I almost regret that it has taken me until my fourth week here at Kalamazoo College to start this blog because I’ve already had plenty of great experiences as I begin my position as Educational Technology Specialist. I’ve been overwhelmed by how welcoming and outgoing the campus population is. I’ve met and shaken hands with faculty, dining hall workers, administrators, grounds crews, librarians, and individuals of every role we play here on campus. Across the board, people have gone out of their way to welcome me and ask me about how my introduction to K has gone. To all of you, especially those who remember my name when I’m struggling with yours, thank you!
When someone meets me, they often ask about my background and what brought me here. I’m always proud to tell them that I grew up in SW Michigan and have been a full-time Kalamazoo resident for the past four years. The opportunity to continue my professional career at Kalamazoo College, with its history and reputation, in a city I admire is exciting. The local artistry, cuisine, values, personalities, and locations that make Kzoo so unforgettable blend seamlessly into the culture of the College. We strive to nurture active citizens who will live thoughtfully while engaging in intercultural understanding, an expansion of social justice, and a regard for community. It’s a very “Kalamazoo” sentiment.
I sincerely intend to use this page as one outlet for sharing tips and best practices around educational technology at Kalamazoo College. So often, I’ll come into contact with a new website, useful software, or technique in Moodle that I want to publicize to our faculty. No one, not even the most eager, understanding faculty member, wants a weekly barrage of emails from the educational technologist so I’ll spread the word about some of my discoveries in this blog. This can supplement the person-to-person collaboration that will be a major focus of my position.
As promised:
Moodle Tip
Multiple-choice and true-false questions are very popular in automated Moodle quizzes. However, building questions into an online quiz can be tedious. There are a number of techniques to speed up this process but my favorite is the “Aiken” method. In short, Aiken lets you create a simple question list with a text program for loading into Moodle.
An Aiken question format looks like this:
Does creating a quiz in Moodle have to be difficult?
A. No!
B. Yes
C. The struggle is real
D. All of the above
ANSWER: A
Simply type up a single document with multiple questions in this style, save in the proper encoding, and upload the file to Moodle.
Clear, full instructions from UMass are here:
https://www.it.umass.edu/support/moodle/import-quiz-questions-moodle-using-aiken-format
You can store your uploaded questions to your Question Bank to use on any future quizzes. The questions can be edited once inside Moodle for more complexity and versatility, but the time consuming part is done!