Overview

If you are running a summative test or exam in Moodle, as well as referring to the Module Assessment guidance in the Academic Manual, you also need to use this guidance and checklist to ensure you have set up the Quiz or Assignment properly and have considered what to do in case anything goes wrong with the technology. 
Quiz-specific information is preceded by ( 

On this page:

• Book a computer room. 

  • It is recommended that you book a room with 10% more computers than you need, this will ensure that there will be spare computers in the room in case of a computer failure.

  • Good practice for digital examinations (British Standard 23988) states that no online exam should last more than 90 minutes without a break.  If you need to run a longer exam you should split it into two parts with a break in between.

  • If you use a non-centrally bookable room (e.g. Birkbeck facilities) please familiarise yourself with the login requirements/facilities in the room BEFORE the exam takes place.

• Decide what you will do if there are technical issues that prevent you from running the exam on Moodle - e.g. have paper copies ready to be printed/reschedule.

•   Students who require special arrangements must notify Student Support and Wellbeing.

• Set up and check your quiz settings

  • Set up and check your quiz settings against the recommended Moodle Quiz settings below.  

  • Notify Digital Education.  Please ensure you complete the Moodle Exam Notification Form with at least four weeks' notice of the exam taking place, to allow sufficient time to make necessary arrangements. 
     If it is your first time running a Moodle quiz, you can also ask Digital Education to check your settings in advance.

  • Identify and brief the invigilators who will attend the exam in each location. It is essential that you have enough invigilators to ensure that candidates are not cheating. Invigilators will need to be familiar with the Moodle environment and with your test. 

• Practice material & briefing students:  Familiarise your students with the Moodle assessment tools before they sit the exam, e.g. ask them to complete a trial quiz or upload a test assignment. 

  • Prepare a practice quiz for your students, or use Digital Education's example quiz.  

  • Let them know the scoring rules, number and types of questions, any navigation constraints and the time limit.

  • Include an informative introduction (in the description of the quiz or assignment settings). 

• Test your exam:  Check the exam thoroughly and ask someone from your discipline to run through it and provide feedback.

• Check:

  • Images load and are mentioned in the question text (so if they don't load during the exam students know they are missing information).

  • Text is large enough and easy to read.

  • Questions and answers are clearly articulated.

  • Distractors (wrong answers) are not too obvious. 

  • Double check the answers, if using multiple choice questions.

• Remind students to ensure they are able to log into Moodle at least 2 working days before the exam. If they are unable to log in, please ask them to contact One Desk IT.  If a student cannot log in at the time of the exam, One Desk IT can ask the Digital Education team to set a temporary password for the duration of the exam.

• Print a copy of the M42-Moodle Quiz Invigilator Checklist for the invigilators.

• Display "Exam in progress" signs on the doors so other staff and students don't interrupt the exam.

• Notify students to ensure they open the Course Index on the left and open the block drawer on the right for navigation and to see timers. 

Moodle Course Access:  Please be aware that all tutors and course administrators that have access to the course will be able to see the quiz questions and answers. If this is a problem, you can request a new Moodle course be set up for the exam that provides only those who need it with access to the exam questions.

Description: This functions as an introduction and should include the scoring rules, number and types of questions and the time limit. If some students will receive extra time, this should also be mentioned. If using numeric questions, it should be clear whether students need to enter the unit as well as the number. This should ideally be mentioned in every question it applies to as well. 

You may add some additional standard text such as the statements below, that explain to students how their Moodle exam will work. You can copy and paste these into the Description text box as appropriate:

• You won't be negatively marked for incorrect answers, so you should attempt to answer all questions. 

• Moodle will save your answers each time you click to the next question.

• Students can open the Course Index on the left and open the block drawer on the right for navigation.

• If you want to revisit a question you may  click on the Flag question link in the grey box beside it, or write down its question/page number, so that you can easily return to it.  Note: only include the second option in this statement if your students will have paper to write on in the exam.

• When you have finished press [Submit all and finish] - You will need to confirm you want to finish. Once you confirm, you will not be able to re-enter that exam attempt!

Open the quiz: Ensure the quiz availability times are accurate.