Creating an Online Exam

Steps to Create a Moodle Exam

• Step 1: Prepare your questions

  Try using Microsoft Word to prepare your questions as they will be easier to import or copy-and-paste into Moodle. Some of the most common types of questions are listed below. 

  1. Multiple choice. These questions can be quickly imported from a Word document. Save your questions in their own document in proper Aiken-style format, using plain text .txt file type and UTF-8 encoding. If you want these imported into different categories, save them in multiple files, one file per category.
  2. True/false. True/false questions follow the same format as multiple choice, except with only two options. Combine your true/false questions with your multiple choice questions in the saved document described above. 
  3. Essay-style. Have these questions saved in a document separate than the multiple choice and true/false questions. Save these questions using proper Gift-style format, using plain text .txt file type and UTF-8 encoding. If you want these imported into different categories, save them in multiple files, one file per category. 
  4. Questions with images. Save your images as separate .jpg or .png files. You cannot copy-and-paste an image into Moodle. You will combine your images with your written question later. 
     1. If these are multiple-choice questions, include the question (minus the image) with the multiple-choice Aiken-style questions described above. 
     2. If these are essay-style questions, include them with the essay-style Gift-style questions described above. 

• Step 2: Create your question categories in your question bank

  Having nicely categorized and hierarchical questions will give you more options for how to build your online exam. Follow these instructions on creating question categories; there a is 2-minute video and a short set of written instructions.

• Step 3: Add questions to your question bank

  Multiple choice, true/false, and essay-style questions can be quickly imported into Moodle using the proper relative formatting.

  1. Multiple choice and true/false questions. Follow these steps to import Aiken-style questions into Moodle. Upload each file into the correct category.

  2. Essay-style questions.  Follow these steps to  import Gift-style questions into Moodle.  Upload each file into the correct category.

• Step 4: Add the quiz activity

  From the front page of your course, turn your editing on and “Add an activity or resource.” Add the Quiz activity and edit your settings.

• Step 5: Add questions to your quiz from the question bank

  Once the quiz activity is created, click on it and choose to “Edit quiz” (this is different than “Edit settings”). You can then add your questions from the question bank, create new questions, or edit your questions.