quiz and usability issues

quiz and usability issues

by Yoni Lerner -
Number of replies: 8

Hi all,

I'm working on Moodle 2.5.1 and would like to get your assistance in configuring a quiz. 
I'm having some issues with it's workflow and would like to know if they can be solved via the quiz configuration options or do they require programers help.

1. when I get to the quiz by clicking the quiz resource on the course's page, I get this window:

This screen is unnecessary, as it really doesn't matter what's the method or how many attempts the student already made.
What I do want is getting straight to the quiz's first page.

2. When clicking the next button on the quiz's last page, I get this screen:

This screen is unnecessary. As the question behaviour is set on adaptive mode, the student already know where he got it right or wrong.
Therefore, when clicking on the next button on the quiz's last page, I want to get to the final summary of the quiz which is begin described in issue #3. 

 

3. This is the summary of attempt:

Here, the "submit all and finish" button brings up unnecessary popup. basically, I want the submit button to refer the student back to the course.
This isn't happening. On the contrary, it leads him to this screen which doesn't offer any option of returning to the course:

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In reply to Yoni Lerner

Re: quiz and usability issues

by Joshua Bragg -

There isn't a direct way in the user interface to get rid of those pages.

For many of us those pages are exceptionally valuable.  In my class, I use a mixture of adaptive mode and deferred feedback.  I also set open and close dates on some of my quizzes and limit the number of attempts on some of them as well as well as time limits.  The first page that you come to collects the information about those restrictions and displays it to students.

Taking a quiz online can be stressful.  Imagine for just a minute that you are new to your class and click on the quiz to see what is going on.  You might be shocked to be immediately dumped into the quiz without any information about the conditions under which you must take the quiz.

Finally quizzes can be longer than just 1 question.  Back in the 1.9 days before the attempt summary page, I did have students who missed answering a question because they inadvertently scrolled over it.  I think that summary page is a welcome addition.  The are you sure dialog is also since it is very easy to misclick, particularly on a mobile device or any other touchscreen.

Students also can forget if they have already finished something.  The initial page would also show if they have already attempted it or not without forcing them to take another quiz.  Granted this can be done in the Grades interface but many of my students miss the Grade page at first.

What you're asking for makes a lot of sense for your specific use case.  But if you decide to do anything differently in setting up your quizzes then you may regret making those changes.  I think your "usability" suggestions would make the quiz less comfortable for your students.

Tim Hunt can probably advise you on what you might need to do if you really decide to get rid of those pages.

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In reply to Joshua Bragg

Re: quiz and usability issues

by Yoni Lerner -

Joshua, 

I understand your point and usually I wouldn't bother myself with these pages, but we do have a specific need. the original requirement was to make the quiz more user friendly as it's not a quiz in it's strict sense but just a tool to engage the users with some questions and interactions. Therefore, these pages are not relevant.

There are usability issues in the sense that sometimes cigar is just a cigar. What I mean to say is that there a cases in which we want a very simple quiz and the excess of popups and pages makes it bit cumbersome for the user.

Anyhow, let's see if Tim has something in mind smile

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In reply to Yoni Lerner

Re: quiz and usability issues

by Joshua Bragg -

Ah, that makes more sense. Allow me to play the role of Joseph Rezeau for just a minute and point out that since what you're doing isn't really a quiz then you should look at something like Questionnaire, Feedback, or Choice instead. In fact, Choice would be ideal since you only have one question. Does it need to have a correct answer?

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In reply to Joshua Bragg

Re: quiz and usability issues

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

It's a trade-off. We could make more of those pages optional, but if we did, then that would mean we would have to give teacher extra controls to control those options. And the quiz is already too complex for teachers to set up, so we don't really want to make it more coplex unless we really have to.

Oh, and if anyone wants to try to devise an evil hack, you could try to write some JavaScript, to be included in the quiz intro text, which looks for the Start attempt button, and if it finds it, clicks it for the user. That would get rid of one of the steps you want to get rid of. (However, I am not sure that using that idea for real is a good idea.)

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: quiz and usability issues

by Yoni Lerner -

Joshua and Tim,

Thanks for the answers.

I'll be more specific in my needs, so maybe you could suggest an alternative, for as much as I tested the options the quiz seemed to be the best solution.

We're trying to gamify our content - giving "stars" to interactions and keep a record of the student's progress. after several test, we've found that the quiz resource can do the trick (although with some modifications). 

this a link to to quick prototype I made which demonstrates what I need. (each underlined blue word is clickable). I'd be more than happy to get some suggestions on how i can make it happen. if you have other ideas (or questions) than using quiz - go for it smile

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In reply to Yoni Lerner

Re: quiz and usability issues

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

The diagram on http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Quiz_user_interface_overview may be a useful reference.

You can link directly to startattempt.php, but the URL needs to include sesskey. One way to handle this would to be make a new filter (http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Filters) that is a bit like the activity name auto-linking filter, but which make links that, when clicked, launch a designated quiz.

You could override the quiz renderer (http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Overriding_a_renderer) to change the Next button on the last page of the quiz to be Submit all and finish instead, and you could also modify the display of the review page to contain the badges and back to course links.

I relaise that this very brief sketch of a possible solution may be totally incomprehensible, but I don't have time to explain more now.

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In reply to Yoni Lerner

Re: quiz and usability issues

by Toni Soto -

Hello Joni, 

I can't check it now, but I think that, even if you're using adaptative mode you must click on 'submit all and finish' button, otherwise the final mark won't be recorded. So, to close the attempt and grab the mark on the gradebook the student must arrive to 'submit all and finish' and click on it to confirm that he/she does want register the attempt. 

Toni 

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