Introduction

There are various Moodle quiz question types available. Here, we highlight the features of the embedded answers (cloze) question.

• A single cloze question can contain multiple answer boxes. This makes them useful in situations where a number of sub-questions refer to the same topic or information (e.g. several questions relating to the same graph, table, figure, or structure).
• The answers can be ‘short answer’, ‘multiple choice’, ‘multiple response’, and ‘numerical’.
• The answers are included in the question text using relatively simple code.
• Student answers are marked automatically and immediately based on the parameters set. This allows for minimal moderation from staff, and targeted and timely feedback available to students. The parameters set can be adjusted after students have taken the quiz, enabling an easy regrade.
• Questions can be re-used and adapted to create variation within and across years to help limit student collusion and plagiarism.

Here, we first introduces the code behind ‘short answer’, ‘multiple choice’, and ‘numerical’ answers in cloze questions. We then provide biosciences-related examples to demonstrate how this question type can be implemented in formative and summative assessments.

Code

The structure of the code is as follows:

• Start the sub-question with an opening curly bracket: ’{‘ .
• Define the mark for the sub-question (if correct) with an integer. This mark is used to calculate the overall question grade.
• Define the type of answer: SA (short answer, case unimportant), SAC (short answer, case important), MC (multiple choice displayed as a dropdown menu), MCV (multiple choice displayed as a vertical column of radio buttons), MCH (multiple choice displayed as a horizontal row of radio buttons), MCS (multiple choice displayed as a dropdown menu, with shuffled answers), MCVS (multiple choice displayed as a vertical column of radio buttons, with shuffled answers), MCHS (multiple choice displayed as a horizontal row of radio buttons, with shuffled answers), MR (multiple response), and NM (numerical).
• Define the percentage of full score awarded. A ’=‘ or ‘%100%’ should be placed immediately before the correct answer option(s). Nothing or ‘%0%’ should be placed immediately before a wrong answer.
• Define the answer(s). The asterisk sign (‘*’) is used to represent all wrong answers.
• Include optional specific feedback after the number sign: ‘#’.
• Separate possible answers with the tilde symbol: ‘~’.
• Close the sub-question with a closing curly bracket: ’}’ .

We will use the same colours throughout. Let us have a look at various options for ‘short answer’, ‘multiple choice’, and ‘numerical’ sub-questions.

‘Short answer’ sub-questions

When you choose ‘short answer’, students are provided with a text box in which they can type their answer. You can decide to include one or more correct answers, and partially correct answers. Specific feedback for correct, partially correct, and wrong answers is optional.

For sub-question 1, ‘=‘ defines the correct answer. For sub-question 2, ‘100%’ defines the two correct answers and ‘~’ separates them. For sub-question 3, ‘#’ defines the feedback for each predefined answer. ‘*’ is used to represent all wrong answers. The partially correct answer is awarded 50% of the total mark.

In these examples, case is unimportant. Use SAC instead of SA for case sensitive answers.

‘Multiple choice’ sub-questions

There are three options for ‘multiple choice’ answers in cloze questions: a drop-down menu using MC, a vertical column of radio buttons using MCV, and a horizontal row of radio-buttons using MCH. Again, specific feedback for correct, partially correct, and wrong answers is optional. These examples will not shuffle the choices between attempts.

To shuffle the choices, add S; e.g. use MCS instead of MC.

‘Numerical’ sub-questions

When you choose ‘numerical’, students are provided with a text box in which they can type their answer. You can decide to include one or multiple correct answers and partially correct answers. Again, specific feedback for correct, partially correct, and wrong answers is optional.

If the correct answer is e.g. 23.8 and you allow an accepted error of e.g. 0.5, you need to type “23.8:0.5”.

Biosciences-related examples

We will now look at some biosciences-related cloze question examples.

Example 1: Restriction digest results

This example shows an exam question designed by Dr. Makrinou. The code for the sub-questions – using one ‘numerical answer’ and one ‘multiple choice’ answer – is included. All sub-questions are related to the restriction digest results shown in the table.

Example 2: Materials and methods

This example shows an exam question designed by Dr. Vancraenenbroeck. The code for the sub-questions – using ‘numerical’ answers – is included. All sub-questions are related to the “materials and methods” thermal shift assay section of an article. We allowed an accepted error of 0.01 for the last answer, no errors were allowed for the other answers.

Example 3: Amino acids and pK_a

This example shows an exam question designed by Dr. Vancraenenbroeck. The code for the sub-questions – using ‘multiple choice’ answers – is included. All sub-questions are related to amino acid pK_a’s and they progress from easy to difficult.

This question demonstrates how to include decimal marks – in our example “.5” – for sub-questions. As the mark for each sub-question needs to be a positive integer, we need to multiply all marks by two to remove the decimals. This changes the total score for the question – in our example from 4 to 8 – but keeps the weighing of sub-questions the same. When we add the question to the quiz, we need to remember to change the overall question mark in the quiz set-up:

Example 4: Amino acids and D/L

This example shows an exam question designed by Dr. Vancraenenbroeck. The code for the sub-questions – using one ‘short answer’ and two ‘multiple choice’ answers – is included. All sub-questions are related to the amino acid shown in the Jmol filter. Jmol is open-source software used to interactively view 3D protein structures. It can be embedded into a Moodle page. See https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/Jmol_filter and https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/Jmol_Help for more information.

Example 5: Nanodrop and Lambert-Beer

This example shows an exam question designed by Dr. Vancraenenbroeck. The code for the sub-questions – using one ‘multiple choice’ and two ‘numerical’ answers – is included. All sub-questions are related to the Nanodrop result shown.

This question demonstrates how to regrade. After students have filled in the quiz, look in detail at a subset of answers. Does a same, unanticipated answer occur multiple times? If yes, investigate why. For ‘short answer’ questions, do you agree with the answer? For ‘numerical’ answers, is it an intermediate solution or can you replicate the error? You can easily update the list of predefined answers and / or their marks awarded in the code after the students have filled in the quiz. Afterwards, ask Moodle to regrade all attempts.

In our example, several students answered 43 µM, 215 µM and 22 µM. This can be explained looking at the calculations needed:

Students answering 43 µM did probably not use 0.1 but 1 cm, those answering 215 µM did probably not take the dilution factor into account, and those answering 22 µM made both errors. We decided to award 66% of the marks to 43 µM, 50% of the marks to 215 µM and 33% of the marks to 22 µM. The code was adapted from {6:NM:=430:2} to {6:NM:=430:2~%66%43:2~%50%215:1~%33%22:1} and the exam regraded.

Resources

• https://docs.moodle.org/400/en/Embedded_Answers_(Cloze)_question_type
• https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/Jmol_filter
• https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/Jmol_Help

Word file for download