Is there any chance of making the Shuffle option a question category option rather than a Quiz option? The issue I'm encountering is that using Shuffle precludes using any multiple-choice questions that include All of the above, None of the above, Both a and b, etc.
It's currently an all-or-nothing proposition. You either have shuffle on for all questions or off for all questions.
However, if this were turned into a question category option, you could then have banks of questions where question answers can be shuffled, and those that remain static, and pull from different banks as needed. It would allow the best of both worlds, so to speak... within a single quiz.
Thanks.
Dan, you are making a very good point there. Making the "Shuffle answers" option be a category property will however also not please all people because some people might want to use one and the same question differently in different quizzes. This at least is the objection that was made when I last raised this issue. The solution would be to have it as both a quiz option and a category option. Answers would be shuffled only if both quiz and category chose this.
From the point of implementing this an easier alternative to making it a category option would be to make it a question option. Given that it is really a property of the particular question which makes it unsuitable for shuffling, having a question option to turn shuffling off even if the quiz has it on would make a lot of sense. Do you agree?
From the point of implementing this an easier alternative to making it a category option would be to make it a question option. Given that it is really a property of the particular question which makes it unsuitable for shuffling, having a question option to turn shuffling off even if the quiz has it on would make a lot of sense. Do you agree?
By all means. I hadn't thought of making it a question option, but that does make the most sense...
This is now in Moodle 1.6. Matching, Multiple choice, and Random short-answer matching questions have an extra option to enable or disable the shuffling of answers. Answers will be shuffled only when this is enabled both at the quiz level and at the question level. It is enabled by default at the question level in order to be compatible with the current situation.
Excellent!
Question: I notice that 1.6 is shown as "unstable". What is the anticipated timeframe as to when 1.6 will be a stable release? I'm not sure whether we should stick with 1.5 and forge ahead without this option, or hold off until 1.6 is released.
(I looked in the development forum, but didn't find any information about a 1.6 rollout).
Thanks!
Question: I notice that 1.6 is shown as "unstable". What is the anticipated timeframe as to when 1.6 will be a stable release? I'm not sure whether we should stick with 1.5 and forge ahead without this option, or hold off until 1.6 is released.
(I looked in the development forum, but didn't find any information about a 1.6 rollout).
Thanks!
You can find information about the future of Moodle in the Roadmap. The beta for Moodle 1.6 is planned for the end of this month and, given the large number of new features, I would expect it to stay in beta for several weeks after that.
Hi,
I just looked at this in the latest 1.6 CVS version.
The default is "No" which means (as I understand it) that the answers would not be shuffled even if "Shuffle Answers" in the Quiz settings isset to "Yes". Is this at odds with the post above?
May I suggest the following for the help file text...
I just looked at this in the latest 1.6 CVS version.
The default is "No" which means (as I understand it) that the answers would not be shuffled even if "Shuffle Answers" in the Quiz settings isset to "Yes". Is this at odds with the post above?
May I suggest the following for the help file text...
"If you set this option to "Yes", then the order of the answers is randomly shuffled each time a student attempts a quiz containing this question - provided that "Shuffle answers" in the Quiz settings is also set to "Yes".
This option is not related to the use of Random Questions."
What I had meant in my post above was that for all existing questions the question-level shuffleanswers option is set to "Yes" initially, so that they will continue to work as in the past.
I agree with you however that it would be a good idea to also set the option on the editing screen for new questions to "Yes" by default and I will now do that.
I will also introduce new help files for these question-level shuffle options.
One problem that has always bothered me is that "Shuffle answers" is really a bad name for this option in the case of Matching questions. In matching questions the answers are of course always shuffled, the option controls whether the question-answer pairs are shuffled in addition to that. So a better name for the option would perhaps be "Shuffle question parts". Can someone come up with a better name?
I agree with you however that it would be a good idea to also set the option on the editing screen for new questions to "Yes" by default and I will now do that.
I will also introduce new help files for these question-level shuffle options.
One problem that has always bothered me is that "Shuffle answers" is really a bad name for this option in the case of Matching questions. In matching questions the answers are of course always shuffled, the option controls whether the question-answer pairs are shuffled in addition to that. So a better name for the option would perhaps be "Shuffle question parts". Can someone come up with a better name?
What I had meant in my post above was that for all existing questions
the question-level shuffleanswers option is set to "Yes" initially, so
that they will continue to work as in the past.
OK sorry, I'd misunderstood that.
Potential alternatives for "Shuffle answers"
Random answer order
Randomise answer order
Random answer options order
Randomise answer options order
I think it's probably too much to expect for a small label to convey the difference between the m/c and matching question behaviour. How about updating the help file?
OK sorry, I'd misunderstood that.
Potential alternatives for "Shuffle answers"
Random answer order
Randomise answer order
Random answer options order
Randomise answer options order
I think it's probably too much to expect for a small label to convey the difference between the m/c and matching question behaviour. How about updating the help file?
"If this option is set to "Yes", the order of answers within each question is randomly shuffled each time a student attempts this quiz.
This only applies to questions that have multiple answers displayed i.e Multiple Choice or Matching questions. The behaviour depends upon the question type:
Multiple Choice: The answer options are shuffled.
Matching: The first part of the option to be matched is shuffled. NB the second part i.e. in the drop down list, is always shuffled on each attempt irrespective of the the status of the "Shuffle answers (or whatever it is to be called)" setting.
This option is not related to the use of Random Questions."
When I read Dan's post I felt the category approach might be unsatisfactory for an similar proportion of users to the current arrangements.
Gustav, I think your idea is a good one. My further suggestion is that the current settings remain as they are and that the option in the question itself is to disable the shuffle option for that question, if shuffling is enabled for the Quiz.
In this way questions which do or do not allow shuffling of answers may reside in the same category if required.
Time for me to shuffle off now....
Gustav, I think your idea is a good one. My further suggestion is that the current settings remain as they are and that the option in the question itself is to disable the shuffle option for that question, if shuffling is enabled for the Quiz.
In this way questions which do or do not allow shuffling of answers may reside in the same category if required.
Time for me to shuffle off now....
A similar but not totally related issue is points. In particular for matching style questions which I usually grade at one point per word. I would like to see a question have a default point value. That way, if I add a matching question to a test it will default to a certain number of points. Then if another teacher wanted to use the question but assign it a different number of points for their quiz they could. I'm not totally convinced that this minor convenience is worth the development effort, adding a field to the data structure, etc.
Anthony, thank you for that suggestion. In Moodle 1.6, when editing a question, you are now able to set the default grade for the question. Of course you can still, as usual, override this default grade when you use the question in a particular quiz.