Best Practices: Using Moodle™ Quizzes to Promote In-Class Discussion

Today, we're introducing a new series to our blog called "Best Practices." Written by Open LMS' own Learning Solutions team, "Best Practices" will run bi-weekly and highlight best practices for Moodle™ use inside and outside of the traditional classroom. In today's post, Open LMS Instructional Designer and Trainer, Tara Thompson, is highlighting how educators can use Moodle™ quizzes to jumpstart collaboration among students.

Have you ever tried to hold an in-class discussion that went nowhere? Your questions met with silence and student eyes looking everywhere but at you? This can be a frustrating experience. With so little class time and so much to cover, making the most of your time with students is crucial.

It seems a safe bet that the more students know about a given subject the more likely it is they will contribute to the conversation. Consider using an online quiz to encourage students to delve into the reading, better preparing them for a discussion on the material.

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Why You Should Use Moodle™ Quizzes

Moodle™’s Quiz feature allows you to design assessments using a variety of question types. Attempts are graded automatically, and the quiz can be set up to show correct answers, inspiring confidence that can encourage even shy students to seek out participation opportunities.

For the purposes of this assessment, it may not matter if the quiz is open book, open note, or even open buddy. Most likely students are at the very least looking at the material. The assessment should outline discussion topics and flag important information for students, acting as a guide for the upcoming class session.

Many students juggle school, work, families, and extracurricular activities. Accessing the course site and executing an assigned task takes time. Online components in your face-to-face course need to be worth your students' time or you’ll quickly lose participation. Best practices would suggest that these assessments be required and not heavily impact the student’s grade but carry enough point value to recognize students’ effort.

Choose a topic that has in the past yielded less than stellar class discussion and start there. After implementing this technique, ask your students for feedback. Was the quiz helpful in highlighting important elements of the reading? Did they feel better prepared for the discussion at hand? Were they more engaged? Were you?

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Leverage Moodle™ to Improve Student Participation

Once you get started you’ll find many more ways to increase classroom participation using Moodle™. For more information on Moodle™ quizzes and how to get started, check out Moodle.org's quiz documentation.

This blog post was written by Tara Thompson, a former learning designer at Open LMS.