Question Randomization

Owned by Athena Tate (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 02, 2020 by Amy Pfeifer (Unlicensed)
3 min read

It is possible to randomize a Moodle quiz in a few different ways. The purpose of doing so is to make it more difficult for students to copy from each other. There are three methods for randomizing questions in a quiz.



Method 1

The first place randomization can occur is in the Layout section of the quiz settings. Here it is possible to shuffle the question order. This randomizes the group of questions you have added to the quiz. To do so:

  1. Open the settings for the quiz Quiz Administration > Edit settings.

  2. Scroll to and expand the Layout section.

  3. Select Shuffled Randomly from the Question order drop-down.

  4. This section also lets you set the following:

    • New Page: This setting determines how often a new page is created. The default is for a new page for each question. You may choose to show more than one question per page with this setting.

    • Navigation method: this setting determines whether a student is able to navigate through the questions in any order they choose or if they have to navigate the questions in order. When sequential navigation is enabled a student must progress through the quiz in order and may not return to previous pages nor skip ahead.

  5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.



Method 2

The second place that randomization can be created is in the Question Behavior section. The first option in that section lets you randomize the choices for multiple choice and matching question types.



Method 3

The last, and most powerful, option for creating randomization occurs when you add questions to a quiz. This option lets you insert a random question from a question bank into a quiz. When a random question is added, it results in a randomly-chosen question from the category being inserted into the quiz. This means that different students are likely to get a different selection of questions, and when a quiz allows multiple attempts then each attempt is likely to contain a new selection of questions.

You could for example have a question bank with 100 questions, but have a 10 question quiz where each question was pulled from the bank of 100 questions. This strategy could be used to create a final exam combining questions from multiple banks, pulling a desired number of questions from each bank.

To add a random question to a quiz:

  • Edit the quiz (Quiz administration > Edit quiz). 
    There are now two methods for adding a random question. The first method adds a single question at a time and the second allows you to add multiple questions at once.

Method 1

  1. Click the Add a random question button for a page in the quiz.

  2. In the Add a random question pop-up that appears, choose the category from which you would like to pull the questions. You may optionally choose to click the check-box to include questions from subcategories.

  3. Click the Add random question button.



Method 2

  1. Click the link to Show the question bank.

  2. Scroll to the bottom of the bank and select the category from which you would like to pull questions. 

  3. In the Add random questions from category section choose the number of questions you would like to add. You may optionally choose to click the check-box to include questions from  subcategories. Each question will be added on it’s own page in the quiz.

  4. Click the Save button once you have finished adding questions.