Moodle 1.9 Testing and Assessment

Index

Moodle 1.9 Testing and Assessment

Moodle 1.9 Testing and Assessment

Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor Packt Publishing and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2010

Production Reference: 1071210

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

32 Lincoln Road

Olton

Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN : 978-1-849512-34-3

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Filippo (<filosarti@tiscali.it> )

Credits

Author

Jason Myrick

Reviewers

Jac Gubbels

Nitin Parmar

Acquisition Editor

Dilip Venkatesh

Development Editor

Meeta Rajani

Technical Editor

Paramanand Bhat

Copy Editor

Laxmi Subramanian

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Editorial Team Leader

Aditya Belpathak

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Rebecca Sawant

Proofreaders

Susan Stevens

Chris Smith

Graphics

Nilesh R. Mohite

Production Coordinator

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Work

Melwyn D'sa

About the Author

Jason Myrick is interested in testing and assessments and computer delivery methods for testing. He has spent many hours playing with Moodle and teaching colleagues how to deliver tests with it. He decided that instead of a piecemeal approach, he would write a book that contained the basics of how to use Moodle to deliver tests and assignments for assessment. He is currently developing a research proposal for a PhD in testing with a focus on computerized assessments.

I want to thank all the wonderful people at Packt Publishing for giving me the opportunity to write this book. This book would not have been possible without the work of Dilip, Vincila, Priya, and all the others who have helped me along the way.

I also want to thank my editors, Jac, Julian, and Meeta, for all the feedback they provided. It was through their comments and corrections that the book came to be what it is.

Finally, I want to thank my family and friends for their continued support.

About the Reviewers

Jac Gubbels is a Technology teacher currently working in Luanda International School (Angola). After acquiring a masters in Artificial Intelligence and a few years of working as a web developer, Jac has held teaching posts in international schools abroad combining teaching with the responsibility for educational technologies. His love and support for the free software movement has led him to adopt Moodle as platform of choice to set up Virtual Learning Environments. Jac originally comes from the Netherlands.

Nitin Parmar is responsible for exploring, promoting, and supporting the use of a range of e-learning tools at the University of Bath. He is particularly interested in the management of change within education with respect to the implementation of applications to support technology-enhanced learning and teaching.

For the majority of the 2009/10 academic year, Nitin's role encompassed the operational management of the institutional VLE, where he project-managed colleagues to deliver a high-quality professional service. Within this scope, he coordinated and delivered the first ever Moodle Development Plan and chaired the newly formed Moodle Advisory Group.

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

You might want to visit www.PacktPub.com for support files and downloads related to your book.

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at for more details.

At www.PacktPub.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks.

http://PacktLib.PacktPub.com

Do you need instant solutions to your IT questions? PacktLib is Packt's online digital book library. Here, you can access, read and search across Packt's entire library of books.

Why Subscribe?

Fully searchable across every book published by Packt

Copy and paste, print and bookmark content

On demand and accessible via web browser

Free Access for Packt account holders

If you have an account with Packt at www.PacktPub.com, you can use this to access PacktLib today and view nine entirely free books. Simply use your login credentials for immediate access.

Preface

This book is a practical guide to testing in Moodle. You will initially learn to create different types of questions such as True/False, multiple choice, short answer, and so on. After you have learned how to create questions you will follow a step-by-step process to create complete tests by tweaking various options. Once you have gone through how to set up a complete Quiz, you will learn how to create and set up a Lesson, which can be used to create simple vocabulary or flash card tests or complex, multi-branched assignments.

Once you have finished with the Lesson module, you will learn to test and assess students through work submitted using the Workshop module. This module also provides an opportunity for self- and peer-assessment of student work. Once finished with Workshop, you will learn how to create a variety of skill-specific tests: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. After the skill-specific test section, you will learn how to set up and use Gradebook, Moodle's grading module.

By the end of this book, you should be familiar with a variety of ways to set up questions and test and assess your students using many of Moodle's modules and features.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Testing with Moodle Quiz: In this chapter we will look at Moodle's Quiz module, introduce some of the main features, and learn to create True/False questions.

Chapter 2, Multiple Choice Quizzes: In this chapter we will continue to explore the Quiz module, develop multiple choice questions, and look at some question formatting issues.

Chapter 3, More Question Types: In this chapter we will look at all other question types available in the Moodle Quiz module, as well as how to create each one.

Chapter 4, Creating a Quiz: In this chapter we will learn how to create a complete quiz using the Quiz module, as well as use some new options.

Chapter 5, Using Lesson: In this chapter we will look at Moodle's Lesson module. We will look at the setup, details, and how to create a Lesson for use in your classes.

Chapter 6, Using Workshop: In this chapter we will look at the Workshop module. We will look at the setup, details, and how to create a Workshop for use in your classes.

Chapter 7, Listening Tests: In this chapter we will look at a variety of ways to test listening skills using Moodle. We will look at uploading audio files, adding listening tasks, and using Forums with audio.

Chapter 8, Testing Reading: In this chapter we will look at a variety of ways to test vocabulary and reading skills using Moodle. We will look at how to make a QuizPort reading test, creating timed readings, and how to make flashcards.

Chapter 9, Testing Speaking: In this chapter we will look at a variety of ways to test speaking skills using Moodle. We will look at Nanogongs, using Skype, and two new contributions, VoiceBoard and VoiceShadow.

Chapter 10, Testing Writing: In this chapter we will look at a variety of ways to test writing skills using Moodle. We will look at pre-writing activities, writing portfolios, and setting up writing assignments.

Chapter 11, Using Gradebook: In this chapter we will look at the Moodle Gradebook, how it is set up, used, and how to create one in your course.

What you need for this book

This book assumes that you have already successfully installed and set up a Moodle site for teaching. The version being used for this book is 1.9.7. It is intended for those with beginning to intermediate knowledge of Moodle.

Who this book is for

If you are a teacher, tutor, or Moodle Administrator who is responsible for developing and evaluating an online test using Moodle, or would like to utilize more features in Moodle for testing and assessment purposes, then this book is for you.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book — what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <feedback@packtpub.com>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.

If there is a book that you need and would like to see us publish, please send us a note in the SUGGEST A TITLE form on www.packtpub.com or e-mail .

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books — maybe a mistake in the text or the code — we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.

Please contact us at <copyright@packtpub.com> with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

You can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.

Chapter 1. Testing with Moodle Quiz

Using computers to test is becoming commonplace. Computers are everywhere and they are able to speed up and do so many things that they have become necessary in many fields, and testing is no exception. The Moodle team has put together a variety of activities that allow us to create and deliver a variety of tests with ease, many of them graded automatically and with instant feedback, making Moodle Quiz a very useful tool.

In this chapter, we will:

Talk briefly about testing

Learn about the Quiz module

Explore Basic options available with the Quiz module

Explore True/False questions

Make your True/False questions with the Quiz module

Moodle-based tests

Before going into a lot of detail about testing with Moodle, we need to ask the question, What is a test? A test is a series of questions or problems used to evaluate the abilities or skills of an individual or group. Pretty clear, right? There are all kinds of tests. There are aptitude tests, IQ tests, algebra tests, science experiments, and the list could go on and on. Achievement, cognitive, diagnostic, placement, and proficiency are all different kinds of tests in various fields. There are also different varieties of these tests: direct and indirect, discrete and integrated, norm- and criterion-referenced, objective and subjective tests. Tests!

Our purpose in this book is not to teach you about theories on what is a good test or how and why tests are important, although we will cover some important considerations related to computer-based testing later in the chapter?. Our goal here is to show you how to use Moodle for testing and offer a practical guide to doing it.

Now, if you are reading this book, chances are you are already using Moodle in some way in your classroom, school, or program. You will already understand some or many of the features Moodle has available for enabling administrators and educators to enhance classroom activities, improve the quality of education, and help student-teacher communication. Moodle also allows the teacher to set assignments anytime, allows students to upload files, allows for student-to-class communication, and so much more. The focus of this book is one of these more's. This book will help you understand how to use Moodle for testing and assessment and walk you through some of the features of Moodle that relate to testing and assessments.

Using Moodle to start testing your students will be a big change for them and for you. Some of the things you want to consider before making the change are as follows:

What you are planning to test

Item types that you plan on using

Student access and familiarity with computers and the Internet

Moodle experience

Online learning experience

Physical resources

The most important thing to keep in mind, regardless of the format your test takes, is that it is still a test. It needs to be developed, edited, revised, evaluated, and the student's answers need to be assessed just like a paper-based test. You need to give the students taking the test clear instructions and specific rules to follow, and you also need to make sure that the student understands how to use all the features you included in the test.

What is Moodle Quiz?

The Quiz module is one of the core components of the Moodle VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). It is intended to help the instructors to develop tests quickly and easily and offer computer-based tests to their students inside their Moodle course. There are many types of items available for use in the tests including: True/False, Multiple Choice, Short Answer, Essay, Embedded Answer, and several others.

Moodle Quiz is a powerful tool for instructors with the ability to offer tests via the course, as well as providing a range of tools that help to research and develop better questions. Moodle Quiz can provide immediate, teacher-created feedback, as well as allow students to immediately see their test scores for most item types.

I have downloaded and installed Moodle version 1.9.7 for this book and I created a no-frills, topic-based course that we will use as a model when developing our Moodle-based tests. I did this for two reasons. The first is simplicity and showing how things are built over time. An unused course is fresh and empty, and will allow me to show you what we are going to do and how it will look without anything else interfering. The second reason is that I need to explain how to show hidden items, and install contributed and third party modules and blocks in Moodle. I have made one small change to the course. I have changed the default theme to make some of the screenshots look better. If you want to change the theme of your site, and you have administrative privileges, go to Site Administration|Appearance |Themes|Theme Selector and you will see a list of available themes. So, while your course may have different themes or modules, you will have the same functionality as I do.

Creating our first questions

In this chapter, we are going to work with Moodle Quiz to develop our first questions in the Quiz module. If you have been using Quiz , this section might be a little basic for you; however, you may find some new ideas or explanations of Quiz functionality that you were unaware of. I would recommend reading through this part even if you are comfortable with Quiz, as all the tests we develop from here on out will be done using the information here and will not be reviewed later in the book.

We'll be walking through the steps I took to create our first questions in a moment. We will be looking at three basic functions in the Quiz module: the Question bank, quiz creation, and previewing.

Quiz features

Before we get into the making of a quiz, I want to point out some of the more important options available when creating a Quiz. First, we will take a look at the Quiz page as it looks when you first open it.

To create a new Quiz, you will need to go to your course page and click on the Turn editing on button. Once this is done, you will see two drop-down menus in each of the topics. The one on the left-hand side is titled Add a resource and the one on the right-hand side is Add an activity. Clicking on the Add an activity drop-down menu will display the activity options available. One of the activities is Quiz. Selecting the Quiz option will open the Adding a New Quiz page, the one we see in the next screenshot. Once you have finished looking it over, We'll talk about why each section exists and what each of them does.

Don't worry! There is a lot of information there, and we are going to work through it together. You'll notice that there are nine basic fieldsets that can be modified. I want to describe them all to you now so we can begin the process with full knowledge of the possibilities in Quiz.

General

This section only has two separate fields, Name and Introduction. They are both simply explained, but very important for both students and teachers.

Name

While this may seem like a silly thing to mention, it isn't. The name of the quiz is important for several reasons. First, it allows the students to quickly and easily locate the quiz on the course page. The second reason is that the name of the test will mean much more a few weeks after it has been taken. A test called 'Test 4' doesn't mean as much to a student as 'Adding and Subtracting Fractions Quiz'. Finally, the score the student receives is recorded in the Moodle Gradebook with the same name, making it easier for the instructor and student to understand where he/she excelled or had troubles in the course.

It is important to note that overly long names can clutter the Gradebook display. You may want to view the Gradebook to see how the name has affected the view.

Introduction

This is the section where you can give instructions, explanations, as well as insert images, links, and tables. The person taking the test will only see the Introduction before the test starts, so this is also the only time before the test begins that you can give students last-minute advice or a reminder. The clearer this section is the better, so take your time when writing your introductions to your tests. This is also the place where you can communicate to your students what they need to study before taking the quiz.

Timing

This section allows you to set all the parameters related to the time frame for the test. You can set the time and date the student can access and take the test. If you don't have a specific time-frame in mind for the student to complete the test, in a self-directed study course, for example, you have the option to disable the time and date function. You are also able to determine the amount of time allowed for the test, and whether or not the student is allowed to take the test a second time. If you allow the student to take the test a second time, you can also set how much time they will need to wait until their second attempt.

Display

This option allows you to decide how many questions appear on each page of the test, or whether the test will simply be a scrolling single-page. It also allows you to give unique tests to all students by adding a bit of variety. This section allows you the option to shuffle question order, answer order, or both. In addition, inside individual questions, you have the option to override the option selected here.

Attempts

This option allows you to determine how many tries a student taking the test will get. It also allows you to create a test in which a student can work on the test, stop, and then come back to it later, starting where he/she left off. The final tool available in this section is what is termed Adaptive