This week, we explored quiz making in Moodle. When learning to work with any new digital tool, it is important to keep in mind the purpose of the tool as it is easy to get distracted with any ‘bells and whistles’. In using a quiz for assessment, the goal is to help students assess their understanding with timely feedback. When used appropriately, Moodle can accomplish this.

Assessment can play a critical role in learning, particularly when coupled with appropriate formative feedback. Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) emphasized that the most impactful feedback is that that is given promptly and Gibbs and Simpson (2004) included the importance of frequent and detailed feedback (1996; 2004). The quiz tool allowed for both of those criteria, supporting a variety of feedback opportunities that could be accessed during or after the assessment. The format itself was flexible as well; different types of questions could be included and a range of assessment methods selected. When evaluated against either Chickering and Ehrmann’s (1997) principles of good practice or the conditions for effective assessment highlighted by Gibbs and Simpson (2004), the Moodle quiz tool receives high scores.

Developing the quiz was relatively straight forward; Moodle provides a user-friendly interface and of course, extensive help online. While it takes time to initially create the questions, once they are saved, they can be reused which is a nice bonus. I did encounter some limitations with this tool, however. By its very nature, questions and answers are restricted to certain simple, formats. More detailed assessment is possible, but you have to forego the immediate feedback. With short answer questions, it was easier to use command terms such as ‘state’ or ‘list’, as opposed to ‘explain’ or ‘outline’ as the answer key must be matched. This doesn’t allow for much diversity in a student’s response – or any spelling errors, and certainly doesn’t cater to authentic assessment. The ability to set multiple trials lessens the stigma of a traditional summative assessment, however, and in fact, at the teacher’s discretion the quiz doesn’t have to be recorded with a grade at all. That would be a consideration where academic integrity might be an issue.

For the online course that I am developing, I can see that the quiz tool would be useful for both myself and for students. The two year IB program is externally assessed, with a Paper One of 30 multiple choice questions. Students need a lot of practice and the creation of a question bank for that very purpose would be appropriate. Matching and short answer questions would also be helpful for students to gauge their understanding and progress. With these three formats, feedback could be provided immediately. As a review tool, we wouldn’t be limited to those question types, however. Essay questions could be self assessed if the mark scheme were provided in the feedback. Moodle also offers formats that would be appropriate for data based calculations or fill in the blank questions.

In the whole scheme of the learning that can occur within a program, we must remember that a quiz is just one small piece of the assessment puzzle. No matter how advanced the tool is, relying on one method of assessment is not good practice. With the flexibility that Moodle offers – forums, quizzes, assignments, and chats, the platform is there to build in a variety of assessment opportunities. Collectively, they can help support a rich and active learning environment.

References

Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S. C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(1-10), pp. 3-6. Retrieved from http://sph.bu.edu/otlt/teachingLibrary/Technology/seven_principles.pdf

Gibbs, G and Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Vol.1 pp.3-31. Retrieved from: http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/assessmentresources/pdf/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson.pdf