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

With this question type, an answer can be selected from a list of options for each sub-question.

 

 

To add the 'Assignment' question type to a test, you must first have created the 'Test' activity within the course and be in edit mode.

Open the test and select Add question (Fig. 1). On the new page, select Add and New question (Fig. 2). You can now select a specific question type from the list. Select the 'Matching' question type here (Fig. 3). Confirm your selection by clicking the 'Add' button.

On the page that now appears, start by filling in the mandatory fields under the ‘General’ menu item. These are marked with a white exclamation mark inside a red circle (Fig. 4).

In the ‘Question title’ field, give the question a name under which it will be listed in your question catalogue. In the ‘Question text’ field, enter the instructions for your students. This is the task text.
For example: Match the countries listed below with their correct capital cities.

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

You also have the option of shuffling the answers each time. To do this, simply tick the ‘Shuffle’ box.

The next menu item is ‘Answers’. Here you can enter the sub-questions and their corresponding correct answers (Fig. 5). To do this, enter the first sub-question in the ‘Question 1’ field. Below that, enter the correct answer. In our example, the sub-question could be ‘Germany’. The corresponding answer would then be ‘Berlin’. Proceed in the same way with the other sub-questions.

Please note: You must provide at least two questions and three answers. You can also provide incorrect answers here by selecting a new sub-question, but only entering the answer and leaving the question field blank. This creates an answer that does not match any of the sub-questions. If both the question and answer fields are left blank, the sub-question is ignored. Use the ‘3 more blank fields’ button to create new sub-questions. This allows you to create as many questions and answers as you like.

Under the ‘Combined feedback’ menu option, you can create separate feedback for each correct, partially correct and incorrect answer (Fig. 6). You also have the option of showing participants the number of correct answers once they have answered the question. To do this, tick the ‘Show number of correct answers’ option as soon as the question is finished.

The next menu item is ‘Multiple Attempts’. Here, you can first specify the percentage of marks to be deducted after each incorrect answer. This deduction is based on the total number of marks available. You can then create hints to help participants answer the question. Under Hint Options, you can specify whether incorrect answers are deleted and/or whether the number of correct answers is shown. To do this, tick the box next to the relevant hint options. To create more hints, click the Add Further Hint button.

If you want to check what the question type you have created looks like in the test, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Save and continue editing’ button. This will save your work so far, and the ‘Preview’ button will appear next to the ‘Save and continue editing’ button. If you click on it, a new window will open showing the question exactly as it will appear to students in the test (Fig. 7). You can also edit the question here yourself.