From Friday Mailing 21st January 2022

What is the difference between a quiz and a test or an exam? Imagine your local pub giving over Thursday nights for teams of people to come in and sit a test. Would BBC2 have Monday night as exam night? There is something quite fun about quizzes. If you keep them light, and not too intimidating, they can be a part of your online teaching that participants might look forward to. One tutor I know used a quick online quiz after each session. Students complained about the first one but found that it was quick and not to onerous. By week 7, when there was no quiz, they were complaining about its absence. 

If you have been following the “Moodle Activity Guide for teachers” you will see that Moodle’s quiz activity is the first to get a red background for “ease of use”. But if you have managed to produce a feedback or questionnaire activity, then a quiz is just adding one further step – a way of indicating the “correct” answer and keeping a score (if you want to). Here is a guide and a video about Moodle quizzes. Do remember that you can reuse quizzes you have created, or indeed reuse individual questions.