Essay questions pose a question which Learners must answer with free text or by uploading a document, which is then graded manually by the appropriate person. Essay questions are generally used when the Learner is required to provide a longer, more critically considered response.
To set up an essay quiz question, follow these steps:
- In the quiz activity, click Add, then select a new question.
- Select Essay, then click Add.
- Give the question a name, then enter the question in the Question text field.
- Set the Default mark, i.e. the maximum grade.
- Configure the Response options as required.
- Optionally provide a template to help Learners to structure their answer in the Response template field. This text will be displayed in the text input field.
- Optionally provide guidance on the marking criteria in the Information for graders field.
- If required, configure the Tags section.
- Click Save changes.
Response options
There are a few settings you can configure in the Response options section when setting up an essay question.
| Setting | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Response format | Select the available formatting for responses from the following options:
| - |
| Require text | Determine whether a text response is required. | If you have allowed users to include attachments for their response, they may not need to provide text as well. |
| Input box size | Set the maximum number of lines of text Learners can enter for their response. | - |
| Allow attachments | Determine whether users can upload files as part of their response. | - |
| Require attachments | If Allow attachments is enabled, you can choose to make an attachment mandatory. | - |
There are two courses in the Totara Academy about using quizzes in Totara Learn, Getting started with quizzes and Advanced quiz Using these courses you can learn more on how to use these features, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.
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