One type of question available in Moodle that can be used for tests is the cloze test.

As this question type is not entirely self-explanatory and we also have the Cloze question type to choose from, we would like to briefly introduce this question type and its use here.

This question type allows you to complete a text with missing words. It offers a more convenient way of creating cloze texts, as these are created using the user interface. However, the gaps are limited to textual answers, which are displayed as a drop-down list. 

To add the 'Fill-in-the-blank' question type to a test, you must first have created the 'Test' activity within 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 ‘Cloze’. 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.

Under ‘Question title’, give the question a name under which it will be listed in your question catalogue. Under ‘Question text’, enter your cloze text. The desired gap is marked with a pair of double square brackets [[ ]] (Fig. 7). Inside the brackets, enter a number which corresponds to the number of the correct answer in the subsequent selection (Fig. 8).

In our example, the number 1 has been assigned to the first gap, so the correct answer for gap 1 must be assigned to the option [[1]]. The number 4 has been assigned to the second gap, so the correct answer for gap two must be entered in the selection [[4]]. You can enter incorrect answers in the remaining selections.

The group designation after the answers then creates the drop-down menu with the answer options for the corresponding gaps. For example, enter incorrect answers in the options [[2]] and [[3]]. Then assign the options [[1]], [[2]] and [[3]] to Group A. The dropdown for the first gap will therefore contain three entries, as these belong to the correct answer 1 and are all assigned to the same group. The same applies to the second gap (Fig. 9).

The ‘Randomise’ checkbox shuffles the possible answers within a dropdown menu and displays them in a random order.

If you now view the test using the Preview function, you can check what it looks like to participants and also run through the test in full to verify it. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save and continue editing button. Your work so far will then be saved and a new Preview button will appear to the right of the Save and continue editing button. Click on it and a new window will open showing a preview of how the question appears in the test (Fig. 10).