Sign in or 
Share this
Quiz Comparison
Moodle Quiz Module – Articulate Quizmaker
Loren Rochester
Introduction
In an article published on Edutopia, renowned authentic assessment expert, Grant Wiggins, states, “…testing is a small part of assessment. It needs to be part of the picture. Many people who are anti-testing end up sounding anti-evaluation and anti-measurement. A good test has a role to play.”
The objective of this comparison of two popular quiz-writing programs is to give the reader unbiased information on what to expect from each package, along with an idea of the types of features one could expect from this type of learning tool, in general.
Most on-line quiz-writing software offers a distinct advantage over paper and pencil quizzes in that it can provide feedback on answers, and/or questions, either during or after the quiz process. For this reason, it can be used as a formative assessment activity. They may also generate a quiz of questions randomly selected from a pool of pertinent questions, making it more difficult for students to “share” their answers.
Both of these tools are designed to create graded quizzes. The quiz module in Moodle is dependent on the Moodle Course Management System (CMS), i.e. the quizzes have to be taken from within Moodle. The Articulate Quizmaker package creates quizzes that can stand alone, or can be used with any CMS or Learning Management System (LMS) that accepts Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) 1.2 or 2004 objects.
As you will find in the following comparison, these packages are very similar in their offerings. Both are very intuitive with respect to learning how to use them. The user should be up and running in a very short time period. Each package has a few advantages not offered by the other. However, by and large, these advantages are not earth-shattering, and would likely not be the primary reason for choosing one over the other.
Articulate Quizmaker offers a slightly more aesthetically pleasing appearance. It offers a hot-spot question format that gives the quiz writer the ability to use questions that require a point and click answer. For example, with an image of the human heart on the screen, the student could be asked to click on the aorta. Quizmaker also gives the teacher the ability to make students commit to every answer before moving to the next question. This is a nice feature if some questions might provide the answer for another question.
The Moodle quiz is better for formative quizzes. Partial credit can be given for questions when the student is given multiple opportunities to answer the same question in one sitting. In fact, it is possible to give the student feedback on an answer and then generate another related question for the student to answer.
Both packages offer the ability to place images on every question. Articulate Quizmaker sizes all images to one size, but allows zooming. The Moodle package allows various sizes of images, but the images must be sized before they are uploaded because they appear on-screen in their original format and size.
Here is a table comparing the two packages:
Learning Objective
The following is an example of a learning objective that could be used with either of these packages:
Trainees will be able to identify the features and benefits associated with the products appearing on a quiz of each product category, with an accuracy rate of at least 80 percent.
Authentic Application
In our environment (corporate training department - retail operation) quizzes serve as a first step in authentic assessment, testing a sales person's knowledge of features and benefits of products. The assessment of this knowledge is taken a step further when we determine the sales person's ability to incorporate this knowledge into a role-play, or contrived sales situation.
Here are some screen shots that compare the same question in both packages.
Summary
All things considered, the packages are very similar. One big difference is that the Moodle Quiz module requires the use of Moodle, and Moodle has to be located on or hosted on a server. Articulate Quizmaker gives the ability to create stand alone quizzes that could be installed on a hard drive and accessed through a hyper-link. It also includes a survey creating capability.
The biggest difference between the two is that Moodle is free and Articulate Quizmaker sells for $399. However, with the purchase of the entire Articulate Studio ($999) or Articulate Studio Pro ($1398) there is a savings of about 25% over buying all of the Articulate software packages separately. Studio and Studio Pro are very useful in the creation of Rapid E-Learning, i.e., web-based, narrated PowerPoints converted into flash for effective and efficient broadcast over the internet. However... that's a topic for another day. Loren Rochester
For a PDF file of this part of the report, see the Attachments link at the bottom of this page and click on Quiz Comparison.pdf.
Loren Rochester
Introduction
In an article published on Edutopia, renowned authentic assessment expert, Grant Wiggins, states, “…testing is a small part of assessment. It needs to be part of the picture. Many people who are anti-testing end up sounding anti-evaluation and anti-measurement. A good test has a role to play.”
The objective of this comparison of two popular quiz-writing programs is to give the reader unbiased information on what to expect from each package, along with an idea of the types of features one could expect from this type of learning tool, in general.
Most on-line quiz-writing software offers a distinct advantage over paper and pencil quizzes in that it can provide feedback on answers, and/or questions, either during or after the quiz process. For this reason, it can be used as a formative assessment activity. They may also generate a quiz of questions randomly selected from a pool of pertinent questions, making it more difficult for students to “share” their answers.
Both of these tools are designed to create graded quizzes. The quiz module in Moodle is dependent on the Moodle Course Management System (CMS), i.e. the quizzes have to be taken from within Moodle. The Articulate Quizmaker package creates quizzes that can stand alone, or can be used with any CMS or Learning Management System (LMS) that accepts Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) 1.2 or 2004 objects.
As you will find in the following comparison, these packages are very similar in their offerings. Both are very intuitive with respect to learning how to use them. The user should be up and running in a very short time period. Each package has a few advantages not offered by the other. However, by and large, these advantages are not earth-shattering, and would likely not be the primary reason for choosing one over the other.
Articulate Quizmaker offers a slightly more aesthetically pleasing appearance. It offers a hot-spot question format that gives the quiz writer the ability to use questions that require a point and click answer. For example, with an image of the human heart on the screen, the student could be asked to click on the aorta. Quizmaker also gives the teacher the ability to make students commit to every answer before moving to the next question. This is a nice feature if some questions might provide the answer for another question.
The Moodle quiz is better for formative quizzes. Partial credit can be given for questions when the student is given multiple opportunities to answer the same question in one sitting. In fact, it is possible to give the student feedback on an answer and then generate another related question for the student to answer.
Both packages offer the ability to place images on every question. Articulate Quizmaker sizes all images to one size, but allows zooming. The Moodle package allows various sizes of images, but the images must be sized before they are uploaded because they appear on-screen in their original format and size.
Here is a table comparing the two packages:
| Quiz Characteristics | Moodle Quiz | Articulate Quizmaker |
| Stand Alone | No-requires Moodle | Yes |
| SCORM Compliant | No | Yes- 1.2 and 2004 |
| Price | Free | $399 |
| Things that can be specified | ||
| start and close dates | Yes | No |
| time limits | Yes | Yes |
| time delays between first and second and even subsequent attempts | Yes | No |
| the number of questions per page | Yes | Yes |
| whether or not you want the questions shuffled | Yes | Yes |
| whether or not answers will be shuffled within questions | Yes | Yes |
| single or multiple attempts | Yes - from 1 to 6 times, + unlimited | Yes - from 1 to 10 times, + unlimited |
| whether or not you want students to know what answer they selected the lasts time(s) they took the quiz | Yes | No |
| whether you want to use adaptive mode… this allows a student to answer immediately after answering a question incorrectly… they may get fewer points for a subsequent answer or new questions may be presented in a different format, based on the students incorrect answer | Yes | No |
| the grading method, which may be highest of attempts, average of attempts, first response or last response | Yes | No |
| whether or not to apply penalties for subsequent attempts; the amount of the penalty will be prescribed for individual questions | Yes | No |
| number of decimals in grades, up to three | Yes | No |
| review answers after completion | Yes | Yes |
| grade boundaries, e.g., percentages and what each boundary will elicit | Yes | No |
| Types of Questions | ||
| All types of questions can include images | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple choice - single answer, each answer can provide feedback | Yes - Yes | Yes - Yes |
| Multiple response – more than one answer, each answer can provide feedback | Yes - Yes | Yes - No |
| True/False questions | Yes | Yes |
| Matching questions | Yes - with pull-down matches | Yes - with pull-down matches or drag and drop |
| Short Answer questions – fill-in-the-blank with a word or short phrase. | Yes - wild card used to match any series of characters | Yes - multiple spellings, no wild cards |
| Sequence | No | Yes |
| Hot-point – create hot spots on screen to identify position on an item or location on a map, etc. | No | Yes |
| Numerical questions - like short-answer but numerical answers are allowed to have an accepted error. For example, if the answer is 30 with an accepted error of 5, then any number between 25 and 35 will be accepted as correct. | Yes | No |
| Essay questions | Yes - the teacher can add comments and grade the question | Yes - no comments or grading |
| Surveys | Separate Module | Yes - includes Likert Scale, Pick One, Pick Many, Which Word, Short Answer, Essay, Ranking, How Many, Explanation |
Learning Objective
The following is an example of a learning objective that could be used with either of these packages:
Trainees will be able to identify the features and benefits associated with the products appearing on a quiz of each product category, with an accuracy rate of at least 80 percent.
Authentic Application
In our environment (corporate training department - retail operation) quizzes serve as a first step in authentic assessment, testing a sales person's knowledge of features and benefits of products. The assessment of this knowledge is taken a step further when we determine the sales person's ability to incorporate this knowledge into a role-play, or contrived sales situation.
Here are some screen shots that compare the same question in both packages.
| Question Type | Moodle - Quiz | Articulate Quizmaker |
Multiple Choice Questions |  |  |
True-False Questions |  |  |
Matching Questions |  |  |
Summary
All things considered, the packages are very similar. One big difference is that the Moodle Quiz module requires the use of Moodle, and Moodle has to be located on or hosted on a server. Articulate Quizmaker gives the ability to create stand alone quizzes that could be installed on a hard drive and accessed through a hyper-link. It also includes a survey creating capability.
The biggest difference between the two is that Moodle is free and Articulate Quizmaker sells for $399. However, with the purchase of the entire Articulate Studio ($999) or Articulate Studio Pro ($1398) there is a savings of about 25% over buying all of the Articulate software packages separately. Studio and Studio Pro are very useful in the creation of Rapid E-Learning, i.e., web-based, narrated PowerPoints converted into flash for effective and efficient broadcast over the internet. However... that's a topic for another day. Loren Rochester
For a PDF file of this part of the report, see the Attachments link at the bottom of this page and click on Quiz Comparison.pdf.
ldrochester |
Latest page update: made by ldrochester
, Mar 9 2008, 4:20 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by ldrochester
2 words added view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
None
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
|
Quiz Comparison.pdf (Adobe Portable Document Format - 427k)
posted by ldrochester Feb 8 2008, 12:19 PM EST
This attachment has no description.
|
