In this chapter, we will create assessment activities using multimedia. We will use images, audio, and video to create interactive exercises, either by using Moodle's quizzes, lessons, or assignments, or by using external tools such as Hot Potatoes and JClic, which can later be integrated into our course.
By the end of this chapter you will be:
- Adding multimedia to multiple choice answers in Moodle quizzes and lessons
- Creating crosswords and jumble exercises in Hot Potatoes
- Creating puzzles and find-the-pair activities using JClic
- Assessing multimedia work using rubrics
- Integrating all of these activities into Moodle
Sometimes it can be useful to insert multimedia elements into the answers of a multiple choice question in a Moodle lesson or quiz. This can apply to situations where students are required to:
- Recognize audio excerpts corresponding to text, images, or videos (for example, in music or language courses students have to identify a melody from a music sheet excerpt, or the correct pronunciation of a given text)
- Recognize video scenes (for example, corresponding to a certain dialogue, and gestural conversation)
Adding multimedia to the question body is fairly easy because we can use the text editor and just link to a multimedia file, and the Moodle filter will do the rest. But adding questions for which the answer choices are multimedia files is a different story, as there is no text editor in lessons, just a simple text form. However, this is not complicated with the help of a correct HTML code.
For example, in the course, Module 1, Music evolves, students have to post excerpts of songs from different moments of a musical genre to a forum topic as attachments (see Chapter 3, Sound and Music, for details on slicing audio). In the same module, we will create a quiz (Mini-quiz—history of music) that will use the excerpts posted by our students in its questions, as an incentive for other students to have a look at their colleagues' work.
So, after creating a new quiz and adding a new multiple choice question to it (for example, "Which of the following excerpts refers to a medieval music?") we can add links to the MP3 files submitted by students as choices (or to the files in our course files area). We can get these links as we saw previously, by right-clicking (control + click for Mac users) on the linked MP3 file in the forum post, and then clicking on the Copy Link Location option, as shown in the following screenshot:
Next, while editing the multiple choice question, we can add a link to the link location in the answer form. This is an easy way, as Moodle, with its multimedia filter, will do the rest:
As a result, we'll get something like this:
The same concept applies for videos and music from online services such as YouTube, as we can paste the embed code in the answer form. Add the embed code in the following manner:
On adding the embed code, the question will look like the following screenshot:
When using this process, we should keep a few things in mind:
- The multimedia files that are linked in the choice options must be available to the students in the course. If we copy the link location from the files area but the file itself is not available to the students, we'll have problems. The same applies to attachments in forum posts with separate groups.
- Consider a situation where the files linked to in the answer options are those of an attachment in a forum post on the course. Suppose, the question is shared and the quiz is restored in another course or exported to another Moodle installation. In this case, there will be problems with the file access, as the hyperlink will point to the original source in a particular course, which is not currently available.
- In the case of video or audio from online services, embedding may be disabled by request, so these can become unavailable later in the course.
- Too many links to MP3 files on the same quiz page, and/or MP3 files of considerable size can slow down the page loading.
As a possible solution to the first three issues, we can have the multimedia files in a public folder on our server. In this way, files can be accessed from different courses and domains. We could, for example, download a YouTube video and make it available on our server, if this service is blocked in our school or institution (see Chapter 4, Video, for information on this). Another option is to upload these files to the course files area (but in this case, the files must be made available to students in the course, or they will not have permission to listen or view them).
As a possible solution to the last issue, we can use page breaks, or have one question per page in the quiz, so that students can only load one question at a time. Another solution is to reduce the size of the files, either by slicing or by encoding the files in other formats. In the case of an MP3, reducing the bitrate could be an option (see Chapter 3, Sound and Music for information on this).
Remember that, multimedia can be used in interesting ways not only in multiple choice answers, but also in question bodies, lesson content, and assignments. We can create lessons in a tutorial style, with videos, followed by questions on the video's content, leading to different lesson branches according to the answers, or assignments can be presented as quick briefing videos. And don't forget that if we want to receive multimedia assignments, we should set this activity to allow students' file uploads.