The prerequisite for carrying out digital written exams in Moodle is that the participants are correctly registered via u:space for the relevant exam date (separate Moodle course).
This Wiki page contains all relevant technical information that you need to hold digital written exams in the Moodle learning platform of the University of Vienna.
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You can find further information about carrying out digital exams on the CTL website. Information about study law and specifications (in German) are available on the Studienpräses website.
Variants of holding written digital exams in Moodle
Handling technical problems during the digital exam
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To carry out written digital exams in Moodle you need a Moodle course. You can connect an exam date to Moodle if you are registered as an examiner (Prüfer*in) or employee in charge (Sachbearbeiter*in) in u:space (or i3v).
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To activate an exam course, take the following steps:
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| Exam dates that are assigned to a previous semester are displayed in the Moodle Course overview next to that semester. If applicable, inform your participants about this. If the exam course should be displayed next to the current semester, change the course start date in the course settings (gear icon on the top right > Edit settings). |
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Through the connection between the exam date and Moodle a Group is created in the Moodle course to which all participants with the status registered in u:space are automatically assigned. Participants who deregister in u:space are also no longer enrolled on the Moodle course.
After the end of the registration period, check if the students registered for the exam have been correctly transferred to the Moodle course:
The name of the exam group consists of the semester, the course number or teaching content, the exam date and a random number, for example SS2020-123456-1-20200630-2. The adjacent brackets contain the number of the participants enrolled on this group. This number has to match the number of registrations in u:space.
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If the number of participants in the Moodle exam group (see above) does not match the number of participants registered in u:space, you can start the comparison of the registrations manually in u:space. Click the m icon in the line of the relevant exam date as described above. The box next to Update students must be ticked. Click the Update learning platform button.
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Depending on the type of written digital exam you chose, you can now create assignments or quizzes in your exam course in Moodle and/or upload and make available the necessary exam papers, e.g. questionnaires, instructions in the Moodle course, and provide information about the exam.
General instructions on how to add learning materials and activities in Moodle can be found in the "Einführungsskriptum" (Notes on getting started with Moodle) on page 34 (in German).
Using content templates
If needed, you can import a template (template course) provided by the CTL and ZID into your own course.
User guides:
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In order for the registered students to be able to take the exam in Moodle the exam course has to be made visible for them. The relevant activities and documents also have to be displayed in the course.
We recommend taking the necessary steps in this order:
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Regardless of the exam type you chose, definitely give your participants the opportunity to take a mock exam. To do so, create an assignment or a quiz or use the relevant activity from the template course. The main goal is that students become familiar with the technical environment and can identify and solve technical problems in advance. It also gives you the opportunity to simulate the exam and avoid mistakes.
Mock exams should be made available approximately 1 week before the actual exam. Inform your students that they can participate on a voluntary basis and that it is not part of the grade.
Furthermore, we recommend creating a forum in the exam course that students can use to ask questions about the exam and report technical problems during the mock exam. If you do not want to moderate a forum, provide contact details students can refer to in the event of problems.
User guides for forums:
More information about mock exams are available in this Wiki in the sections Mock exams with assignments and Mock exams with quizzes.
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In the case of written digital exams with a tight submission deadline (i.e. online quizzes, assignments where exam papers must be downloaded) at least one competent person must be available for questions about the exam and in the event of technical problems immediately before, during and after the exam. We also strongly recommend offering communication channels outside of Moodle (in case anybody experiences technical problems with Moodle) and that at least one person can be reached by telephone. Inform your students prior to the exam who can be reached during the exam and how.
You can use the OpenScape WebClient to forward your land line extension from the office to your (official) mobile phone. You can find a user guide on the ZID website under Telephony – u:phone. If you do not have your own extension, do not own an official mobile phone and do not want to give your private telephone number to students, ask if administrative personnel can take the calls and forward them to you. Another option is to temporarily forward calls from an unused telephone extension, such as a telephone in a lecture hall or seminar room, to your telephone.
In the case of take-home exams, you should also inform the students about ways of communication in case of questions or problems. Due to the low time pressure (longer submission period) you may use only asynchronous means of communication (e-mail, forum in Moodle).
More information about invigilating online exams is available under:
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In Moodle, the following types of exams can be implemented as digital written exams:
| Variant | Description | Examples of use | Advantages | Disadvantages/challenges | Implementation in Moodle | Recommendation |
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| Students receive one or several assignments that have to be completed within a predefined period, ideally within several days. (Comprehensive description) |
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| Assignment |  |
The students download an exam paper, work on it on their own computer and upload the completed paper within a short, specified period (e.g. 2 hours) to Moodle on the same day. The exam questions are open questions just like for a traditional written exam in the lecture hall. |
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| Assignment | | |
| Written exams directly in Moodle | Open question or questions of different formats are answered directly in Moodle during a set period of time. (Comprehensive description) | Can be used for basically any type of written exam |
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| Quiz |  |
| Online multiple-choice exams in Moodle | Multiple-choice questions are answered directly in Moodle within a set period of time. | Questions for demonstration of knowledge, questions addressing comprehension, application or analysis with predefined answers from which the students have to select the correct one(s). |
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| Quiz | |
Open-book exams are also subject to good academic practice. To avoid any misunderstandings or plagiarism, inform your students about how to use literature, e.g. whether students can use direct quotations and how to quote. |
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Take-home exams and digital written exams during which exam papers must be downloaded can be implemented in Moodle in the form of an Assignment.
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If you want to hold your written exam in Moodle by using the Assignment activity, an exam date and registration via u:space is necessary. We also recommend activating a separate exam course for this purpose. The steps necessary to create and configure a Moodle course for an exam date can be found in the Before the exam section on this Wiki page.
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Please note: In contrast to quizzes, you must not make the assignments visible for students before the exam. Otherwise, they could see the assignment and/or download the questionnaire beforehand. The availability dates only refer to the period of time during which solutions can be submitted.For assignments during which exam papers must be downloaded and submitted within a short period of time, it is a good idea to set the Cut-off date 30 minutes after the Due date. This enables students to submit files even 30 minutes after the end of the submission period in case of technical problems (these submissions receive a Late note in the assignment overview). The cut-off date is not displayed to students. If you do not set a Cut-off date, students can upload files for an indefinite period of time beyond the due date.
| If you allow submissions after the due date and want to run them through a plagiarism check in Turnitin, you must NOT select the Generate reports on due date option in the Report Generation Speed settings. Otherwise, late submissions cannot be checked. |
For reasons of legal certainty use the "Deckblatt für digitale schriftliche Prüfungen" (Cover sheet for written digital exams) (under Downloads) that must precede the exam papers. It contains all information related to study law relevant for students. You should use the Word file for exams. Please also insert the number of questions under the information about the exam to avoid misunderstandings.
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The files submitted in Assignments in Moodle can be checked for plagiarism. First, in the assignment settings in the Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings section under Enable Turnitin, select the Yes option. Then you can define the other settings for checking for text similarities. Brief instructions can be found in the Moodle tutorial course, on which you can enrol yourself, under Hilfe für Lehrende > Sonstige Anleitungen (Help for teachers > Other instructions) (in German).
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Notes and tips:
Further information and Turnitin user guides
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General notes on mock exams can be found in the Mock exams section.
If you are preparing a written exam with assignments in Moodle, we also recommend making a mock exam with a (short) assignment available to your participants, especially if...
Inform your students about the opportunity to take the mock exam and let them know that they can participate on a voluntary basis and that the mock exam is not part of the grade.
If you do not want to have to remember that this is not part of the grade, you can change the settings in the Grade section under Type and select the None option. This enables you to give feedback on the mock assignment, but without assigning any points to it. This assignment is not included in the calculation of the overall grade (Course total under Grades).
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In contrast to online quizzes you cannot see in an assignment who has already started with the assignment, i.e. downloaded the exam papers or read the task. Therefore, we recommend obtaining a confirmation of the examination attempt from the students before the exam and activating the exam assignment only to those students.
In Moodle you can change the settings in the Grouptool and access restrictions:
First, add a Grouptool (Note: You can import the grouptool from the template course into your exam course).
User guides for using the grouptool can be found here:
In the next step, create the exam group for which students should register.
Finally, restrict access to the exam group in the exam assignment’s settings.
Instructions for restricting access:
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In online quizzes, students answer exam questions directly in the learning platform within a set period of time.
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Use the Description field of the quiz to enter the most important information.
This includes the information from the Cover sheet for written exams (in the Downloads section). When starting the quiz, students also confirm that they have taken note of this information.
The description should also contain peculiarities of your quiz, such as...
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Please note: Giving a high number of questions in a short period of time to prevent the use of unauthorised aids is not recommended for technical and didactic reasons. Instead it is recommended that you prepare your questions as an open-book exam.
... the quiz is open for a certain period and that within this period the timer starts individually for each student. ... the period for working on the exam does not exceed the closing time of the quiz. ... the period for working on the exam cannot be exceeded and the quiz is automatically closed when the exam duration is over. ... the timer also continues to run if the Internet connection is lost or if the Internet connection is bad. |
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In the Review options section, you define what the students can see for the viewing of examination documents online. If you plan to let students view their examination documents online, we recommend ticking only the After the quiz is closed option. This means that at this time nobody can work on the quiz anymore. Thus, if information about the correct answers is circulated to other students due to the viewing of examination documents, it no longer influences their results.
Comments:
User guide:
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The access settings that can be made in this section primarily aim at allowing access to the quiz only from certain exam rooms. Therefore, they are not useful for quizzes on which students work at home. Additionally, the Full screen pop-up with some JavaScript security setting is rather ineffective. In any case, additional browsers can always be opened and in the case of some browsers also tabs and additional browser windows. Moreover, students cannot be prevented from working simultaneously with a second device, e.g. tablet or smartphone. Therefore, it is more useful to prepare an open-book exam. Comment: Please inform students also in the event of open-book exams what they have to consider when using literature (citation rules, etc.).
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Moodle offers numerous question types that you can use for your online quizzes. All questions are stored in the course’s Question bank, which you can access by selecting the relevant menu item in the left navigation bar. This way, you can create quiz questions either in the question bank or directly in a quiz. Students cannot see the question bank.
An overview of question types and user guides can be found under https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Question_types (links to the individual user guides are available on this page under the relevant question types below).
To create a new question in the Question bank, please follow these steps:
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For written digital exams it is recommended to primarily use essay questions because they are especially suitable for open-book exams and they allow students to write about a certain topic in detail.
Essay questions are the only questions in Moodle that cannot be evaluated automatically. They must be assessed manually.
User guides for creating and assessing essay questions are available on the official Moodle website under: https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Essay_question_type
Students can prepare their answers in a text editor, Word or OpenOffice document in a rather unformatted version and can then copy them to the relevant answer fields in the quiz. The advantage of this is that the text is not lost if students experience technical problems when entering especially long answers before caching. It is important that students must not copy emoticons to the text fields in Moodle. Otherwise, the entire text cannot be saved in many cases.
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| Question types in Moodle | Brief description | Comments | Instructions |
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| Short answer | Participants must enter their answer in one word or a few words in a text field. The answer has to exactly match the teacher’s model answers. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Short-Answer_question_type |
Embeded answers (Cloze) | The students have to fill gaps in a text with the right answers. Teachers can define three different types of gaps: Entry field for text, entry field for a number or drop-down menu with predefined answer options from which the students have to select the correct one. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Embedded_Answers_(Cloze)_question_type |
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| Question types in Moodle | Brief description | Comments | Instructions |
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Multiple choice | A question and several answer options from which the students have to select the correct one(s) are predefined. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Multiple_Choice_question_type |
| All-or-Nothing Multiple Choice | A question and several answer choices from which the students have to select the correct one(s) are predefined. Students can only receive points if they have selected all correct and none of the incorrect answers. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/All_or_nothing_multiple_choice_question_type |
True/False | A simple multiple-choice question with only two answer options: “True” and “False”. | https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/True/False_question_type | |
Matching | A list of elements have to be assigned to the correct elements in a second list (e.g. countries – capital cities). |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Matching_question_type |
| Embeded answers (Cloze) | The students have to fill gaps in a text with the right answers. The gaps cannot only be defined as entry fields but also as a drop-down menu with predefined answer options from which the students have to select the correct one. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Embedded_Answers_(Cloze)_question_type |
Select missing words | The students have to fill gaps in a text by selecting words, parts of sentences, whole sentences or sections of a text from a drop-down menu for each gap. Teachers define gap groups. The predefined answer options for gaps in a group are always the same. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Select_missing_words_question_type |
| Random short answer matching | This question type looks similar to a matching question to students. From a technical perspective, the desired number of questions is randomly drawn from the available short answer questions within the selected category. These are summarised to a single question with a corresponding number of subquestions. One of the answers that are defined as correct from every drawn matching question is selected and offered in a drop-down menu for each of the subquestions. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Random_Short-Answer_Matching_question_type |
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| Question types in Moodle | Brief description | Comments | Instructions |
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Calculated | Simple calculation questions give you the opportunity to create a whole class of numerical questions by using variables ({x}, {y}, etc.). The variables in every quiz attempt are allocated to randomly generated numbers from a predefined number range. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Calculated_question_type |
Calculated simple | Simple calculation questions give you the opportunity to create a whole class of numerical questions by using variables ({x}, {y}, etc.). The variables in every quiz attempt are allocated to randomly generated numbers from a predefined number range. |
| https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Simple_calculated_question_type |
| Calculated multichoice | Calculated multiple-choice questions are similar to multiple-choice questions but have the additional feature that answers can contain formulae whose variable is randomly assigned to numbers from a predefined number range during the quiz attempt. | https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Calculated_multichoice_question_type | |
| Numerical | From the students’ perspective, a numerical question looks like a short answer question. The only difference is that numerical questions allow for an accepted error, i.e. that participants do not need to know the exact answer and that it is sufficient if their answer lies within an error interval. | https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Numerical_question_type |
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| Question types in Moodle | Brief description | Instructions |
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Drag and drop onto image | Students have to drag and drop text modules or images from a list to visible, predefined places (drop zones) on a (background) image. | https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Drag_and_drop_onto_image_question_type |
Drag and drop markers | Students have to drag and drop text modules or images from a list to predefined places (drop zones) on a (background) image, but they cannot see the drop zones. | https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Drag_and_drop_markers_question_type |
Drag and drop into text | Students have to drag and drop missing words into a cloze. | https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Drag_and_drop_into_text_question_type |
Further instruction:
Video turorial: "Online-Test: Drag & Drop Fragen verwenden" (Online quiz: use drag & drop questions) (AMC) (in German)
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We recommend giving students the opportunity to participate in a mock exam with a quiz. Students can familiarise themselves with the technology and clarify any technical issues in advance. Students are better able to concentrate on the exam content during the exam and do not have to worry about technical aspects. The same applies to you in your role as teacher.
General notes on mock exams can be found in the Mock exam section in this Wiki.
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By default, a sum is calculated under Grades in Moodle in the Course total column. If you offer a mock exam with a quiz, the quiz is automatically included in the calculation of the overall grade. To avoid possibly displaying wrong results for students or transferring wrong grades to u:space, you can apply one of the following three strategies.
Strategy 1 (the simplest): Set the Maximum grade of the mock exam quiz to zero.
On the top in the view in which you add the quiz questions you can define the Maximum grade (= the maximum number of points for a quiz). If you save the value 0, the quiz is not displayed in the grades. However, the students cannot see how they would have scored had it been an actual exam either.
Please note: You can also open the quiz content view later by clicking the quiz and selecting the Edit quiz item from the gear menu on the top right.
Strategy 2: Under Grades, hide the Course total column.
You can hide the Course total column from students and ignore it. For transferring grades to u:space you can then use the grade column for the exam quiz.
To hide the Course total column, take the following steps:
Strategy 3: Calculate the Course total column automatically with a formula.
If, for any reason, you would like to use the Course total grade column, e.g. to display both a point column and a grade column under Grades, you can determine a formula that considers only the grades of the exam quiz in the Course total column. You can enter a formula by taking these steps:
The maximum points in the Course total column are not automatically adjusted. You have to change them manually.
More information about the required grade settings to show grades or to transfer grades to u:space can be found in the user guide for "Im u:space Noten aus Moodle übernehmen" (Transferring grades from Moodle to u:space) (in German).
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As teacher you can display a preview of your quiz to go through and work on it from a student’s perspective to check if your quiz settings and questions are correct. Your own quiz results, quiz results of other teachers, tutors or employees in charge are not displayed in the quiz attempt list, i.e. you cannot try assessing essay questions in advance, for example.
You can access the preview by taking the following steps:
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If students interrupt their exam without stating a legitimate reason or if they do not upload it to Moodle within the specified time period, you have to assess the exam with fail (grade: “insufficient”). Therefore, urge your students to contact the invigilator immediately if they experience technical problems via the specified communication channel and to clarify how to proceed.
Problem | Solution |
Students cannot access the exam course | Check if... ... the exam course is visible for students. If not, make it visible. ... the student is enrolled on the Moodle course (displayed under Participants in the left navigation bar). If not, check in u:space if the student is registered for the exam. If this is the case, synchronise the registrations in u:space. If this does not work, enrol the student manually on the course (instructions can be found in the "Moodle-Einführungsskriptum" (Notes of geting startet with Moodle), starting on page 15) (in German). If the participant is not registered in u:space, they are not entitled to participate in the exam. |
Students cannot see the assignment | Check in the assignment’s settings if the assignment is visible and if the availability settings are correct. If that is not the case, make the assignment visible or change the availability settings accordingly (instructions can be found in the "Moodle-Einführungsskriptum" (Notes on getting started with Moodle), starting on page 49) (in German). |
Students cannot download the exam papers | You can also send the exam papers to the student via e-mail. Please only use the official u:account e-mail address (both your own to send the papers and the student’s to receive the papers). |
Students cannot upload their file(s) | Allow the student to submit their completed exam papers via e-mail (promptly around the end of the submission period). You can still assess the assignment directly in Moodle.
You can also extend the submission deadline for individual students. This is especially recommended if you check the assignment for plagiarism with Turnitin and the check starts immediately. |
Students have uploaded and submitted the wrong file | As long as the submission period is still open and students have not yet pressed the submit button, they can still delete their uploaded files or replace them. If they pressed the submit button, you can reset the assignment to the editing status. |
In an assignment with Turnitin plagiarism check, students cannot see the file upload field. |
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In an assignment with Turnitin plagiarism check, the student rejected the EULA and the assignment can therefore not be checked for plagiarism. | The student has to retroactively accept the EULA by clicking the relevant note below the submitted file. This can also be done if the submission period is already over. |
The submission period has to be adjusted for ALL students because, for example, the assignment’s settings are wrong. | Simply change the Due date in the assignment’s settings. |
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If students experience technical problems when uploading their files shortly before the submission deadline, you can extend the deadline individually:
Please note: You can see which changes you made for which users by accessing User overrides again.
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If students have uploaded a wrong file and pressed the submit button, they cannot make any further changes on their own. However, teachers can revert the submission to the draft status:
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Problem | Solution |
Students cannot access the exam course | Check if... ... the exam course is visible for students. If not, make it visible. ... the student is enrolled on the Moodle course (displayed under Participants in the left navigation bar). If not, check in u:space if the student is registered for the exam. If this is the case, synchronise the registrations in u:space. If this does not work, enrol the student manually on the course (instructions can be found in the "Moodle-Einführungsskriptum" (Notes of geting startet with Moodle), starting on page 15) (in German). If the participant is not registered in u:space, they are not entitled to participate in the exam. |
Students cannot see the quiz | In the quiz settings, check if the quiz is visible and if the availability settings are correct. If that is not the case, make the quiz visible or change the availability settings accordingly (instructions can be found in the "Moodle-Einführungsskriptum" (Notes on getting started with Moodle), starting on page 49) (in German). |
Students lose their Internet connection during the quiz and cannot re-start the quiz/continue to work on it | If a student credibly shows that they have experienced technical problems when working on the quiz and could no longer work on the quiz, you can allow them another quiz attempt under User overrides. You can also delete the existing quiz attempt and allow a new attempt and extend the closing time of the quiz for the student under User overrides, if necessary. |
The Internet connection was bad or is interrupted and the students can continue to work on the quiz, but the timer has continued as well | Even if the Internet connection is lost, the timer continues in the background. If a student credibly shows that they now have less time to work on the exam due to technical problems, you can individually change the exam duration for the student and the closing time of the quiz, if needed. (Please note: The exam duration cannot exceed the closing time of the quiz even if there was time remaining.) |
Answers are not saved | To avoid the problem that a student cannot save their answers, change the quiz settings so that every question is displayed on a separate page. This way, the previous answers are cached when changing to the next question. If you forgot to change this setting in the quiz and a student could therefore not save any answers due to technical problems, you can either grant them a second attempt and an individual extension of the quiz period under User overrides or offer them an alternate date with a new quiz. |
The exam duration has to be extended for ALL students | Under Timing, adjust the closing time of the quiz and, if necessary, also the exam duration. When changing to the next page, the timer will be updated for the student. PLEASE NOTE: If you display all questions on one page, the timer is not automatically adjusted. Therefore, please change the quiz settings in the Layout section so that every question is displayed on a separate page. |
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You can extend the exam duration and/or the closing time of the quiz for individual students.
Please note: You can see which changes you made for which users if you access User overrides again.
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If you allow only one quiz attempt, students who experience an interruption when taking the quiz may not be able to continue to work on the exam under certain circumstances, even if you give them an individual extension of the exam duration. In this case, you have to either allow the student a second attempt under User overrides or you delete the first quiz attempt.
To delete a quiz attempt take the following steps:
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If you created an assignment or a quiz, under Grades a separate grade column is automatically created for it in the Moodle course to enter the points achieved. You have to manually assess assignments and essay questions in quizzes. All other quiz questions are automatically evaluated.
Instructions for assessing assignments and essay questions:
Further user guides for grading in Moodle:
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It is recommended that you contact students at random after written digital exams during a previously announced period of time to ask them short control questions about the exam (“How did you arrive at this solution?”) or about the examination topics. This allows you to check if it is plausible that students have actually written the exam independently.
Inform your students before the exam...
A video conferencing room can be created in the exam course in Moodle. Suitable activities for this are BigBlueButton or Collaborate.
User guides for the video conferencing tools in Moodle:
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You can but you do not have to allow students to view their examination documents online. This applies to both assignments and quizzes.
Ideally, you should hide the assignment or quiz for as long as you carrying out manual assessments and make them visible again after all results are available and you would like to offer the viewing of examination documents online.
In assignments, students can see how many points they received, any annotations that you made in the submitted PDFs in the Moodle view and, if applicable, the feedback you entered.
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If you have generated grades in Moodle, you can transfer them to u:space.
Important prerequisites:
For the user guide, please see "Im u:space Noten aus Moodle übernehmen" (Transferring grades from Moodle to u:space) (in German)
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