Set-ups

Step 1: Create the questions.

Draft your questions and answers in a Word document, and group them into different categories. Ensure that you do not create any open-ended questions that may require manual grading, such as providing longer answers.

It is advised not to use any numbering or bullet points so they do not transfer to LMO and create additional spaces when transferring questions.

Step 2: Create a question bank and transfer questions to LMO.

1. Choose question bank from the drop-down menu on your course page. (Image 1)
2. Choose Categories from the drop-down menu. (Image 2)
3. Add a new category, (Image 3) but make sure you add it to your own module’s question bank. (Image 4) . The purpose of this is that your questions are only available on your module page and, therefore, cannot be viewed by anyone else.
4. Once when the new Assessment category is created (in this case, In-class Test: Academic Integrity) (Image 5), you can add different subcategories (Image 6) . The purpose of this is to be able to select a number of randomised questions from each subgroup for the assessment quiz. This way, the students are less likely to have the same questions in their tests. It is also advisable to add the titles to each category so the students know the question focus and/or a theme, for example, whether it is citations (subcategory 1), referencing (subcategory 2), etc. (Image 7)
5. Now, you need to click on the relevant category to add the questions. Start with the titles if you plan to use them. The question type you need for the titles is ‘Description’.
6. When done with the titles, do the same with the remaining subcategories. Transfer all questions to their corresponding subcategories. Now your question bank is ready. (Image 8)

Step 3: Setting up Moodle quiz for assessment.

Now, lets’ set up the Moodle quiz for assessment purposes. We recommend using the quiz settings used for assessments. Your university will have specific course requirements for the settings, so ensure you adhere to them. For XJTLU teachers, please follow the Online Quiz Standardization settings provided by the LMO team.

Assessment quiz settings

Quiz name – example: “In-class Test: Academic Integrity”

Timing

• Open the quiz: Enable / Set date and start time
• Close the quiz: Enable / Set date and start time
• Time limit: Enable / X minutes
• (Show more)
• When time expires: “Open attempts are submitted automatically” (default)

Grade

• Attempts allowed: 1

Layout

• New page: “Every question”
• Navigation method: “Sequential”

Question behavior

• Shuffle within questions: Yes
• How questions behave: Deferred feedback

Review options

• Tick ‘Marks’ ONLY in the columns 2-4! (Deselect all other options)

Extra restrictions on attempts

• Require password: [enter a set password]
• Plagiarism policy: Must be acknowledged

Common Module Settings

• Availability: Hide from students (Show before the assessment)
• Force language: “English”
• Group mode: Visible groups

Restrict access

• Must be restricted to groups taking the test (Image 9)

Activity completion

• “Student must receive a grade…”

Note: Questions shouldn’t be shuffled; otherwise, the section headings will appear in random places (Image 10).

Step 4: Adding questions from the question bank.

Now that your question bank is done and the quiz is set up, you must add the questions.

1. Click on the quiz and click on the Add question option. (Image 11)
2. Choose ‘Add from a question bank’. (Image 12)
3. In the categories tab, open the category where you put the titles. Select the title you wish to add and add it to the quiz. (Image 13)
4. The next step is to add a random selection of questions from each category. Click on ‘Add’ but this time, choose the “+random question” option. (Image 14)
5. Open the subcategory you wish to choose the questions from and choose the number of questions you would like to appear in the quiz, for example 5/14. Click “Add random question”. (Image 15)
6. Now each student will have a selection of 5 random questions selected from that subcategory. Repeat the process with the remaining titles and questions. Your quiz is now ready.

Procedure

Administering the assessment:

Share the password with the students a few minutes before the test and let them get started. There are a few things to be aware of to improve the academic integrity and reliability of the tests:

• Students will use their own devices to take the test while physically present in the examination room. It is technically possible for students to share the password with offsite friends who could then take the test remotely, so it is important to observe correct exam procedures to reduce the risk of this (check attendance, make sure phones are turned off and WeChat etc. are not open on the students’ devices, etc.)
• When generating passwords, be careful of characters which may be ambiguous, for example, numeral one/capital “i”/lower case “L” etc. The confusion these may cause can waste valuable minutes during the assessment time.

The procedures outlined above have no provision for feedback to students because the tests are assumed to be summative. For formative assessments, instantaneous feedback can be provided if desired. This can be accomplished by changing the quiz settings in ‘Review options.’

Grades can be retrieved from the Moodle quiz section by clicking on the “Reports” button and downloading as an XML or Excel file.

Caveats and Alternatives

Caveats:

As mentioned above, students may resort to cheating or accessing the test remotely. The lecturer must monitor actual class attendance and invigilate carefully if the activity is a summative assessment to ensure students are not sharing screenshots etc.

Alternatives:

1. If used by several lecturers or on different days and times – create blank quizzes with the correct settings and add questions from the question bank to each one separately. Do not duplicate the quizzes with imported questions from the question bank!
2. If used for testing purposes, the feedback options should be limited to the score only. If not, feedback on each answer and/or additional explanations could be given (Quiz Review options settings).
3. If used for listening or reading, a different set of questions can be given to two groups of students set up as two groups of questions in the language bank (or more, as circumstances dictate).
4. For increased security, Moodle (LMO) can export entire randomised quizzes in various formats, including CSV and XML, enabling the test to be converted to a paper-based medium should this be deemed necessary.

Additional Information

Example xml file with quiz questions: ICT-Academic Integrity (access file here).

Set-ups

Before the first class of a semester, create a padlet for each of your EAP groups.

1. If you are an XJTLU teacher, log into your school Padlet account via this link: https://xjtlu1.padlet.org/. Alternatively, you can register a personal account with an email address via this link:  https://padlet.com (Image 1).
2. Click the “+ Make” button on the top (Image 2).
3. Click “Create with AI” (Image 3).
4. Write a prompt based on your needs (e.g., Create a padlet with 10 sections titled with the following names and number the names: copy and paste your student names) and click “Create” (Image 4).
5. Click the wheel button on the right side of the created padlet (Image 5), and tailor the settings based on your needs (Image 6)
6. You may name the padlet as your class number.
7. Under “Layout”, “Format”, choose either “Wall” or “Timeline”.
8. Under “Engagement”, enable “Comments” and choose “Reactions” to provide homework feedback. My experience is that “Star” and “Score” reactions are useful for grading students’ homework.
9. You may tweak other settings based on your preference. Then close settings and go back to the main page.
10. Click the first button “Open share panel”. Choose “Writer” for visitor permissions and then choose “Secret” for link privacy, so only students with the padlet link can access it and they are not required to register an account. (Image 7).

Procedure

Step 1: 

Before a class, log into Padlet and all the created padlets can be found on your dashboard (Image 8).

Step 2: 

Click the dropdown menu of a padlet. Copy the link (Image 9), save it as a “URL” resource on your teaching space (e.g., a Learning Management System platform like Moodle), and name it with the group number (Image 10 is an example using the Learning Mall platform, which is an LMS platform powered by Moodle).

Step 3: 

During the first class, a teacher can guide students to locate the padlet link on their teaching space, and then demonstrate the process of starting a homework post. The instruction can be, for example, “Click the ‘plus’ under your name and you will see a pop-up ‘publish’ interface. Use the lesson number as a subject and type your homework in the text area or upload a word file or a picture”. Then, for the entire semester, students can be instructed to post their homework autonomously via the same link (Image 11).

Step 4: 

After a class, teachers can grade students’ homework and/or leave simple comments, which takes approximately 20 minutes for each group (Image 12). Peer feedback and interactions can also be allowed and encouraged on the padlet.

Step 5: 

In the first 10 minutes of the next class, teachers can showcase the padlet page and selected sample homework answers to all students. We can point out what the students did well, as well as the common issues in their homework.

Caveats and Alternatives

Caveats:

1. This kind of homework can be assigned as frequently as the teacher’s workload allows. Checking submissions and providing feedback can be time-consuming and increases a teacher’s workload.
2. Avoid assigning homework such as recording videos on Padlet, because it takes too much time to process when checking their homework. For this type of homework, teachers may instruct students to attach a link to a video hosting platform where students can upload their videos (such as Mediasite).
3. Padlet may not be ideal for any formal assessments since students can easily post on behalf of others.

Alternatives:

1. Presentation: the “slide show” function can present all posts as different slides, so teachers can easily add a follow-up presentation activity after homework submission.
2. Group poster: under “Share”, “Export”, there is a “save as image” function, which can allow students to make a Padlet page, and export all posts as an image. If printed on A3 paper, a poster activity can then be arranged. 

Image 1

Procedure

Step 1: Explain the Task

The teacher will need to provide the students with an explanation that the H5P is a guided lesson with audio, text, images and interactive activities.

The Menu

The menu on the left side will allow them to navigate between parts of the lesson. The little circles will indicate when they have an activity pending to complete. (Image 2)

Audio and Images

Most pages contain audio recordings with explanations of the content. The students will need to listen to the audio and notice the images to understand the content. (Image 3)

Interactions

Each page will have interactions, students will be provided with instructions. The interactions will provide students with immediate feedback on their answers.

Step 2: Assign the Task

As pre-activity – Students can be assigned the task for homework at a preceding lesson with follow-up material.

During the Class – Students can be assigned this activity during class in which case students may need to use headphones to listen to the audio. The follow-up activity can proceed afterwards.

Homework (post lesson) – Students can be assigned this activity as additional practice of material utilized in class.

Step 3: Follow-up Activities

The intention of this lesson is to raise awareness and explain how to utilize language. It is implied that further practice with feedback will be required as a follow-up activity.

Caveats and Alternatives

While H5P is an intuitive and easy-to-learn tool it mostly supports individual work. The aim of an H5P lesson is to supplement paper worksheets or textbook tasks. H5P lessons can be individual and structured or involve interaction between learners and include free-practice tasks. What content is used and how the lesson is planned depends on the creativity of the teacher or content creator.

This H5P file can be downloaded and utilized as is or modified or adapted to suit the teacher’s preference including: content, questions, options, feedback, as needed.

Additional Information

H5P Content Guides

https://h5p.org/documentation/for-authors

Multi-Media Learning

H5P is a system that utilizes web components (web sites) to combine multi-media. For more information about optimizing multi-media lessons see Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multi-Media Learning.

Text-to-Speech

Nowadays there are tools that can convert text to speech to create stand-alone audio or video narration, such as Textmagic.

Generative AI

Audio text can be written manually or generated using ChatGPT.

Image Creation

Images with instructions and design can be created with PowerPoint (Save JPEG to produce images)

Task-Based E-Learning

The lesson utilized task-based learning principles for learning. Hence, techniques were used that attempt to emulate parts of the process of the intended learning outcomes.

Set-ups

20 questions need to be designed and integrated into the provided PPT. These questions can include a variety of question types, such as True/False/Not Given questions, Multiple Choice Questions, and short-answer questions.

When incorporating the designed questions into the PPT, teachers can follow certain rules. For instance, the questions can be arranged according to their level of difficulty, progressing from easier to more challenging. Alternatively, they can be grouped by genres or topics which are relevant to teaching focus. It is important to note that there are no rigid rules, but the arrangement should align with the intended learning outcomes and the students’ levels.

An example PPT with sample questions incorporated (Question 1 for each team) has been provided for reference. When adding questions, please follow the order:

• Yellow Team (Top left): Question 1-5 (Slide 3-7)
• Blue Team (Top right): Question 1-5 (Slide 8-12)
• Red Team (bottom left): Question 1-5 (Slide 13-17)
• Orange Team (bottom right): Question 1-5 (Slide 18-22)
• Bonus Question (Slide 23)

Procedure

Step 1:

Teacher divides the class into 4 teams and assigns each team a XIPU Bird. Their steps are in different colors (i.e. yellow, blue, red, orange).

Step 2:

Teacher clicks on the step number (from 1 to 5) for each group. Each step contains one question.

Step 3:

Teams take turns to answer their question. Teacher clicks on “Answer” to show the correct answer.

Step 4:

Teacher clicks on “Back” to go back to Slide 2. If their answer is correct, teacher clicks on “Go forward”.

Step 5:

The team which reaches “Win” and answers the bonus question correctly will be the winner.

Caveats and Alternatives

Answers to some possible questions teachers might have in order to use/adapt this activity:

1. Why 20 questions? Can teachers add or reduce question numbers? If so, how can they adapt the PPT?

When incorporating this game into the classroom, students will be organized into four teams, with each team receiving a set of 5 questions to answer. Based on our experience, we have found that 5 questions tends to be an ideal number for students to practice, review, and consolidate what they have been taught.

While teachers have the flexibility to adapt this PPT-assisted game to satisfy their needs, we encourage them NOT to change the number of questions included. This is because adding or reducing the number of questions may disrupt the established hyperlinks and potentially result in software malfunction.

2. Any suggestions on question writing?

When writing questions, teachers can follow certain guidelines. For example, they should ensure the questions are appropriately challenging for the students’ levels. Also, it is important to

provide a variety of question types to engage different learning styles and abilities and make sure these questions are clear, understandable, and relevant to the intended learning outcomes.

3. XIPU Bird is XJLTU-specific. What can non-XJTLU teachers do to adapt to their teaching context?

In order to incorporate this activity into the classroom, non-XJTLU teachers may need to consider the following things: 

First, customize the content to suit their specific needs and interests of the students. For instance, use other background pictures and images for 4 teams such as their universities’ logos or departments’ badges. They should right-click on the original pictures and replace them.

Second, double-check for any potential accessibility issues. For example, in order to ensure the full participation in this game, students are suggested to sit in four groups rather than in rows.

Third, seek feedback from students after the game to assess its effectiveness and make any necessary adjustments for future use.

📥 Download

Set-ups

The reading questions have to be created online before class begins. Here is the setup process:

Step 1: 

Click https://ahaslides.com/ and create a free account using your email (for a free account, the maximum number of live participants is 7).

Step 2: 

Click on the “New Presentation” button to create your question set (Picture 2).

Step 3: 

Name your question set and edit each slide according to the question type. For example, “pick an answer” can be used for multiple choice questions or True or False questions. “Correct order” can check students’ understanding of certain procedures. “Match pairs” can be used for learning new vocabulary in the text (see pictures 3 & 4).

Step 4: 

For reading questions, it’s better to allocate different time limits for different types of questions. For instance, a concept checking question may take around 30-40s depending on the length of the answer (usually within 12 words); a detail checking question may take 25-30s. Since students are already under the pressure of time, you may want to make the answers less complicated to avoid cognitive overload.

Step 5: 

Once completed, save it to your workspace.

Step 6: 

Now you are ready for an engaging reading class.

Procedure

Step 1: 

Click “Present from beginning” on the drop-down menu. A QR code will appear on the screen for students to join. As the free account only takes 7 students, you may put students in a group of two or three and assign one of them to scan the QR code.

Step 2: 

When all the students are in, click “Start the Quiz”. There will be a 5s countdown for students to read the question.

Step 3:

When one question is answered by all, a correct answer will be displayed on the screen. By clicking the right arrow “>” at the bottom, students will see the leaderboard listing those who got the answer quickly and accurately.

Step 4:

When the game is over, there will be one group ranked at the top of the leaderboard.

Caveats and Alternatives

This is similar to the Kahoot platform in some ways, but more stable in terms of internet connection, which saves a lot of time in class.

Once used with one class, the results will be saved. You’ll need to reset the results when you use it in another class.

Putting students in groups can make them exchange their answers quickly, avoiding losing face. However, it may also hide the problems of some struggling students as they might appear passive and just compare their answers alone.

Additional Information

• How to make a live quiz with AhaSlides
• A comparison between AhaSlides and Kahoot!