Professional preparation of the examination course
Task design
Depending on the type of examination chosen, Moodle uses the test and / or assignment module.
The assignment module is particularly suitable for the process "Assign task, download if necessary, work on digitally or by hand, upload result", e.g. for a take-home exam.
In contrast, closed procedures such as the multiple-choice procedure (incl. matching, true-false tasks and cloze text) are realised with the help of the test module. Here, numerous settings have to be made with care: Randomisation of questions and answers, time limits, navigation, pass limit, integration of multimedia elements and item import.
You will find a lot of help for the design of the examination tasks in the examination Moodle in the information course for examiners (assignment module | test module). In addition, you are welcome to register for the consultation hour on digital examinations if you have specific implementation questions (scheduler).
Important to know: Moodle automatically saves results and entries every 30 seconds or when questions are changed. This means that data loss can be minimised to a large extent, even in the event of short-term connection problems. Nevertheless, in the case of free-text assignments, the last words typed may be lost. This is especially important when entering text online in the assignment module.
Importing content from previous courses
After you have created an examination course, you can import e.g. materials, question sets or even the entire course from another course. The prerequisite, however, is that you are registered as an examiner in both courses. This is particularly interesting for the re-examinations in the second examination period. You will find step-by-step instructions in the information course for examiners in Examination Moodle (Import from previous examination courses).
Create or use a question pool
You can create a question pool (question collection) for a random drawing of tasks in order to automatically generate different exam variants. It is important to divide this pool into categories from which tasks of the same value can be automatically selected for the individual sections of an examination. The initially increased amount of work quickly pays for itself, as you can use the question pool again and again (as an import from other courses). This is a means of preventing cheating attempts.
Set grading scale
In the test module, the ZSP-HU assessment scale for multiple-choice questions is set as the default. However, you can adapt this setting yourself to the requirements of your study and examination regulations. If an item proved to be too difficult for everyone in the examination, you can still adjust the evaluation afterwards.
In addition to this automatic evaluation, you can or must manually judge text entries (test or assignment module) or uploaded documents. In this case, you evaluate according to criteria, just as you would in the analogue mode.
You will find instructions for both procedures in the information course for examiners (assignment | test).
Summary
Step 1: Design tasks, integrate multimedia content (audio, film, illustrations) if necessary.
Step 2: Import of old content if necessary
Step 3: Randomisation: Should the questions be shuffled in order? Should the answer options be mixed in order? Should tasks (questions and answers) be drawn randomly from a pool so that the respective exams are maximally different?
Step 4: Create or import a question pool if necessary
Step 5: Time limits: Should there be time limits for individual tasks of the overall examination (feasible via prerequisites and several subtests per examination)?
Step 6: Specifics of the multiple-choice procedure: Should there be a fixed navigation through the tasks (not recommended!)? How are the relative and absolute pass marks set, which are shown in the ZSP-HU (§ 96c, 4 and 5)? What do students see at the end of their examination (presentation of results)? Who contributes to the preparation of the tasks, since according to ZSP-HU (§ 96c, 2) at least two examiners must jointly prepare a written examination in the multiple-choice procedure?
Attention: Awarding malus points is prohibited.