The Quiz module is one of the core components of the Moodle VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). It is intended to help the instructors to develop tests quickly and easily and offer computer-based tests to their students inside their Moodle course. There are many types of items available for use in the tests including: True/False, Multiple Choice, Short Answer, Essay, Embedded Answer, and several others.

Moodle Quiz is a powerful tool for instructors with the ability to offer tests via the course, as well as providing a range of tools that help to research and develop better questions. Moodle Quiz can provide immediate, teacher-created feedback, as well as allow students to immediately see their test scores for most item types.

I have downloaded and installed Moodle version 1.9.7 for this book and I created a no-frills, topic-based course that we will use as a model when developing our Moodle-based tests. I did this for two reasons. The first is simplicity and showing how things are built over time. An unused course is fresh and empty, and will allow me to show you what we are going to do and how it will look without anything else interfering. The second reason is that I need to explain how to show hidden items, and install contributed and third party modules and blocks in Moodle. I have made one small change to the course. I have changed the default theme to make some of the screenshots look better. If you want to change the theme of your site, and you have administrative privileges, go to Site Administration|Appearance |Themes|Theme Selector and you will see a list of available themes. So, while your course may have different themes or modules, you will have the same functionality as I do.