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Quiz and Assignment activity as an electronic exam

MyCourses has three activity types that are mainly used for electronic examination purposes:

• Turnitin Assignment

Most often, the exam is conducted in the same workspace where the course is also hosted. You can create a separate section in the workspace for the exam, which includes the exam, any practice exams, and other exam details.

If the exam is separate, the MyCourses exam workspace can already be created automatically based on Sisu information. Please, check that first. After that, if you do not have an exam workspace, you can request one by filling out and submitting the form

Other types of exams in Aalto include: 

• EXAM room for electronic examinations: /en/services/electronic-examinations-exam-service
• Oral exams via Teams or Zoom:
   
  • You can use video calls for oral exams in one-to-one sessions.
  • When proctoring an exam with Teams, do not record the exam session.
  • You may take your own notes, such as when the exam starts, when a student may leave, when the exam ends, and notes of possible inappropriate behaviour. Exam recordings are confidential material and must be handled according to the exact protocol.
  • Before the start of the exam, do the following (We suggest you use the Choice tool in MyCourses for these details; the students' responses will be shown in MyCourses):
     
    • Ensure that the student has a desktop or laptop computer with a microphone, a camera, and an internet connection during the exam
    • Ask the student for permission for a video connection during the exam in advance.

Quiz activity for electronic examination

You can add questions directly to a quiz activity or utilise the question bank. From the categories in the question bank, you can select specific tasks or use random selection, in which case each student will receive a different set of questions.

Add a Quiz activity. For the exam, check these points: 

• Write the exam instructions for students in the assignment description box.
• Timing: Add the exam starting and finishing times.
• You can also set a time limit, which defines how much time each student has to complete the exam. This allows the overall exam window to be longer, while each student uses their allotted time within that timeslot. Students will see their remaining time as a countdown timer.
• We recommend enabling the "open attempts are submitted automatically" option for students when the time expires. 
• Under Layout and  “Show more”, you can choose the navigation method; whether students may return to previous questions or must proceed sequentially.
• Question behavior: when shuffling within questions is enabled, students get the questions in random order.
• Complete the “Review options” table carefully. When you want students to see general feedback or correct answers and their points only after the quiz is closed, leave all checkboxes blank except in the last column, “After the quiz is closed,” and enable “Whether correct” and/or “Points.” Alternatively, you can leave all boxes blank and make the appropriate selections later when you’re ready to release final grades.
• In the visibility settings, choose how many decimal places are displayed in the grade.
• Individual students can be granted special access to the exam.

Add questions

• Open the Questions tab and click Add question. You can add questions directly here, or choose questions from the Question bank.
• You can also add Random questions from the question bank. You can choose questions from different categories in the question bank and specify how many questions to pick from each category. When questions are added at random, they won’t appear for the teacher on the exam questions tab; however, they can be previewed in student view.
• Another option is to add the same questions for everyone in the survey, but in the Quiz settings, select the option “Shuffle questions.” Shuffling the questions will make them appear in a random order for students.
   

Publishing exam results to students

• Review options:

Read more (Moodle.org)

Time extension for students / User override

If you need to grant extra time to specific students or let someone take the quiz at a different time, use User overrides in the Quiz activity: Quiz activity > More (⋯) > Overrides > User overrides.  (For whole cohorts, use Group overrides). Click Add user override, then set a separate time window (and time limit, if needed) for them to take the exam. The exam will open for the student at the time specified for the exception, not at the same time as for others. Keep this in mind when setting the "Review options" table settings. The exception access will affect the exam's availability.

Read more:

• Moodle.docs: Quiz:
   

Tips for using quizzes (in MyCourses):

• The MyCourses workspace (partly in Finnish). 
   

Different exam options with group restrictions

With Groups and group-based restrictions, students can take, for example, exams in different languages, retake exams, or alternative versions of exams. Create groups to match these options (e.g., Finnish and English groups). You can assign students to groups yourself, or let students choose their group using the Group choice activity.

• Add a group for the exam on the course main page: Participants → Groups (from the dropdown) → name the group → Save.
• If students choose their group, add a Group choice activity to the course and include the exam-related groups in it.
• Instruct students to use the Group selection activity, or add students to groups manually. (If you add students manually, you don’t need the Group selection activity.)
• Restrict access to the Quiz activities by group: activity settings → Restrict access → Group.

Read more: 

• MyCourses: Groups and groupings | 911������
• MyCourses: Editing the workspace | 911������

Recommendations for using the MyCourses Quiz activity with large groups

When more than 200 students take the same tightly timed MyCourses Quiz simultaneously, the system may temporarily slow down because hundreds of students open and submit the activity at the same time.

Recommendations for large groups:

• Allow extra time for attempts (e.g., 5–8 minutes). This gives students a buffer to finalize and submit even if the Quiz slows down.
• Avoid chaining multiple short Quiz activities in a single exam. MyCourses can handle hundreds of concurrent users, but opening/closing multiple activities simultaneously can sometimes slow the system. Prefer one longer Quiz instead of several short ones.
• Stagger start times. For example: Group A at 09:00, Group B at 09:05, Group C at 09:10, etc.

Please note:

• Temporary slowdowns can also be caused by other factors, such as the system load, a student’s computer, or their internet connection. 
• Students may experience connectivity issues not related to 911������ or MyCourses.

Assignment as an electronic exam

The assignment activity allows students to submit their work for assessment. A student can write their answer directly in the editor or upload files. You can assess using points, a scale (for example pass – fail), an assessment matrix or rubric, or assessment criteria. Students can submit their work individually or in groups.

If you want all students to see the grade they have received simultaneously, you can either hide the assignment or hide the results from the three-dot menu for the assignment in the gradebook settings. 

Note: If you need to give extra time to some students or groups, you can do so according to the ‘Participant overrides’
instructions. The same instructions apply to quiz and assignment activities.

Read more: 

• MyCourses: Assignment activity | 911������

Using Turnitin in quiz and the assignment activity

Turnitin can be enabled both in quiz activity and in assignments for essay-type exam questions. 

Read more about using Turnitin in assignments and exams