Quiz

Hi Tim,

I like the overall approach. Here are a couple things that I would look for. I understand that they may have dependencies of their own.

• Some indication of the question's scope (activity-level, course-level, etc.)
• An edit button
• A duplicate button

Hello Tim,

Very nice to use and a lot more intuitive than the old interface.

Unfortunately for me the "add page break" and "remove page break" icons are undistinguishable but I guess this is because of my age and I know my eyesight is not what it used to be a few years ago . Fortunately the space between questions give some indication  on page breaks and there is the help menu when mouse is over the icon so all this considered it's not a big problem.

K, I played a bit with it. Here are my critical notices; the "Cons" section looks longer simply because I am explaining my criticisms rather than just pronouncing things "bad" and walking away. I didn't write this software; I couldn't write this software, and I appreciate that fact as well as its existence greatly.

Pros

• The UI is now consistent with the main course page. 
• Adding a new item also puts it where you want it on the quiz. This saves a step.
• Changing the order of the items is no longer a clicking marathon.
  
• Pagination is easy to change (if you can distinguish the icons)

Cons

• The UI is now consistent with the main course page. I agree it's much less cluttered, but I have become very irritated with modern UIs' insistence on making me click several times to do frequent actions. If I have "Edit" turned on, I am editing. The idea that the editing functions should be hidden in a menu makes no sense to me. It requires the user to go on a hunting expedition, and I think it is wrongheaded. But perhaps I digress. Suffice it to say, I do not like the new UI. It takes much longer to explain to teaching assistants, which verifies to me that it actually is more complex.
• I do not really understand the benefit of hiding the item bank. I realize this may sound like a reiteration of the above, but it is a little different. When I am editing a quiz, what am I doing, primarily? I am adding items. That's the entire purpose of the quiz editing page. The question bank is not some little-used, optional feature for power users or other such weirdos; it's not subordinate to the quiz; the quiz is subordinate to the items. Items exist without quizzes, not the other way around. Opening an overlay that obfuscates the quiz item list, though visually cleaner, is actually more difficult, because one must remember what is already there.
  
• This rework does nothing to address what I often think is the weirdest problem of adding items to quizzes: The fact that the items list up in order of type, which means that when adding an entire quiz' worth of items, one must either re-order after adding (much simplified by this rework), or click as many items as you can that happen to already be in the right order, then add them, then do another group, then add those... With this rework, one would still have to do that, but they have that "open the question bank" step thrown in the middle each time, and would have to remember what is already there. I suppose this is a sub-criticism to the immediately above, but if anything needed to be fixed in the Edit Quiz UI, it was that, in my opinion.
• The page break icons are minuscule on high-resolution screens, and it's very hard to determine which way the arrows are going.
• The "pen" icon, which usually is for renaming resources, changes the point weight. This is confusing. It's even more confusing than the pen icon itself, because the pen used to be the settings icon for many years and then it changed to a gear. But I digress.
  

Overall, as clunky and weird as the old UI is/was, some of that clunkiness was actually useful. This rework is a lot prettier, and the reordering tool is easier than the old one, but I think that much of it comes at the expense of expedient editing.

Here are a few ideas, which may be too much of a headache to code, since I'm sure you're currently using a lot of existing code, and that will always be more elegant:

• How about making the question bank "dockable"? Perhaps it could be a block that the user could enable or not. What would be really cool would be a pane that could slide out from the side if activated. But I suspect that would be a nightmare to put together as it doesn't exist anywhere else in Moodle, and besides, it would fragment the UX.
• It would be wonderful if one could reorder items by typing numbers into boxes. Perhaps a button could be pressed that either brings up an overlay or displays numbers next to the items in the edit list. Then the user could change the order of all the items at once, hit "Save" or whatever, and bam, done.
  

I hope these comments are taken as intended: Constructive criticism from a heavy user of Moodle. As I said, it's not like I can sit down and write this stuff myself, so it's a bit of armchair UI/UX direction.

Thanks for your time/effort on this.

Nice work all around Tim, Colin and Mahmoud.  It looks great and is a huge usability improvement.

Here are a few thoughts.

• When I looked at it the first time, it took me a little bit to realize what the marked out of numbers were.  Perhaps some sort of column label might help?  In any case, I'm ok with the pen icon and keeping the with standard Moodle idiom on this.
• Kevin mentioned an edit button earlier.  I can imagine teachers missing that you could edit a question directly from this page by clicking on the title link.  I'd say put it back in also.
• This is a super nitpicky point admittedly but see The 74 circled in red should move up to the top of the box.  There can be some overlap of the question text on long questions with the preview button.
• I agree with others on the add/remove page icons.
• The P1, P2 for pages is obvious once you have more than one page.  At first glance I didn't understand what the P1 meant though.  Use Page 1 and Page 2 again perhaps?
• I really appreciate that the add question boxes are now a popup.  I've had so many issues with themes screwing up that portion of this page over the past three years that it has become one of the first places I check when I look at a new theme.
• The create a new question button in the from a question bank isn't necessary anymore.
• A preview of the contents of a category would still be helpful on the add a random question page.  We've always had this essentially since the category contents were usually above that option.  It could be much less than the question bank contents.
• When hitting "Show all XX questions" or "Show 20 questions" in the add from bank popup, the reload is a bit disconcerting.  I don't know what exactly about it bothers me but I wasn't sure it had reloaded the popup the first time I saw it.  That was because the underlying edit page loaded first.  I don't have any suggestions for this...
• Its odd that the question bank popup is aligned right and not centered like the others.
• I had some problems testing adding pages and then reordering things.  One of the bugs you mentioned no doubt.  Thought I'd point it out all the same in case you haven't seen it yet.  Here is what I ended up with... 

I agree with Jean-Michel that "the "add page break" and "remove page break" icons are undistinguishable".

I was expecting to find an "Edit question" icon somewhere. I clicked on the Edit icon to find out that it was meant for editing the "score". Actually, the wording of that icon's bubble help ("Edit marked out of") is not clear to me.

I would like the "Add" link to be renamed "Add a question". Even though it is possible from that link to add more than one question, at least it would make it clear what kind of "object" we want to add to the quiz.

Aaron Batty. I do not understand what you mean by "The idea that the editing functions should be hidden in a menu makes no sense to me."

Apart from that, I really like the new interface. Well-done!

Joseph

Hi Tim,

also from my side some feedback, overall I really like the redesign, and it will make quiz editing a lot easier.
Most of the adjustments I propose below are visual clarifications or errors I still see.

• Please make the "Add" menu open to the bottom, this is counter intuitive
• The icons before the quiz questions do not line up, which makes it hard to see distinctions with some question types
• I believe the question title should be line wrapped so it works on mobile, and does not hide parts of the title on narrow screens
• If pages could be shown in the Bootstrap "Well"  element, it would clear up the distinction between pages
• Could the question bank support searching for questions?
• Is it possible to paginate the question bank?
• All questions text/titles seem to get cut off very short without the usual ellipsis (...) notation, this to me is very confusing

Regards, David

The ability to edit question point value is clearly improved (no page refresh every time) but could there be a bulk option or the ability to set a default question value in the quiz settings?

Just a thought at making an improved process (in this prototype) even better compared to the status quo. 

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has contributed here. (Please keep doing so!)

I have not replied in detail to every point, but I have read them all, and there are some really great suggestions there. We will be making a lot of these changes, and then I will try to summarise what we have, or have not, done.

Firstly, I'd like to say that thanks for the work going into the Edit Quiz interface as the new version looks great.

As has already been said by others, I really like being able to drag the questions to reorder them in a quiz; it makes the job far easier and helps to promote general consistency by reflecting the reordering of sections on a course page - so thanks!

I don't mind the options being "hidden" behind an Add button - I guess the alternative would be to present a set of icons on the screen and having to decide on appropriate and meaningful icons. I also admit to not having been sure about the hiding away of options behind the Edit "button" on the course page when it was introduced in 2.6 but I've got used to it now and think this approach again supports a consistent interface.

Just a few minor comments:

1. This was mentioned earlier and I'd like to vote for it too ... when you click "Add a random question", it would be nice if the pop-up allowed you to add a number of random questions from a category, rather than having to click "Add a question from the question bank", scrolling to the bottom and doing it from there.

2. I'd also support a change from "P1", "P2" to "Page 1", "Page 2" purely for clarification.

2. Since we're now showing question text on the Edit quiz page, I wondered if it were possible to include an ellipsis (...) when text is truncated just to illustrate that there is further text.

3. To add a specific question from the question bank to the quiz, you click on the "<<" icon. This seemed logical before as the Question Bank was (typically) on the right hand side and the icon pointed to the quiz question listings. It doesn't seem quite so logical now (with a central pop-up) and I wondered whether replacing the "<<" with a "+" icon might be better. I realise that this is changing an icon that people may be familiar with but I think it may make it a little more intuitive for new moodlers. Just a suggestion anyway.

4. I've also managed to recreate a page-naming problem similar to the one that Joshua was encountering (see below). To achieve this, I didn't drag any questions around. I simply added a page break after Question 1 and then tried to remove that page break (you may be able to reproduce this now but thought I'd include the information anyway). I was also using Chrome.

Thanks again for all the efforts in changing the interface and I look forward to its release!

Kind Regards, Richard

This looks fantastic. I wouldn't mind trying it. Is there a github page or any way to download the current version of the new question editor?

You are all totally awesome. That is my overall impression having prepared the summary below.

This list tries to include all the suggestions made so far, and what if anything we are going to do about them. Let me know if you think I have missed anything important.

1. Indicate on the page where in the question bank the question comes from. (Kevin Wiliarty)
• This was not a feature of the old UI, and we are not going to add it now. We can debate later whether it woudl be a good or bad change. I am not sure.
  
2. We need an edit icon, in addition to the question name being clickable. (Kevin Wiliarty, Joshua Bragg, Joseph Rézeau)
• Will do.
  
3. Duplicate button for questions on the edit page. (Kevin Wiliarty, Aaron Batty)
• There is now a duplicate icon in the question bank. There might be value in adding one in the quiz editing page too, but if so, we will consider that in the future. We are trying to get this project finished.
  
4. Add/remove page-break buttons look the same (Jean-Michel Védrine, Aaron Batty, Joshua Bragg, Joseph Rézeau)
• Will do. (If we can find a way to make them more differnet. Suggestions welcome. Clearly I suck at icon design.)
  
5. Add random questions needs to allow more than one (and this should not be duplicated in the qbank pop-up). (Binoj D, Richard Hall)
• Will do.
  
6. The new UI (all new UIs) require too many clicks. (Aaron Batty)
• Sorry. This is the way it is going. (Note that, compared to filling in the form to create a multiple choice question, one extra click is nothing.)
  
7. Hidden question bank is a pain. (Aaron Batty) - Hidden question bank is nice (Joshua Bragg)
• So, we can't win. It is the way it is.
  
8. Sort order in the question bank. (Aaron Batty)
• Out of scope. MDL-25721 if you want to vote for it being done later.
  
9. The pen icon next to the max mark is confusing, as are the numbers themselves (Aaron Batty, Joshua Bragg)
• Will do. Our idea is try putting a patch of white background beind the mark and the icon. We'll have to see how that looks.
  
10. Dockable question bank. (Aaron Batty)
• Might be a good idea, but too bloody hard. Sorry. Not happening.
  
11. Something like the old order-and-paging UI. (Aaron Batty)
• Sorry. Not possible. If you have not tried it yet, try clicking the move icon (either on this page, or on the course page.) Yes, on our page, that is a bit buggy. We will fix that.
  
12. Some layout niggles. (Joshua Bragg)
• Mostly fixed, others should be fixed.
  
13. P1, P2 for the page numbers is not clear enough. (Joshua Bragg, Richard Hall)
• Will move these to the right of the split/join page icons, then we have space to spell out 'Page' in full.
  
14. Create new question button not needed in question bank popup (Joshua Bragg)
• Already done.
  
15. Need preview of category contents for random questions (Joshua Bragg)
• Agreed that something like that woulg be nice, but it will probably have to wait until later.
  
16. It is a bit clunkly when the questionbank dialogue contents reloads (Joshua Bragg)
• Will fix.
  
17. Question bank pop-up should be centred like the others (Joshua Bragg)
• Will do.
  
18. Page numbering bug. (Joshua Bragg)
• Should be fixed.
  
19. Rename Add -> Add question (Joseph Rézeau)
• I'm not convinced, and it will become less apprpriate once we have done more of https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=231180. If we are wrong about this, we can easily change it later.
  
20. Add menu should open downwards, not upwards. (David Bezemer)
• Will fix. (This is a standard Moodle widget. Don't know why it is doing that.)
  
21. Icons don't line up (when the question number goes from 1 to 2 digits. (David Bezemer)
• Will fix.
  
22. Question title should line-wrap. (David Bezemer)
• No. We should display as much as can fit in the space on one line, and then ...
  
23. Ellipsis when truncating question names/text. (David Bezemer, Richard Hall)
• Will fix.
  
24. Pages should be boostrap wells. (David Bezemer)
• No, or least not now. Note that in future we will also have sections as well as pages.
  
25. Question bank search. (David Bezemer)
• Out of scope. MDL-17875 if you want to vote for it being done later.
26. Paginate the question bank. (David Bezemer)
• Is already there.
  
27. Easier way to bulk edit question max marks. (Joseph Thibault)
• I can't think of a good way to do this, so no. (Someone could make an add-on, e.g. block or quiz report, to do this.)
  
28. Hide max mark during attempts. (Bruce Soule)
• Out of scope. Is there a tracker issue for this.
  
29. Now the question bank is a pop-up, << icon to add to quiz is not so clear. (Richard Hall)
• Will do, if we can think of an appropriate icon.
  

Here are some notes

1) When building a quiz, click Add > From question bank: 
 - If category has questions, then you will see the pop-up window aligned to the right. 
 - If there are none, the window will be in the center. 

Do not add anything, close it. Click  Add > From question bank again: 
 - Now the window will be displayed in the middle all the time. 

I would prefer central location, to make it consistent with other pop-ups there. 

2) In FF31 and IE 11 things look like this to me in that window: 

3)  - Click Add random question, then under "Random question using a new category" type new category name and click "Create category and add random question" button.
 - See "question" placeholder in the quiz stating Random (TITLE)[Empty]. If you click on it, you can only rename the category. You do need to go to the question bank and add a question from there. I was expecting that I would both create a category and create/add a question because this is what the button said.
Previously interface was warning the user: "This random question is not in use, since its category is empty. Add questions to the category TITLE".  Can we add the same?  

And I agree that #15 "preview of category contents" would be nice to re-add - we have it now and I think it is helpful. 

I then went to the question bank, found my new category and added questions there. 
Went back to the quiz editing page -  it still states Random (TITLE)[Empty], even though there are questions now, and the quiz itself seems to be working. 

Thank you !

Tescher view - When we edit a question breadcrumb shows Home > My courses > Course category > Course name > Topic name > Quiz name > Quizzes > Quiz name > Editing quiz > Editing a description. I think it need to be

Home > My courses > Course category > Course name > Quizzes > Quiz name > Editing quiz > Editing a description

Definitely an improvement overall.  Nice work!

Suggestions:

1. Under add a random question - it seems strange to have the option to add a random question from a new category.  You create the category, but then it has no questions, so nothing is added to the quiz.  I am just not sure that this is the correct place for the new category add link.  Perhaps something like a button that says "Need to set up categories?" that takes you to the question bank.

2. Add a Random question should have the option found in the Question Bank option of adding multiple questions from one category.

3. On the Add Question page, I think T should actually say Type.  Just to avoid any confusion...!

4.  Yes to needing a Copy or Save As New option.

Just to say that, at the end of what feels like a very long week, I think we are getting close.

There are still few items on our todo list, the most significant ones being

• Add random questions UI
• Some remaining details of the layout
• When you alter the mark for one question, the total of marks a the top of the page does not update.
• Still, after certain actions, we refresh the whole page, to make sure the display is accurate.

prototype.moodle.net should update with all our recent changes in about 10 hours time. After that, if anyone has time to do more testing, that would be really great.

Apart from that, the other main thing that needs to happen before this goes in is review by Moodle HQ, and that may, of course, generate a list of more things that need to change.

Another milestone passed last night. I decided that the code was good enough, and submitted it for peer review.

(Of course, I then did that thing that always happens when you submit a major piece of work: I found a mistake! As I was typing the comment into the tracker issue, I decided to run the automated tests one more time, and one of them failed. I will be fixing that today.)

I would love to be able to "mass assign" passwords to multiple quizzes.

I run a standard's based grading system and have different quizzes for each standard. Students are expected to master the standards over the course of the semester. Not every student learns them at the same rate. Therefore on a given day, multiple different quizzes are taken. by the end of the semester I might have up to 15 quizzes per class (chemistry or physics) to change passwords for, which ends up taking a significant amount of time. As an example, in week 4 of school, between my chemistry and physics classes I have 10 different quizzes available for students. It would be nice to change all of these once...

I like to keep the quizzes viewable for students so they can go back and look at their previous attempts. It is helpful for me and them to be able to see what they have done in the past and help them improve upon that.