Moodle Quiz
Designing a quiz for my Moodle course was an interesting assignment that required me to experiment with the assessment tools in Moodle. Physically making the quiz within Moodle was not difficult, time consuming but not difficult. The question types were easy to use after the initial time spent in experimenting with the assessment tools, the quiz itself easy to navigate. Being able to switch roles to view it from a student point of view was a real benefit. It enabled me to take the quiz and then delete the attempt so I could continue to edit. Timed tests would not be something I would use in a primary classroom however I imagine they are used in higher levels.
The ability to add feedback was very valuable, and added to the interactivity and motivation for students. According to Gibbs and Simpson (2005), “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning”, feedback should focus on student learning, performance and on actions over which the student has control. Developing the constructive feedback was tricky, feedback that would be accessed by individual students, yet using the same feedback for all. It was also important to use the language of instruction in the questions so that students understood the question or task they are being asked to complete. Students need to be able to focus on the assessment not on figuring out what the teacher is asking them to do.
Developing a quiz within Moodle for the target age group of the students had some challenges. It was important to use images and video to prompt students and differentiate the quiz to make it accessible to all learners regardless of reading level. Moodle tools enabled me to embed images and to use a video to prompt student writing in the essay questions. After much experimenting I finally figured out how to embed the video and not just link it in the text. If this quiz was to be used, performance based assessments would also be used offline. For example have students build a Terrarium, present it to the class explaining their design, directions would be online but actual work would be offline. Thoughts and ideas could then be incorporated into the class journal or wiki within the Moodle shell.
References
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