Te Kete Wānaka
Learning, Teaching and Library
Akoraka | Learn Quiz Questions
3 May 2023
Exam period is coming up and this week’s tip provides insight into lesser-known question types available to you in the Quiz activity in Akoraka | Learn that is used to build and administer final exams.
Including some diversity in question types provides students with a better opportunity to demonstrate their learning. The learning outcome/s you are trying to assess will guide you in deciding the most suitable types of questions. For example, selected response questions (e.g. multiple-choice, true-false, drag and drop, matching) are useful to assess recall of concepts and information, terms and definitions, problem-solving, or vocabulary. While, constructed response questions (e.g. short answers, essay questions, case studies) are useful to assess problem-solving or a student’s ability to analyse, synthesise or evaluate information.
Once you know the type of question you want to include, you need to identify the best question type in the Quiz activity to use. We are assuming that most people are familiar with multiple choice, true/false, essay, and short answer question types. As you are writing your exam questions, and moderating other exams, we encourage you to consider using other question types. The following table highlights some options, along with some potential uses and examples.
|
Question Type |
Description |
Potential Uses |
|
Matching |
A list of sub-questions is provided, along with a list of answers. The student must "match" the correct answers with each question. More on the Matching question type. You can also set up a randomised option using the Random short-answer matching question. |
Useful for assessing students’ ability to identify, define, or describe.
Examples: Matching names of plant parts with descriptions of those parts. Matching names of economic theories with descriptions of those theories. |
|
Drag and drop into text |
Words or phrases are dragged and dropped into drop zones in text.
|
Useful for assessing students’ ability to describe or explain concepts or theories.
Example: Students choose from a list of short phrases to complete a paragraph explaining the effects of climate change on food prices. |
|
Drag and drop onto image |
Images or text labels are dragged and dropped into drop zones on a background image.
Note: This question type is not accessible to users who are visually impaired.
More information on the Drag and drop onto image. |
Useful for assessing students’ ability to identify key aspects in a diagram. Instead of students drawing a diagram, they drag labels onto a pre-made diagram.
Example: Students drag a picture of sediment onto the common area of a riverbed where that sediment type is found. |
|
Embedded answers (Cloze) |
These very flexible questions consist of a passage of text that can have various answers embedded within it, including multiple choice, short answers and/or numerical answers. |
Useful for assessing students’ ability to identify, define, describe, and explain. A single question guides students through a local progression.
Example: Students choose an answer from a drop-down menu, then answer a multiplechoice question, then type a final answer into a short answer box on a related topic. |
In addition to these, and other, question types that you may not have considered, also remember that you can shuffle questions within a quiz so that Student A’s Question 1 is different from Student B’s Question 1. Similarly, you can also shuffle the answer options within a particular multiple choice question so that, within Question 1, Student 1’s option A is different than Student 2’s option A.
Other useful guidelines for writing and uploading tests and exams to your Akoraka | Learn course page are available in our Preparing Tests and Exams Checklist and Tip Sheet.
Come along to a Teaching Quality drop-in session or contact Teaching Quality for additional guidance.