Quizzes and Digital Exams

Quiz is an activity type which allows to test student knowledge by using questionnaires. It can include question types like multiple choice, word gap, short answer or essay questions. This activity involves four parts - Question bank with questions, Quiz activity and Respondus software settings for exam proctoring.

For more information on how to start adding activities to the course page or how to hide activities from students, visit Adding Activities or Resources.

Question bank

Question bank is a storage for all questions created in the course page. Questions are organized in categories and subcategories similar to the way files are stored in folders and subfolders.

To access Question bank from the course page:

Click More at the top of the course page, then click Question bank

Creating categories and subcategories:

Initially each course has only one Question bank category called "Default". It is advised to create a separate category for each quiz and exam. This will help you to easily see where each question is used and to find a particular question if needed.

At the top left drop-down menu select Categories
Click on Add category
In Parent category select existing category in which you would like to create your new question category

Note: Choosing 'Top' as the Parent category means that your category will be at a top level of the Question bank.

Enter the name of your category in Name
To finish adding the category, click on Add category
You will be taken to the Questions tab and in Select a category you will see the name of the category you just created.

Add a new question:

From the Select a category drop-down menu, select a category you want to add a question to
Page refreshes and you will see a list of questions which already exist in the selected category
Select the question type you want to create from the Create new question ... drop-down menu. To add the selected question type, click Add

Note: At the bottom in section Other you can find question type called Description. Description can be used to add guides, additional information or other content between questions.

Commonly used question types for quizzes are Essay, Multiple choice, and Description.

In question form enter Question name, Question text, add Default mark. If needed for a selected question type, enter answers in Answers section
When you are finished setting up a question, click Save changes at the bottom of the page to save the question
You will be taken back to the Question bank. In the question list you will see the question you just created
To add more questions to the Question bank repeat the steps above

Note: Question bank also allows you to preview a question. To do that, click Edit then click on Preview. A new preview window will appear where you will see the question and a form to answer it, similarly to how students would see it.

When you are finished adding questions, return back to course page by clicking on Course section at the top of the course

Creating Quiz activity

Quiz consists of two parts - set up page for the Quiz and questions used in the quiz. First you need to create Quiz activity in your course. After that you need to add questions to the Quiz.

Note: Quiz activities contain questions. When Quizzes are copied, the copy will contain the same questions as the original. Making changes to questions in either Quiz will alter both Quizzes, unless the questions themselves are copied or new questions are added.

Note: Make sure your Quiz activity is hidden or otherwise unavailable to students before starting to add actual exam contents.

To add quiz to the course page:

In appropriate topic, click on Add an activity or resource
Select Quiz and click Add. This will open the Adding a new Quiz window where you can change quiz settings:
- Name field should contain name of the quiz
- Description field can contain information like requirements, grading rules, time constraints etc. If Display description on course page is selected description will be visible on course page without opening the quiz
- Timing section contains information on when the Quiz activity is opened, closed and its time limit.

Note: When Quiz opening time is used, students won't be able to access the quiz before this date. When Quiz closing time is used, students won't be able to access the quiz after this date. This helps you to limit a time slot in which students can take the quiz. If Quiz is not hidden, students will be able to see opening and closing dates but could not access the actual quiz

- Grade section contains information about grade necessary to pass the quiz, how many attempts are allowed and the grading strategy - final grade is the best attempt, grade is an average of all attempts or only first attempt or last attempt is graded
- Review options section contains options for information students will see during or after their quiz attempts like their attempt, whether correct, marks, feedback and correct answers

More information about each review option can be found in Quiz settings Review options section.

- Common module settings includes option to hide Quiz while you are still working on it
To finish setting up the Quiz click Save and return to course at the bottom of the page

Add question to the Quiz activity:

Find and click on the Quiz activity you created before
Click on Questions
To change the grade students can receive for the quiz, enter the number in Maximum grade located at the top right, then click Save
To add a question from the Question bank, click Add, then click from question bank
In Select a category choose the Question bank category where your previously created questions are located
Tick a box next to the question or questions you want to add to the quiz. To finish adding questions, click Add selected questions to the quiz
You will be taken back to the Questions section. In the list of questions you will see questions you selected from the Question bank
To change the number of points students can receive for a question, click on the pencil icon on the right side of the question, enter the number and click Enter to save. Alternatively, click Escape to cancel
Questions can be moved by clicking on the left side cross icon and dragged to appropriate location. You can add a page break between questions by clicking the double arrow icon next to the adjacent questions.

Note: While editing the quiz, you can preview a question. To do that, click the preview icon next to the question name (second icon from the right). A new preview window will appear where you will see the question and a form to answer it, similarly to how students would see it.

Respondus software settings for exam proctoring

After you have set up the Quiz activity you need to decide whether to use proctoring for this quiz or exam. Exam proctoring is done using Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor. If exam proctoring is necessary, please inform SSE Riga IT Department (itdep@sseriga.edu).

For more information about Respondus software, visit Respondus Exams.

Testing quiz or exam

To test quiz or exam:

Find and click on a Quiz activity to open it. Activity can be found by searching for an icon that looks like a square with a check mark.
To test the quiz or exam, in the Quiz description page click Preview quiz.
You will see the quiz or exam in the same way as students would see it.

Note: If necessary you can edit a description or question by clicking on Edit question located at the left side of the description or question. This will take you to the edit page of that description or question.

Accessing student answers

After students have finished quiz or exam, you can review their answers by opening Quiz activity (icon looks like a square with a check mark) and clicking on Attempts:. This will take you to the page with a list of students where you can review and grade their work.

Another option is to open Quiz activity, go to Results section and from the left side drop-down menu select Manual grading. This will allow you to grade student answers for a particular question.