I do not know whether the frequenters of this forum are familiar with Quizport. I have been using Hot Potato files with QuizPort to control order and percentage required before moving on from one quiz to another. I have not used the lesson approach. Having figured out how to use QuizPort and looking at documentation for the lesson module, I was curious as to whether one approach is better than the other or whether one is better for some approaches while the other is better for different of approaches/objectives. My initial feeling was that QuizPort can do it all and possibly better. However, I never set up a lesson.
A while back I posed this over at the Hotpot forum: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=140319 It was suggested that I pose this over here.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Jeff
Thanks for the post. I have not pontificated on this subject in a while 
For better or worse, the goal of a Lesson is different than that of a Quiz or QuizPort. Basically you can think of a Lesson as a way to prepare students for a quiz. Both use conditional/dependency (task chaining) and the reasons are the same. Both use questions (plus description or branch table pages) but the reason for using a question is different.
For example: In a face to face interactive classroom (not lecture), the teacher presents information and throws out a question to see if the class or a specific student "gets it". While the phrase is over used, the teacher "adapts" their presentation based upon the answer given by the student(s). I think of these kinds of questions as part of the continuous quality control process good teachers use as one of their best practices.
A quiz is used by the teacher to see what the students have mastered immediately after presenting content (also generically called a lesson but could also include independent non-interactive reading) to the student. Depending upon the outcome of the entire quiz, the student is allowed or denied things by a score. Reports allow the teacher to see how a student reacted to individual questions/concepts given in the quiz.
For the purposes of having granular (to level of each student/question/answer) reports that are similar to Quiz, QuizPort is better than Lesson. I note that in Moodle 2.0 something similar to Activity Locking (conditional activity-dependency) will also be standard, so Lesson and QuizPort will not be unusual in their ability to chain tasks.
However, QuizPort and Quizzes lack the robust/granular adaptive features of a Lesson. To steal your phrase, this is "concept chaining on steroids". In a Lesson, every student's choice can trigger a specific outcome. For example a multiple choice question has 3 answers. The teacher knows that a student who selects "A" has mastered the concept and will send them to the next concept. A student who selects "B" has made a small mistake, will get more explanation in the feedback and then will be sent to the next concept. The student who selects "C" is clueless about the concept and should go to a set of pages that explains the concept differently before they are allowed to go to the "next concept". Thus, Lesson with it's jumps is "better"for customizing asynchronous presentations to a wide range of learning styles.
From a student standpoint Lesson might be more efficient and perhaps a more effective way of receiving content. From a teacher standpoint, just like a face to face interactive class compared to a straight lecture, it can require more work and experience to anticipate or adapt to student needs. It is easier to task chain because the blocks are generally larger.
In my limited use of the higher priced course management software, I don't see anything like the Lesson module. It uses something like conditional activities or the dependency setting in Lesson to chain tasks. These features are adaptive between modules but not within a module.
Neither Lesson nor Quiz or QuizPort is really a better standalone tool than the other. The context of its use determines the value for each teacher and student.
Hope this helps. Chris
For better or worse, the goal of a Lesson is different than that of a Quiz or QuizPort. Basically you can think of a Lesson as a way to prepare students for a quiz. Both use conditional/dependency (task chaining) and the reasons are the same. Both use questions (plus description or branch table pages) but the reason for using a question is different.
For example: In a face to face interactive classroom (not lecture), the teacher presents information and throws out a question to see if the class or a specific student "gets it". While the phrase is over used, the teacher "adapts" their presentation based upon the answer given by the student(s). I think of these kinds of questions as part of the continuous quality control process good teachers use as one of their best practices.
A quiz is used by the teacher to see what the students have mastered immediately after presenting content (also generically called a lesson but could also include independent non-interactive reading) to the student. Depending upon the outcome of the entire quiz, the student is allowed or denied things by a score. Reports allow the teacher to see how a student reacted to individual questions/concepts given in the quiz.
For the purposes of having granular (to level of each student/question/answer) reports that are similar to Quiz, QuizPort is better than Lesson. I note that in Moodle 2.0 something similar to Activity Locking (conditional activity-dependency) will also be standard, so Lesson and QuizPort will not be unusual in their ability to chain tasks.
However, QuizPort and Quizzes lack the robust/granular adaptive features of a Lesson. To steal your phrase, this is "concept chaining on steroids". In a Lesson, every student's choice can trigger a specific outcome. For example a multiple choice question has 3 answers. The teacher knows that a student who selects "A" has mastered the concept and will send them to the next concept. A student who selects "B" has made a small mistake, will get more explanation in the feedback and then will be sent to the next concept. The student who selects "C" is clueless about the concept and should go to a set of pages that explains the concept differently before they are allowed to go to the "next concept". Thus, Lesson with it's jumps is "better"for customizing asynchronous presentations to a wide range of learning styles.
From a student standpoint Lesson might be more efficient and perhaps a more effective way of receiving content. From a teacher standpoint, just like a face to face interactive class compared to a straight lecture, it can require more work and experience to anticipate or adapt to student needs. It is easier to task chain because the blocks are generally larger.
In my limited use of the higher priced course management software, I don't see anything like the Lesson module. It uses something like conditional activities or the dependency setting in Lesson to chain tasks. These features are adaptive between modules but not within a module.
Neither Lesson nor Quiz or QuizPort is really a better standalone tool than the other. The context of its use determines the value for each teacher and student.
Hope this helps. Chris
Dear Chris,
thanks for the interesting post. As you say the two modules are designed for different purposes and while they have similarities, they also have important differences.
> However, QuizPort and Quizzes lack the robust/granular adaptive features of a Lesson.
I earnestly dispute this claim regarding QuizPort. The QuizPort pre-conditions and post-conditions are very robust and give far greater flexibility and granularity than the Lesson "Jump to" functionality or the "Branch table" pages.
For example, the QuizPort post-conditions can be defined not only in terms of the score for the current page, but also in terms of the time taken to complete the page.
Similarly the pre-conditions on quizzes, which control access to pages and offer choices to student much like the Lesson module's "Branch tables" do, allow teachers to control access to certain pages based on the score, duration and time elapsed since attempts at other pages.
Please feel free to download the QuizPort module and experiement a little more with it.
- download:
QuizPort module for Moodle 1.0 - 1.9
- overview and manual:
http://bateson.kanazawa-gu.ac.jp/moodle/19/mysql/mod/quizport/docs/tutorials/
- sample site:
BaBeeBoo: English Listening Course (for Japanese students - guest access allowed)
regards
Gordon
Thank you Gordon,
Ignorance is bliss! I will check out QuizPort and try to spend some time in MoodleDocs.
I really appreciate the further description, it certainly sounds robust. Next problem is to 1)find the time to 2) teach an old dog new tricks
Best Chris
Ignorance is bliss! I will check out QuizPort and try to spend some time in MoodleDocs.
I really appreciate the further description, it certainly sounds robust. Next problem is to 1)find the time to 2) teach an old dog new tricks
Best Chris