We were required to build a complete exam or quiz for our LMS Moodle site that we are creating that reflect a variety of question types and assessment strategies, consisting of at least 10 questions (3+ multiple choice questions, 3+ matching questions, 2+ short answer questions, 2+ short essay questions, and at least 1 question with an embedded image or graphic).
I began my quiz creation by going to the Moodle toolkit and watching the video on how to create a quiz in Moodle. This video was helpful at getting me started and from there, I did some exploring and clicked away to see how the quiz and question bank areas worked. I found it to be very simple, but tedious. Having to manually create each question, complete with feedback, proved to be time consuming. One problem that I ran into many times, which forced me to refresh my browser constantly, was that the editor window did not always show up properly which disabled me from adding images/symbols or changing fonts/etc. But with patience and determination, I was able to complete my quiz.
One of the greatest pieces to the quiz creation task was the peer feedback and communication that took place before the task was to be submitted. It is always nice to have an outsider take a look at your product and give you constructive feedback and vice versa.
Ever since I started teaching, ASSESSMENT has been of great interest to me. Assessment in my first year of teaching was… all wrong. I marked absolutely everything I had my students do and everything affected the students’ overall marks. Because I was marking so much, students did not receive feedback in a timely fashion and the feedback I gave was most likely not very constructive. Gibbs and Simpson (2005) highlight ten “conditions under which assessment supports learning’ … These conditions are offered as a framework for teachers to review the effectiveness of their own assessment practice” (p. 3). I can clearly see that I did not meet some of their conditions and therefore was not really supporting my students’ learning. Since then, I have dramatically changed my assessment practices. One of the many changes that I have made is the amount and quality of feedback that I provide my students, which meets Gibbs and Simpson’s (2005) fourth condition: “sufficient feedback is provided, both often enough and in enough detail” (p. 17).
I found that creating the quiz through Moodle reinforced that notion of providing feedback. Every question has the option to give feedback to the students which can be provided immediately or upon completion of the quiz. I chose to put feedback for every question because my quiz is formative in nature. It is a quiz that will be given ‘as learning’ occurs. Students will be expected to self-assess themselves upon completion of the exam. Consistent with the BC Ministry of Education view on assessment, the quiz “provides students with information on their own achievement and prompts them to consider how they can continue to improve their learning” (2006, p. 20).
The one thing that I don’t like about the quiz/exam feature is that it automatically calculates the number of right/wrong answers and shows the students a number. Gibbs and Simpson (2005) explain that
“there is … a problem associated with both marks and feedback being provided. A grade is likely to be perceived by the student as indicating their personal ability or worth as a person as it is usually ‘norm-referenced’ and tells you, primarily, where you stand in relation to others. A poor grade may damage a student’s ‘self-efficacy’, or sense of ability to be effective. Yorke (2001) elaborates on the positive or negative ways in which formative assessment can affect student retention and emphasizes its role in ‘academic integration’ (Tinto, 1993). In contrast, feedback on its own is more likely to be perceived as a comment on what has been learnt. In the absence of marks it has been reported that students read feedback much more carefully (Black & Wiliam, 1998) and use it to guide their learning. In the light of this (school-based) research evidence, some schools have adopted policies that all assignments should only have feedback and that no marks should be provided. (p.11)
It would be nice if the quiz activity had a feature that did not calculate a number, but informed students of their achievement level and how they can improve and grow. I know that my students would focus on that number rather than the feedback they received throughout and at the end of the quiz. So this is why I added the blurb telling students to share their level of understanding in a forum with an explanation.
References:
BC Ministry of Education (2006). Social Studies 10 Integrated Resource Package 2006. http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/social_studies/2006ss_10.pdf
Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 1.