Multiple Choice Questions in Moodle

Quizzes in Moodle can help assess student learning. They can be used as a formative exercise that includes feedback and multiple attempts or a summative test with a strict time limit and shuffled questions. Learn how to create multiple choices questions in quizzes with this article. Multiple choice questions can also be used to create multi-select questions.

For more information on quizzes, adding questions, and the question bank:

For information beyond these articles, please visit Moodle documentation here and here.

1. Navigate to the course in which you would like to create questions. Locate your desired quiz or open the question bank, and add a question.

  • If you are unsure of how to add questions to quizzes or to the question bank, please visit the articles listed at the top of this page.

2. You will be immediately directed to a window to choose your question type. Select "Multiple choice", and then click "Add" at the bottom of the window.

3. Select the category in which you would like to place this question.

  • Category: Select the category you would like the numerical question to go into. For example, you may with to categorize questions by subject, unit, use in a midterm or final exam, etc.

4. Enter a question name and your desired question text.

  • Question name: Give the numerical question a descriptive name. You'll use the name to track your questions later, so "Question 1" isn't a good idea. The name will be used in the question lists on the quiz editing page or in the lesson as a page title. It will not be shown to the students, so you can choose any name that makes sense to you and possibly other teachers.
  • Question text: Create the question text. This is where you might write prompts, include relevant links, photos, etc.

5. Enter the question status, points, and general feedback.

  • Question status: This allows you to set the question as a draft, or one that is ready to be used.
  • Default points: Set the default question mark (grade).
  • General feedback: If you wish, add general feedback. This text will appear to all students after they have answered the question, if you have allowed immediate feedback in the quiz settings. This is different than specific feedback, which will depend on the question type and response. For example, you might use this to provide students a fully worked example and links to resources about the material.

6. Enter the settings for the question numbering and formatting.

  • One or multiple answers: Choose whether students can only select one answer or multiple answers. This is how you will configure multiselect answers.
  • Shuffle choices: Choose whether to shuffle the answer options.
  • Number the choices: You can select here how you want the choices to be numbered for your students.
  • Show standard instructions: If enabled, this will automatically provide students with the instructions "Select one", or "Select one or multiple".

7. Enter the information for each multiple choice option.

  • Choice 1: For multiple choice questions, you must give at least two choices for students to choose from. Enter the possible answer here.
  • Grade: Using the drop down, choose how much this answer is worth. If it is the only answer, you should set this to 100%. If it is completely wrong, you should set it to None. If it is partially correct, you can choose what percentage to associate with this choice.
  • Feedback: If you wish, you can give feedback with this choice. This text will appear to the student after he/she has answered the question.

  • If you need more options, click "Blanks for three more choices".

8. Enter Combined feedback for the multiple choice question (optional)

  • For any correct response: If you wish, you can enter feedback for any correct response.
  • For any partially correct response: If you wish, you can enter feedback for any partially correct response, if applicable in your multiple choice question.
  • Options: If you check this box, the number of correct responses with show to the students once the question has finished.
  • For any incorrect response: If you wish, you can enter feedback for any incorrect response.

9. Enter any necessary settings for multiple tries and hints.

  • When you run your questions using the 'Interactive with multiple tries' or 'Adaptive mode' behavior, so that the the student will have several tries to get the question right, then this option controls how much they are penalized for each incorrect try. This can be changed in the settings for the quiz.
  • Penalty for each incorrect try: The penalty is a proportion of the total question grade, so if the question is worth three marks, and the penalty is 0.3333333, then the student will score 3 if they get the question right first time, 2 if they get it right second try, and 1 of they get it right on the third try.
  • Hint 1 and 2: Enter the text you want students to see when they ask for a first or second hint.
  • Add another hint: If you need more than two hints for your multiple choice question, select this button.

10. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Save changes" button. This will add the question to your quiz or Question bank.

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