Chapter 5. Quizzes

Feedback on performance is a critical part of a learning environment, and assessment is one of the most important activities in education. As educators, we can't tell what's going on inside the heads of students, so we need a way for them to demonstrate what they understand and what they don't. A well-designed test, even a multiple-choice test, can give you critical information about student performance. If the feedback is rapid enough, it can also be a critical tool for students to gauge their own performance and help them become more successful.

Moodle's quiz module is one of the most complex pieces of the system. The community has added a large number of options and tools to the quiz engine, making it extremely flexible. You can create quizzes with different question types, randomly generate quizzes from pools of questions, allow students to retake quizzes multiple times, and have the computer score it all.

These features open up a number of strategies that usually aren't practical with paper-based testing. It's hard enough to score one batch of quizzes, and nearly impossible to score it 10 times for each student. When the computer does the work for you, it's easy to give students a chance to practice taking a test or give frequent small quizzes. We'll explore how to apply these advantages later in the chapter. For now, let's get started building your first Moodle quiz.