Well, I have finished my quiz for my Moodle site. I am surprised to say that it took a lot more work than I thought it would! I found the quiz function within Moodle fairly straight forward to use. The Using Moodle ebook was a big help in the actual step-by-step process of creating the quiz. The part that I found surprisingly hard was creating the questions based on the content that I am working with, and deciding how and where to present the quiz. I chose to have the quiz fit with the learning my students will get from Module 1, but I am not totally sure about the usefulness of this. There were a couple of options that I understand the idea of, but have not wrapped my mind around how I would use that in my actual teaching. I will certainly have to use some trial and error to figure out what I like best. An example of this was the option of having students mark from their first attempt work as an average with their second attempt. I set my quiz to take the highest mark of the two, rather than an average. I guess my personal teaching philosophy is that if the student masters the content, then they get credit for that. If you fail your driver’s exam the first time, but pass with flying colours the second time, you get the mark from the second test, not an average of them both. Since I put my quiz so early in my lesson, I wanted to try and provide a qualitative vs. quantitative assessment.
The main issue I struggled with was the fact that I do not use multiple choice quizzes in my regular teaching, so I found it difficult to write questions that were not too easy, but also not too hard. I tried to use multiple choice and matching questions that gave the students a chance to show they understand the ‘Big Ideas’ of what I am trying to teach them. In my classroom, I tend to focus more on project-based assessment, and I had a tough time creating multiple choice questions that reflect my belief in assessment for learning. I found it easier to create the short answer and essay questions as a means of formative assessment. I would most often use a checklist combined with a self-assessment this early in a unit, so that I can conference with the student as to where to go next.
One part of my Moodle assignment that I have not yet tackled is the idea of having one of the module programmed for selective release. I am looking forward to learning how to do this, and I may decide to go back to Module 1 and make my Current Events quiz for selective release. The benefit I see to this, would be that the students would approach the learning first and not attempt the quiz before they are ready.
I did enjoy learning how to set up an actual quiz in Moodle, and I can see how this would translate into other courses. Walking through the process also helped me to understand how the format of the Moodle shell is set up, which is good, especially since this is my first time working with Moodle.
All in all, I think it turned out fairly well. It will be very interesting to see how it works with my actual students. That will be the true test for me!
References:
Cooper, D. (2007) Talk About Assessment: Strategies and Tools to Improve Learning. Toronto: Thomson Nelson.
Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005). “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Accessed online 11 March 2009
http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf