A course instructor might choose to call quizzes by other names (such as Homework, Exercises, Esercisio, etc.); these names are set up through the Mallard administrator along with the Grading Policies for the course. The method of grading and quiz type (homework, exercises, etc.) are determined by the Mallard grade policy assigned to that quiz.

From a developer's viewpoint, all quizzes are structurally the same, and within Mallard documentation we always use the term "quiz".

Preparing a Quiz

A quiz consists of the following components:

Title

The title of a quiz can be any desired text. The title appears on the Lessons Page and also at the top of the quiz itself.

Quiz Info

The info is optional HTML text that is printed at the top of a quiz. For instance, general explanatory info or reference tables would be appropriate.

Question Groups

Each quiz consists of one or more question groups. Each question group is a collection of one or more questions that is treated as a single pool of questions to select a version from. The best way to describe this concept is by example. Suppose you have two questions that you want to include in a quiz. One is about the play Hamlet, and the other is about the play King Lear. If you wanted to ask a student one question about either Hamlet or King Lear, then you would include both questions in a single question group. If you wanted to ask a student about both Hamlet and King Lear, then you would put each question in its own question group. Each question group has the following additional properties:

Number to use

This is the number of questions that you wish to use from this question group. (E.g. you might put 25 questions into Group 1 and wish to use 3 of them in each quiz. Then Questions 1-3 in the quiz will always be drawn from this pool.)

Question Weight

This is a number or percentage that describes the grading weight of each question in this group relative to other questions in this quiz. The default weight is one. (For instance if a quiz has 4 questions, each of weight 1, then each question is worth 25%. If the quiz had 5 questions, then each would be worth 20%. If there were 2 questions, the first of weight 3 and the second of weight 2, then the first question is worth 60% and the second is worth 40%.)

Note: When creating or modifying a quiz that uses a grading policy with cumulative completion (the "partial_completion" variable) set to input, you MUST ensure that each question in a given pool (each question id, and each separate version of each question id) has an identical number of inputs for correct operation. It is currently up to the quiz developer to check this. Note also that care must be taken when editing individual questions or versions. Changing the number of input items in a question or version that is already included in a question pool might cause members of the pool to have differing numbers of inputs.

Edit Quiz Interface

Each row in the table represents a question group, and the right-hand column is used to add questions to a new or existing group.

Adding Questions

You may add questions to a new or existing question group. Use the select form to the right of the table to select which question(s) you wish to add. If you wish to ask more than one version of a given question, you should give its question group a number to use that is greater than 1.

Adding questions to an existing question group

To add questions to an existing question group, simply select the "Add To:" button after selecting the desired group from the pull-down.

Adding a new question group

To add a new question group, select "Create New Group" and a new group will be appended to the end of the quiz. Any questions selected from the list will automatically be put into the new question group.

Deleting Questions

You may delete either an individual question or an entire question group. Deleting a question from a quiz does not delete the actual question itself, it just removes the reference to that question from the quiz.

Deleting individual questions

To remove questions from a group, simply select the questions in the group and click the "Remove Selected" button immediately below the question list.

Deleting a question group

To remove a question group from the quiz, simply select the "Delete" button immediately below the Group # label in the table.

Finalizing a Quiz

After you have added questions to a quiz and are satisfied with the results, you may finalize a quiz. This signifies that the quiz structure is in its final state and, once finalized, it is possible to make the quiz available to students.
Warning: Once you have finalized a quiz, you will not be able to:

• Add or delete questions
• Change question order
• Change number of questions used
• Select a different grading policy
• Change the question weights
• Delete the quiz