6.5.2 Questionnaire tool

The ‘questionnaire’ tool in Moodle is often used as a ‘survey’ type tool to gather information from learners.  It has a variety of question types (including check boxes, drop down boxes, essay, numeric, radio buttons, rating and True/False).The rating option enables learners to rank their preferences in a question. The questionnaire tool can be set so that learners can view each other’s responses before or after they’ve shared theirs or so they can only see their own response. Therefore it can be used for an activity which encourages learners to reflect on something they’ve learned and read each other’s reflections. In a course which doesn’t have a specific start and end date, when learners might enrol at any time, seeing responses from others might not be so effective, as there might be few entries when the earlier participants contribute their responses and learners are unlikely to return to the activity later to see if more people have responded.

For example, a formative questionnaire activity might be used to provide a learning activity which promotes reflective learning, such as in the following scenarios, which are all open courses with no start and end date or tutor:

  1. Learners are invited to write a short paragraph in response to a question. They don’t see responses from any other learners, this is purely constructed as a self-reflection exercise. The question might have some prompts or issues the learner needs to consider as they write down their thoughts.
  2. Learners are invited to write a short paragraph responding to the issues raised in the text they have been studying. The question has some prompts or issues the learner must consider as they write their thoughts. Once a learner has submitted their response, they can view responses from other learners and the activity is followed by a short general discussion paragraph which draws together some of the main points raised in the question and what might be raised by the learners.
  3. Learners are asked to write a short paragraph about their experience of the topic which has just been discussed in the text. The question rubric has some prompts or issues they might want to reflect upon in relation to their own experience. Learners can see each other’s responses before they respond, so may also choose to write about their reactions to other responses. (Or learners cannot see each other’s responses until after they respond so their responses are not coloured by the experiences of others).

6.5.3 Quiz tool