Hi-
We've moving towards using adaptive mode on all of our quizzes, but the majority of questions were created without this in mind, so they're set to the current default of 0.1. Is there any easy way to change this for all the questions?
Also, is there any way to change the default for all future questions we create? I was surprised when I realized that this setting is per-question and thus not in the default quiz settings for the admin.
thanks!
Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Chris Liang-Vergara -
Number of replies: 10
In reply to Chris Liang-Vergara
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Joseph Rézeau -
Hi Chris,
Setting the penalty factor to 1 seems contradictory with the "adaptive" feature. The idea of the adaptive setting is to encourage the student to try again, after having given an incorrect answer. The online help states:
A penalty factor of 1 means that the student has to get the answer right in his first response to get any credit for it at all.
Setting penalty factor to 1 will prevent any further attempts from gaining points, which is not very encouraging for the student.
The reason for setting the penalty factor per question rather than per quiz is quite understandable. It is much easier for the student to guess the correct answer to a 3-choices multiple choice question than an 8-choices MCQ, and much more difficult to guess the answer to a short-answer question. The value of the penalty factor must be adjusted according to the difficulty of each individual question.
I hope that helps you understand the rationale of the penalty factor within the context of an adaptive quiz. Do keep in mind that an adaptive quiz is meant for learning, training, revising, not for testing purposes.
Joseph
In reply to Joseph Rézeau
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Chris Liang-Vergara -
Hey Joseph,
Thanks for your response - let me clarify my intentions for such a harsh penalty factor. We have practice "quizzes" setup for learning and practice with extensive feedback for each incorrect answer, so we're all for having students try again and use the hints to help them along.
The issue with a low default penalty factor of 0.1 is that our students are seeing that they can guess multiple times at a question and still see a high score at the end - giving them a false sense of mastery. By having a high penalty factor, the score they see at the end is more authentic as to their actual mastery, but they are able to retry the questions based on the feedback. So as long as the intrinsic motivation is there - this model works well for us.
Perhaps a penalty factor of 0.5 would be a nice happy medium - so they give more shot at the question - enough that they'll focus hard on their 2nd attempt, but their final score shown isn't overly inflated.
Thanks for your response - let me clarify my intentions for such a harsh penalty factor. We have practice "quizzes" setup for learning and practice with extensive feedback for each incorrect answer, so we're all for having students try again and use the hints to help them along.
The issue with a low default penalty factor of 0.1 is that our students are seeing that they can guess multiple times at a question and still see a high score at the end - giving them a false sense of mastery. By having a high penalty factor, the score they see at the end is more authentic as to their actual mastery, but they are able to retry the questions based on the feedback. So as long as the intrinsic motivation is there - this model works well for us.
Perhaps a penalty factor of 0.5 would be a nice happy medium - so they give more shot at the question - enough that they'll focus hard on their 2nd attempt, but their final score shown isn't overly inflated.
In reply to Chris Liang-Vergara
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Joseph Rézeau -
Hi Chris,
I see that we agree that a penalty factor of 1 (which you mentioned in your post's title) would be too harsh (and, I would add, meaningless in an adaptive context). Your suggestion of 0.5 looks OK.
ATB
Joseph
I see that we agree that a penalty factor of 1 (which you mentioned in your post's title) would be too harsh (and, I would add, meaningless in an adaptive context). Your suggestion of 0.5 looks OK.
ATB
Joseph
In reply to Chris Liang-Vergara
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Rob Johnson -
I have had lower grade teachers complain of the same "false sense of mastery." They are now using a .5 penalty factor and are pleased with the results.
In reply to Chris Liang-Vergara
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Tim Hunt -
I think the only way to change that default is to edit the line
>setDefault, 0.1;in question/type/edit_question_form.php
In reply to Tim Hunt
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Chris Liang-Vergara -
Thanks Tim - appreciate it 
It would be helpful if teachers could set this at the course level.
In reply to Rob Johnson
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by scott gundrum -
I was using moodle 1.9 on my own server until my school set up a moodle server. They are using 2.0 and I was wondering if I still needed to access the coding to chaneg the default penalty to 0.5 or if there was an easier way to acomplish this now.
Thanks,
Scott
In reply to scott gundrum
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Melissa Benson -
Tim's edit worked for me but I too was wondering if this has changed yet?
In reply to Melissa Benson
Re: Set default of "Penalty Factor" to 1 for all questions?
by Tim Hunt -
There is still not a better way to do this.
Implementing a new admin setting for this is perfectly doable, if anyone wants to give it a go, but I doubt I will have the time in the forseeable future.