdening the teacher with tones of markings (Gibbs and Simpson 2004-05). During the process of creating this quiz, I ran into a few problems:
1. Naming the questions – I am not sure yet of the importance of naming each question. So far, I believe the structure for “categorizing” is enough to help organize different questions in the question bank. When choosing questions from the question bank to put onto each quiz, users have the option to just pick by looking at the question names, or by looking at question names and the question itself. I especially like the icon that shows the type of question beside the list of questions.
2. Possibility of sharing questions between teachers – I see the export/ import buttons on the questions page, and wonder how teachers can share/ exchange questions files!
Overall, though setting up the quizzes and making up questions can be time consuming, having quizzes on moodle is going to safe time from marking in the long run. Also, moodle provides an easy way for teachers to share their questions and collaborate (we can just pick and choose from a list once a file is imported). The time saved can be spent on improving quiz questions, or even giving more detailed feedback on the essay/ short answer questions on students’ quizzes. Students benefit from having more frequent and detailed feedback for questions tailored to smaller sections, instead of being assessed on a big chunk of material.