Background Information
- This section presents key information about the self-learning course and about how the training sessions were conducted. The document above provides an overview of the course's contents and how they can be used.
Topic outline
Moodle user guide
This document gives you all the technical information you need to create and administer tests (quizzes) on the Moodle, including:
- logging into a Moodle account
- how to create a test and manage its settings
- how to write a range of different questions
- how to grade tests and view the results.
Session 1 - Formative assessment & basic Moodle knowledge
Session 1.1 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:- Evaluate your current knowledge and practice in assessment.
- Understand the principles of formative and summative assessment and the differences between them.
- Evaluate your current knowledge and practice in assessment.
Lesson Information
This presentation gives a thorough introduction to formative assessment: what it is, how it should be used in the classroom and how it relates to formal testing.
Formative Assessment Quiz
This quiz is aligned to the formative assessment presentation and checks your understanding of the key concepts of formative and summative assessment.
Session 1.2 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:- Access the REB Moodle platform using your own username and password
- Access the workshop materials and activities as well as your own empty course shell on the REB Moodle platform
Lesson Information
Watch the video below to refresh your memory on how to log in to Moodle, access your workshop materials and find the area where you will be creating your eAssessment.
Session 2 - Question writing for the Rwandan Curriculum & writing closed questions on the Moodle
Session 2.1 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Understand how to write questions that relate to units in the S4 curriculum
- Understand how to write competence-based questions
- Understand the principles of writing effective closed questions
Lesson Information
This presentation covers the structure of the Rwandan Competence Based Curriculum and how to identify testable material within it.
This presentation begins with an overview of Bloom’s Taxonomy and gives a more in-depth discussion of a simpler, but related, three-level (higher, middle, lower) hierarchy of question demand.
This document applies the ideas contained in Bloom's Taxonomy to the task of writing questions for the Rwandan Curriculum.
- This document supports a valuable activity that can be used in training or completed individually. It requires participants to categorise questions according to whether they test higher, middle, or lower level skills.
The answers are given on the second page.
This presentation covers the key principles that underpin all question writing – the need to keep language simple, and avoid content that might introduce bias, for example. It proceeds to describe the requirements for a good multiple choice question.
Session 2.2 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Create closed questions using the Moodle assessment tools: multiple choice, drag and drop and missing word
Lesson Information
Note that the Moodle User Guide contains the relevant step-by-step information for how to create closed questions.
Watch the video below for a quick introduction to creating quizzes in Moodle:
- This link takes you to the Creative Commons website. This can be used to find legally available images for use in Moodle questions in question formats such as labelling.
Session 3 - Question quality principles & how to write open questions
Session 3.1 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Understand and apply item quality principles (validity, reliability, manageability)
- Understand and practise writing open questions and marking guides (short and long responses; point based marking guides)
Lesson Information
This presentation introduces the ideas of reliability, validity and manageability and explains why they are so fundamental.
This presentation begins by introducing a range of different question types. It then presents important principles for writing open questions, and discusses a range of marking guides – points-based marking guides and large qualitative levelled marking guides.
Session 3.2 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Write open questions and rubrics using the Moodle essay/paragraph tool
- Develop appropriate marking rubrics and create them in Moodle
Lesson Information
Note that the Moodle User Guide contains the relevant step-by-step information for how to create closed questions.
Session 4 - Test construction and quality assurance
Session 4.1 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Understand how to produce a coherent test (including coverage of unit, variety, incline of difficulty, connection to curriculum)
- Describe and conduct Quality Assurance procedures and peer review
Lesson Information
This presentation covers what is needed for a test to function well: a range of question types and difficulties, a good coverage of the curriculum, and an avoidance of ‘enemies’.
This presentation stresses the importance of quality assurance and presents the QA checklist (see below). It discusses the different quality assurance criteria on the checklist.
This document lists the most important criteria which a test must meet. It is designed to enable a reviewer to give clear and specific feedback to a test writer, on a question-by-question basis (page 1) and a whole-test basis (page 2).
It is important to share this with test writers to help them appreciate the criteria against which tests are judged.
Session 4.2 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Review questions so far
- Identify gaps in curriculum coverage
- Plan for test writing
Lesson Information
In the previous session, we looked at open questions and how to design them in the Moodle. In this session we want to demonstrate how to mark them on the platform and demonstrate how Moodle organises the grades. The Moodle User Guide contains instructions for how to do this.
During the training sessions, the following activity was carried out to illustrate how this works. You may wish to replicate this for any subsequent training:
Access the essay quiz below and write a paragraph on the topic, 'Can e-assessment work in Rwanda?'
Once everyone has submitted their paragraph the facilitator will demonstrate how to access the class essays, mark them and check on individual student grades.
Watch the video below for information on accessing the gradebook in Moodle:
Session 5 - Using outcomes formatively
Session 5.1 Outcomes
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Understand how to use test results formatively to shape your teaching and address students' needs
Lesson Information
This presentation recapitulates the content from Session 1 on formative assessment, and discusses how formative feedback might be given after students have completed a test.
Other useful resources
These two questionnaires can be used before and after any training to help evaluate the success of the training sessions.
- The information in this presentation is specific to the training sessions from 2019. However, it is attached here as it may be useful as a summary of the aims of that project and the benefits of e-assessment.