Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Number of replies: 30

I am putting together some instructions for our teachers on the best practices for creating quiz questions and am just looking for some feedback regarding the pros and cons of using course level categories compared to quiz level categories. Here is what I have so far on the comparison.

Quiz level:

Pros: You can quickly import quizzes using the sharing cart which only imports the questions that belong to that quiz.

Cons: When using the quiz level, you cannot share questions between quizzes. The questions belong to each quiz.

Course level:

Pros: You can share questions easily between quizzes.

Cons: When you import questions from another course the entire question bank comes with it. It can also take a while to import a quiz, especially when the course you are importing from has a large question bank. After doing the import, you may have thousands of questions to delete.


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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by david southern -

Matt,

I can't give you specific advice on best practices but you can import quiz type questions via an IOS app called LE-MA. I'm pushing the app as I am the developer. I've not updated it for five years so it looks a bit dated now but its free and its designed for convienience rather than performance. I am just in the process of updating it with new question types but its based around Respondus which can import bulk questions into Moodle.

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In reply to david southern

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Thanks for the reply. Does it only work through an IOS app? Also, can it import a full quiz with only the questions being used in that quiz?

One of the biggest issues we have is importing a quiz (or multiple quizzes) from one course to another. Unless you have all of the questions saved at the quiz level and use the sharing cart, it imports the entire question bank from the other course.
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by John Provasnik -
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For the "Quiz bank" Section:
You can share between quizzes if you do the following: go the quiz that has the questions you want to copy, click the copy button next to each question (in the edit quiz link) and then move the copied questions up to the course level bank. Then you go to the target quiz and move those copied questions from the course bank and down to the quiz bank. Finally, insert the questions into the target quiz by adding questions "from bank"
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In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Hi John,

Thanks for the reply. That is a solid suggestion, thanks.

Another option is to export questions from the quiz level category then import them into the course level question bank. A tool that makes this easier is the Export Quiz Block. It allows a users to quickly download all of the quiz questions from an individual quiz, then just import those same quiz questions wherever they want.
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Melanie Scott -
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If you import a quiz from one course to another and your questions were created at the quiz level, the questions will not follow the quiz. You have to separately export them to a file and them import them into the quiz bank.

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In reply to Melanie Scott

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Hello Melanie,

We have never had issues with quiz questions importing when they are at the quiz category level. Our quiz questions import just as expected, follow the quiz and stay at the quiz level. 
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In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Blair F. -
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I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with something that seems to be so easy. I'm trying to follow the instruction, "Then you go to the target quiz and move those copied questions from the course bank and down to the quiz bank" for an 8 question quiz.

- I cannot seem to just go to those 8 questions, select them all at once, and move them to the "Quiz bank."
- When I go to the quiz page for an 8 question quiz and choose Questions from the Actions menu, it takes me to a Course level QB Category with 66 questions, NONE of which are the 8 questions that actually exist in the exam.
- When I go to edit any of the 8 questions in the quiz, they are all showing that they are in a CATEGORY level category. If I try to edit any of the questions and MOVE it to the "Quiz bank," I cannot do so because it's not an option. The only visible categories on the drop-down list are other Category level categories.

I've been struggling with this for about a week now, so it's not just that it's Monday. What am I doing wrong here?
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In reply to Blair F.

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Blair F. -
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I've dug a little deeper and found that the 8 questions are "hidden" at a Category level. Although I was eventually able to track them down and move them to the Quiz bank in a very convoluted way, I cannot imagine doing that for a larger quiz, much less an entire course worth of them. Oh, my, this seems very unmanageable.
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In reply to Blair F.

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Blair F. -
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UPDATE: Even after going through the laborious task of hunting down and moving those 8 questions, they still appear as hidden within the Quiz bank context. Not sure why that would be, or how to change it, or if I need to even worry my little brain about it.
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In reply to Blair F.

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Hi Blair,

I should be able to help you find a better way. I move quiz questions from one category to another often.

Just to clarify, are you moving questions from the quiz level to the course level?
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Blair F. -
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Hi, Matt. No, I'm actually trying to do it the other way around. We have many courses that have 50,000 - 100,000 questions in them and they are bogging everything down, not to mention taking forever to backup and restore. I want to move toward the practice of storing quiz questions in the QUIZ bank and not in a course level bank. That way quizzes can be easily copied to other courses without entire course question banks. At the moment, I'm trying to "fix" some of the existing courses so that they backup/restore better.
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In reply to Blair F.

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
I made a short video for you. I hope this helps.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16gXXq8WXm-sAbREjNtozRqLZyNh2qmOR/view

Also, for bulk deleting questions that are not being used in a course, have you tried the purge tool? Let me know if you need any help with it.
https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=local_purgequestioncategory&moodle_version=25
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Blair F. -
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Thank you so much for that, Matt.

I'll definitely start using that for some of the smaller quizzes. We have some exams with over a 100 questions, so I may have to toss that job over to the instructor and say, "hey! open up a bottle of wine and go to town!"

I have tried the purge tool, yes. It has some benefits, but when there's 25-100 pages of categories, it's a lot of work turning them all into sub-categories to be able to delete. Also, believe it or not, I found that I was able to delete questions that were in use. I know you're not supposed to be able to, but I did. The quiz I was testing ended up empty, so my confidence in the tool was affected.
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In reply to Blair F.

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Blair F. -
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I also discovered that what you show at 2:11 doesn't work for me when the questions reside in a Moodle category level. I'm guessing that's why it doesn't work, but I don't know for sure. I'm taken to the wrong category -- one that resides within the course, rather than the Moodle category.
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In reply to Blair F.

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
I have not had an issue with the purge tool deleting needed quiz questions and I have been using the tool for many years. However, I have had two issues.

1. If you forget to choose a category for them to be moved to the purge moves them into the "Top" category and they are not editable there until they are moved out of that category.

2. If teachers use random questions in a category to prevent plagiarism, the purge tool will move those questions and it will seem like they were deleted.

I prefer to train teachers to clean up their own courses when possible. This gives them some ownership to the cleanliness and organization of their courses.
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by John Provasnik -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Your summary may prove useful here in the Moodle docs: https://docs.moodle.org/39/en/Question_categories
Average of ratings: Useful (4)
In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Thanks. I may just do that once I get my thoughts a little more organized.
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In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Ahmad Amer -
Hi John,
I have a reading comprehension course. Each category has the title of the text and has only the question that relate to the sane text, No question is needed to be used with another text. In this case, all my questions should be at quiz-level (rather than course level). Right?
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In reply to Ahmad Amer

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by John Provasnik -
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Yes, I would recommend at the quiz level if you plan to import/export content between courses to avoid any course-level banks from coming with.
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In reply to John Provasnik

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Ahmad Amer -

Thanks John,

Does the quiz-level prevent copying all course categories when using the “sharing cart” and the “import” option? (Or only when using the sharing cart?)

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In reply to Ahmad Amer

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Hi Ahmad,

The import tool will unfortunately not prevent copying of all course categories/questions, even if the questions are saved at the quiz level. If you import one quiz, you have to import the entire course question bank with it.

This is why the sharing cart is such a useful tool for schools where teachers are sharing quizzes between courses. The only catch is teachers need to remember to have the questions at the quiz level.

The only other efficient way (that I know of) to transfer a quiz from one course to another and not bring in the entire question bank is to backup the quiz and restore it to another course. While this works, the sharing cart is much more efficient.

Another option is to just export the questions from a course, import the questions to the new course, then create a quiz for those questions. Again, this way is not very efficient, which is why the sharing cart is so useful. 
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
I wish it was possible for an administrator in Moodle to set the quiz-level category as the default for when a teacher is creating a question within a quiz. This would save us a lot of time and headaches regarding question banks when teachers want to import quizzes from one course to another. It is so much simpler to import a quiz when all of the questions are at the quiz-level.
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Regina Phalange -
YES! YES! YES! The questions should be at the quiz level by default.
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In reply to Matt Ladwig

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Regina Phalange -
Is it possible to import a quiz (with all of the settings intact) from another course with ONLY the quiz questions that are in that quiz without having to move questions to the quiz level?
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In reply to Regina Phalange

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Beatriz Rojo -
Hi Regina,
you can go to the target course, click Import, select the course where the original quiz is located, and uncheck everything except the following settings:
  1. Import activities and resources
  2. Import question bank
  3. The specific quiz
But I'm quite sure all the questions from the course will be imported, not only the ones included in the quiz. You can then delete the ones you don't need, though.
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In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Regina Phalange -
Hi Beatriz,

Thank you for the very clear and accurate reply. The steps you described is how our school has been doing it for many years. I was hoping that there was a cleaner way, so I did not have to import someones entire question bank just to get a single quiz.

You are right that "all the questions from the course will be imported" which is why many of our courses have thousands and thousands of extra questions filling the question-bank. Our teachers share a lot of activities back and forth and it is frustrating that Moodle does not make it easy to share/import a quiz without bringing over a lot of extra questions.

Take care.
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In reply to Regina Phalange

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Matt Ladwig -
Regina,

I empathize with your frustration. I just cleaned up over 400,000 questions out of a single course last week for a teacher. This was from years of a teacher importing quizzes from others using the import tool.

The Moodle question bank functionality is abysmal for teachers who simply want to share quizzes with one another.

You asked: "Is it possible to import a quiz (with all of the settings intact) from another course with ONLY the quiz questions that are in that quiz without having to move questions to the quiz level?"

Sorry, but I think the answer is no. I have been dealing with this issue for many years and the best solution I could find was moving the questions to the quiz level, then use the sharing cart to transfer quizzes from one course to another. If all of the questions for a quiz are at the quiz level and you use the sharing cart, only the questions that "belong" to that quiz will move with it. If you don't have access to the sharing cart, backup/restore of the quiz does the same thing, but the sharing cart is a faster and smoother process.
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In reply to Regina Phalange

Re: Quiz Question Bank: Quiz level vs Course level

by Beatriz Rojo -
Oh OK, now I understand, thanks for letting me know, Regina. I think Matt's suggestions are great giving the limitations.
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