Hi,
Let's say that Quiz A has questions 1a, 2a and 3a, Quiz B has questions 1b, 2b and 3b, Quiz C has questions 1c, 2c, and 3c, etc. Each series ([1a, 2a, 3a], [1b, 2b, 3b], [1c, 2c, 3c], etc.) forms a coherent set of questions. All series are different from each other.
Is it possible to set up a random quiz, i.e. each student gets a different quiz picked randomly from [Quiz A, Quiz B, Quiz C, etc.]?
No. I don't think so.
Consider making this into a Tracker Feature Request if it does not already exist.
This has never been implemented, although it is a good idea. I am pretty sure there is already a tracker issue for it.
Thank you both. I will check the tracker.
I looked around and didn't find a tracker request for this. I will wait to see what you find.
When I think about an LMS providing "randomized quizzes," I see this being a completely new feature that will take a lot of care and thought. It would probably be like how Moodle manages questions, but would manage quizzes instead. There would need to be a close interaction between the question bank and this new quiz bank, as quizzes would draw from questions. Having randomized quizzes would add a very powerful feature to Moodle, but once again, I see this as taking a lot of work. Maybe Tim would see this differently since he is very familiar with the behind-the-scenes quiz engine.
Maybe this could be handled with random questions.
Let's suppose that we want to select randomly one quiz from a bank of 3 quizzes (Quiz A, B and C) that each contains 4 questions ([A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4], [B-1, B-2, B-3, B-4] and [C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4]).
Question category 1 contains questions A-1, B-1 and C-1.
Question category 2 contains questions A-2, B-2 and C-2.
Question category 3 contains questions A-3, B-3 and C-3.
Question category 4 contains questions A-4, B-4 and C-4.
The teacher would set up a quiz with four random questions, each taken from the above four categories. Here's the modification: Moodle would select the same nth random question in the four categories. For example, if n=1, the four random questions would be A-1, A-2, A-3 and A-4; if n=2, the four random questions would be B-1, B-2, B-3 and B-4; if n=3, the four random questions would be C-1, C-2, C-3 and C-4.
For my use, quizzes A, B, C, etc. would be slightly different versions of the same quiz. With a class of say forty students, I may not need that many different versions. Maybe five would already tell the students that they do not all have the same quiz, thus discouraging cheating. I could restrict the display of each quiz to different groups and that may do the trick, but having the option of random quiz built in Moodle would be nicer.
Dominique, one thing that you might be able to do is to put students into 5 (random) groups. Then create your five different quizzes, but make each quiz available to only one group. If student A belongs to group Z, they only see Quiz Z. Using this method, you would only need to create 5 different quizzes.
This could be your solution. However, I wish Moodle also offered a "random quiz" feature, as we have discussed.
Dominique - In your initial scenario, is it that questions 1a, 1b, and 1c are related in some way - different phrasing but assessing the same standard, for instance?
If so, this might be close to what you want. Rather than Quiz A, Quiz B, and Quiz C, set up three categories:
Category 1 (questions 1a, 1b, 1c)
Category 2 (questions 2a, 2b, 2c)
Category 3 (questions 3a, 3b, 3c)
When adding questions to the the quiz, use the Add Random option three times, choosing one random question from each category. Each student gets a quiz with a random version of each question.
(I think this is the same idea you presented, but Im adding it just in case it is a different approach)
David
"Randomized quizzes" is a fancy and accurate name. An equivalent but more down-to-earth name would be "linked random questions": by using the same rank for the three random questions, one could get randomly "questions 1a, 2a, 3a", " questions 1b, 2b, 3b" or "questions 1c, 2c, 3c".
As Tim Hunt said, it is a good idea, and as Rick Jerz said, having randomized quizzes would add a very powerful feature to Moodle. I agree and I believe that it could be realized at a small cost simply by using the same rank in a series of random questions.
Hi Dominique,
I think you can actually achieve "random quizzes" with the capabilities already available in Moodle. I used to teach in a computer lab with only 16 computers, two per table. Each table was small enough that I always had to make sure that during testing, the monitors were turned slightly away from each other. Even then, some students would try to read answers from their neighbors monitor.
Once I started using Moodle, I started making sure that all my multiple choice questions were set to shuffle choices. For any short answer questions I had them in their own category with multiple copies of the question that were slightly different. When making up the quiz, I always set it to randomly select questions from each category and to shuffle answers within questions, and no more than five questions per page.
The first quiz of the year, I literally had students go around the lab, looking at each students quiz to convince them that trying to cheat was a waste of time, because NONE of them had the same quiz. Even when they would spot someone with one of the same MC questions, the answers were in a different order and it was a different number question. They would have to spend so much time trying to find the right question and then the answer on their neighbors screen, that not only would I catch them staring at the wrong monitor, they would run out of time, since I had started using timed quizzes.
This is great! I was describing your tactic to some teachers just within the last couple of weeks, but could not remember where I read it or who posted it.
The "just try to cheat - I dare you!" maneuver. Awesome!
And possible even some impromptu learning? I can imagine some lively discussion/defense of answers choices.
Thanks!
David
Al, I think that I know exactly what you have described, which is what I do all of the time. However, this is not the same as randomly selected quizzes. I will describe my need.
I teach a course on statistics. What I want to do is to create a quiz where the first question, a "description" question, provides a unique dataset. Then I want to ask around a dozen typical statistics questions, such as what is the mean, mode, standard deviation, etc. These individual questions are either calculated multiple choice, or multiple choice questions (of course with answers shuffled.) You can see how these dozen questions "belong" to the first question. I want to have around a dozen or so of these types of grouped questions, meaning a dataset (description) along with a dozen following questions about that dataset.
Right now in Moodle, I see no way to connect a dataset question to very specific multiple choice questions other than creating it as a standard quiz. However, if I want a different dataset, I have to create another quiz. This is the need for "randomly selected quizzes."
I can accomplish some of this by not randomizing the quizzes, but rather by putting students randomly into groups, and then delivery all quizzes but making each one viewable by only one group. Doable, but a little awkward. Randomly selected quizzes seem to be a better solution, when this feature is developed.
Hi Rick,
Have you tried using the Formulas question type? It let's your use random numbers and multiple answers, such that each student gets their own version of the the question, with different answers. I just found one example I made for someone that requires 24 answers. I even use Generico filters to show/hide some information to help cut down on having to scroll too much.
Yes, I do use the formulas in the calculated multiple choice. But this question needs to know the values in the original dataset, i.e., the leading "description" question. I want each student to get a randomly selected dataset, then reply to specific questions about that dataset. So the questions must be directly linked to the first dataset question.
As a simpler example, consider a geometry quiz. You want to have the dataset be two values, length, and width, such as 5 and 8. Then you might want to follow with five specific questions given these two specific values: What is the length? What is the width? What is the perimeter? What is the area of the rectangle? and What is the area of one triangle if the rectangle is split corner to corner? You want each question to use the initial values (5 and 8), and not be totally new questions with different input values. This is a simple example. My statistics example is a better one.
It is not odd in math and science courses to have some input dataset and then want to ask several questions about that given specific dataset.
Rick,
Thank you for explaining and illustrating the need with an example. Let me repeat that I think randomized quizzes can be achieved without too much development cost simply by having Moodle use the same index for all random questions in a set.
Al,
Randomized quizzes can be done with the Formulas question but these quizzes are just that, Formulas questions. Although this question type is excellent, it does not replace all question types.
Your "index" idea might be a viable method. Each question could also have a specific index number, such as 1, 2, 3, 4.
Then, when generating the quiz, there might be a quiz feature that says "Always keep questions associated with the index number." Moodle then randomly picks a beginning index number, such as 5, and then questions with index=5 are picked.
I think that this is what you might be saying, Dominique. Right?
If so, the quiz question table would need another field (index), and the quiz engine would have to be modified to use this field. Sure, I might see this as simple, but I am not a programmer (so any coding seems simple )
(Tim will have to chime in on this.)
Rick,
Yes, I think we are talking about the same thing.
I am wondering if this "index" column, or number, could serve any other purpose? If it could, it might gain more interest. For example, I wonder in a normal quiz (no what we have been discussing) if the index might be used to force one question to come after another, in a random question selected quiz. Would this be of value? Well, I might be confusing the issue.
Maybe instead of "index" it should be called "grouping" or something like that.
Hi Rick,
Simply the same "random index" value that would be used for all questions in a set of random questions.
The more I think about this the more complex it gets. Say that we do have a random index field for each question that keeps a group of questions as a set. I can't think of the logic of how to maintain the order of these questions. Somehow, I would probably have to create a flowchart to figure out how this might work.
Hi Rick,
The concept is very simple and so would be its application. Let me explain.
Let's say a quiz has three questions, Question_A, Question_B and Question_C, that we want to be random but linked.
Moodle would pick a random index value, let's say 3. Then Question_A would be picked as the 3rd question from category_A, Question_B would be picked also as the 3rd question from category_B, etc. If Moodle picks 2 as the random index value, then Question_A would be picked as the 2nd question from category_A, Question_B would be picked also as the 2nd question from category_B, etc. and so on.
Of course, the teacher would have to order the questions in each category so that the first questions in category A, B and C are related, the second questions in category A, B and C are related, etc.
I can't believe that Moodle would not already know the position of each question in a category. Therefore, the required development may actually be very little. It would consists only in applying the same random index value to random questions that the teacher would have declared linked.
I am opening an improvement tracker titled Linked random questions.
Hmmm, "the teacher would have to order the questions in each category." I think that right now there is no "order." Mine have always been by question type, and then alphabetical by question title. So there might be a need for another column, maybe "order."
As a completely different approach, maybe when creating a quiz as one does right now, there could be a button that says "Save this quiz in a quiz bank." or something like that. Then these "quiz banks" could be easily reused, and grouped so that they can be picked randomly.
Courtesy of the Moodle User's Association, we are going to have select random question by tag in 3.5. I think this would resolve this maybe and you will be able to just tag the questions appropriately. Much easier than trying to order them etc.
If it takes too much work to set up, it would be easier just to manually create the quiz!
Rick, Thank you. I must admit that you made me realize that, after all, linking random questions may be more complex that what I initially thought, probably because of the bookkeeping required for the grades.
Emma, I did not know about Moodle User's Association. Looks great. Thank you for your timely post.
As Al Rachels mentioned in his post, the Formulas question generates multi parts in which variables can be random and linked. In fact, I am now using almost exclusively that question type for my course where all students get the same quizzes, but each student gets different data, so students can't cheat by copying on one another.
(Emma,) I knew about some improvements to the quiz engine, but you made me more excited to see how Tags might be used.
Dominique, make sure to look into the MUA, and to join. I am an individual member, and I see this as a way to do my part to support Moodle (with a little $$$.) Oh, I do get to suggest and to vote on proposals, too.
Hi Dominique,
I think implementation of this feature would be easier if nested randomization in the quiz edit were permitted along with the ability to randomize description questions and categories.
Let's say I have a test with three sections in it. Each section has a set of 3 question blocks I want to draw from. I only want a student to have one of the blocks of questions allocated to them randomly. Inside each block is a description question and another category folder of questions related to that description question.
On our question bank our tree would look a little like this.
-Unit test
- Section 1
-Block A
- Description question 1A
-Questions 1A Category
-Multiple choice 1A-1
-Multiple choice 1A-2
-Multiple choice 1A-3
-Multiple choice 1A-4
-Multiple choice 1A-5
-Multiple choice 1A-6
-Block B
- Description question 1B
-Questions 1B Category
-Multiple choice 1B-1
-Multiple choice 1B-2
-Multiple choice 1B-3
-Multiple choice 1B-4
-Multiple choice 1B-5
-Multiple choice 1B-6
-Block C
- Description question 1C
-Questions 1C Category
-Multiple choice 1C-1
-Multiple choice 1C-2
-Multiple choice 1C-3
-Multiple choice 1C-4
-Multiple choice 1C-5
-Multiple choice 1C-6
- Section 2 .... (similar format to above)
- Section 3.... (similar format to above)
To set up Section 1 in the Quiz you would then add at random category (like add a random question) selecting Block A, Block B and Block C.
You could then see categories (like see questions). You could then add the "description question" from each block as question 1. And if you only want a random sample of say 6 of all your question, then you could add a random question.
You would do this for each block choice in each section.
I hope this makes sense.
Hello Scott,
Thank you for your suggestion. I think the idea of having random quizzes, or random categories, could be of use to many Moodlers. However, developers will have to be convinced that this is an important feature.
Something like this is certainly a worthwhile feature to have. The hard part is working out what the UI should be for teachers to set it up, and then building that UI.
Hi. Just wondering if there's a ticket for the present request in a bug tracker or wishlist, so that we can follow its development, please?
Thanks,
FGN.
Maybe the plugin "Adaptive behaviour for multi-part questions" would do it?
https://moodle.org/plugins/qbehaviour_adaptivemultipart
https://github.com/maths/moodle-qtype_stack/blob/master/doc/en/Authoring/Authoring_quick_start_2.md
-FGN.
You are right, there may be a need to add a position property for the questions in a given category. That shouldn't be too expensive.
Random quizzes may be harder to manage, for example for the gradebook.
Hi Dominique,
I'm interested in something very similar. My institution currently has 40 quiz sets (embedded Quizlet vocab study, related embedded video with three multichoice questions, and related cloze dictation) that we ask students to do for homework. The problem is that we invariably end up with shared screenshots of the more challenging dictation section. Our current answer is to have 8 sets of the same quizzes with identical names but in different orders (for different groups) and only available for a limited time. Cheating is now more difficult and less worth the investment of time. It is of course still possible, particularly as this is a homework activity and we would like students to be able to see which answers they've gotten correct.
I would ideally like to see a plugin that enables students to get several of these quizzes at random each week, with no quiz being repeated over the course of the 15-week semester. Does anyone in this thread have any ideas for this? If someone has a plugin idea that requires funding, I would be willing to write a grant application as such a plugin could be extremely useful for my university.
Hello Rob,
Thank you for your interest.
Marcus,
broad question bank (hundreds of questions), that is, hundreds of 'individual' questions
My suggestion is simply to have a large question bank made of hundreds of questions, some of which may be related.
In other words, instead of just randomly choosing an individual question X from the bank {A, B, C, D, etc.}, you could randomly select a set of questions [X1, X2, ...] from the bank { [A1, A2, ...], [B1, B2, ...], [C1, C2, ...], [D1, D2, ...], etc.}.
I think this description is very clear. The way this can be implemented is another problem that developers will have to solve.
Hi Dominique,
Did you manage to find a solution for the random quizzes (1c, 2c, 3c; 1a,2a,3a,...)?
I am also interested in that!
Thanks!
Hello Grace,
I'm sorry for the delay in replying to you. Thank you for your offer to share what you learned. I would use Captivate for software simulation (it is like a cross between PowerPoint and Camtasia and seems great), then import the simulation in Moodle.
I'm using the Formulas question, which includes random data. I think Captivate can not give me the same scientific functionalities.
For random quizzes, the idea is launched but it's probably not at the top of the list of developer priorities.
I agree with you. You probably can't replicate Formulas question capability in Captivate. So, Captivate is not an option for creating your random quizzes.
I hope you can find a suitable workaround.
Hi Dominique,
I am new to Moodle but I too find myself needing to create random quizzes. (exactly as you initially described)
Do you know if this is a possibility yet, or being worked on?
thanks,
Ed
Hello Ed,
If you are new to Moodle, I suggest you start by familiarizing yourself with the different types of questions. Then, depending on what you want to do, you may want to use random questions ↗, the calculated question ↗ or the formulas question ↗.
As for random quizzes, I think there is no new development. Rick's suggestion above ↗ using random groups may be a suitable workaround for you.
You may use " Embedded answers (Cloze)" Question type as a Quiz. Each This Question type contains a lot of questions. All the Embedded answers (Cloze) Questions are put into a category.
Create a Quiz and random one question from the above category. it may pretend to be a random quiz.
Disadvantage : Each small question cannot be checked one by one.
e.g. Reading comprehension exercise. All the questions are related.
Perhaps the problem has already been solved with modifications to Moodle. If not, an idea that works for my problem - the reason why I arrived to this forum topic - is to use calculated questions with shared wild cards. For your issue, the wild card's value could be each of the different data sets. For my problem, they are characteristics of bonds for which students are next asked to construct portfolios (in what proportions), calculate prices, and determine an optimal investment. By sharing the wild card across questions, I fix the randomly chosen bond characteristics for all three asked questions. I hope this can work for you as well.
