One type of question available in Moodle that can be used for tests is the free-text question.

With this question type, participants must write an answer in text form themselves, or upload one or more files to answer the quiz question. A mark for this question must be entered manually for each participant after they have answered the question.

To add the 'Free text' question type to a test, you must first have created the 'Test' activity in the course.

To do this, switch to edit mode (Fig. 1).

Create the Test activity by first clicking on Create activity or resources (Fig. 2) and then selecting Test (Fig. 3). Then enter a name for the test and save.

Open the test and select Add question (Fig. 4). On the new page, select Add and New question (Fig. 5). You can now select a specific question type from the list. Here, select the question type ‘Free text’. Confirm your selection by clicking the ‘Add’ button (Fig. 6).

On the page that now appears, start by filling in the mandatory fields under the ‘General’ menu item (Fig. 7). These are marked with a white exclamation mark inside a red circle.

In the ‘Question title’ field, give the question a name under which it will be listed in your question catalogue.

Under ‘Question text’, enter the instructions for your students. This is the task text. Your question should ideally be formulated in such a way that participants can provide an answer by submitting a file or entering text.

You can then set the points available for a correct answer to the question and provide general feedback. The general feedback is displayed to participants after they have answered the question, regardless of the result.

In the next section, ‘Answer options’, you can configure various settings that determine how the question can be answered (Fig. 8). First, under ‘Response format’, you can choose between the following options: HTML Editor, HTML Editor with file selection, unformatted text, unformatted text with monospaced font, or no online text.

You can then specify whether participants must enter text or whether this is optional. If participants are only required to upload an attachment, select ‘Text entry is optional’ here.

The size of the input field determines how many lines the input field should contain. The minimum size is five lines; a maximum of 40 lines is possible. In the next section, you can specify whether attachments are permitted and, if so, how many. If you allow attachments, you can also determine whether they are required, so that the assignment is displayed as assessable. If you allow attachments upon submission, you should also specify the permitted file types.

In the Answer Template section, you can create a template which will then be displayed in the text field as a template for participants answering the question.

In the 'Marker Information' section, you can enter information about the marking that you wish to communicate to participants for this question.

Free-text questions must be marked manually by the course instructor; otherwise, the question will be marked with zero points.

Once you have filled in all the fields, save your changes by clicking on ‘Save and continue editing’. A new ‘Preview’ button will now appear next to ‘Save and continue editing’. Click on this to view the current result of the question you have created (Fig. 9). On the page that now appears, you can see the question as it will later be displayed to your students. You can also edit the question yourself.