AI Cheat sheet for MCQs in Moodle

To create a set of MCQs quickly, I tend to use ChatGPT. By setting the rules for the output based on what Moodle is expecting, I can do this fairly quickly. The output still needs you to copy accross the questions and answers, but I have tried to built my ChatGPT ‘prompt’ in a way that the output is given to me in the easiest way to do this.

Lets work through one….

We will start with an ‘All-or-nothing Multiple Choice’ question. Whenever I create anything in Moodle, I always click ‘Expand all’ to make sure I can see all the settings. Normally, once you set up one question, the others created in the Quiz will be based on these settings. I am not intending to go through how to create a quiz here, but I can do that later if I get enough requests!

To get this to work well, make sure ‘Shuffle the choices?’ is enabled. This way, I can ask ChatGPT to make the first potential answer correct every time which makes my life a lot easier.

There are two ways we can do this now, either with a full prompt or a shorter concise prompt with a set of rules. The set of rules makes it easier to visualise the output, and remain consistent if we ask ChatGPT to remember how we want the prompt responded to.

Lets use this template:

Create me [number] multiple choice questions around the topic of [topic of choice] using these rules:

This is for a cohort of [programme or field(s)] students

The students are studying at level [QAA level of study] in a UK university.

Give me a 3 word title for each question which does not directly relate to the answer in a way that it can be used to guess the answer.

Provide me with the question.

Provide me with 4 answers in a list with no additional formatting other than the answer text itself, no bullets or listings or letters etc.

Make the first answer the correct one.

Embolden the correct answer.

Do not repeat questions or make the answers/questions reversable.

Make the potential but incorrect answers a feasible response as distractors

Lets try….

Create me 5 multiple choice questions around the topic of digital literacy using these rules:

This is for a cohort of teaching in higher education students

The students are studying at level 7 in a UK university.

Give me a 3 word title for each question which does not directly relate to the answer in a way that it can be used to guess the answer.

Provide me with the question.

Provide me with 4 answers in a list with no additional formatting other than the answer text itself, no bullets or listings or letters etc.

Make the first answer the correct one.

Embolden the correct answer.

Do not repeat questions or make the answers/questions reversable.

Make the potential but incorrect answers a feasible response as distractors

Which produces an output like…

So all we have to do now is copy Digital Privacy Risks into the ‘Question name’ (Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V really does speed this up, and I do like a good keyboard shortcut). What is a major risk associated with sharing personal data online? can then be copied into the ‘Question text’. Now copy accross the answers, and this can be done by double clicking the line before Ctrl + C because we have no other formatting and the bold will not carry accross (if you drag select, double clicking the line will carry accross the formatting). We know the first answer is correct so we can mark that as correct as we go. As the answers are going to be shuffled, we can just do this one by one. And in no time at all, you will have a question completed. Just repeat for all the other outputs.

Make sure the levelness, and the text, is actually correct. A quick run through of the quiz at the end is normally enough. As much as I like using this tool to save me time, I don’t quite trust it to do this blindly.