Numerical Questions in Moodle

From the student perspective, a numerical question looks just like a short-answer question. The difference is that numerical answers are allowed to have an accepted error. This allows a fixed range of answers to be evaluated as one answer.

For example, if the answer is 30 with an accepted error of 5, then any number between 25 and 35 will be accepted as correct.

Please note, only the areas with a red exclamation mark are required. All other areas are optional.

 View how-to videos in the Moodle Quiz LinkedIn collection here. 

1.) Within the 'Choose a question type to add' window, select 'Numerical' (1) and click 'Add' (2)

2.) Enter the General information for the numerical question

1. Category: Select the category you would like the numerical question to go into.
2. 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.
3. Question text: Create the question text.
4. Default points: Set the default question mark (grade).
5. General feedback: If you wish, add general feedback. This is text that appears to the student after he/she has answered the question.

3.) Enter Answer information for the numerical question

1. Answer 1: Enter the first accepted answer(s). Note: Floating point numbers, e.g. 23.4, may also be written as 23,4 or 2.34E+1.
2. Error: Enter an accepted error for this answer. This is the range above or below the answer that Moodle will accept as a match. For example, if the correct answer is 5, but you will accept 4 or 6 as answers, your accepted error is 1.
3. Grade: Enter a grade for this answer.
4. Feedback: Enter feedback for the accepted answer. This is the text that the student will see if they enter a number within the accepted error of the answer.

4.) If more than three (3) answer choices are needed, click the 'Blanks for 3 more choices' button

5.) Enter the Unit handling information for the numerical question

• Using the drop-down menu, decide if unit will be used, if units are optional, or if the unit must be given.

6.) Enter the remaining Unit handling information (if your choice above is that units are optional or that units must be given)

1. Unit penalty: The penalty is applied if:
   1. the wrong unit name is entered into the unit input, or
   2. a unit is entered into the value input box
2. Units are input using: Units are input using either the text input element, a multiple choice selection or a drop-down menu.
3. Units go: Decide if units go on the left or right.

7.) Enter the Unit information for the numerical question

1. Unit: Units can also be specified. For example, if you enter a unit of 'cm' here, and the accepted answer is 15, then the answers '15cm' and '15' are both accepted as correct.
2. Multiplier: You can also specify a multiplier. So, if your main answer was 5500 with unit W, you can also add the unit kW with a multiplier of 0.001. This means that the answers '5500,' '5500W' or '5.5kW' would all be marked correct. Note that the accepted error is also multiplied, so an allowed error of 100W would become an error of 0.1kW.
3. If you need more units, click the "Blanks for 2 more units" button.

8.) Enter the Settings for multiple tries

• 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.

• 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.

9.) Enter Hint information (optional)

1. Hint 1: Enter the text you want students to see when they ask for a hint.
2. 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

• You have now successfully added a numerical question to your Quiz in Moodle!